carry with them similar ideas, is owing to the prevailing notion that there cannot be a nobility unless it has the same outward insignia and like privileges with the nobility of Europe, especially that of England. But it ought to be recollected that the nobility of no two countries have precisely the same privileges, and that great varieties of names are used to designate the different orders. The most highly privileged class of the ancient Spanish nobility had no higher title than that of ricos hombres, or rich men, and hidalgo means nothing more, or originally meant nothing more, than son of a rich man.

No privileged order in the United States! What privilege can be greater in a country where credit is every thing, than the privilege of completely controlling that credit-taking it from one man-giving it to another-increasing it here-diminishing it there?

No nobility in the United States! What prerogative of the European nobility is equal to that of coining money out of paper?

The nature of the case is not altered by the fact that these privileges are shared among some thousands of men. Our American nobility are, after all, not much more numerous, in proportion to population, than the nobility of some of the smaller States of Germany.

Neither is the nature of the case altered by the fact that every man who has money enough may purchase a share in these privileges. Just so it was in France previous to the terrible revolution in that country, and in England in the corrupt reign of Charles the First. Patents (i. e. charters) of nobility were then openly sold to those who wished to buy them, and had money enough to make the purchase, just as charters of banking corporations (i. e. patents of nobility) are sold by our State Legislatures.

Titles are nothing. Stars, garters, and coronets are nothing. Even the English nobility look on these as mere bawbles. Privilege is every thing. And in a country and in an age like ours, what privileges can be greater than those of coining money out of paper, and of not paying debts, except in such way, and to such extent, as may be perfectly convenient to the privileged order? Such privileges as our American nobles enjoy, were, in ancient times, accounted branches of the Royal prerogative.

We have not only the most numerous nobility of any country in the world, but perhaps the most powerful. The privileges of the nobility of other lands are limited by laws, and the King on the one hand, and the people on the other, see that these laws are not transcended. Laws made to restrain our American nobles, have hitherto been found to be but little better than cobwebs. If a case comes before a Court involving any of the fundamental principles of this system, the boasted "independence of the Judiciary" is soon found to be mere independence of common sense and common justice. And when infractions of the law by any great number of banks are so glaring that even "judicial blindness" can be blind no longer, the State Legislatures are forthwith convened to shelter the transgressors from the penalties they have incurred.

We have, indeed, a privileged order, a numerous privileged order, a most powerful privileged order, and the only kind of privileged order which can, in the nature of things, exist in the United States. Where the supply of land greatly exceeds the demand for cultivation, it is impossible to have a landed nobility, unless the tillers of the soil can be reduced to the condition of serfs, and chained to certain estates, as in Russia. This is impossible with us, and, therefore, it is impossible for us to have a landed nobility. It is equally impossible to have a military nobility in a country where every man knows the use of arms, and is fully aware of the evils of military Government. Equally impossible is it to have an ecclesiastical nobility in a country where the people are divided into different denominations, several of which are nearly equal in numbers and influence. A paper money nobility is the only one that could be established here, and that we have in all its excellence, or all its execrableness, just which term the reader prefers.

The members of this noble order will perhaps say that if they be such, great injustice is done to them in not treating them with the deference due to nobility in all countries. Perhaps so. But this may be owing to their having multiplied their numbers too rapidly. "It is unwise," says Lord Bacon, "to make a nobility too numerous, for thereby they become to be despised."

Such, probably, would be the fate of any nobility whose sole prerogative should consist in a right to cheat with impunity. A nobility that founds its privileges on force, is much more likely to be respected than one that founds its privileges on fraud. The Norman robbers that came over with William the Conqueror, are still respected in the persons of their descendants by all classes of society in Great Britain. All the world respects the ancient Romans, though they were les brigands le plus determinés que la monde a jamais vue-(the most determined robbers that the world has ever seen.) Every body has more respect for the open robber than for the sly thief, except, indeed, the subjects of the Emperor of Monomotapa, in Africa. As one of his titles is that of "Great Thief," it is to be presumed that successful fraud in his dominions is regarded with as much respect as successful force is in any other parts of the globe.

