Rollo in London

by Jacob Abbott

  CHAPTER XI.

  THE ARISTOCRACY.

  "What do you suppose that man is doing upon that ladder?" said Rollo toMr. George.

  Rollo and Mr. George were walking together in one of the streets at theWest End, near St. James's Palace, when Rollo asked this question, onthe morning of the day after they paid their visit to St. Paul's. Theman on the ladder was placing some lamps on a frame over the door of alarge and beautiful mansion, as if for an illumination. The lamps weredisposed in such a manner as to form a great star, with the letters "V.R." on a very large scale, one on each side of it.

  "The V. R. stands for Victoria Regina," said Mr. George; "that is,Victoria Queen."

  "Then it must be that they are going to have an illumination in honor ofthe queen," rejoined Rollo. "I have seen two more of such frames puttingup before this."

  On going along a little farther, Rollo pointed out another house to Mr.George where lamps were arranged for an illumination; and then,presently, another. Mr. George accordingly stopped to ask a policemanwhat it meant.

  "It is the queen's birthday," said the policeman; "and this evening theyilluminate the houses."

  "I'm glad of that," said Rollo. "We will come out and see; won't we,uncle George?"

  The part of the town where Mr. George and Rollo were walking at thistime--the vicinity of St. James's Square--is the region occupied by thepalaces and mansions of some of the higher nobility of England. Theseresidences are built in a very open manner, standing, many of them,apart from each other, and being in the midst of parks, gardens,terraces, and pleasure grounds, which give to the views that arepresented to the eye of the stranger in walking among them a mostenchanting variety. As Mr. George and Rollo passed along the streetsamong these residences, they soon began to observe other marks ofexcitement besides the illuminations. They saw unusual numbers ofwell-dressed people walking along the sidewalks; and at length, onturning a corner, they came suddenly into a street where the margin ofthe sidewalk, for a long distance, was lined with crowds ofpeople,--men, women, and children,--who seemed to be waiting forsomething to pass by. They were, in fact, waiting to see the queen.

  As has already been said, it was the queen's birthday; and it is thecustom for the queen, on her birthday, to hold what is called "a drawingroom," in which she receives the calls and congratulations of thenobility of England, the foreign ministers resident in London, and ofsuch strangers as are of sufficient distinction, in respect to theirwealth, their rank, or their fame, to entitle them to the honor of beingpresented to her majesty. The queen does not receive these visits inBuckingham Palace, which is the principal place of her residence inLondon, but in St. James's Palace, which is an older edifice, formerlythe residence of the royal family, but now, since Buckingham Palace wasbuilt, reserved for official and state purposes and occasions. St.James's Palace is a large and irregularly-shaped building, of brick. Ithas nothing special to distinguish it from the other buildings thatsurround it, and which, in fact, some of them, seem to be so connectedwith it, by courts, and passages, and wings, and arcades, that it isdifficult to tell where the palace begins or ends. In fact, no one wouldsuppose that it was a palace at all were it not for the soldiers, in reduniforms, which are to be seen at all times walking to and fro, orstanding sentry, before their little boxes, at every door and gateway.

  Buckingham Palace, on the other hand, is farther out of town. It standsby itself, on the margin of one of the immense parks for which London isso famous--or, rather, on the margin of two of them. Before it is St.James's Park, with its green fields and its winding walks, its grovesand copses of trees and shrubbery, its beds and borders of flowers, andabove all its beautiful little lake, with gayly-painted boats to sailupon it, and flocks of ducks, and geese, and swans, of every form andcolor, swimming in all directions over the surface of the water. On theside of it is the Green Park--a broad expanse of the smoothest andrichest green, intersected with drives and walks, all crowded withpromenaders. Behind the palace is a large enclosure, which contains theprivate gardens of the palace itself. These gardens are planted andadorned in the most magnificent manner; but they are guarded on everyside by a very high wall, and by a continuous line of trees, which beara very dense and lofty mass of foliage, so that the public can never seewhat is in them.

  Here the queen resides when she is in town, going only to the ancientpalace of St. James to attend meetings of her cabinet council, to holddrawing rooms and levees, and to be present at other great ceremonies ofstate. Whenever occasions occur on which her majesty is expected toproceed from Buckingham Palace to St. James's, great numbers of peopleusually assemble in the streets between to see the royal procession passby.

