Note 14 — LETTER IV.

L’ancienne noblesse, literally translated, “the ancient nobility.” I use the expression in french, because the word “nobility,” in our language, expresses a very different thing.—The nobility of England are a small, respectable, and wealthy body, exercising a great and important part of the constitution, and possessed of powers highly important to the state. The french “noblesse” consisted of sixty or seventy thousand families, every individual of which would have thought himself disgraced by engaging in any branch of trade, or useful industry; enjoying many privileges personally advantageous, but discharging no public functions, as nobles, at all connected with the government.