children of
no common race, gallant and haughty, dark-eyed Norman barons, ready to
keep, as their fathers had won, with their own good swords, power and
nobility upon British soil.

Years have come and gone. The great ones of the earth have felt their
power slip from them. Crowns and sceptres have turned to dust. Thrones
have tottered to their fall; but there was then that evolving itself of
which succeeding ages have witnessed but the more full development. In
that procession there were symptoms of a coming change--signs, and
warning voices, that told the noble that the power and pride of the
individual man was being torn from him--that he had been weighed in the
balance and found wanting. The trading companies--the sons of the Saxon
churl--THE MIDDLE CLASSES--for the first time appeared upon the scene,
and were deemed a fitting escort to royalty. History herself has deigned
to tell us of their show and bravery--how, on horseback, with blue gowns
and embroidered shoes, and red hoods, they joined the nobles and prelates
of our land. Four hundred years have but seen the increase of their
wealth, of their respectability, and power. Their struggle upwards has
been long and tedious, but it has been safe and sure. The wars of the
red rose and the white--wars which beggared the princes of England, and
spilt the blood of its nobles like water--were favourable to the progress
of the middle class. The battle of Barnet witnessed the fall and death
of the kingmaker, and with her champion feudalism fell. The power passed
from the baron. The most thoughtless began to perceive that a time was
coming when mere brute strength would fail its possessor. Dim and
shadowy notions of the superiority of right to might were loosened from
the bondage of the past, and set afloat; discoveries, strange and
wonderful, became the property of the many; the fountains of knowledge,
and thought, and fame were opened, and men pressed thither, eager to win
higher honour than that obtained by the intrigues of court, or the
accidents of birth.

With all that was bright and good did the middle classes identify
themselves. In them was the stronghold of civilization. The prince and
peer were unwilling to admit of changes in polity, in religion, or in
law, which to them could bring no good, and might possibly bring harm.
Conventional usage had stamped them with a higher worth than that which
by right belonged to them; their adulterated gold pass