e fellow-commoner a snob when he
acted in accordance with the custom of his rank and standing? or the
sizar who accepted aid in achieving that education which he could not
have got without it? or the tutor of the college, who carried out the
rules entrusted to him? There are two military snobs, Rag and Famish.
One is a swindler and the other a debauched young idiot. No doubt they
are both snobs, and one has been, while the other is, an officer. But
there is,--I think, not an unfairness so much as an absence of
intuition,--in attaching to soldiers especially two vices to which all
classes are open. Rag was a gambling snob, and Famish a drunken
snob,--but they were not specially military snobs. There is a chapter
devoted to dinner-giving snobs, in which I think the doctrine laid down
will not hold water, and therefore that the snobbism imputed is not
proved. "Your usual style of meal," says the satirist--"that is
plenteous, comfortable, and in its perfection,--should be that to which
you welcome your friends." Then there is something said about the
"Brummagem plate pomp," and we are told that it is right that dukes
should give grand dinners, but that we,--of the middle class,--should
entertain our friends with the simplicity which is customary with us. In
all this there is, I think, a mistake. The duke gives a grand dinner
because he thinks his friends will like it, sitting down when alone with
the duchess, we may suppose, with a retinue and grandeur less than that
which is arrayed for gala occasions. So is it with Mr. Jones, who is no
snob because he provides a costly dinner,--if he can afford it. He does
it because he thinks his friends will like it. It may be that the grand
dinner is a bore,--and that the leg of mutton with plenty of gravy and
potatoes all hot, would be nicer. I generally prefer the leg of mutton
myself. But I do not think that snobbery is involved in the other. A
man, no doubt, may be a snob in giving a dinner. I am not a snob because
for the occasion I eke out my own dozen silver forks with plated ware;
but if I make believe that my plated ware is true silver, then I am a
snob.

In that matter of association with our betters,--we will for the moment
presume that gentlemen and ladies with titles or great wealth are our
betters,--great and delicate questions arise as to what is snobbery, and
what is not, in speaking of which Thackeray becomes very indignant, and
explains the intensity of his feelings a