PAUPERISM IN THE UPPER CLASSES. (Globe.)

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 191, 31 July 1873, Page 3

PAUPERISM IN THE UPPER CLASSES. (Globe.)

We aro not often reminded of the existence of a class in society whose members ma\ be (tilled I lie paupers of higher life. When a barrister dv« hi lus eh miners of sheer starvation, or a member oi the Temple 1- convicted ot stealing a book from the library for I he sake ot a few w i ctelied shillincs, wo faintly imagine thai such n class exisN. J>ut we think such people exception ill\ iri.id or grote-qiiely criminal, *nd soon pass on with perhaps a sigh ol pit >, or, it we happen to have made a Buceess of life, probably with a sneer of contempt. In fact, this species of pauper does not obtrude hin - self upon public notice as does his counterpart in humbler life. He does not beg, or go into unions, or otherwise overtly pull at our purse-strings ; and it is not very difficult to jog through an ordinary life in society without being personally aware of his existence. Yet the class is a large one, and one that is increasing, and will increase with the spread of our population, unless that miserable false pride which is the cause of its existence can bo cut down and cleared aw a) . It is composed of men w hose ideas of a career outrun their capacities; men of education, sometimes of talent, who have chosen an honorable profession, for which they imagine- themselves suited, or to which, perhaps, they were "brought up," and who, w lieu their wits and their luck are found wanting, will not recognise defeat, aud betake themselves to other fields. But it is not a question with these people, as they affect to imagine, between success and starvation, or between success and crime ; but between success in the one profession they have chosen, and resort to one of some humbler kind. It is ridiculous to pretend that in the whole of the British Empire there is no employment of any kind open that w ill enable a man of ordinary health and a good education to support life upon. It is the evident duty of these briefless birnsters and unappreciated authors, and' In c failures of all kinds, if they have not independent means to subsist upon, to adopt one of these openings But that will not do for them. No ; they were born, educated, or what not, to a "liberal" profession, and they will not descend from their pedestal. Like the Old Guard, they will die, but not jield, .vnd prefer famine to what they call dishonor. If we sift their real motive we find nothing but a mean haukenng alter a position to which they are not entitled, a paltry dread of descending into the sea of toil and labour winch they are bound to struggle with ; in a word, all the elements of that false pride which makes them heroes to themselves, shams towards society, and cowards in reality. It is high time such fastidiousness came to an end, and w ith it the whole host of varnished beggars whose position is excused by it. These are real drones who overcrowd our society, nnd who furnish a specious argument for the wild theories of certain modern moralists about restrictions on our population. Butthero is a worse species of upper class paupers than these poor people — a speaies that does not steal and does not starve, but lives on the fat of the land, and laughs at prisons and criminal courts. These are the parasites of high life, harpies preying on tho rest of society, privateers sailing under the false colours which their birth or connections, or perhaps their title, enable them to hoist, and bringing discredit upon the name they misuse. This is the class which, in the manner so graphically described by the author of " Vanity Fair," "lives fashionably on nothing a jear;" a class wliich infests the clubs, which loiters in tho Park, which talks big and looks down on men of moderate ir.cftHs and position, and which is at the time in as utter a state of hopeless insolvency as was Mr Weightmtui when arrested. This class is a thousand times more hateful than the other Society, it is true, does not condemn or scout them, and the criminal laws are powerless against them ; but in the moral scale they occupy a pl.ice not many degrees higher than common swindlers. From the case of the others wo can hardly withhold a feeling of pity. For these no indignation is too strong. The others did their best, though it was in a mistaken path ; and at any rate they died in harness. But these never put harness on their backs at ill. Every order they have given to their tailor or wine merchant was a swindling contract when they made it They have been suffered to go on existing because it is not worth any one's while to make bankrupts of them. There is always the chance of their " picking up " an heiress, "pulling off" a pot on the Leger, or even perhaps " landing a big thing" 1.1 the City. So they brave it out, living really from hand to mouth, but talking, and, as far as outward appearances go, living as if in affluence They are not failures, because they hava never tried to succeed. They aro mere Sybarites, selfish, useless, and cumbersome, and only tolerated by the inert good nature of humanity, and from a desire to spare the name of their families. They have no pride ; for they have nothing whatever to be proud of. A wretched vanity supplies its place, and floats them far above all thought of human employment suited to their capacities. In the end they are too often hoisted by interest into sinecures or offices where their idleness is winked at ; but work, in its ordinary sense, is to them entirely infra dig. They would not object to begging if they couM do the thing creditably, but to dig they are ashamed These are the people who put arguments into the mouths of demagogues and socialists, and lend a venom to their abuse of our aristocracy. _^ _

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