Clippings.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 229, 29 January 1876, Page 6

Clippings.

A SUBSERVIENT FOLLOWER. (From the Taranaki Herald..) Mr. Joseph Augustus Tole is the name of the new member for Eden (a district for many years represented by Mr. R. J. Creighton), and we do not think, if we are to judge by the speeches delivered at the nomination, that the electors have shown any great wisdom in returning Mr. Tole. He has no political creed, and announces himself as a subservient follower of Sir George Grey. He says—" I have adopted as my political creed those principles propounded by Sir George Grey. I hope you will not think it intellectual impotence on my part when I say it would be impossible for me to lay out an independent course of conduct for my own guidance." Poor young man ! he will have much to answer for, after he has followed his leader through one session of the Assembly. According to the Cross, this family of Toles have somehow " rigged" the electoral roll for Eden. Mr. Taylor, an opposing candidate, is reported to have said that "he had the curiosity to look over the electoral roll ; and he found that no fewer than five persons named Tole, all the brothers of one family, were entered for one small piece of property, about five acres in extent, valued at about £6O, and situated somewhere in the outskirts of Remuera. Upon this property the five brothers paid rates to the amount of 4s. 2d. per year, or lOd. per year each. They had five votes, however, for that small sum, and that was the 'great stake' which Mr. Tole had in the district, and of which Mr. Tole and his supporters had talked so much." This is a specimen of how they manage matters in Auckland ; which, to say the least of it, is not very creditable to the parties concerned.

SHAKSPERE AS AN ACTOR. (From BlacJcwood's Magazine.) I have little doubt that Shakspere was an excellent actor ; but too quiet, simple, and natural in his acting to please the public taste, which demanded loudness, bombastic action, declamation, and exaggeration. The same characteristics still exist on the English stage, and I suppose they have always existed. Partridge's opinion of Garrick and his acting represents the popular feeling of to-day. Ho was too natural—too, "simple, natural, affecting"—anybody might act " Hainlot" like him. Give me the king for my money, says Partridge, or he could strut and declaim and tear a passion to rags. Hamlet's advice to the players show what Shakspere's notion of good acting was. It was to hold the mirror up to nature—not_ to rant and strut and scream like the town-crier, to split the ears of the groundlings. But the public taste was indifferent. They liked what they did not see in life—just as the chambermaids and middle classes of to-day like novels of high life, and ghastly adventures, and sensational incidents, and murders. I am sorry to say that even among educated persons there is a preference in England for exaggerated action in tragedy and in comedy. Comedy on our stage is but too often turned into farce and grimace ; tragedy into rant, and what is called eloquence, God save the mark ! which means artificial intonation and pronounciation, such as no human being in his senses would use in daily fife. There are exceptions, I know, to this, but it is characteristic of English acting. I am sometimes afraid that the tragic actor will burst a

blood-vessel in his violence, and I am pretty sure the comic actor will descend to grimace ' and caricature to get a laugh from the pit, and to split the ears of the groundlings. It is a satisfaction by way of exception to near such quiet acting as that of Mr. Jefferson in " Rip Van Winkle ;" and I am glad to see in some of the theatres, and among some of the actors, a better and simpler taste growing up, and at least an effort to render nature. ENGLISH IDIOMS IN INDIA. Certain idiomatic phrases used in England are rather puzzling to the uninitiated, and the explanations given of them at a recent examination at Madras, as reported by the Times of India, show that, as a means of baffling candidates, they are occasionally invaluable to examiners. For instance, "To set the Thames on fire," was explained as follows:—"To set fire to the ships that anchor on the river Thames ;" " When a battle takes place the navy used to stand on the river and attack the town, so the Thames was filled with navy;" "To fire the canons in the fleets anchored in the mouth of the River Thames;" "To set sail over the Thames." The phrase, "Herides his hobby to death," was thus explained:—"His horse runs with full gallop;" "He is going to die;" "He rides very fast to a great distance, so that his horse Hobby may suffer death." The phrase, "It serves him right," was interpreted, " It is serviceable to him in a right way;" "He can write with it;" "It is much useful to him in performing the office of writing;" "It does him good, he fares on well." DEAN STANLEY ON COMMODORE GOODENOUGH. Monday being All Saints' Day, Dean Stanley preached at Westminster Abbey. His subject was the life and death of Commodore Goodenough, and he took as his text the words "He being dead yet speaketh." He reviewed the career of the late gallant officer, whose father was head master of Westminster School, and observed that in this case there was no breach, no interruption. The child was father of the man, the man was the mould in which was cast the Christian and the martyr, and the death was but the crown and seal of the life. The Pacific was the scene of his earliest and latest experiences, and in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and China, he was always doing his best to improve himself and those under His services among the French peasantry in the neighborhood of Sedan during the war of 1870 were traced, and his last expedition, a scientific and philanthropic one, to the Pacific Islands, was recounted. The sad circumstances of his death, and the heroic and pathetic farewell which he took of his ship's crew, were also described. In conclusion, the Dean called on all who heard him to learn from this example how life was absorbed in duty, and duty was transfigured into happiness, and death was swallowed up in victory.

