It is by their
personal uninsistence largely, no doubt, that the monarchy and
the aristocracy exist; the figures of the faery dream remain
blent with the background, and appear from it only when required
to lay cornerstones, or preside at races, or teas or bazars, or
to represent the masses at home and abroad, and invisibly hold
the viewless reins of government.
Yet it must not be supposed that the commoner sort of dreamers
are never jealous of these figments of their fancy. They are
often so, and rouse themselves to self-assertion as frequently as
our Better Element flings off the yoke of Tammany. At a fair,
open to any who would pay, for some forgotten good object, such
as is always engaging the energies of society, I saw moving among
the paying guests the tall form of a nobleman who had somehow
made himself so distasteful to his neighbors that they were not
his friends, and regularly voted down his men, whether they stood
for Parliament or County Council, and whether they were better
than the popular choice or not.
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