e the rule)
are plebeian.

OF THE ARISTOCRACY OF POWER.

In their political capacity, people of fashion, among whom, for the
present purpose, we include the whole of the aristocracy, are the common
butt of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness.

They are accused of standing between the mass of the people and their
inalienable rights; of opposing, with obstinate resistance, the progress
of rational liberty, and of----but, in short, you have only to glance
over the pages of any democratic newspaper, to be made aware of the
horrible political iniquity of the aristocracy of England.

The aristocracy in England, considered politically, is a subject too
broad, too wide, and too deep for us, we most readily confess; nor is it
exactly proper for a work of a sketchy nature, in which we only skim
lightly along the surface of society, picking up any little curiosity
as we go along, but without dipping deep into motives or habits of
thought or action, especially in state affairs.

Since our late lamented friends, the Whigs, have gone to enjoy a
virtuous retirement and dignified ease, we have taken no delight in
politics. There is no fun going on now-a-days--no quackery, no
mountebankery, no asses, colonial or otherwise. The dull jog-trot
fellows who have got into Downing Street have made politics no joke; and
now that silence, as of the tomb, reigns amongst _quondam_ leaders of
the Treasury Benech--now that the camp-followers have followed the
leader, and the auxiliaries are dispersed, we really have nobody to
laugh at; and, like our departed friends, have too little of the
statesman to be serious about serious matters.

With regard to the aristocracy in their public capacity, this is the way
we always look at them.

In the first place, they govern us through the tolerance of public
opinion, as men having station, power, property, much to lose, and
little comparatively to gain--men who have put in bail to a large amount
for their good behaviour: and, in the second place, they govern us,
because really and truly there are so many outrageously discordant
political quacks, desirous of taking our case in hand, that we find it
our interest to entrust our public health to an accomplished physician,
even although he charges a guinea a visit, and refuses to insure a
perfect cure with a box of pills costing thirteenpence-halfpenny. There
can be no doubt whatever, that the most careful men are the men who have
most to