Or " be gopettator," November 24, 1849 As the sea encroaches upon
the coast, eats into the land, and brings down rock after rock, so the sea of trade is eating away the lands of our old nobility. Not long since, the titled Plantagenet was divested of his territories ; noble blood vainly having tried to recover its land by the plebeian mode of purchase, and failed in that trading process. Now "the hammer" invades the seat of the older Stanleys, Hooton Hall. .
The ever-encroaching golden sea of trade—der abundant, ever pressing —is too much for resistance: noble blood has its day of weakness, the dike of pride gives way, the golden tide rushes in, a pelago premit arm: sonante—spreads o'er the noble lands the jingling levelling flood of trade, overwhelming traditions, monuments, and hereditary affections.
"Land is brought into the market," old tyrannies are forgotten. New tyrannies are learned. No more does the degraded villein, with convulsed limbs and clenched teeth, keep down the raging shame while he yields his bride or his best horse to manorial rights ; but the factory villein is not unbound. And the factory lord has no hereditary honour to support: the history of the land is not his history ; in his house generations know not each other ; he is not pledged to the standard of an escutcheon sans peur et sans reproche—he may slink and be mean, and vaunt mean maxims as worldly wisdom. He has no fixed hostage in the land, no born alliance with the soil and substance of his country ; he may tolerate a mean policy in the state, and not belie his tenure.
Of course, this trading regime is not a final state—its very nature shows it to be transitory ; but there is a melancholy interest in watching these encroachments of our day on the landmarks of history.
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