THE ANCIEN REGIME(古兵团)

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THE ANCIEN REGIME

by Charles Kingsley

THE ANCIEN REGIME

PREFACE

The rules of the Royal Institution forbid (and wisely) religious or

political controversy. It was therefore impossible for me in these

Lectures, to say much which had to be said, in drawing a just and

complete picture of the Ancien Regime in France. The passages inserted

between brackets, which bear on religious matters, were accordingly not

spoken at the Royal Institution.

But more. It was impossible for me in these Lectures, to bring

forward as fully as I could have wished, the contrast between the

continental nations and England, whether now, or during the eighteenth

century. But that contrast cannot be too carefully studied at the present

moment. In proportion as it is seen and understood, will the fear of

revolution (if such exists) die out among the wealthier classes; and the

wish for it (if such exists) among the poorer; and a large extension of the

suffrage will be looked on as--what it actually is--a safe and harmless

concession to the wishes--and, as I hold, to the just rights--of large portion

of the British nation.

There exists in Britain now, as far as I can see, no one of those evils

which brought about the French Revolution. There is no widespread

misery, and therefore no widespread discontent, among the classes who

live by hand-labour. The legislation of the last generation has been

steadily in favour of the poor, as against the rich; and it is even more true

now than it was in 1789, that--as Arthur Young told the French mob which

stopped his carriage--the rich pay many taxes (over and above the poor-

rates, a direct tax on the capitalist in favour of the labourer) more than are

paid by the poor. "In England" (says M. de Tocqueville of even the

eighteenth century) "the poor man enjoyed the privilege of exemption

from taxation; in France, the rich." Equality before the law is as well-

nigh complete as it can be, where some are rich and others poor; and the

only privileged class, it sometimes seems to me, is the pauper, who has

neither the responsibility of self-government, nor the toil of self-support.

THE ANCIEN REGIME

A minority of malcontents, some justly, some unjustly, angry with the

present state of things, will always exist in this world. But a majority of

malcontents we shall never have, as long as the workmen are allowed to

keep untouched and unthreatened their rights of free speech, free public

meeting, free combination for all purposes which do not provoke a breach

of the peace. There may be (and probably are) to be found in London

and the large towns, some of those revolutionary propagandists who have

terrified and tormented continental statesmen since the year 1815. But

they are far fewer in number than in 1848; far fewer still (I believe) than in

1831; and their habits, notions, temper, whole mental organisation, is so

utterly alien to that of the average Englishman, that it is only the sense of

wrong which can make him take counsel with them, or make common

cause with them. Meanwhile, every man who is admitted to a vote, is

one more person withdrawn from the temptation to disloyalty, and enlisted

in maintaining the powers that be--when they are in the wrong, as well as

when they are in the right. For every Englishman is by his nature

conservative; slow to form an opinion; cautious in putting it into effect;

patient under evils which seem irremediable; persevering in abolishing

such as seem remediable; and then only too ready to acquiesce in the

earliest practical result; to "rest and be thankful." His faults, as well as

his virtues, make him anti-revolutionary. He is generally too dull to take

in a great idea; and if he does take it in, often too selfish to apply it to any

interest save his own. But now and then, when the sense of actual injury

forces upon him a great idea, like that of Free-trade or of Parliamentary

Reform, he is indomitable, however slow and patient, in translating his

thought into fact: and they will not be wise statesmen who resist his

dogged determination. If at this moment he demands an extension of the

suffrage eagerly and even violently, the wise statesman will give at once,

gracefully and generously, what the Englishman will certainly obtain one

day, if he has set his mind upon it. If, on the other hand, he asks for it

calmly, then the wise statesman (instead of mistaking English reticence for

apathy) will listen to his wishes all the more readily; seeing in the

moderation of the demand, the best possible guarantee for moderation in

the use of the thing demanded.

THE ANCIEN REGIME

And, be it always remembered, that in introducing these men into the

"balance of the Constitution," we introduce no unknown quantity.

