He expresses his surprise "that the fact which distinguishes England from all other modern nations, and which alone can throw light on her peculiarities,...has not attracted more attention,...and that habit has rendered it, as it were, imperceptible to the English themselves--that England was the only country in which the system of caste had been not only modified, but effectually destroyed.The nobility and the middle classes followed the same business, embraced the same professions, and, what is far more significant, intermarried with each other.The daughter of the greatest nobleman" (and this, if true of the eighteenth century, has become far more true of the nineteenth) "could already, without disgrace, marry a man of yesterday."...
"It has often been remarked that the English nobility has been more prudent, more able, and less exclusive than any other.It would have been much nearer the truth to say, that in England, for a very long time past, no nobility, properly so called, have existed, if we take the word in the ancient and limited sense it has everywhere else retained."...
"For several centuries the word 'gentleman'" (he might have added, "burgess") "has altogether changed its meaning in England; and the word 'roturier' has ceased to exist.In each succeeding century it is applied to persons placed somewhat lower in the social scale" (as the "bagman" of Pickwick has become, and has deserved to become, the "commercial gentleman" of our day)."At length it travelled with the English to America, where it is used to designate every citizen indiscriminately.Its history is that of democracy itself."...