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Untitled Article
concessions and inferences which we cannot now stay to discuss with him . He egregiously over-rates the friendliness which the clergy have at any time shown to the education of the people . We pass on to remark that he charges our gentry in broad terms with failure in the common duty of an enlightened humanity to the poor .
The influence of the aristocracy , in respect to those within the operation of the poor laws , has only been not pernicious where it has been supine and negative . Among the great gentry it is mostly the latter—their influence is neglect ; among the smaller gentry it is the former—their influence has been destruction . ' He then gives proofs and instances , of which the most prominent is the parish of Calne , of which the ' neighbour and main proprietor is the Marquis of Lansdowne . '
The obstinate retention , with the paltry exception of a portion of the advertisement duty , of a taxation which presses heavily upon literature , and most heavily of all upon the circulation of the most interesting information amongst the less opulent members of the community , is a fact which it is only needful to mention to brand
with the foulest disgrace the power which allows that taxation to continue . Our author has shown that the press and the aristocracy are antagonist principles . The antithesis reminds us of the old proverb that ' when a man is against reason , it is because reason is against him /
Aristocratic patronage of science , art , literature , the drama ; what of good has it realized ? The rich and titled no doubt do buy books and pictures , and hold private boxes . True , Burns was made an exciseman , and Wordsworth has a collectorship of stamps . But what has been done , we ask , towards bringing the magical influences of art to bear upon public refinement by means of public enjoyment ? Nothing ; and worse than nothing . The interference of the aristocracy has been an obstruction to that progress in refinement which would naturally result from the action and reaction on each other , of the writer , or the artist , and the public . The progress is making ; but it is making by the growing intelligence and taste of the people , too much diverted from ail that is humanizing by the constant , necessity for protesting against oppression . The only chance , now , for the production of a fine historical painting is that trie painter may be paid for his time by exhibiting it at a shilling a head . If a nobleman wants a
splendid cast , from the mould of which copies might be multiplied till every Mechanic ' s Institute in the country had one at a cheap rate , what does he ? Bargain that the mould shall be broken , and so his property made valuable . Property , again ! What property is like making thousands of rough hearts melt at the bight of . " beauty moulded by genius . Aristocracy has overlaid the drama , making the theatres as much of a job and more a monopoly
Untitled Article
Characteristics of English Aristocracy . 599
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1833, page 599, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2622/page/15/
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