  Mr. George, having learned by inquiry what it was that the people werewaiting to see, determined that he and Rollo would wait too. So theytook their places in a convenient position, near a lamppost, and waitedfor her majesty's coming.

  They had not been there long before a great movement among the crowdindicated that the royal retinue was in sight; and a moment afterwardssome horsemen, elegantly dressed and caparisoned, came rapidly on,followed by a train of two or three carriages very elegantly decorated,and with servants in splendid liveries before and behind, and finally byother horsemen, who brought up the rear. The whole _cortege_ went by sorapidly that Rollo could scarcely distinguish any thing in detail. Itpassed before his eyes like a gorgeous vision, leaving on his mind onlyconfused images of nodding plumes, beautiful horses, gay footmen andcoachmen clothed in the gayest colors, and carriages plain and simplein style, but inexpressibly elegant and graceful in their forms and intheir motions.

  There was a moment's pause after the _cortege_ went by, which was,however, broken at length by an exclamation of wonder and delight fromRollo.

  "Hi--yi!" said he. "I should like to be the queen, uncle George!"

  "Should you?" said Mr. George.

  "Yes," said Rollo; "or else one of the queen's soldiers, to ride on suchelegant horses as those."

  As soon as the _cortege_ had passed, the crowd began immediately todisperse; and yet they did not go away at once, but seemed to lingeralong the sidewalks to gaze at the various single carriages which fromtime to time were passing by. These carriages were all very elegant inform and equipment, and had servants in gay liveries mounted upon thembefore and behind, and they were often preceded and followed byoutriders. These equipages, as they passed to and fro along the street,seemed strongly to attract the attention of the bystanders. Thechildren, particularly, stopped to gaze upon each one of them, as itcame by, with countenances full of wonder and admiration.

  "There are a great many carriages out to-day," said Mr. George.

  "And splendid carriages they are, too," said Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George; "the carriages and horses of the Englisharistocracy are the finest in the world."

  Not very long after this, Mr. George and Rollo, in the course of theirwalk, happened to come to a place in the street that was opposite to theentrance to St. James's Palace, where the carriages set down the companythat were going to attend the drawing room. There were a great manypeople assembled on the sidewalks all around to see the company as theydescended from their carriages. The scene, in fact, presented quite anextraordinary spectacle.

  The carriages, which were of every form and size, arrived in very rapidsuccession, and drove into a sort of court yard to the door where thecompany entered. There were soldiers and policemen on duty, to preventthe public from going into the yard. The carriages, however, as theydrove up to the door, and the company, as they descended from them,could all be seen very distinctly from the street. There were footmenbehind most of the carriages, who, as soon as the horses drew up,stepped down from their places and opened the carriage door. Thegentlemen and ladies were all dressed very gorgeously,--the gentlemenbeing clothed in military uniforms, or robes of office, or inembroidered and gilded court dresses,--each dress being different,apparently, from all the rest. The liveries, too, of the coachmen and ofthe footm
en, and the harnesses and trappings of the horses, were allexceedingly splendid and gay.

  Mr. George and Rollo, with some hundreds of other spectators who hadassembled to witness the scene, stood gazing upon it with great interestfor nearly an hour. When, at length, their curiosity had become in somemeasure satisfied, they found that they were beginning to be very tiredof standing so long; and so they left the place, and walked away slowlytowards home.

  "What do you mean by _aristocracy_?" said Rollo to Mr. George, as theywalked along. "Does it mean the rich people?"

  "No," replied Mr. George, "not exactly that. It means rich people whogovern. In the United States there are a great many very rich people;but they are not called an aristocracy, because they do not govern.Every thing there is decided by voting, and every person that is a _man_has an equal right with all the rest to his vote; at least this is thecase in the Northern States. The rich have no more power than the rest;so they do not constitute an aristocracy in the correct and propermeaning of the term. An aristocracy in any country, strictly speaking,is a class of wealthy people who govern it, or who are at leastpossessed of exclusive privileges and power."

  "Suppose the class of people who govern the country should be poor,"asked Rollo; "would that be an aristocracy?"

