a man of letters,
and on no other title. As to the moneyed men, whilst the monarchy
continued, there is no doubt, that, merely as such, they did not enjoy
the _privileges_ of nobility; but nobility was of so easy an
acquisition, that it was the fault or neglect of all of that description
who did not obtain its privileges, for their lives at least, in virtue
of office. It attached under the royal government to an innumerable
multitude of places, real and nominal, that were vendible; and such
nobility were as capable of everything as their degree of influence or
interest could make them,--that is, as nobility of no considerable rank
or consequence. M. Necker, so far from being a French gentleman, was not
so much as a Frenchman born, and yet we all know the rank in which he
stood on the day of the meeting of the States.

[Sidenote: Mercantile interest.]

As to the mere matter of estimation of the mercantile or any other
class, this is regulated by opinion and prejudice. In England, a
security against the envy of men in these classes is not so very
complete as we may imagine. We must not impose upon ourselves. What
institutions and manners together had done in France manners alone do
here. It is the natural operation of things, where there exists a crown,
a court, splendid orders of knighthood, and an hereditary
nobility,--where there exists a fixed, permanent, landed gentry,
continued in greatness and opulence by the law of primogeniture, and by
a protection given to family settlements,--where there exists a standing
army and navy,--where there exists a Church establishment, which bestows
on learning and parts an interest combined with that of religion and the
state;--in a country where such things exist, wealth, new in its
acquisition, and precarious in its duration, can never rank first, or
even near the first: though wealth has its natural weight further than
as it is balanced and even preponderated amongst us, as amongst other
nations, by artificial institutions and opinions growing out of them. At
no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of
trade or from families newly created by commerce. In no period has so
small a number of noble families entered into the counting-house. I can
call to mind but one in all England, and his is of near fifty years'
standing. Be that as it may, it appears plain to me, from my best
observation, that envy and ambition may, by art, management, and
disposition