Statesmen ought to know them, if they know themselves; to judge what

the working man would do by what they do themselves. He who imputes

virtues to his own class imputes them also to the labouring class. He who

imputes vices to the labouring class, imputes them to his own class. For

both are not only of the same flesh and blood, but, what is infinitely more

important, of the same spirit; of the same race; in innumerable cases, of

the same ancestors. For centuries past the most able of these men have

been working upwards into the middle class, and through it, often, to the

highest dignities, and the highest family connections; and the whole nation

knows how they have comported themselves therein. And, by a reverse

process (of which the physiognomist and genealogist can give abundant

proof), the weaker members of that class which was dominant during the

Middle Age have been sinking downward, often to the rank of mere day-

labourers, and carrying downward with them--sometimes in a very tragical

and pathetic fashion--somewhat of the dignity and the refinement which

they had learnt from their ancestors.

Thus has the English nation (and as far as I can see, the Scotch

likewise) become more homogeneous than any nation of the Continent, if

we except France since the extermination of the Frankish nobility. And

for that very reason, as it seems to me, it is more fitted than any other

European nation for the exercise of equal political rights; and not to be

debarred of them by arguments drawn from countries which have been

governed--as England has not been--by a caste.

The civilisation, not of mere book-learning, but of the heart; all that

was once meant by "manners"--good breeding, high feeling, respect for

self and respect for others--are just as common (as far as I have seen)

among the hand-workers of England and Scotland, as among any other

class; the only difference is, that these qualities develop more early in the

richer classes, owing to that severe discipline of our public schools, which

makes mere lads often fit to govern, because they have learnt to obey:

while they develop later- -generally not till middle age--in the classes who

have not gone through in their youth that Spartan training, and who indeed

THE ANCIEN REGIME

(from a mistaken conception of liberty) would not endure it for a day.

This and other social drawbacks which are but too patent, retard the

manhood of the working classes. That it should be so, is a wrong. For if

a citizen have one right above all others to demand anything of his country,

it is that he should be educated; that whatever capabilities he may have in

him, however small, should have their fair and full chance of development.

But the cause of the wrong is not the existence of a caste, or a privileged

class, or of anything save the plain fact, that some men will be always able

to pay more for their children's education than others; and that those

children will, inevitably, win in the struggle of life.

Meanwhile, in this fact is to be found the most weighty, if not the only

argument against manhood suffrage, which would admit many--but too

many, alas!--who are still mere boys in mind. To a reasonable household

suffrage it cannot apply. The man who (being almost certainly married,

and having children) can afford to rent a 5 pound tenement in a town, or in

the country either, has seen quite enough of life, and learnt quite enough of

it, to form a very fair judgment of the man who offers to represent him in

Parliament; because he has learnt, not merely something of his own

interest, or that of his class, but--what is infinitely more important--the

difference between the pretender and the honest man.

The causes of this state of society, which is peculiar to Britain, must be

sought far back in the ages. It would seem that the distinction between

"earl and churl" (the noble and the non-noble freeman) was crushed out in

this island by the two Norman conquests- -that of the Anglo-Saxon

nobility by Sweyn and Canute; and that of the Anglo-Danish nobility by

William and his Frenchmen. Those two terrible calamities, following

each other in the short space of fifty years, seem to have welded together,

by a community of suffering, all ranks and races, at least south of the

Tweed; and when the English rose after the storm, they rose as one

homogeneous people, never to be governed again by an originally alien

race. The English nobility were, from the time of Magna Charta, rather

an official nobility, than, as in most continental countries, a separate caste;

and whatever caste tendencies had developed themselves before the Wars

of the Roses (as such are certain to do during centuries of continued

THE ANCIEN REGIME

wealth and power), were crushed out by the great revolutionary events of

the next hundred years. Especially did the discovery of the New World,

the maritime struggle with Spain, the outburst of commerce and

colonisation during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, help toward this

good result. It was in vain for the Lord Oxford of the day, sneering at

Raleigh's sudden elevation, to complain that as on the virginals, so in the

State, "Jacks went up, and heads went down." The proudest noblemen

were not ashamed to have their ventures on the high seas, and to send their

younger sons trading, or buccaneering, under the conduct of low-born men

like Drake, who "would like to see the gentleman that would not set his

hand to a rope, and hale and draw with the mariners." Thus sprang up

that respect for, even fondness for, severe bodily labour, which the

educated class of no nation save our own has ever felt; and which has

stood them in such good stead, whether at home or abroad. Thus, too,

sprang up the system of society by which (as the ballad sets forth) the

squire's son might be a "'prentice good," and marry

"The bailiff's daughter dear That dwelt at Islington,"

without tarnishing, as he would have done on the Continent, the

scutcheon of his ancestors. That which has saved England from a central

despotism, such as crushed, during the eighteenth century, every nation on

the Continent, is the very same peculiarity which makes the advent of the

masses to a share in political power safe and harmless; namely, the

absence of caste, or rather (for there is sure to be a moral fact underlying

and causing every political fact) the absence of that wicked pride which

perpetuates caste; forbidding those to intermarry whom nature and fact

pronounce to be fit mates before God and man.