MISTAKES REPORTERS OR PRINTERS. (From Chambers' Journal.) Not long ago a tailor stood in the dock for misappropriating his employer's property, and the latter, we were told, deposed that "the materials were to be returned made up on a Thursday, and on the Sunday following he discovered that the deceased had left his home, and he did not see him again until he was in custody." The "deceased" was sentenced to a month's hard labor. The following is a curious sample of printer's mixture which the Daily Telegraph once set before its readers. This purported to be a report of a case in the Bankruptcy Court, and after stating that the Registrar ordered a receiver to be appointed, but declined to restrain the action of the creditors, went on thus :—" A good deal of evidence was given, and in the course of the case his Lordship expressed an opinion that a juror should be withdrawn, and that the case was one only for a farthing damages. It was, the Judge said,_ a sad thing to see a young man in such a position, which there was no doubt had been brought about by habits of intemperance, and but for the recommendation of the jury he should have passed a very severe sentence. He advised him to abstain from drink for the future, and sentenced him to be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for six months." Some of the industrious gentlemen whose avocation it is to hunt up news for provincial journals have a very odd way of putting things. Under the heading, " Death from Drowning," we read : " On Saturday Mr. J. C. Jarrold, Deputy-Coroner, held an inquest at the Hazard Arms, Mill-lane, concorning the death of Thomas Shipp, who was drowned on the following night." Chronicling the coining to grief of a young trapeze performer, the reporter says: "It was afterwards discovered that the boy's collar-bone was broken, but unfortunately, his injuries are not of a dangerous description." Another announces, without a word of protest against the vivisectionists, that " A British Workman is about to be opened at Morpeth." A third tells us : " A pony-carriage was passing along New Bond-street, Bath, when, in turning into Northgate-street, it fell down and broke both of its legs." Recording some steeplechase doings at Monaghan, the Irish Times said : " A very°nice day's sport was carried on over an excellent course, all grass, over the lands of Mr. Henderson, whose hospitality was unbounded. It consisted of two walls, two bankdrops, a water cut, and two hurdles." Telling of a man who lost his life in a riot, a Belfast paper ended the story with : " They fired two shots at him : the first shot killed him, but the second was not fatal." He was not blessed with a couple of lives, like the deaf man, named Taff, who " was run down by a passenger train and killed ; he was injured in a similar way a year ago." The Irish journalists, however, cannot be accused of monopolising the manufacture of bulls ; their English brethren are equally clever that way, aB they proved by sending the Princess Louise to Wimbledon "to

witness the shooting of her husband ;" describing the Prince of Wales' second son as "an amiable boy like his mother ;" and announcing that the Duke of Hamilton would shortly take to wife " the late Lady Mary Louisa Elizabeth Montague."

