A sketch of the aristocracy of England, in the year 1835, extracted from two pamphlets / by Isaac Tomkins, Gent. and Mr. Peter Jenkins [i.e. Henry Peter Brougham].

  • Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sketch of the aristocracy of England, in the year 1835, extracted from two pamphlets / by Isaac Tomkins, Gent. and Mr. Peter Jenkins [i.e. Henry Peter Brougham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their natural insolence, and exasperate the badness of their habits; and that such privileges at once render the society intolerable over which they domineer, and the government insecure in which they bear sway. The £10 franchise itself would tend to produce similar mis¬ chiefs were it confined to a few, and were it of more difficult acquisition to those who inherit it not. Its great diffusion and easy attainment prevents the possibility of its working evil by creating a privileged class in the community. Only see how the Aristocracy and the Upper House of Parliament oppress the country, and cause the mismanagement of its concerns! First, the Aristocracy, as a body, is essentially the enemy of all reform. Exceptions there are. Excellent sense in one ; in another, good edu¬ cation for about the worst educated country in Europe; in a third, party zeal; in a fourth, personal spleen,—may alienate members of the body from their natural connexions, and enlist them in the cause of the people. For the aid of these men the country can never be too grateful. Far from repelling them by insult, and damping their generous efforts in our behalf by a cold and sullen reception, it is our duty and our interest to hail their arrival among us with open arms. They are of infinite use to us. Their motives should not be too nar¬ rowly scrutinized. They are worthy of all acceptation; and, if we know either what becomes us, or what serves us, we shall affection¬ ately and gratefully receive them. The body at large is our foe ; that is incapable of conversion. Mr. O’Connell may threaten and Mr. Brougham may educate for ages ; that body is beyond all the fears which the former can excite, and all the improvement which the latter can produce. All their habits—all their connexions—all their inter¬ ests—oppose any conversion short of what a miracle could work. The abuses of the system are not merely the protection of their order, but its direct presiding genius. For them sinecures exist; for them jobs are done. They it is that profit by the over-payment of public functionaries. They it is that amass wealth by the tax imposed upon the bread consumed, and alone consumed, by the people. For their sons an overgrown army provides commissions and staff-appointments. For their sons a bloated church establishment displays deaneries, and prebends, and bishoprics. To teach their children Tory principles, the public schools, (the best education in England, and one utterly be¬ low contempt,) train the patrician infant to lisp in slavish accents. To confirm the lessons of Eton and Winchester, Oxford opens her con¬ servative arms, and eradicates whatever feelings of humanity, whatever reasonable opinions, the expanding faculties of the mind may have engrafted upon the barren stocks of Henry the Sixth and William of Wickham. In truth, the universities are the very forcing beds of Tory Aristocracy ; and hence the peculiar jealousy with which the House of Lords, as if instinctively, regards whatever can by any possibility touch those haunts of bigotry and intolerance. The fact is, that go where you will, in these times, even in liberal circles, you find the youth— the fashionable youth—all embodied with the mothers and the tutors against liberal principles, and bent on resisting all improvement. That the result of the whole system should give us the kind of Upper House which now assumes to govern the country, who can wonder ? Upon its character and propensities there need few words
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