Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems
On the whole, what a beautiful Establishment here fitted up for the
accommodation of the scoundrel-world, male and female! As I said, no
Duke in England is, for all rational purposes which a human being can
or ought to aim at, lodged, fed, tended, taken care of, with such
perfection. Of poor craftsmen that pay rates and taxes from their day's
wages, of the dim millions that toil and moil continually under the
sun, we know what is the lodging and the tending. Of the Johnsons,
Goldsmiths, lodged in their squalid garrets; working often enough amid
famine, darkness, tumult, dust and desolation, what work _they_ have
to do:--of these as of "spiritual backwoodsmen," understood to be
preappointed to such a life, and like the pigs to killing, "quite used
to it," I say nothing. But of Dukes, which Duke, I could ask, has cocoa,
soup, meat, and food in general made ready, so fit for keeping him
in health, in ability to do and to enjoy? Which Duke has a house so
thoroughly clean, pure and airy; lives in an element so wholesome, and
perfectly adapted to the uses of soul and body as this same, which is
provided here for the Devil's regiments of the line? No Duke that I
have ever known. Dukes are waited on by deleterious French cooks,
by perfunctory grooms of the chambers, and expensive crowds of
eye-servants, more imaginary than real: while here, Science, Human
Intellect and Beneficence have searched and sat studious, eager to do
their very best; they have chosen a real Artist in Governing to see
their best, in all details of it, done. Happy regiments of the line,
what soldier to any earthly or celestial Power has such a lodging and
attendance as you here? No soldier or servant direct or indirect of
God or of man, in this England at present. Joy to you, regiments of the
line. Your Master, I am told, has his Elect, and professes to be "Prince
of the Kingdoms of this World;" and truly I see he has power to do a
good turn to those he loves, in England at least. Shall we say, May
_he_, may the Devil give you good of it, ye Elect of Scoundrelism? I
will rather pass by, uttering no prayer at all; musing rather in silence
on the singular "worship of God," or practical "reverence done to
Human Worth" (which is the outcome and essence of all real "worship"
whatsoever) among the Posterity of Adam at this day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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