Shepherd. Ou ay, I alloo you-proceed.

North. By a control, then, of whatever kind, exercised upon the most finely sensitive faculties of the mind, the higher classes of civilised nations are bound together in the union of society. But the cultivation of this sensibility is a work that is continually going on among themselves, and is carried to greater perfection, as they are less disturbed by intermixture of those who are strangers to their own refinement. It goes on from one age to another; it is transmitted in families; it is an exclusive and hereditary privilege and distinction of the privileged orders of the community.

Shepherd. I see your drift now.

North. Now, this cultivated sensibility-of whatever importance, of which I now say nothing-which characterises, governs, and guards the highest classes of a long-civilised society, which war broke up and confounded in France by a political revolution, has been disturbed in our country by the changes which the excess of commercial prosperity has above all things brought on in the social relations of the people.

Shepherd. Mr Tickler, what for do you no join in?

Tickler. Thank heaven for that cough. Observe, James, how commerce, which is continually raising up multitudes of men high above the condition of their birth, has thrown up such numbers into a high condition of political importance, so that they have begun to fill what were once the exclusively privileged orders with sometimes-rude enough and raw recruits. The consequence is, and will farther be, that the distinction of ancient birth, which even fifty years ago was still kept very pure, is very fast blotting out from the nation.

Shepherd. Weel continued and carried on, Mr Tickler, in the same spirit wi' North's original and originating remarks. But nae great matter if the distinctions should be mingled thegither, though no just blotted out-I couldna thole that-we maun hae "6 our Lords and Dukes and michty Earls."

North. I do not mean to justify, James, the severity with which this distinction is in some countries maintained; but I have no idea that such a distinction, of such ancient importance, can be rapidly done away with impunity.

Tickler. Assuredly, sir, it cannot. The sensibilities and principles, whatever they are, which are become hereditary

VIRTUE CAN ALONE PRESERVE THE ARISTOCRACY.

197

with birth, are abolished with the distinction. However low their own worth may be-but they are not low-they are of vast political importance by the distinctive character they give, by the ostensible and fastidious separation with which they hedge in the highest political order in the state

North. And seldom indeed, Mr Tickler, are they without their own high worth. In none of the great states of modern Europe have they been so. In this country, the principles of opinion, and the characteristic feelings which were avowed, cherished, and upheld by the Aristocracy and Noblesse, were of great dignity and importance.

Shepherd. Only look at their picturs on the galleries o' auld castles! What beautifu' and brave faces! What loveliness and majesty! Though noo and then, to be sure, a dowdy or a droich.1

North. This character can no longer maintain itself, James, when any cause, as commerce, throws into the class of the gentry, numbers who were not born to their rank. For the character is maintained by exclusion; in part by education within their own houses, where it may be said to be of hereditary transmission; in part by the power of opinion acting from one to another throughout their order. With the new members, it is evident, that as far as they compose the class, one cause cannot be in force; but more than this, they defeat by their admission the force of opinion among the others; for opinion holds its force solely by its sameness, and as soon as that is violated, its force is gone.

Shepherd. Is the change, then, sir, on the whole, think ye, for good or evil?

North. I cannot say, James. But this I will say, that now aristocracy of rank must be supported by aristocracy of talent and virtue, or it, in another century at latest, will fall.

Shepherd. And is't no?

North. It is. And therefore, for that, as for a hundred other reasons, I abhor the radicals-and go forth fearlessly to battle against them with

Shepherd. The crutch.

North. The changes which the commercial system is working, may ultimately be for good; at any rate, they will proceed while that system endures. But the designs of low

1 Droich-dwarf.

198

THE WORST ENEMY OF HIS COUNTRY.

minded, low-hearted, base, and brutal Jacobins must be resisted, not by law-for it must not be stretched to reach them --but by literature; not by the gibbet-for that is barbarous, but by the-Press.

Shepherd. Noble sentiments, sir. Let the devils ply their hollow engines, but let the angels overwhelm them with solid hills. But as ye say, sir, let there be no a hole in a' the claes o' the nobility themsels. -nae stain on their scutcheons-and then they'll endure to the end o' time.

North. I believe, indeed I know, that unfortunately among the higher ranks of society, there prevails a great ignorance of the character of the lower ranks-their enjoyments, their pursuits, their manners, their morals, and their minds. They think of them too often almost as an inferior race. From their birth many of them have been trained and taught to do so; and in the condescension of the most enlightened, there is a mixture of pride repulsive to its object, and not to be accepted without some sacrifice of independence.

Shepherd. I aye thocht ye had been freendly to the distinction of ranks.

North. So I am, James-to a harmonious blending of distinct ranks

Shepherd. Frae the king till the beggar.

