this source under the influences of our constitution, and of our
astonishing trade, it has diffused itself in different modifications
through the whole country. The uniformity of our dress among all
classes above that of the day labourer, while it has authorised all
classes to assume the appearance of gentlemen, has at the same time
inspired the wish to conform their manners, and still more their
ordinary actions in social intercourse, to their notions of the
gentlemanly, the most commonly received attribute of which character
is a certain generosity in trifles. On the other hand, the
encroachments of the lower classes on the higher, occasioned, and
favoured by this resemblance in exteriors, by this absence of any
cognisable marks of distinction, have rendered each class more
reserved and jealous in their general communion, and far more than
our climate, or natural temper, have caused that haughtiness and
reserve in our outward demeanour, which is so generally complained of
among foreigners. Far be it from me to depreciate the value of this
gentlemanly feeling: I respect it under all its forms and varieties,
from the House of Commons to the gentleman in the shilling gallery.
It is always the ornament of virtue, and oftentimes a support; but it
is a wretched substitute for it. Its worth, as a moral good, is by
no means in proportion to its value, as a social advantage. These
observations are not irrelevant; for to the want of reflection, that
this diffusion of gentlemanly feeling among us is not the growth of
our moral excellence, but the effect of various accidental advantages
peculiar to England; to our not considering that it is unreasonable
and uncharitable to expect the same consequences, where the same
causes have not existed to produce them; and, lastly, to our
proneness to regard the absence of this character (which, as I have
before said, does, for the greater part, and, in the common
apprehension, consist in a certain frankness and generosity in the