But
this I can see plainly; that every improvement which is made is
received by those whom it most concerns with a horror which amounts
almost to madness. So lovely to the ancient British, well-born,
feudal instinct is a state of unreason, that the very absence of
any principle endears to it institutions which no one can attempt
to support by argument. Had such a thing not existed as the right
to purchase military promotion, would any satirist have been
listened to who had suggested it as a possible outcome of British
irrationality? Think what it carries with it! The man who has
proved himself fit to serve his country by serving it in twenty
foreign fields, who has bled for his country and perhaps preserved
his country, shall rot in obscurity because he has no money to buy
promotion, whereas the young dandy who has done no more than
glitter along the pavements with his sword and spurs shall have the
command of men;--because he has so many thousand dollars in his
pocket"
"Buncombe," shouted the inimical voice.
"But is it Buncombe?" asked the intrepid Senator. "Will any one who
knows what he is talking about say that I am describing a state of
things which did not exist yesterday? I will acknowledge that this
has been rectified,--tho' I see symptoms of relapse. A fault that
has been mended is a fault no longer.
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