INTELLECTS, AND WHAT THEY ARE WORTH. Who can estimate the influence newspaper writers have upon the world's doings ? Here in San Francisco they pronounce with the utmost certainty upon everything and upon everybody, and generally induce the great unthinking majority to agree with them. The kind of men who are picked up to do this important work are paid on an average not more than thirty dollars per week. What philantrophists, to be sure ! A judge delivers, after mature reflection, a judgment brimful of equity and good law, and it is forthwith made a subject for censure by your "gentleman of the press," who, at twenty-five dollars per week, considers himself competent at a moment's notice to make or unmake the reputation of every possible official from the Governor down to the common policeman. Without special fitness, experience of the world, and too often without even a fair education, he is at once inducted into the reporter's or editor's chair, and forthwith is monarch of all he surveys, from the centre all round to the sea, he is lord of the fowl and the brute ; his will there is none to dispute. What a burning shame that this wondrous power called "a free Press among a free people" only pays the price of a mere cog-wheel for what either is or ought to be a strong engine. If it be true that the intrinsic value of a thing is what it will fetch, then there need be no wonder that "gentlemen of the Press" hereabouts are lightly esteemed and too often become bummers and free lunch hunters. !Nb fault of theirs that they are so. If they have wives, families, and homes, as all men with staid and settled intellects who do the people's thinking should have, then free lunch hunting is a necessity to men who only earn from 25d015. to 30dols. per week. Shame upon the whole crowd of newspaper proprietors. Shame upon you Pickering and Fitch ! shame upon you, MacCrellish ! and shame upon you, De Young ! If the mighty ruler below or the almighty Governor above would contrive some means whereby ye might be all turned loose to do the writer's work upon the writer's pay, then, by St. Peter and all the saints, it would gfi hard with ye ! Fancy Pickering rushing around this weather in search of items for the 20dols. per week which he recently had the hardihood to offer a man who in every respect is his superior ! Imagine Fitch, with bended legs, struggling along under weighty articles such as he has been paying a competent man 30 dols. per week to write. Think of MacCrellish writing a six-line item at all, upon any subject and at any price, and living upon it ! If either of the De Youngs could fill a reporter's place, they wouldn't do it at the money ; they would sell newspapers first. They have too much of the traditional Hebrew money gathering power about them for that, and no blame to them either. A man had better break stones for the streets, carry a hod, or even herd swine, than do the people's thinking at the people's price. A sharp-witted printer was recently asked why he had not become editor. The very obvious reply was put in this form : " Why should I worry myself into an editor to obtain 25doh per week, whilst I now so easily earn 35d0l !" How complete the answer ! The common policeman is better paid than the average newspaper writer. But these things have got to find their level. The people will not always be satisfied with the cheap and nasty columns of a gutter-snipe press. When that day dawns, good and worthy writers will fall into their proper places, and will receive an amount of pay upon which an honest man may live and maintain his integrity. Until then the press of San Francisco must remain what it is, viz. : a receptacle for malice and bad English, a compendium of undigested thoughts, and an unfaithful representative of our best citizens. — San Francisco JVetvs Letter.) SOCIAL LIFE IN PORTUGAL. The larger of the country towns have streets full of gentleman's houses ; and here vegetate, from year to year, families who are just rich enough to live without working. To live, indeed, as the Portuguese do in such towns need cost but little. A large house, with a plot of cabbages, a kale-yard, behind it ; with whitewashed walls, floors uncarpeted, a dozen wooden chairs, one or two deal tables ; no fire-place, not even a stove, either in sitting or bed room ; no curtains to the windows ; no covers to the tables ; no pictures on the walls ; no mirrors ; no table pleasantly strewn with books, magazines, newspapers, and ladies' work ; no such thing visible as a pot of cut flowers ; no rare china, no clocks, no bronzes —none of the hundred trifles and curiosities with Avhich in our houses we show our taste or our want of it, but which either way give such an individual character and charm to English homes. All these negatives describe the utterly dreary habitations of the middle-class Portuguese. For occupations, the women do needlework, gossip, go to mass daily, and look out of the window by the hour. Except the one short walk to church at eight o'clock in the morning, a Portuguese lady hardly ever appears in the streets. As to the men, they lounge about among the shops, they smoke innumerable paper cigarettes, they take a "siesta" in the heat of the day. If there is any sunshine, they stand in groups at the street corners, with umbrellas over their heads ; in winter, they wear a shawl over their shoulders, folded and put on three-corner wise, as a French or Englishwoman's shawl is worn ; for this is a fashion in Portugal, and the Spaniards laugh a good deal at their neighbors on the score of their being a nation who invert the due order of things. In these towns there is never any news, and if two men are

