that he has never known a single well-authenticated case of oppression of the lower classes, while it is within his personal knowledge that many of the best families (in Italy, for instance) have been compelled to leave all their property behind them, and fly for their lives before an insolent and unreasoning mob.  How he deluges the House with distorted facts and garbled statistics!  How he warns noble lords against the wiles of Mazzini, the unscrupulous ambition of Victor Emmanuel, and the headlong haste of Garibaldi!

Of course, his lordship’s bitterest hatred and intensest aversion are reserved for democratic institutions.  Against these he wages a constant crusade.  Armed cap-a-pie in his common-sense-proof coat of mail, he charges feebly upon them with his blunt lance, works away furiously with his wooden sword, and then ambles off with a triumphant air very ludicrous to behold.  Democracy is the bete noir of all the Chestertons.  They attack it not only because they consider it a recent innovation, but also because it threatens the permanence of their order.  About the practical working of a republic they have no better information than they have about the institutions of Iceland or the politics of Patagonia.  It is quite enough for them to know that the theory of democracy is based on the equality of man, and that where democracy prevails a privileged class is unknown.

It is hardly necessary to add, that the present condition of the United Stales is a perfect godsend to the whole family of Chestertons.  Have they not long predicted our disgrace and downfall?  Have they not, indeed, ever since our unjustifiable Declaration of Independence, anticipated precisely what has happened?  Have they not always and everywhere contended that a republic had no elements of national cohesion?  In a word, have they not feared our growing power and population as only such base and ignoble spirits can fear the sure and steady progress of a rival nation?  Unhappily, their influence in the councils of the kingdom is by no means inconsiderable.  The prestige of an ancient family, the obsequious deference paid in England to exalted social position, and the power of patronage, all combine to confer on the Chestertons a commanding and controlling authority absurdly out of proportion to their intrinsic ability.

There has been a prevalent notion in this country that England was slowly, but certainly, tending towards a more democratic form of government, and a more equal and equitable distribution of power among the different orders of society.  This is very far from being the case.  It has been well said, that “it is always considered a piece of impertinence in England, if a man of less than two or three thousand a year has any opinions at all upon important subjects.”  But if this income is quadrupled, and the high honor of a seat in the House of Lords is superadded, it is not difficult to understand that the titled recipient