Law and opinion, and the circumstances of the country, are alike
opposed to the accumulation of property, so that it is rare for two
successive generations of the same family to occupy the same social
position. The ease with which fortunes are made, or repaired, is only
equalled by the recklessness with which they are lost. Prosperity, at
some time or other, appears to be the birth-right of every citizen; and,
where all are _parvenus_ alike, there are none to assume the airs of
exclusiveness, or to crush the last comer beneath the weight of
traditional and time-honoured grandeur.

It is not easy to dismiss the peculiarities of our British society in a
paragraph. Bull, however, to be appreciated, must be seen in the midst
of his own household gods, with his family and bosom friends about him.
This is what may be called the normal state of that fine fellow--and
here Jonathan can't hold a candle to him. American interiors want relief
and variety of colouring. Their children are not like the children of
the Old World: they don't romp, or prattle, or get into mischief, or
believe in Bogie. They seem to take brevet rank, from the first, as men
and women, and are quite inaccessible to nursery humbug of any kind.
They are never whipped, and eat as much pastry as they think proper;
whereby they grow up dyspeptic and rational beyond their years. Parents
don't appear to exercise any particular functions, masters (we again beg
Demus's pardon for the poverty of the vernacular) have nothing
magisterial about them, and servants won't stomach even the name, at
least if they wear white skins, and know it. After the first burst of
admiration at the philosophy of the thing, it grows tiresome to live
amongst people who are all so much alike. Now in England the
distinctions of age, and rank, and sex, are much more strongly marked;
while in those countries of Europe which are still less under the
influence of the equalising spirit of the age, the social landscape is
still more variegated and picturesque. With us, two adverse principles
are at work; and this is the reason why our British society is so
anomalous to ourselves, and so entirely beyond the comprehension of
foreigners. Whenever our brave Bull is thrown into a mixed company
abroad, or even at home, where the social position of those with whom he
is brought into contact is unknown to him, there is no end to the
blundering and nonsense of the worthy fellow. Go where he will, he is
hau