s greatly influenced and
almost ruled Zenobia, the wife of the minister was careful always to
acknowledge the Queen of Fashion as her suzerain.

The great world then, compared with the huge society of the present
period, was limited in its proportions, and composed of elements more
refined though far less various. It consisted mainly of the great landed
aristocracy, who had quite absorbed the nabobs of India, and had nearly
appropriated the huge West Indian fortunes. Occasionally, an eminent
banker or merchant invested a large portion of his accumulations in
land, and in the purchase of parliamentary influence, and was in
time duly admitted into the sanctuary. But those vast and successful
invasions of society by new classes which have since occurred, though
impending, had not yet commenced. The manufacturers, the railway kings,
the colossal contractors, the discoverers of nuggets, had not yet found
their place in society and the senate. There were then, perhaps, more
great houses open than at the present day, but there were very few
little ones. The necessity of providing regular occasions for the
assembling of the miscellaneous world of fashion led to the institution
of Almack's, which died out in the advent of the new system of
society, and in the fierce competition of its inexhaustible private
entertainments.

The season then was brilliant and sustained, but it was not flurried.
People did not go to various parties on the same night. They remained
where they were assembled, and, not being in a hurry, were more
agreeable than they are at the present day. Conversation was more
cultivated; manners, though unconstrained, were more stately; and the
world, being limited, knew itself much better. On the other hand, the
sympathies of society were more contracted than they are at present.
The pressure of population had not opened the heart of man. The world
attended to its poor in its country parishes, and subscribed and danced
for the Spitalfields weavers when their normal distress had overflowed,
but their knowledge of the people did not exceed these bounds, and the
people knew very little more about themselves. They were only half born.

The darkest hour precedes the dawn, and a period of unusual stillness
often, perhaps usually, heralds the social convulsion. At this moment
the general tranquillity and even content were remarkable. In politics
the Whigs were quite prepared to extend to the Duke the same provisional
co