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SIR-I have lately paid a great deal of attention to, our nobility, and have mixed with them at their gaming-houses, their routs, their races, and their cricket matches; and, indeed, I flattered myself, from their births and fortunes, which naturally gave them such superlative advantages of education, that I should find them as superior to the rest of mankind, as these advantages were capable of making them; but, instead of these expectations, I found some of them even below the level of the people over whom they arrogantly and impudently assume a superiority.

Indeed, nobility, at this period, is but a degenerated race of men, whom education hath only informed of Ram. Mag. No. VI. X

new vices, and fortune hath dissolved into every abject degree of contempt, dulness, effeminacy, and disease. Dignity of life and character is only to be achieved and obtained by virtue, sense and courage; by these virtues our ancient nobles gained their titles and their reputations, which their pusillanimous heirs possess by right of lineage, though not wise enough to read the compositions of their ancestors, nor even strong enough to bear their armour. Military titles of honour should die with the gainer of the laurel: estates should descend to the succeeding heir; but titles should be only obtained in the field, the senate, and the cabinet. We have now such a profusion of honours conferred on men without any honour at all, that in a short time, if the court proceeds, it will have no inferiors to black the shoes of the superiors: pages to princes are now such great, little, diminutive, contemptible beings, that, though they may have been menial servants to peers, they refuse to buckle the shoe of their prince, and will not remember that they were long obliged to japan their own.

"All born alike, from virtue first began

"The diff'rence that distinguish'd man from man:
"He claim'd no title from descent of blood,

"But that which made him noble, made him good."

The gift of title is with much propriety placed in the hands of kings, to encourage men in the race of glory; but how are these honours sullied, when we see them hung on some of the wretches of this time!

The dignity and honour of this kingdom is now entirely supported by the middling class of people; with them alone dwell virtue, honour, integrity, and courage: they support the nation's fame and her finances -they give regal splendour to the crown, and feed the poor. But what do the nobility? They debauch themselves and their inferiors-ruin their own honour, and the kingdom's; lavish away their paternal treasure, and then become the contemptible hirelings of the court, to maintain their profligacy-and, by degrees, ruin the reputation of the nation, and her treasury!

On the Degeneracy of the Nobility.

-Nobility of blood

"Is but a glittering, a fallacious good;

"The nobleman is he, whose noble mind

"Is fill'd with inborn worth, unborrow'd from his kind."

243

Read of the heroes and statesmen of former days, and compare their names and virtues with the pigmy things of this hour, and then see what nobility was, and what it is. It was honour, sense, and courage: now it is idleness, insignificance, mockery, and disease. Dress is the first quality of a man of fashion; a man had better be without the virtues of the soul, than the tinsel graces of the body. It is with the women that honour and virtue originate: they are the fountains of all human virtuè or frailty: by their examples we rise to honour, or sink in sin and infamy: and what do they generally recommend? but accom→ plishments of the most trivial sort, and set their very sons the first examples of lewdness and debauchery? Had the women of Sparta and Rome been thus, their children would not have raised those cities to eminence and glory! But when the women sunk by debauchery and vice, the nations which the female sex exalted in reputation, descended into ignominy and ruin,

"Oh! women, women, women! all the Gods
"Have not such power of doing good to men
"As you of doing harm !"

It is no longer a doubt with me, but education is more a detriment to man, than an advantage. The most virtuous minds, being fitted for the high company of society by education, have been seduced to vice. Is there one instance of a vicious-minded man, well educated in our schools, reformed by erudition and good company? By good company, I do not mean the good and virtuous; I mean the wealthy, the witty, the noble. Turn on the other side of society to the middling rank of men,' and there you will find honour, truth, and gratitude, with a plain education, informed

enough to reverence their God, and to do honour to human nature. It is no matter what mode of religion man pursues; he that does as he would be done unto, acts a good part to his fellow-creatures, answers highly the intention of his creation, is an ornament to his race, and a glorious citizen of the world. But what are noblemen in the scale of honour, or of what service to a state? I mean the abandoned gamesters and profligates, who disgrace our court calendars; in them you will find a list as ignoble as that of Greece was noble. Their passions are devoted to lust, wine, and dice: their studies are the game of chance, the seduction of virtue, the pace of horses, and the ornament of their person. From this rising generation are we to form our statesmen, bishops, and soldiers. O Engi land! to what will the degeneracy of the times, the venality of the senate, and the system of politics, reduce thee! Is it probable that any of thy present nobility will say, and be in earnest when they say

"Beyond or love's or friendship's sacred band,
"Beyond myself, I prize my native land,

"Think England's peace bought cheaply with my blood!
"And die with pleasure for my country's good!"

Vices amongst our young men of fashion are now called qualities; and he that can boast of the most wickednesses, is deemed the finest fellow. They brag of whoredoms, drunkennesses, cheats at play, a contempt of honesty, and the non-payment of their just debts, with all the effrontery of the most brutal lusts, and filthiest turpitudes, they quote those abominable passions mentioned by Virgil and Horace. Such a high spring-tide of complicated vices pour in from every quarter, that, in the infamous deluge, the virtuous must suffer; for our nobility have not enough of sweet integrity about them to save the state from a general putrefaction. Is it possible to end this essay, and not be personal? Can I call upon the following glorious names of yore, without making those blush who bear the titles? It is difficult to make great men

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