  "Such a thing is impossible in the nature of things," said Mr. George;"for if any one class gets the control of the government of a country,they will of course manage it in such a way as to get the wealth and thehonors mainly to themselves. _I_ should do so. _You_ would do so. Everybody would do so. It is human nature. Beings that would not do so wouldnot be human."

  "And do the English aristocracy manage in that way?" asked Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George. "The state of the case, as I understand it, isjust this: A number of centuries ago, a certain prince from France--orrather from Normandy, which is a part of France--came over to Englandwith an army and conquered the country. His name was William; and onaccount of his conquest of England, he received the name of William theConqueror. He parcelled out a great portion of the land, and all theoffices and powers of government, among the nobles and generals thatcame with him; and they and their descendants have held the property andthe power to the present day. Thus England, so far as the great mass ofthe people are concerned, is to be considered as a conquered country,and now in the possession of the conquerors. It is governed mainly by anaristocracy which descended from, and represents, the generals thatconquered it. In fact, the highest honor which any man can claim forhimself or his family in England is to say that his ancestors came inwith the Conqueror. It is a sort of phrase."

  "Yes," said Rollo; "I have heard it."

  "You must understand, however," continued Mr. George, "that not _all_ ofthe present aristocracy have descended from the old generals and noblesthat came in with William. Many of those old families have becomeextinct, and their places have been supplied by new nobles that havebeen created from time to time by selection from the men that have mostdistinguished themselves as generals or statesmen. Still these men,however great they may be, never rise really to the same level of rankand consideration with the others. They are called the new nobility, andare always looked down upon, more or less, by the old families whoseancestors 'came in with the Conqueror.' Now, these nobles and theirfamilies, with persons connected with and dependent upon them, governthe land. They control nearly all the elections to Parliament, both inthe Lords and in the Commons. They make peace and they make war. Theyofficer the army and the navy. They, or persons whom they appoint,administer the affairs of the church and of the state, and expend therevenues, and they make the laws. In a word, they govern the country."

  "And do they govern it well?" asked Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George; "admirably well--at least so far as preservingorder and protecting life and property are concerned. I don't believethat there are any where else in the world, or ever were in any age,thirty millions of people together, who for a hundred years at a timeenjoyed so much order, and peace, and general safety as has prevailed inEngland for the last century. Every thing is admirably regulatedthroughout all the ranks and departments of society, so far as thesethings are concerned."

  "Then it succeeds very well," said Rollo.

  "Yes," replied Mr. George, "so far as efficiency in the government, andorder, safety, and peace in the community, are concerned, the plancertainly succeeds admirably well. But there is another very importantpoint in which it seems to me it does not succeed at all."

  "What is that?" asked Rollo.

  "Why, in the division of the fruits of the labor," replied Mr. George.

  "I don't know what you mean by that," said Rollo.

  "Well, I will explain it," said Mr. George. "If we suppose that thereare thirty millions of people in Great Britain----"

  "Are there thirty millions?" said Rollo.

  "Not quite, perhaps," said Mr. George; "but I will take thirty millionsfor my calculation. Now, out of thirty millions of people, includingmen, women, and children, of all ages, there will be, according to theusual proportion, about ten millions of men and women able to work, orto superintend work. There are undoubtedly that number now engaged invarious industrial and useful occupations in England. Some arecultivating the land, raising wheat, or other kinds of food; some arerearing sheep or cattle; some are digging ore in the mines of Cornwallor Wales; some are raising coal and iron ore from the immense coal andiron mines in the northern part of the island; some are tending themills and machine shops and manufactories where such vast quantities ofgoods are made; and some are planning or superintending theseoperations, or are performing professional services of various kinds.Now, if we suppose that the average earnings of all these people wouldbe a dollar a day, that would make the amount ten millions a day in all,or three thousand millions of dollars a year, to be divided, in some wayor other, among the English people."

  "But the workmen in England don't earn a dollar a day, do they?" saidRollo.

  "No," said Mr. George; "the laborers and the operatives do not earn somuch as that, or at least they are not paid so much; but I have no doubtbut that the whole amount produced would average that. In fact, Ipresume it would average more than that a great deal, and that the wholeamount produced by the annual industry of England is a great deal morethan three thousand millions of dollars."

  "Well," said Rollo, "go on."