seen in eager discussion of some matter of apparently immense importance, and if one happens to be near enough to overhear the subject of conversation, be sure that one of them is plunged in despair or kindling with enthusiasm at a rise or fall of a halfpenny in the price of a pound of tobacco. There are not even fashions for them to talk about ; young men and old men dress alike, but the youngest men -wear exceedingly tight boots, and when they " take their walks abroad" it is obvious that they do so in considerable discomfort. The young men, however, have one occupation more important even than wearing tight boots —that of making the very mildest form of love known amongst men. The process, indeed, is carried on in so Platonic a manner, and with so much proper feeling, that I doubt if even the strictest English governess would find anything to object to. The young gentlemen pay their addresses by simply standing in front of the houses occupied by the objects of their affections, while the young persons in question look down approvingly from the upper windows, and there the matter ends. —" Travels in Portugal," by J. Latouche. STAGE MILLINERS. (From the New York Times.) It is said that it is becoming a custom for theatrical managers to supply the " full-dress" wardrobes of their actresses. This is dreadful information. We think we can see in the fact, if it be a fact, the seeds of a future revolution among the actresses. Possibly, some astute critic may discover in this practice, provided it exists, another evidence of that decline of the drama over which many aged critics shed so many briny tears. Nevertheless, it has long been evident that the stage was coming to this. Upholstery and scene-painting have put the millinery people on their mettle. The rage for realism extended very speedily from stage properties to stage dresses. Real horses, real flowers, real water, and real dinners and suppers on the stage came in with the modern drama. Point lace, diamonds, and wonderful things in silk and satin came next. Actresses now-a-days would turn up their noses in lofty disdain at Mrs. Siddons' cotton velvet robe; the young gentlemen who play in dramas of " contemporaneous human interest" would refuse to endanger their immaculate trousers by sitting on a stage-car-penter's sofa covered with an ancient chintz counterpane. On the Chinese stage a horseman is represented by an actor who occasionally cracks a whip behind him and lifts one leg in horse fashion. Our modern Henry "V. rides the boards on a real beast which is the <most natural performer in the whole of the •company.

It is too late to say a word about the gorgeous rig worn by the actress of the present. It cannot be said that good clothes can conceal good acting. But when we are told that the costly and rich attire of the players is the property of the management, we must confess to a slight shock of dismay. If the lovelorn -Juliet, hanging over her balcony and maundering to the moon, does not own the white satin dress in which she is supposed to be going to bed, who does ? For us, who sit before the footlights and take part in the woes and joys of the heroine, it would be better that we •hould not think of her gear at all ; or, if we must, let us believe that the clothes are the property of Capulet's daughter. If we must think of the actress, we may fancy that her dress has cost Miss Crummies, for example, a round sum. But to be told that this richness is part of the properties, to be put on and off like the ill-fitting liveries of the hapless youths who figure on the stage as " citizens," or carry off the tables and candlesticks —this is, indeed, disillusion. One actress who wears on the stage a New York street dress which resembles a Tyrolese ballet costume, declares in extenuation of her brilliant eccentricities that she is a good dressmaker. And very commendable it is for a hardworking actress to design and make her own dresses. But if this new invention of the theatres become generally used, we shall be obliged to credit the managers (who are usually men) with taste in millinery as well as with liberality. Then, too, in the interest of the managers, we shudder to think of the consequences which they will bring upon themselves. Consider a leading actress, pending an engagement, demanding to be shown the wardrobe which she is to wear. Will she consent to put on garments of which the newness has already been appropriated by some other woman ? It is more than likely that, like some exacting servant girls, she will require new furniture to be bought before she sets foot in the house. We know how fatal is the influence which dress in modern social drama has had upon the female mind engaged in playing in it. We know the dear creatures, who insist on -wearing diamonds and silks while steeped in poverty, and begging their cruel stage uncles for a bone from their tables. Every playgoer knows the gifted being who ventures out in a theatrical snowstorm in pink satin slippers and real lace hat. If the managers are to furnish these dainty articles, may they not prescribe the conditions under which they shall be worn ? Possibly, there is a gleam of hope in this direction, but it is likely that managers dread a rebellion more than do the most violent of incongruities; If the new dress regulation could be held to mean that, under no' circumstances, is a nightgown to consist of a white muslin robe with sixteen flounces, nor a panier be permitted on a Roman vestal, dramatic art would have made a great gain. To "dress the part" now-a-days is to exhaust ingenuity and money in a dazzling succession of good clothes. Possibly the new custom may result in exhausting the managers, and thus the evil of overdressing will cure itself. Perhaps we need not wait for this conclusion. When an actress' friends cease to say, "Who is your milliner?" and only ask, " Who is your manager's milliner ?" we fancy that the downfall of the wonderful stage toilet has already begun.