These views are not mine only. They have been already set forth so

much more forcibly by M. de Tocqueville, that I should have thought it

unnecessary to talk about them, were not the rhetorical phrases, "Caste,"

"Privileged Classes," "Aristocratic Exclusiveness," and such-like, bandied

about again just now, as if they represented facts. If there remain in this

kingdom any facts which correspond to those words, let them be abolished

as speedily as possible: but that such do remain was not the opinion of

the master of modern political philosophy, M. de Tocqueville.

THE ANCIEN REGIME

He expresses his surprise "that the fact which distinguishes England

from all other modern nations, and which alone can throw light on her

peculiarities, . . . has not attracted more attention, . . . and that habit has

rendered it, as it were, imperceptible to the English themselves--that

England was the only country in which the system of caste had been not

only modified, but effectually destroyed. The nobility and the middle

classes followed the same business, embraced the same professions, and,

what is far more significant, intermarried with each other. The daughter

of the greatest nobleman" (and this, if true of the eighteenth century, has

become far more true of the nineteenth) "could already, without disgrace,

marry a man of yesterday." . . .

"It has often been remarked that the English nobility has been more

prudent, more able, and less exclusive than any other. It would have

been much nearer the truth to say, that in England, for a very long time

past, no nobility, properly so called, have existed, if we take the word in

the ancient and limited sense it has everywhere else retained." . . .

"For several centuries the word 'gentleman'" (he might have added,

"burgess") "has altogether changed its meaning in England; and the word

'roturier' has ceased to exist. In each succeeding century it is applied to

persons placed somewhat lower in the social scale" (as the "bagman" of

Pickwick has become, and has deserved to become, the "commercial

gentleman" of our day). "At length it travelled with the English to

America, where it is used to designate every citizen indiscriminately. Its

history is that of democracy itself." . . .

"If the middle classes of England, instead of making war upon the

aristocracy, have remained so intimately connected with it, it is not

especially because the aristocracy is open to all, but rather, because its

outline was indistinct, and its limit unknown: not so much because any

man might be admitted into it, as because it was impossible to say with

certainty when he took rank there: so that all who approached it might

look on themselves as belonging to it; might take part in its rule, and

derive either lustre or profit from its influence."

Just so; and therefore the middle classes of Britain, of whatever their

special political party, are conservative in the best sense of that word.

THE ANCIEN REGIME

For there are not three, but only two, classes in England; namely, rich

and poor: those who live by capital (from the wealthiest landlord to the

smallest village shopkeeper); and those who live by hand-labour.

Whether the division between those two classes is increasing or not, is a

very serious question. Continued legislation in favour of the hand-

labourer, and a beneficence towards him, when in need, such as no other

nation on earth has ever shown, have done much to abolish the moral

division. But the social division has surely been increased during the last

half century, by the inevitable tendency, both in commerce and agriculture,

to employ one large capital, where several small ones would have been

employed a century ago. The large manufactory, the large shop, the large

estate, the large farm, swallows up the small ones. The yeoman, the

thrifty squatter who could work at two or three trades as well as till his

patch of moor, the hand-loom weaver, the skilled village craftsman, have

all but disappeared. The handworker, finding it more and more difficult

to invest his savings, has been more and more tempted to squander them.

