19 NOVEMBER 1842, Page 11

LAUDATION OF THE ARISTOCRACY.

One remark of last week, that "whenever a discreditable act is committed by one of the aristocracy, the lower classes generally contrive, by the way in which they deal with the matter, to show that a passion for the very crime which they are so eager to de- nounce exists much more extensively among themselves," seems to harmonize with, if it did not suggest, some exhortations to the English nobility in which the Times and the Morning Herald have since indulged: their object being, to urge upon the possessors of rank a strict maintenance of the "respectability" which is con- ceded to them, by the adoption of a system of rigid exclusion against all offenders, such as the three titled profligates who have lately exhibited themselves before the public. Now, although we willingly admit that these cases form the ex- ception and not the rule, and that laudation for general propriety of behaviour may fairly be bestowed, we must beg to draw a dis- tinction which seems to have escaped our contemporaries. That the aristocracy possess a full share of the qualities most esteemed at the present day, it would be preposterous to deny in the face of the general influence which its members are permitted by the people to ogert ; but we would have it understood that these qualities are not derived from the most exalted sentiments of our nature. The level goodness which education and refined pleasures must at all times promote, coupled with that exclusive horror of any undigni- fied compromise of character which has its origin in one of the most sublime forms of selfishness, is abundantly exhibited. But the avoidance of crime must not be mistaken for the fulfilment of duty ; and we believe that as regards the higher impulses of human sym- pt...hyt to which it is the object of good men to give shape and direction, the deeds of a whole generation of our aristocracy would be overbalanced by the experience of a single day

amidst the privations of the poor. It is to be regretted that the broad virtues of the latter class are neutralized by defects of Judgment and other irregularities of ill-trained minds ; but they may serve as examples to be better carried out by those who do

not labour under these deficiencies. When we see the English nobility, confident in their own purity, manifesting a willingness to surrender privileges which can only be requisite to shield the vicious, together with that wide-spreading sympathy whicl ,not content with the ostentatious doling forth of blankets an4coals. seeks to elevate the poor by knowledge to a position in Veh,charity of this kind shall be unneeded and dependence extioncd, we shall be prepared to accord the veneration which th mirers claim for them. Meanwhile, we should regret to find the decorous piety of a WiricEu.sEs set up as the highest example of Christian zeal, or the " respectable " career of a LONDONDERRY confounded with any conception of human virtue.