on them till sinecures and
sinecurists drop into the dust. Shall such creatures disturb the
equanimity of the magnanimous working-classes of England? True to
themselves in life's great relations, they need not grudge, for a little
while longer, the paupers a few paltry pence out of their earnings; for
they know a sure and silent deathblow has been struck against that order
of things by the sense of the land, and that all who receive wages must
henceforth give work. All along that has been the rule--these are the
exceptions; or say, that has been the law--these are its revolutions.
Let there be high rewards, and none grudge them--in honour and gold--for
high work. And men of high talents--never extinct--will reach up their
hands and seize them, amidst the acclamations of a people who have ever
taken pride in a great ambition. If the competition is to be in future
more open than ever, to know it is so will rejoice the souls of all who
are not slaves. But clear the course! Let not the crowd rush in--for by
doing so, they will bring down the racers, and be themselves trampled to
death.

Now we say that the race is--if not always--ninety-nine times in a
hundred--to the swift, and the battle to the strong. We may have been
fortunate in our naval and military friends; but we cannot charge our
memory with a single consummate ass holding a distinguished rank in
either service. That such consummate asses are in both, we have been
credibly informed, and believe it; and we have sometimes almost imagined
that we heard their bray at no great distance, and the flapping of their
ears. Poor creatures enough do rise by seniority or purchase, or if
anybody know how else, we do not; and such will be the case to the end
of the chapter of human accidents. But merit not only makes the man, but
the officer on shore and at sea. They are as noble and discontented a
set of fellows all, as ever boarded or stormed; and they will continue
so, not till some change in the Admiralty, or at the Horse-guards, for
Sir James Graham does his duty, and so does Lord Hill; but till a change
in humanity, for 'tis no more than Adam did, and we attribute whatever
may be amiss or awry, chiefly to the Fall. Let the Radicals set poor
human nature on her legs again, and what would become of _them_? In the
French service there is no rising at all, it seems, but by merit; but
there is also much running away; not in a disgraceful style, for our
natural enemies and arti