To rise to the dignity of a capitalist, however small, was growing

impossible to him, till the rise of that co-operative movement, which will

do more than any social or political impulse in our day for the safety of

English society, and the loyalty of the English working classes. And

meanwhile--ere that movement shall have spread throughout the length

and breadth of the land, and have been applied, as it surely will be some

day, not only to distribution, not only to manufacture, but to agriculture

likewise--till then, the best judges of the working men's worth must be

their employers; and especially the employers of the northern

manufacturing population. What their judgment is, is sufficiently

notorious. Those who depend most on the working men, who have the

best opportunities of knowing them, trust them most thoroughly. As long

as great manufacturers stand forward as the political sponsors of their own

workmen, it behoves those who cannot have had their experience, to

consider their opinion as conclusive. As for that "influence of the higher

classes" which is said to be endangered just now; it will exist, just as much

as it deserves to exist. Any man who is superior to the many, whether in

talents, education, refinement, wealth, or anything else, will always be

THE ANCIEN REGIME

able to influence a number of men--and if he thinks it worth his while, of

votes--by just and lawful means. And as for unjust and unlawful means,

let those who prefer them keep up heart. The world will go on much as it

did before; and be always quite bad enough to allow bribery and

corruption, jobbery and nepotism, quackery and arrogance, their full

influence over our home and foreign policy. An extension of the suffrage,

however wide, will not bring about the millennium. It will merely make

a large number of Englishmen contented and loyal, instead of discontented

and disloyal. It may make, too, the educated and wealthy classes wiser

by awakening a wholesome fear--perhaps, it may be, by awakening a

chivalrous emulation. It may put the younger men of the present

aristocracy upon their mettle, and stir them up to prove that they are not in

the same effete condition as was the French noblesse in 1789. It may

lead them to take the warnings which have been addressed to them, for the

last thirty years, by their truest friends--often by kinsmen of their own. It

may lead them to ask themselves why, in a world which is governed by a

just God, such great power as is palpably theirs at present is entrusted to

them, save that they may do more work, and not less, than other men,

under the penalties pronounced against those to whom much is given, and

of whom much is required. It may lead them to discover that they are in

a world where it is not safe to sit under the tree, and let the ripe fruit drop

into your mouth; where the "competition of species" works with ruthless

energy among all ranks of being, from kings upon their thrones to the

weeds upon the waste; where "he that is not hammer, is sure to be anvil;"

and he who will not work, neither shall he eat. It may lead them to

devote that energy (in which they surpass so far the continental

aristocracies) to something better than outdoor amusements or indoor

dilettantisms. There are those among them who, like one section of the

old French noblesse, content themselves with mere complaints of "the

revolutionary tendencies of the age." Let them beware in time; for when

the many are on the march, the few who stand still are certain to be walked

over. There are those among them who, like another section of the

French noblesse, are ready, more generously than wisely, to throw away

their own social and political advantages, and play (for it will never be

THE ANCIEN REGIME

really more than playing) at democracy. Let them, too, beware. The

penknife and the axe should respect each other; for they were wrought

from the same steel: but the penknife will not be wise in trying to fell

trees. Let them accept their own position, not in conceit and arrogance,

but in fear and trembling; and see if they cannot play the man therein, and

save their own class; and with it, much which it has needed many

centuries to accumulate and to organise, and without which no nation has

yet existed for a single century. They are no more like the old French

noblesse, than are the commercial class like the old French bourgeoisie, or

the labouring like the old French peasantry. Let them prove that fact by

their deeds during the next generation; or sink into the condition of mere

rich men, exciting, by their luxury and laziness, nothing but envy and

contempt.

Meanwhile, behind all classes and social forces--I had almost said,

above them all--stands a fourth estate, which will, ultimately, decide the

form which English society is to take: a Press as different from the

literary class of the Ancien Regime as is everything else English; and

different in this--that it is free.

The French Revolution, like every revolution (it seems to me) which

has convulsed the nations of Europe for the last eighty years, was caused

immediately--whatever may have been its more remote causes-- by the

suppression of thought; or, at least, by a sense of wrong among those who

thought. A country where every man, be he fool or wise, is free to speak

that which is in him, can never suffer a revolution. The folly blows itself

off like steam, in harmless noise; the wisdom becomes part of the general

intellectual stock of the nation, and prepares men for gradual, and

therefore for harmless, change.

As long as the press is free, a nation is guaranteed against sudden and

capricious folly, either from above or from below. As long as the press is

free, a nation is guaranteed against the worse evil of persistent and

obstinate folly, cloaking itself under the venerable shapes of tradition and

authority. For under a free press, a nation must ultimately be guided not

by a caste, not by a class, not by mere wealth, not by the passions of a mob:

but by mind; by the net result of all the common-sense of its members; and

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