North. Just so- -from the king to the beggar

Shepherd. I wad rather be the King o' the Beggars, wi' a croon o' strae and coort-duds, than some ither kings I could mention

Tickler. No politics, James.

North. What strength would be in that State where each order knew the peculiar and appropriate virtues of all the rest-knew, loved, respected, and honoured them; and what a spirit of preservation !

Tickler. The worst enemy of his country and of his kind, is he who seeks to set one order against the other, by false aspersions on their prevalent character-the poor against the rich, the rich against the poor,-so with the high the humble born

Shepherd. And aboon a', the flocks again' their shepherdsthe shepherds o' their sowls. I never was wrang yet, in settin doun the fallow for a knave wha jeeringly pronounced the word " parson."

North. 'Tis become a slang-word with many who pretend

WHAT WOULD ENGLAND BE WITHOUT HER CHURCH? 199

to be the friends of the people, and anxious, above all things, to promote their education. What would mighty England be without her Church?

Tickler. Her mind had not been a "thing so majestical," but for her glorious army of martyrs and apostles-in long array, the succession of her philosophic divines.

Shepherd. Oh! dear me! what wad I no gie the noo for a what!1

(Enter MR AMBROSE with a Board of Oysters—the Council of Five Hundred-and TAPPYTOORIE, with Ale and Porter, bottled and draught.)

Tickler. Clear decks.

North. The Circular!

[The What is deposited, with all its Paraphernalia, on the Circular.

Shepherd. Awmrose, ma man, I'm thrusty-yill."

Tickler. Ditto-Ambrose.

North. Mr Ambrose-ditto.

Shepherd (after a long draught). That is yill.

Tickler (after a longer). Consummate!

North (at last). Superb!

Omnes. Giles, or Berwick ?3

3

Ambrose. Neither, gentlemen. 'Tis a sample sent me, in free gift, by Messrs Maitland and Davison

Tickler. Of St Anne's Brewery, Croftangry?

Ambrose. Yes, Southside.

Shepherd. Croftangry? Isna that a name in the Chronicles o' the Canongate? Our freen's brewery's quite classical. North. Nothing in this world can beat Berwick.

Tickler. Nor bang Giles

Shepherd. I could hae taen my Bible oath it was Berwick. Tickler. And I could have sworn upon that old almanac, history, that it was Giles.

North. I had my suspicions. There is in Berwick a ripe, a racy, and a reamy richness, unknown to any other malt that ever felt the power of barm, whose influence, gradual as the genial growth of spring, laps the soul in Elysium, till the coruscations of fancy play far and wide over a Noctes, like the Aurora Borealis; while in Giles there is a pure spirit of unadulterated strength, that, as it raises the soul to the height

1 What-whet.

2 Yill-ale.

3 Brewers.

200

ALES AND OYSTERS.

of heroic emotion, breathing deliberate colour, so beneath its power has many a cit and soldier

"Bow'd his anointed head as low as death."

Maitland and Davison-again-has inspired my being with a new feeling, for which no language I am acquainted with can supply an adequate name. That feeling impels me to say these simple words on behalf of the Spirit of Ale in general

speaking through me its organ-Ale loquitur - "If not suffered by Fate to fix my abode in barrels of Berwick or Giles, where I have long reigned alternate years, in all my glory, scarcely should I feel myself privileged to blame my stars, were I ordered for a while to sojourn in one of Maitland -and Davison!"

Shepherd. What poo'r' it has gien the pallet ower the inmost flavour o' the eisters!

Tickler. Shrimps.

Shepherd. Nae such shrimps, sir; but they melt like snawflakes,―

"A moment white, then gone for ever!"

-

North. Already are they decimated. Shepherd. Weel-nigh decimated, indeed for out o' the Coonsel o' Five Hundred, there's no fowre-score noo on the brodd.

Tickler. "With speedy gleams the darkness swallowed." North. From my labours I thus fall back in dignified repose. Shepherd. I never was sae sune stawed wi' eisters in a' my life.

Tickler. What! Have you pulled up, already, James? Shepherd. That's the manners ane. She's a sair temptation, wi' that bonny plump bosom o' hers; but I'm ower muckle o' a gentleman to tak advantage o' her unprotected singleness, sae we'll let her be.

North. Affecting subject for an elegy—The last Oyster ! Shepherd. I canna thole to look at it. Tickler, pu' the bell. (Enter AMBROSE and KING PEPIN to remove the Board.) Shepherd (in continuation). Pippy-she's yours.

[KING PEPIN, with a bunch of empty Pots in each handstoops his Mouth to the Board, and sucks the lonely Damsel into his vortex.

1 Poo'r-power.

2 See ante, vol. ii. p. 108.