JEWS IN EUROPE. The Jewish community has been celebrating the festival of the Roschachana, or Hebrew New Year, which begins on the 29th of September, and continues until the night of the Ist of October. To-morrow will be the festival of the Tom-Kypour, the greatest high tide of the Jewish year, when they pass twenty-four hours without touching an atom of food or drink, and spend the whole of the day in prayer. It seems curious that people so sharp, wide-awake, and astute as the Jews of the great European cities, who are usually so thoroughly free from all other prejudices than those of their own traditions, should persist in keeping up the antiquated custom of barbarian times. I one day inquired of a leading Christian official of the great house of Rothschild, whether the old baron and his family really practised all the rites, ceremonies, fastings, feastings, and so forth, of the Jewish traditions. "In the sbrictest way, and to the very smallest minutiae," replied the official, "nothing would induce any one of them to deviate from their ancient customs in the very slightest degree." The descendants of the founder, conquerors of Palestine, -would seem to be very numerous in Europe, for they seem to be everywhere in the world of finance, and to occupy a very important place in European commerce. Yet recent statistics show them to be much less numerous than might be supposed. In the whole of France there are but 46,000 Jews, which gives but one Jew for every 785 inhabitants. In the whole of Europe there are but 4,680,000 Jews, and only 120,000 on the continent of America, so that all the Israelites of Europe and America together make a total of not much more than the population of London. The country in which they proportionally are most numerous is Russian Poland, where there is one Jew to every six of the inhabitants. Roumania, Austria, and Hamburg come next in the proportion of Jews, of whom there are, in these regions, one to each twenty-three residents. Alsace, Lorraine, Hesse, and Russia have one Jew to thirty-four other residents. Belgium, Spain, and Sweden have only one Jew to 2600, 2800, and 3500 of their other residents. In the whole of Ireland there are but 258 Jews ; and only twenty-five in Norway. A still more interesting bit of statistics (but one we are likely to wait a long time before getting) would be that of the fortune of the 4,800,000 Israelites of Europe and America, with the Rothschilds, Goldsmids, Oppenheims, and Oppenheimers at their head. Jewish capitalists are believed to be largely interested in the proposed Channel tunnel, the preparatory soundings and diggings for which colossal undertaking are going f orward with vigor on both sides of the Channel at this present writing. The number of travellers between France and England during the month of August last was 28,264. The first eight months of the present year show a total of 139,576, being an increase of 3803 over the corresponding period of last year. The Channel Company count on an increase of travellers to at least half a million yearly as soon as the horrors of " the middle passage" between the two countries shall have been abolished, with a still greater increase in the quantity of merchandise of all kinds that will be exchanged between the two sides of the Channel, when that troublesome feature of the map of Europe shall have been practically abolished as far as regards locomotion between them. MEDICAL EVIDENCE AT INQUESTS. (From the Lancet.) There is very much to be regretted, and much that ought to be quickly amended, in the practice of " coroner's courts " and "quest law." We have always insisted, and must still contend, that a searching inquiry into the circumstances and causes of every non-natural death is indispensable to the public safety and the common good. Apart from the obvious necessity for such a precaution against secret murder and manslaughter, there is the manifest need of searching out and bringing to light the insidious causes of death -which grow out of our high civilisation, our pursuits, our artificial modes of life and intense activity. If there were no fear of intentional wrongdoing, the scientific obligation to prosecute arigorous inquiry into every unexplained decease of human life would remain. Indeed, the class of cases to which that obligation applies is much the most important falling under the coroner's jurisdiction. The failure to recognise this circumstance lies at the root of all the idle talk about the superior fitness of lawyers for the coroner's office, and it is the cause of that short-sighted prejudice and false economy so strenuously opposed to post-mortem examinations. If the sole, or even the chief mission of an inquest were to determine whether somebody ought to be prosecuted for killing or causing the death of a deceased person, we might be disposed to agree with those who believe that a lawyer is better qualified to discharge the function of criminal inquisitor than a medical man. But this is not the fact, and we must contend, as we have always argued, that a knowledge of pathology, and the cognate sciences comprehended under the term medicine, is essential to an adequate discharge of the duties devolving on a coroner. Meanwhile, this argument tells lamentably against the existing practice of nine courts in ten, and it bears powerfully upon the mode in which the evidence of experts in medicine is received and digested in submitting a case to the jury—even by medical coroners.

