A patent of English nobility confers both a title and political power; among other powers the power of voting on the making or repealing of all laws; and the noble may vote whether he is present or absent, whether he knows what he is voting about, or does not. [PEERS.] A man also votes, whether he is competent by talent and education to judge of the matter on which he votes, or whether he is not competent. The English nobility in fact exercise a power analogous to that of the crown, and the power goes by descent so long as there are heirs to whom it can descend. The order how ever is always receiving new vigour by the fresh creations, which bring into it new men (novi homines), who are gene rally among the most active members of the House of Lords. The sons of peers also frequently serve a kind of apprenticeship to political life, by obtaining seats in the House of Commons, where they become well acquainted with the business of ad ministration. Many of them in this manner obtain as just views of the gene ral interest, and are as well disposed to promote it, as any member whom the peo ple may send to the House of Commons. This discipline which a peer may receive and often does receive in the House of Commons, and the introduction of new members into the English nobility out of the body of the people, are the two elements which have secured to the peers of England the power which they possess. Without this renovating process the poli tical power of the English nobility would long since have died a natural death, or have been destroyed. The popular cha racter of the English nobility is clearly shown by an examination into the titles of those who compose that body. Few of the old baronial families are now found among the nobles of England : the great mass are not a century and a half old, and a very great number do not go back half a century ; a large part of them have sprung from men who were raised to nobility from low estate, for some great public service real or supposed, or for various other reasons, of which the politi cal history of England readily supplies instances. There are many untitled fami lies in England that have much higher claims to antiquity and illustrious descent, than one-half of the modern nobility.
When nobility is merely a title, it is a cheap mode of rewarding public services or conferring an honour as a favour. But such titles of honour are inconsistent with any form of government where there is not a king or other person with some like title at the head of the State. When nobility also confers political power, which is transmitted by hereditary de scent, there is no other way of conferring it except by the gift of one who is at the head of the State by hereditary de scent. The creation of a noble is a thing that cannot be conceived except under a form of government in which there is an hereditary head. Nobility may be and is conferred in England, both where the honour is deserved and where it is unde served. But as the gift is not for life only, but is a descendible honour, if the first possessor of the honour should be willing to purchase it by unworthy means or should be undeserving of it, he who succeeds him in the honour may show himself more deserving of it, and may be an independent man. The crown ou the whole cannot secure partizans by new creations. But in fact the crown has now no opposing interests to those of the nation : the king enjoys ample respect and an ample allowance to maintain the splendour of his exalted station; the prerogative is well ascertained, and the exercise of the royal authority, by the agency of responsible ministers, is kept within well-defined limits. The king of
the British Empire is now not the mere head of a body of feudal nobles; he is the first person in rank of many millions of wealthy and industrious persons, who by their representatives share with him and the peers of the resins the most important of the functions of government, and possess an almost unlimited control over the grant and application of money for public purposes. The English nobles still possess great political power, and they have interests, real or supposed, which are adverse to those of the body out of which mast of them have sprung. To weigh with fairness in opposite scales the evil and the good that we now owe to the existence of this order, as a political body, would require a coolness of judgment and a degree of political discrimination which belong to few men. In forming such an estimate, the exclusive advantages, real and imaginary. which the order enjoys, must be left out; for in calculating the national value of any privilege given to a small number, such as patent privileges for invention, by way of instance, we do not estimate what the privileged indi viduals will get by the privilege, but what advantage the whole nation will get by it. If there were no general ad vantages derived from the grant of an exclusive privilege, there would be no reason for granting it or continuing it.
Nobility, which consists merely in title and certain claims of precedence and so forth, must be distinguished from Nobility which is accompanied with political pri vileges. There may be nobility without political privileges, as in the case of Scotch and Irish peers who are not peers of the realm; and there may be members of the House of Lords, who are not peers of the realm, and only sit in the House of Lords for life, as the representative peers of Ireland, an.: the bishops and arch bishops of England ; and of persons who sit for certain periods. as the representa tive peers of Scotland, and the bishops and archbishops of Ireland, who sit ac cording to a certain established cycle. The members of the Lords' House thus consist of persons who are entitled to sit there by hereditary claim, of persons who are elected by their own peers, and of persons who are nominated by the crown to places which give them a seat for life or for certain periods.
There are modern communities such as the United States of North America, in which there is and can be no nobility in any respect resembling that of Europe. Wealth of course gives some influence and importance to the possessor, but it is also an object of jealousy, which must always be the case, more particularly in demo cratic constitutions. Office, so long as it is held, gives greater distinction than wealth; but office is only held for a short time, and wealth, although it may be ac quired by an individual, is seldom trans mitted to a single person, but is usually distributed in moderate or small portions among several persons. Thus it has been observed. that in the United States a family seldom maintains any great wealth or importance for more than two genera tions. Names which have been made illustrious by an individual are remem bered only because of him who first ele vated them to distinction, and the de scendants of the wealthy lose with their wealth the remnant of that importance which their ancestor acquired. Thus one family of distinction after another sinks into obscurity, and its place is soon filled by a name before unknown.