To form a due conception of
the "upper classes" here, suppose all the natives of France annihilated,
and the whole country belonging to the English residents of Boulogne.
In that case, there would be an almost perfect resemblance between those
Englishmen who, across a narrow channel, can see their own country, and
those who, at its antipodes look upon the Pacific Ocean.
_Society and Manners_.
As in France, the first class call themselves "gens comme il faut;" and
in England, "people of fashion," or "the world"--so here, the leaders
of society are distinguished by a peculiar term. They are called
"respectable." Not to speak of France, it is difficult to say what in
England constitutes "fashion." Not high birth, certainly--for some of
the despots of English society are sprung from the dunghill. Our epithet
to express exclusiveness is, I think better chosen--for, though strictly
speaking, it means worthy of respect, it is claimed, here, only by those
to whom respect is paid. In England, the _Quarterly Review_ tells us,
"respectability" sometimes means keeping a gig--here it always means
dining with the governor.
Our manners set the fashion. Those whom we exclude, exclude others.
Free emigrants claim to be of a nature superior to convicts; convicts,
whose terms of punishment have expired, behave as if their flesh and
blood were wholly unlike that of convicts still in durance; convicts,
who have not been convicted south of the line, scorn those who have;
and these several classes, except the last, are as proud and tenacious
of their privileges as is every distinctive class in England, except
the unhappy lowest; or, as is every shade of colour in the West Indies
except the perfect black.
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