  "I was going to explain to you, you remember, how government, by anaristocracy in England, operates in respect to the division of thefruits of labor among those who produce them. And the fact is, that itoperates in such a manner as to give an immensely large proportion ofthe value to the aristocratic classes themselves, and an exceedinglysmall portion to the people who actually do the work.

  "The difference is very great," continued Mr. George, "between Englandand the United States in this respect. Go out into the country inEngland, or into the manufacturing districts, and follow the people whodo the work, when at night they go to their homes, and see what sort ofhouses they go to. They look picturesque and pretty, perhaps, outside,sometimes; but within they are mere hovels. The man receives only enoughfor his labor to feed and clothe him for his work. He becomes,therefore, a mere beast of burden, and his home is only a hut to feedand lodge him in.

  "But now go to the United States and follow almost any man whom you seeat work in the fields in Vermont or New Hampshire, when he goes to hishome, and see what you will find. There will be a comfortable house,with several rooms. There will be a little parlor, with a carpet on thefloor and books on the table. There will be children coming home fromschool, and a young woman, dressed like a lady, who has just finishedher day's work, and is, perhaps, going in the evening into the villageto attend a lecture. The reason of this difference is, as I suppose,that in England the laws and institutions, as the aristocracy haveshaped them, are such as to give the men who do the hard work only theirfood and clothing and to reserve the rest, under the name of rent, ortithes, or taxes, to themselves and their relatives; wher
eas, inAmerica, the laws and institutions, as the _masses_ have shaped them,are such as to give the men who _do_ the work a very much larger shareof the proceeds of it, so that they can themselves enjoy the comfortsand luxuries of life, and can cultivate their minds and educate theirchildren. Thus, in England, you have, on every considerable tract offarming country, villages of laborers, which consist of mere huts, wheremen live all their lives, without change, almost as beasts of burden;and then, in some beautiful park in the centre, you have a nobleman, wholives in the highest degree of luxury and splendor, monopolizing as itwere, in his one castle or hall, the comforts and enjoyments which havebeen earned by the hundreds of laborers. In America, on the other hand,there is no castle or hall--there is no nobleman; but the profits of thelabor are retained by those who perform it, and they are expended inmaking hundreds of comfortable and well-provided homes."

  While Mr. George and Rollo had been holding this conversation, they hadbeen walking along through St. James's Park; and, considering theabstract and unentertaining character of the subject, Rollo had listenedquite attentively to what his uncle had said, only his attention hadbeen somewhat distracted once or twice by the gambols of the beautifullyirised ducks that he had seen from time to time on the water as hewalked along the margin of it. The conversation was now, however,interrupted by the sound of a trumpet which Rollo heard at a distance,and which he saw, on looking up, proceeded from a troop of horsemencoming out from the Horse Guards. Rollo immediately wished to go thatway and see them, and Mr. George consented. As they went along, Mr.George closed his conversation on the English aristocracy by saying,--

  "England is a delightful country for noblemen, no doubt, and anaristocratic government will always work very well indeed for theinterests of the aristocracy themselves who exercise it, and for thegood order and safety, perhaps, of the rest of the community. A greatmany weak and empty-headed women who come out to England from the greatcities in America, and see these grand equipages in London, think what afine thing it is to have a royal government, and wish that we had one inAmerica; but this is always on the understanding that they themselvesare to be the duchesses."

  * * * * *

  Mr. George was doubtless substantially correct in his explanation ofthe opinion which many fashionable ladies in America are led to form infavor of our aristocratic form of government from what they see of thepomp and parade of the English nobility; though, in characterizing suchladies as weak and empty headed women, he was, to say the least, rathersevere. In respect to the other question,--that is, how far the immenseinequality of the division of the annual production of the Island ofGreat Britain among the people who produce it, and the consequentextreme poverty of so large a portion of the working classes, is owingto the laws and institutions which the aristocracy themselves haveformed,--that is a very grave one. Mr. George thought that it was owingto those laws and institutions, and not to any thing in the natural orphysical condition of the country itself, that there was so much abjectpoverty in Great Britain.

  "The soil is as fertile," said he to himself, "the mines are as rich,the machinery is as effective, and there is as much profitable work tobe done in England as in America, and I see no reason why the wholeamount of value produced in proportion to the producers should not be asgreat in one country as in the other. Consequently, if some classesobtain more than their share, and others less, the inequality must bethe effect of the institutions and laws."