enerality of his countrymen are basely grovelling before the shrine of
what they are pleased to call gentility, he cannot shut his eyes.

Oh! what a clever person that Cockney was, who, travelling in the
Aberdeen railroad carriage, after edifying the company with his remarks
on various subjects, gave it as his opinion that Lieutenant P . . .
would, in future, be shunned by all respectable society! And what a
simple person that elderly gentleman was, who, abruptly starting, asked,
in rather an authoritative voice, "And why should Lieutenant P . . . be
shunned by respectable society?" and who after entering into what was
said to be a masterly analysis of the entire evidence of the case,
concluded by stating, "that having been accustomed to all kinds of
evidence all his life, he had never known a case in which the accused had
obtained a more complete and triumphant justification than Lieutenant
P . . . had done in the late trial."

Now the Cockney, who is said to have been a very foppish Cockney, was
perfectly right in what he said, and therein manifested a knowledge of
the English mind and character, and likewise of the modern English
language, to which his catechist, who, it seems, was a distinguished
member of the Scottish bar, could lay no pretensions. The Cockney knew
what the Lord of Session knew not, that the British public is gentility
crazy, and he knew, moreover, that gentility and respectability are
synonymous. No one in England is genteel or respectable that is "looked
at," who is the victim of oppression; he may be pitied for a time, but
when did not pity terminate in contempt? A poor, harmless young
officer--but why enter into the details of the infamous case? they are
but too well known, and if ever cruelty, pride, and cowardice, and things
much worse than even cruelty, cowardice, and pride, were brought to
light, and at the same time countenanced, they were in that case. What
availed the triumphant justification of the poor victim? There was at
first a roar of indignation against his oppressors, but how long did it
last? He had been turned out of the service, they remained in it with
their red coats and epaulets; he was merely the son of a man who had
rendered good service to his country, they were, for the most part,
highly connected--they were in the extremest degree genteel, he quite the
reverse; so the nation wavered, considered, thought the genteel side was
the safest after all, and then with th