In denying that they are a privileged order, our American nobility only act true to the principle to which they owe their existence. Time was that "knowledge was power." That time has gone by. Time is that "money is power." Take away their estates from the English Lords, and what would their titles be worth, and what would become of their power? Through the privileges accorded to them, many of our American nobles accumulate fortunes in a few years, which, though not equal to those of the first rank of British nobles, surpass those of the nobles of some kingdoms of continental Europe. In our country, wealth has more power than in any other. The banking interest exercises an influence with us similar to that which the landed interest exercises in Great Britain. Men who are opposed to it, may, indeed, be elected to Congress, or to a State Legislature, but seldom without a severe struggle; and, after they are elected, they are exposed to dangers of corruption as great as any the members of the British Parliament were exposed to in the days of Sir Robert Walpole. The unsuccessful struggle the Government has now maintained for more than two years to deprive the nobility of the use of the public money, is a striking proof of their great power. In the courts of justice, they have, perhaps, a more decided ascendency than in the legislative halls; for most of the principal judges are members of this privileged order. And the Governors of many States, and the municipal authorities of many of the principal towns are mere instruments for the promotion of their purposes. Church and College seem to be almost as much under their sway as Court and Capitol. In fine, their influence extends everywhere, and operates with most force where least suspected. All ranks of life feel it. The paper-money banking system is as powerful in giving a tone to mind, morals and manners in the United States, as ever the feudal system was in stamping the character of a people during the middle ages.

There are men, however, who, though they do not belong to the privileged order, say they like it, because it affords every man at least a chance of becoming a nobleman. In this respect, our condition more nearly resembles that of Turkey than that of Great Britain. In Turkey, as in the United States, men are suddenly elevated from the lowest to the highest social station, and as suddenly deprived of power and property. In one country, this is effected by the caprice of the Sultan; in the other, by the operation of certain laws, the true character of which is concealed from the people. For our own part, we cannot say we admire such an ever-changing nobility. It too often verifies the old proverb which speaks of the effect of "setting beggars on horseback." Our American noblemen, or at least many of them, have, with the wealth of British Lords, the minds, feelings and manners of hucksters, and will higgle for a shilling when worth millions. If we must have any other nobility than that which God and Nature makes-that is, a nobility of talent and virtue, give us the military, the feudal, the ecclesiastical, the landed, the titled, the hereditary nobility of Europe, in preference to the hucksterlike nobility of the United States. "If I must have a master," said John Randolph, "let him be one whom I can respect, and not a mere clerk, with a pen behind his ear."

A military aristocracy would help to defend the country in time of danger. An ecclesiastical, would teach the people some moral, if not religious truths. An heriditary aristocracy would be likely to be inspired with some sentiments of honor, if not of generosity, and, if it did nothing more, would contribute something to the refinement of manners, and the advancement of the arts and sciences. But a paper-money aristocracy has not a single redeeming trait. Sordid in its origin, it is sordid in everything.

One objection to it, and that not the smallest, is the manner in which means are raised for its support. The European plan on which certain estates are set apart for the exclusive benefit of the nobles, or pensions paid them out of the public treasury, is much to be preferred. The people have the satisfaction of knowing that what is left of their earnings, after deducting the nobility tax, will go to the support of themselves and families. Our plan leaves our nobles at liberty to take all if they can get it. The swindler who uses marked cards in a common gambling-house, does not enjoy greater advantages in the games played there, than do the leading men in the banking interest in the great game in which bank-notes are the cards, and all the property in the country the stakes.

