-a system which
stops and paralyzes any power in interfering with the free action of
individuals.... As Feudalism, which with its ideas and habits of
subordination was for many centuries behind the British Constitution,
dies out, and we are left with nothing but our system of checks, and
our notion of its being the great right and happiness of an Englishman
to do as far as possible what he likes, we are in danger of drifting
towards Anarchy." Aristocracy, according to Arnold, who strangely
mingled admiration of it with contempt, had been doing what it liked
from time immemorial. It had enjoyed all the good things of life--great
station, great wealth, great power--with a comfortable assurance that
they belonged to it by divine right. It had governed England with credit
to itself and benefit to the country. As Lord Beaconsfield said, it was
only because a Whig Minister wished to curry favour with the populace,
that an Earl who had committed a murder was hanged.

The Middle Class also, had, at any rate, since the Reform Act of 1832,
"done what it liked," in a style not quite so grand but excessively
comfortable and self-satisfied. It had carried some great reforms on
which it had set its heart. It had established, enormously to its
profit, Free Trade, and it had accumulated vast wealth. Its maxim had
been--"Every man for himself in business, every man for himself in
religion,"--and the devil take the hindmost.

But _now_, said Arnold, _is the judgment of this world_. The Aristocracy
and the Middle Class had come to an end of their reign. A "tide of
secret dissatisfaction had mined the ground under the self-confident
Liberalism of the last thirty years (1839-1869) and had prepared the way
for its sudden collapse and supersession." So far, the young Liberals
and Radicals of the day did not disagree. They liked this doctrine, and
had preached it; but from this point they and their new Teacher parted
company. The working-man was now enfranchised; and of the
newly-enfranchised working-man, or at least of some of the most
conspicuous representatives of his class, Arnold had a curious dread.
"His apparition is somewhat embarrassing; because, while the
Aristocratic and Middle Classes have long been doing as they like with
great vigour, he has been too undeveloped and too submissive hitherto to
join in the game; and now, when he does come, he comes in immense
numbers, and is rather raw and rough."

The dread of the working-men,