“NOBLESSE OBLIGE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1938, Page 9

“NOBLESSE OBLIGE”

* FINE TYPE OF TRADITION IN ENGLAND. A fine type of the tradition that harnesses birth and wealth in Britain to public service is that offered by the late Duke of Devonshire, says the London “Observer.” Nations of less sagacity have allowed heredity to become an encumbrance and riches a butt. One of the fruits of Britain’s gradual evolution has been to extract from both of them enormous political and social values. The aristocracy that attended to the functions of government when there was no one else to do it has been so dovetailed into the fabric of a more intricate world that it can scarcely, if it would, evade the burdens of public life. The great Whig name of Cavendish embodies a whole philosophy. The eighth Duke of Devonothershire, who left one party after another upon grounds of conviction, wielded an immeasurable influence in virtue of his integrity of mind and character. The power of inspiring trust is the most essential to any political system. The State is all the stronger for being able to enlist the service of those who have nothing to gain from their exertions. The ninth Duke, who has just died, was by disposition the very last man to seek office or prominence. But he bent his neck to innumerable yokes that he’ felt to be involved in his inheritance, and in every capacity—whether Cabinet Minister or Governor-General of a Dominion, chancellor of a university or president of an agricultural society—he gave of his best and induced others to do the same. There is nothing more remarkable in the British genius than that, instead of aristocracy being allowed to run to waste in a democratic age, its endowments have been absorbed in the vital organs of national welfare.