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    one of the rig hts which they acquired by privilege ; their own conduct has induced them gradually to part with the grip over the land , for many of 'them are defaulters under mortgage , and no longer retain any real possession of the soil . Earl Gbanville tells us that " all the Howards" are become " numerous as all the Smiths ; " that numbers of the aristocracy , invited to take their share in commercial business , are mingling with railway directors , tradesmen , and the other classes in commerce . And all the Peers on Tuesday night , discussing Lord Ellenbobotjghs ' s views upon a p lan for the war of

    last year , and a probable change of Grovernment in reference to that plan , advanced their opinions only as individuals ; while Lord Ellenbobottgh invited the House to put itself at the head of a public opinion already formed , because he believes that Parliament ought to "direct" public opinion . The Peers therefore profess to give us their sentiments as individuals who happen to be in one of the Houses of Parliament . " When the Ueform Bill extended political power to the middle classes , Earl Obey , refusing some of the Radical amendments upon the Government Bill , declared that he should " stand by his order . " But where is his order ? What

    privileges does it claim , what powers exercise , except that of rejecting the bills of the Commons for a time ? As an order , it seems to us the Peers have almost left the scene , and we have to consider them as individuals . Lord Ellenbobotjgh indeed has another title for them . The Peers , he said , sit in the House of Lords because of the fitness of their ancestors . Lord Malmesbtjby is there , because the first Harris was « a great

    diplomatist ; "Viscount Canning , because his father was an able public servant ; and Lord Ellenborotjgh . himself , because his father was a great lawyer . Unfortunately , however , the fitness of the father does not prove the fitness of the son ; and three out of the two examples cited by Lord Eixenbobotjgh are of no effect . The Earl himself may be great as a military Premier unrecognised , a Chatham out of office ; but where is his law ? Lord Malmesbukt sits in the House of Peers , because the

    first Mr . Harris was an able manager , not m the highest class of diplomacy ; but where is Lord Malmesbury ' b diplomacy ? Admit the same rule , and because the late Duke of Wellington commanded at Waterloo , the present Duke should command in the Crimea , although we have no , evidence that he has inherited anything from his father but his titles , his wealth , his homeliness , and his foolish face . In fact , in most families there is an alternate run of ability or of imbecility . The Imperial family of Austria has occasionally thrown u p a genius , and occasionally descended to idiotcy . The privilege of

    inheritance , considered from Lord Ellenbobough ' s point of view is , that a man great in one business can procure a perpetual success for his descendants , be they great or little , in any kind of business ; but the facts are against the presumption . Before Lord Ellenborough can put forward the claim of fitness on behalf of the Peers , he is bound to give us those identical ancestors whose merits were tested , and possibly wo might be content to acknowledge the diplomacy of a Harris , the law of Ellenborough , or the generalship of Wellington—meaning the first of each of those ennobled families .

    Come to their individual character , and really the Peers have no right to stand above other men . Look to the records of the Criminal Courts : whether wo take ordinary scandal or police-cases—the case of Alice Lowe or of Alice Leroy—it is notorious that the incidents and the offences of the Peerage are in a proportion exceeding that

    of most families in respectable life—or below it . Even when a Peer is acquitted , we do not know that he establishes his character as an hereditary statesman . Lord Clanricaede , for instance , was lately accused of conniving with Mrs . Handcock to place her daughters under coercion , in order that their property should be concentrated at their death upon John Delacour—the

    illegitimate child of Marquis and mother . Lord Clanricari > e has since published a pamphlet , which shows that this entire story is a romantic fiction , invented by the Dublin bar ; that the young ladies were gay and independent girls , who divided their attention between polite society and piety ; that their mother was a gossiping nobody , whom they set aside rather than otherwise , but treated

    with kindness ; that Lord Clankicab . de was more intimate with the daughters than the mother , with the husband than the wife ; and that the presumed parentage—still a mystery—has probably no relation at all to Lord Clanricarde . A strong corroboration of this exculpation is the letter from Mr . Elias Handcock , brother of the husband in the story , who is the author of the tale against Mrs . Handcok ' s fidelity , but who , after he professes to have

    learned her criminal conduct , wrote friendly letters to her , suggesting manoeuvres by which she should influence her husband ' s will . Lord Clanricarde , therefore , is not the melodramatic hero that the Dublin bar painted him ; but is he a hero . at all ? Because he is acquitted of criminal complicity in family intrigues , is he a great statesman ? The Handcocks were amongst the chosen friends of his household ; and the glimpse into Portumna Castle does not make us

    conceive a very high opinion of the statesman seen in retirement . In short , Lord Clanricarde is not worse than other men ; but ia he better , wiser , abler ? Out of all the hundreds of Peers who have a right to sit in Parliament , besides those that have not , and the brothers who have to be provided for out of land which Peers withhold from the State , how many out of that crowd are really picked

    men , of known ability for official or legislative purposes ? The House of Lords has degenerated to a debating club , dealing with important questions in dilettante fashion . Perhaps if we look to the demonstration on Monday , we shall learn the true claim that the Peers put forward . The aspect of the House was indeed peculiar . Lord Kedesdale—odious man!—likened it to " a

