It brought up too many reminiscences.

He wished he had happened upon some other subject.

But the debate began, and he sat still and listened.
In the course of the discussion one of the speakers--a blacksmith named Tompkins--arraigned all monarchs and all lords in the earth for their cold selfishness in retaining their unearned dignities.

He said that no monarch and no son of a monarch, no lord and no son of a lord ought to be able to look his fellow man in the face without shame.

Shame for consenting to keep his unearned titles, property, and privileges--at the expense of other people; shame for consenting to remain, on any terms, in dishonourable possession of these things, which represented bygone robberies and wrongs inflicted upon the general people of the nation.
He said, "if there were a laid or the son of a lord here, I would like to reason with him, and try to show him how unfair and how selfish his position is.