vantages of the hereditary principle; the point
that I desire to make is that at any given time American society,
instead of being truncated and headless, has the equivalent of an
aristocracy, whether the first, second, third, or fifth generation of
nobility, just as abundant and complete as if it were properly labelled
and classified into Dukes, Marquises, Viscounts, and the rest. And this
aristocracy is quite independent of any social _cachet_, whether of the
New York Four Hundred or of any other authority.

It is a commonly accepted maxim among thoughtful Americans that the
United States Senate is as much superior to the House of Lords as the
House of Representatives is inferior to the House of Commons. One may,
or may not, agree with that dictum; but it is worth noticing that, in
the opinion of Americans themselves, it is, at least, not by comparison
with the hereditary aristocracy that they show to any disadvantage.

Nor need one accept the opinion (in which many eminent Englishmen
coincide with the universal American belief) that the United States
Supreme Court is the ablest as well as the greatest judicial tribunal in
the world. But when one looks at the membership of that Court and at the
majority of the members of the Senate (especially those members from the
older States which hold to some tradition of fixity of tenure), when one
sees the men who constitute the Cabinets of successive Presidents and
those who fill the more distinguished diplomatic posts, when, further,
one becomes acquainted with the class of men from which, all over the
country, the presidents and attorneys of the great railway corporations
and banks and similar institutions are drawn (all of which offices, it
will be noticed, with the exception of the senatorships, are filled by
nomination or appointment and not by popular election)--when one looks
at, sees, and becomes acquainted with all these, he will begin to
correct his impressions as to the non-existence of an American
aristocracy which, though innocent of heraldry, can fairly be matched
against the British.

* * * * *

The average Englishman looks at America and sees a people wherein there
is no recognised aristocracy nor any titles. Also he sees that it is,
through all its classes, a commercial people, immersed in business.
Therefore he concludes that it is similar to what the English people
would be if cut off at the top of the classes engaged in bus