    Casino , " because there were more Peeresses present than Peers ; and the brilliant aspect of the House revived certain associations in the mind of the noble Baron . Clearly he has insulted the Peeresses . They have had a practice in some countries of putting an impertinent fellow to death by beating him with roses ; and Bedesdale should be handed over to the Peeresses . But the

    nature of the demonstration to which ho referred was ^' a fact . The House of Lords was lined with Peeresses ; and the presence of the ladies told powerfully on the debates . The Lords rose to chivalrous daring in their eloquence . If any demagogue had been brought into that presence , he must have been subdued . It was there that the strength of the order lav—in that array of loveliness

    and taste . Alter all the Peerage has its merits ; but its forte lies in its daughters . Lord Gtranville boasted of the daughters of the Peerage who had not died maids ; and it is through its fairer half that the order possesses the most benignant and salutary influence over society . The Peer must henceforward put forward Mb best claim in an escocheon of pretence . He survives and rules in right of his wife !

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    THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND THE PEOPLE . We are very sorry to find that some of the lower classes are disposed to separate themselves at this crisis from the middle classes and to talk as if middle-class men were opponents of the people . We are sorry , but not surprised , for this unhappy jealousy has too often broken out before ; and the common enemy , the feudalist aristocrat , has known too well how to take advantage of it .

    The middle classes make their bread by labour , whether it be the labour of the brain or of the hand . Their sympathies and interests are , and always have been , on the side of those who labour . They are a part of the people , the flower of the people , the natural leaders of the people . They and their representatives have always fought the battle of the people . The history of social progress is a record of the struggles of the middle classes in the cause of the people . To the efforts of the middle classes every labouring man owes it that he receives wages for his labour , instead of' being compelled to work at the bidding of a lord . It was in the boroughs of the middle classes that the banner was first

    raised of resistance to feudal tyranny , and of hope to the slave . In those boroughs the serf , flying from his lord , first found shelter aud enfranchisement . Prom those boroughs came the men who were finally to overthrow the system of feudal iniquity ; to rescue the peasant from grinding oppression , from legalised plunder , from privileged insult ; and to make all free before the law . It was a triumph of the middle classes of Trance when , in 1789 , the French aristocracy were compelled to surrender their privilege of taxiDg their peasantry at will , when the French serf was converted into the peasant freeholder , and called from the state of a beast of burden

    to the state of a citizen and a man . The lower classes could not have done it for themselves . They tried repeatedly , and always failed . The peasants' war in Germany , the Jacquerie in France , the insurrection of Wat Tyler in England , all proved abortive —all were extinguished in the blood of the serf ; and the condition of the peasantry after then was worse than it was before . Neither in England nor on the Continent did the serfs ever , by their own efforts , gain a single step towards their own emancipation . The worst

    laws of feudalism were in force against them in France , when the bourgeoisie rose and achieved the revolution . Political intelligence and poltical organisation are required to carry on any great political or social movement . Discernment is required in the choice of leaders , and combination to support them . These qualifications the middle classes have , because they live together in towns , aud enjoy some leisure for political education ; while the dispersed peasantry and the uneducated operatives have them not , and cannot have them . The middle classes , then , arc the natural and

    trustees of the cause of the people ; , though we arc not blind to their shortcomings , we must say that , on the whole , they have fulfilled their trust generously , courageously , and well . It ia the highest prooi ot their fidelity and success that tho aristocracy , instead of opposing tho middle classes on questions of social progress , as they dunvnuO there was any hope of defeating them , are now pretending to outbid them ; nnd that tno lord of the middle ages , in the modern k of a bread-taxcr , ia driven to court an alhnnce with tho serf . Tho game of aristocrats ia ah oasy ono to play . It coats them only a little condescension and a fow false words to win away tho hearts of tho 4 > ooplo from their real dcfoiulora and true friends . How often in history has social tyranny boon ablo to sny to its yiefcimfl

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    £ qq T HE LEADEE . L Satukday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 468, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2091/page/12/