It has since materially altered in both countries, but not so much as to impugn the truth of the author's observation.]] Under the rule of an aristocracy it frequently happens, on the contrary, that whilst the high officers are receiving munificent salaries, the inferior ones have not more than enough to procure the necessaries of life.

The reason of this fact is easily discoverable from causes very analogous to those to which I have just alluded.

If a democracy is unable to conceive the pleasures of the rich or to witness them without envy, an aristocracy is slow to understand, or, to speak more correctly, is unacquainted with, the privations of the poor.

The poor man is not (if we use the term aright) the fellow of the rich one; but he is a being of another species.

An aristocracy is therefore apt to care but little for the fate of its subordinate agents; and their salaries are only raised when they refuse to perform their service for too scanty a remuneration.
It is the parsimonious conduct of democracy towards its principal officers which has countenanced a supposition of far more economical propensities than any which it really possesses.