I quote an indignant warning to the aristocracy of England which flamed
forth in one of his great speeches:--

"Let the aristocracy of England, which trembles so much for
itself, take heed to its own security; let the nobles of England,
if they mean to preserve that pre-eminence which, in some shape or
other, must exist in every social community, take care to support
it by aiming at that which is creative, and alone creative, of
real superiority. Instead of matching themselves to supply wealth,
to be again idly squandered in debauching excesses, or to round
the quarters of a family shield; instead of continuing their names
and honours in cold and alienated embraces, amidst the enervating
rounds of shallow dissipation, let them live as their fathers of
old lived before them; let them marry as affection and prudence
lead the way, and, in the ardours of mutual love, and in the
simplicities of rural life, let them lay the foundation of a
vigorous race of men, firm in their bodies, and moral from early
habits; and, instead of wasting their fortunes and their strength
in the tasteless circles of debauchery, let them light up their
magnificent and hospital halls to the gentry and peasantry of the
country, extending the consolations of wealth and influence to the
poor. Let them but do this,--and instead of those dangerous and
distracted divisions between the different ranks of life, and
those jealousies of the multitude so often blindly painted as big
with destruction, we should see our country as one large and
harmonious family, which can never be accomplished amidst vice and
corruption, by wars and treaties, by informations, _ex officio_
for libels, or by any of the tricks and artifices of the State."