THE British Peerage is the most wealthy and influential aristocracy in the world, and in antiquity takes us back to the time of the Norman Conquest. In the Anglo-Saxon period there were Thanes and Eldermen, or Earls; but this ancient nobility was not hereditary, like that which William the Conqueror established in its stead, and which, in spite of change and revolution, has come down to our own day, and still constitutes one of the three estates of the realm. One grand secret VOL. XIII.-Second Series.-APRIL, 1867. G 98 RELIGION AMONGST THE NOBILITY. of the great longevity and present vitality of an institution which is apparently opposed to the democratic tendencies of modern times, is to be found in the fact that, with a wise pliancy, it has adapted itself to the varying circumstances of succeeding ages. No doubt this accommodating policy has helped to save it from the destruction which has overtaken the ancient French Noblesse. The frequent infusion of new blood into the House of Lords, by the elevation to the Peerage of distinguished Commoners,-soldiers, sailors, statesmen, lawyers, scholars, and others, gives, every now and then, renewed freshness. and vigour to the British aristocracy. As there is scarcely a male infant in the kingdom, with a considerable future before him, of whom it can be confidently predicted that he shall never wear a coronet, and be addressed "My Lord," the people have an interest in the institution. Nor is the English nation slow to remember Runnymede, and its indebtedness to the nobles of the land for the muchprized Magna Charta. The important Revolution of 1688, by which British liberty was preserved, consolidated, and extended, was effected more by the aristocracy than by the populace. The privileges of the order, moreover, have been exercised generally with moderation and wisdom. In legislation, there has usually been a timely compliance with the popular will, when that will has been unmistakably, or repeatedly, expressed through the House of Commons; while, in its judicial capacity, the House of Lords has always upheld the character of English justice for strict and righteous impartiality. Never, perhaps, were the aristocracy of this country more virtuously inclined, individually, and as a body, than at the present time. The general and progressive improvement in morals, which has happily taken place throughout society, more or less, since the Methodist and Evangelical revival of the last century began to tell upon the masses, has been felt, to some extent, by the " upper ten thousand." The domestic loveliness and purity of the English Court, under Queen Victoria and her late lamented Consort, Prince Albert, has, moreover, contributed, doubtless very largely, to the same happy result. Time was when it was far otherwise. After the Restoration, the immoralities of the Palace were copied generally in the castles and mansions of the nobility; so that a shameless concubinage became the habit of the English aristocracy. These were the times when coroneted gamblers Even Peeresses prac and titled rakes might be found in abundance. tised unwomanly vices, using indecent language, and swearing profane oaths. On one occasion Sarah, the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the hero of Blenheim, went to the office of a renowned lawyer, who happened to be from home at the time of her call, and left without giving her name to the clerk in attendance. When the lawyer (a man who afterwards occupied the woolsack) returned, the clerk told him that the visiter did not leave her name; but that he thought "she must be a lady of quality, she swore so dreadfully." The Methodist revival of the last century, to which reference has RELIGION AMONGST THE NOBILITY. 99 already been made, and which, it should not be forgotten, was mainly a movement within the bosom of the Established Church, affected, in its earlier stages especially, some members of aristocratic families. There was Lady Betty Hastings, the patron of the little band of Oxford Methodists. One of these, the Rev. Benjamin Ingham, who accompanied Wesley to Georgia, married Lady Margaret Hastings, the sister of Lady Betty. It was through her influence that her sisterin-law, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, was introduced to the Methodists, and obtained the Gospel-salvation. This last mentioned lady, in her turn, by associating herself, more or less, with the labours of Whitefield, the Wesleys, Romaine, and others, exerted a wide-spread influence, by which "honourable women, not a few," became obedient to the faith. Amongst these may be reckoned the Countesses of Chesterfield and Delitz, the Marchioness of Lothian, Lady Balgonie, the Countess of Leven, Lady Frances Gardiner, and Lady Mary Hamilton. Then there was Lady Anne Erskine, who succeeded Lady Huntingdon in superintending the good work in which the Countess had been engaged; and also Lady Glenorchy, who has been styled "the Lady Huntingdon of Scotland." In connexion with Mr. Wesley's Societies might be found Lady Mary Fitzgerald, a daughter of the Earl of Bristol. Hers is the only aristocratic dust that lies with the ashes of many of God's nobility in the burying-ground of City-road Chapel, London. While these "elect ladies" were adorning "the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," and were themselves wearing "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," religion was not without its representatives amongst the Peers. Henry David, tenth Earl of Buchan, by hearing Whitefield, Wesley, Fletcher, Romaine, and Venn, at Lady Huntingdon's Chapel in Bath, was brought to a saving knowledge of the truth. His son and successor, the eleventh Earl, was made a partaker of like precious faith, and immediately appointed Fletcher of Madeley as one of his chaplains. The Earl of Dartmouth, too, was a nobleman whose religious virtues shed lustre upon his exalted rank. To him it is supposed Cowper, the poet, alluded, in the lines: "We boast some rich ones whom the Gospel sways, Amongst the religious nobility of the present day, the name of Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, occupies, deservedly, a conspicuous place. And