Plutocracy

Abstract

I am of a savage and envious nature — I like to see these two humbugs which, dividing, as they do, the social empire of this kingdom between them, hate each other naturally, making truce and uniting, for the sordid interests of either. I like to see an old aristocrat, swelling with pride of race, the descendant of illustrious Norman robbers, whose blood has been pure for centuries, and who looks down upon common Englishmen as a freeborn American does on a nigger — I like to see an old Stiffneck obliged to bow down his head and swallow his infernal pride, and drink the cup of humiliation poured out by Pump and Aldgate’s butler … I despise you, but I want money; and I will sell you my beloved daughter, Blanche Stiffneck, for a hundred thousand pound, to pay off my mortgages. Let your son marry her, and she shall become Lady Blanche Pump and Aldgate.¹