The misery our system inflicts on the commonalty is indescribable, and yet it imparts but a comparatively small degree of happiness to the nobility. Their fortunes are as unsteady as the stock market. This they know and feel, and even in the midst of their most splendid revelries, a cloud creeps over their brow from a lurking sense of the danger that attends them. The same feeling pervades all ranks of society, and no wonder, for all must feel insecure where all kinds of business are little better than a lottery. The American countenance thereby becomes stamped with anxiety and solicitude in a manner which does not fail to strike foreigners on their first arrival among us.

There is much wealth in America, and yet but little happiness in any rank of society, because there is little content. The nobles are not content, because they know not how soon they will be reduced to poverty, and we, the common people, are not content, because we all want to become ricos hombres, or nobles. Who is likely to rest satisfied with what plodding industry will procure, when he daily sees instances around him of men no wiser and no better than himself, rapidly accumulating immense wealth without any kind of exertion useful to society?

In Europe, the order of rank and precedence is settled by long-established usage, or by laws which, like those of the Medes and Persians, alter not. But as all our nobility are but of yesterday, there is a continual struggle among them as to who shall be first, and who shall be greatest. The most successful speculators set the standard of genteel living. But, as in a country where all enjoy equal political rights, inequality in anything else will not be willingly endured, the men who are in class No. 2 in respect to riches, vie, in splendor, with those who are in class No. 1, and so down through all the classes, till we reach the very lowest in fortune. This contest in extravagance, which springs out of our bank-nobility system, produces deplorable effects in a newly-settled country, for accumulations of capital through economy ought, in such a country especially, to be an object of primary importance. Extravagance in Europe is principally confined to those who have something to be extravagant with.

Nothing can be more demoralizing than our bank-nobility system.

"Give me neither poverty nor riches," was the prayer of Agur, "lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." As the whole operation of our banking-system is to enrich one class of men by impoverishing another, it would be difficult to devise any more efficient means of destroying that happy mediocrity of fortune which is so favorable to the practice of Christian and republican virtues.

From the artificial inequality of wealth which this system produces, and from the fluctuations of fortune that it occasions, spring many more of the vices of the times, than men commonly imagine. The Editors of the Southern Review remarked, some years ago, that the most frequent cause of intemperance in their part of the country was debt. Candid inquiries would probably shew that this is one of the most frequent causes of intemperance in all parts of the country. "Drown care in the bowl" is an ancient recipe; and, though it may be shewn that the remedy is worse than the disease, so long as the system continues that overburdens men with debt and care, so long will thousands annually become the victims of intemperance, all the praiseworthy efforts of the Temperance Societies to the contrary notwithstanding.

Nine times in ten, poverty and the love of finery are the causes which lead women into an unhappy course of life. The girl grows up, but at the time pointed out by nature for marriage, it is at least doubtful if she will have an honorable suitor. Through the competition that prevails as to who shall be first and who shall be greatest, the standard of living is higher than it ought to be in nearly all ranks of fortune; and few like to marry with a conviction that loss of caste must be a necessary consequence. The son must have a prospect of living in the style his father has lived, or he will hesitate about changing his condition. The embarrassments which attend the raising of a family in a country where all kinds of business are very precarious, makes it a matter of common prudence in men who have nothing but their industry to depend upon, to postpone marriage to a late day, if not forever. In the meanwhile, the girl falls a victim to the wiles of some cub of a bank director, or perhaps of the bank director himself, or of some one else who has been enriched by the system. The love of finery so natural to the sex hastens her destruction. That love is greatly strengthened by the manner in which she sees those women arrayed whose families have been enriched by successful speculations. If, in our country, the men are unwilling to endure any very great inequality in anything, more especially will not such women as are very fond of admiration patiently bear that the charms of others shall be set off to greater advantage than their own. The degradation of a great number of women is a necessary consequence of all nobility systems; but the bank-nobility system effects this in a peculiar manner, by causing a love of show to pervade all classes, and at the same time putting it out of the power of multitudes to gratify that love in a legal way. Happily, population does not press so closely on the means of subsistence in Ame