yet, although his Lordship is closely identified with the cause and institutions of Evangelical religion, he had amongst his ancestors a man who figures in the ranks of Deistical writers, and to whom Voltaire paid the questionable compliment of being "the boldest of English philosophers." This was Anthony Ashley, third Earl of Shaftesbury, the author of the "Characteristics;" who, while professing allegiance to Christianity, and speaking with great reverence of "our holy 100 RELIGION AMONGST THE NOBILITY. religion," and even publishing the sermons of Dr. Whitchcot, a godly divine, with a commendatory Preface of his own; yet did much by his writings to promote a specious infidelity. A still more remarkable ancestor of his present Lordship's was Anthony AshleyCooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury. He was one of the most prominent figures in English history during the reign of Charles II., and has left to posterity, whether justly or not, a reputation for selfish versatility and political immorality. He was accused of having served and betrayed a succession of governments; and, amongst them, the notorious "Cabal" Ministry, of which he was an influential member. He is the "Ahitophel" of Dryden's celebrated satire; from which we can infer that he differed in physique, as in many other respects, from some of his descendants. According to the poet, he had— "A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay, And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay." Notwithstanding the hard things that are spoken of this remarkable statesman, it ought not to be forgotten that, amongst other political benefits, Englishmen are indebted to him for one of the most valuable guarantees of British freedom, the renowned "Habeas Corpus Act." The present is the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, having succeeded to the title upon the death of his father, the sixth Earl, in 1851. His Lordship was born in London, on the 28th of April, 1801, and was educated at Harrow and Christchurch, Oxford, where he took a first-class in classics in 1822. In 1826, as Lord Ashley, he was elected Member of Parliament for Woodstock, which borough he represented until 1830. He subsequently sat in the House of Commons successively for Dorchester, Dorsetshire, and Bath. In the Wellington Administration of 1828-30, he was one of the Commissioners of the Board of Control; and in the Government of Sir Robert Peel, in 1834-5, he was a Lord of the Admiralty. In 1841 he was again offered office by Peel; but he declined, as the Ministry would not support his favourite legislative measure, a Ten-Hours' Bill. For many years past Lord Shaftesbury has eschewed party politics, and has given himself up to the promotion of philanthropic and religious objects. In legislation, his memory will go down to posterity in connexion with the Ten-Hours' Bill, which regulates the employment of children in factories, and with measures which prohibit the employment of women in mines. In this humane measure the philanthropic nobleman had arrayed against him the selfishness of ignorant and cruel parents, who thought they might do what they liked with their own; the cupidity of grasping manufacturers, who rated the "hands" they employed with the machinery of their mills; and a cold-hearted political economy, without bowels of mercy, armed with its cut-and-dry calculations and maxims on the question of demand and supply. RELIGION AMONGST THE NOBILITY. 101 More recently, Lord Shaftesbury has been an active worker in the Ragged-school movement, and in organizing the London Shoe-Black Brigade. In connecting the coronet of his earldom with the young Arabs of the street,-hatless, shoeless, tattered, and "wild as the untaught Indian's brood,"-his Lordship has brought together, for beneficial purposes, the very extremes of English society, and has imparted a glory to his ancestral title, of which, in after years, his descendants may be proud. In religion, this nobleman belongs to the Evangelical section of the Church of England. His catholicity, however, is such, that he willingly associates in Christian work with Methodists and Nonconformists. Not only has he presided at the anniversary meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in Exeter Hall, and at a lecture by a Methodist Preacher in St. James's Hall; but he has occupied the chair at Methodist meetings in a Methodist chapel itself. At the present time he is President of the Young Men's Christian Association, and holds the still more important office of President of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Although he has the proud distinction which has been coveted by European emperors and kings-of being a Knight of the Garter; and although, as such, he may possibly be seen in gorgeous robes in his stall in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, with the monarch of the realm at the head of the assembled order; yet he can be found in a still more important post, sitting in the chair of the Bible Society, at its anniversary celebration on the first Wednesday in May. On such occasions he is surrounded by Christian gentlemen, dignitaries of the Established Church, Methodist Presidents, Presbyterian Moderators, Nonconformist divines, and representatives of foreign Churches; yet it is not merely in these associations that the superior importance of the post consists. It is rather in this, that he thus represents the grandest and best of human institutions; that he is then the exponent of the sublimest purpose that ever entered into the heart of man,—the giving, by polyglot appliances, to every creature under heaven, in his own. tongue wherein he was born, the Book which tells of the wonderful works of God. There are those who, like Tennyson's "grand old gardener and his wife," "smile at the claims of long descent;" who say, with the poet, or rather with one of the poet's characters,— "Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good; And simple faith than Norman blood." An earlier poet than the present Laureate has said,— "What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? Alas, not all the blood of all the Howards!" |