It is painful to watch the continual waste of scientific testimony which the present slipshod practice entails. The Medical Societies and the professional Press do something to collect and collate the valuable data so wantonly cast aside ? but the coroner's court, as a piece of constitutional machinery, is practically almost useless. Scarcely a week passes without the slurring over and neglect of some case fraught with lessons of priceless value. Cases of poisoning by agents and with symptoms not clearly defined or accurately recorded ; cases

of death from the secondary and remote effects of disease or injury not properly traced to their cause or adequately exposed and located ; instances of misadventure, malpractice, or neglect left withoutscrutiny and unexplained—these are the tares that mar the harvest of information to be gleaned from a court of inquiry properly conducted and duly reported. Can nothing be done to remove a standing and mischievous reproach ? Will not some medical coroner devise and inaugurate a scientific code of practice covering the needs we have tried to indicate ? It would not, surely, be difficult to lay down some general outline of a method of inquiry and report to which medical evidence might be required to conform. There are systems of pathological research, which would form the model for a simple but comprehensive and efficient method of investigating the " cause of death." If medical witnesses clearly understood the kind of questions they would be required to answer at an inquest, and if the " opinion" demanded from them were logically worked out by these questions, the quality of "medical evidence" generally would improve, and, instead of being uninteresting and—for medical purposes—valueless, it would come to be prized by the profession as a calm and accurate account of the symptoms and appearances associated with particular kinds of death, and therefore instructive and practically useful. The reform we suggest is within the scope of any coroner having a tolerably extensive district under his jurisdiction. That the task will call for courage and independence there can be no question. The immediate effect of a resolve to treat the subject of medical evidence on scientific principles, and to make the inquest a reality instead of a farce, must be a strong and clear assertion of the fact that post-mortem examination is absolutely essential to the discovery of truth in every case of unexplained death, and in many cases also where the cause is tolerably clear. This position will need to be taken up in disregard of the rule of economy -which boards of magistrates are everywhere enforcing. Nevertheless, the enterprise is a worthy one, and we trust that some spirited medical coroner will recognise the claims of his profession, and commence the good work in dignified indifference to personal consequences, and without delay.

NAPOLEON'S TREATMENT OF HIS GENERALS. (From the Galaxy?)

He was born a king, if to command the obedience of men be the whole art of kingship, which may perhaps be doubted. He seems in general to have acted on the plan of Frederick the Great; that is, he demanded nothing but success from his lieutenants, and was careless of the means they took to obtain it. Only failure he would never forgive. It -was a favorite saying of his that he never judged men but by results. It was to no purpose that Massena gave excellent reasons for his defeat by Wellington; Napoleon wanted victories, and not explanations. There is a foolish story, to which so eminent a man as Southey could give credence, to the effect that Admiral Villeneuve was assassinated by order of the Emperor after his disgrace at Trafalgar. There can be no serious doubt that the unfortunate commander committed suicide in sheer terror at the idea of an interview with the stern master whose plans he had caused to miscarry. It is fair to add that those of his captains who were successful had no need to complain that their services were insufficiently appreciated. Even Massena had acquired an income of 100,000dol. while his star was in the ascendant; Soult had 60,000d01. a year ; Ney nearly 150,000dol.; Davoust, 180,000dol.; while Berthier, Prince of Neuchatel, enjoyed a princely revenue of some 270,000d01. " They will no longer fight," Napoleon once exclaimed in a moment of dejection, referring to his generals. " I have made them too rich." It may be suspected that it was rather from motives of policy than of gratitude that Napoleon thus created the fortunes of his marshals in a day. He was anxious to establish as a support to his throne a powerful aristocracy, which in splendour and (to do him justice) in the brilliancy of its achievements should rival the old nobility of France. He forgot, however, that though monarchy and democracy can exist, and have existed, without prescription, an aristocracy to be venerable mu3t absolutely bear the seal of antiqtiity. In none of his projects had Cromwell failed more hopelessly than in his attempt to reconstruct the House of Lords in England. Napoleon, it is true, did not propose to confer legislative functions on his nobles as such ; nevertheless, he intended them to be a privileged class, and this alone was a more courageous than wise idea on the morrow of 1789.