Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/57

 " To state the differences between the classes of the society and the Unes of demarcation which separated them, would be difficult. The law, you know, admitted none, except as to the twelve counsellors. Yet in a coun- try insulated from the European world, insulated from its sister colonies, with whom there was scarcely any intercourse, little visited by foreigners, and having little matter to act upon within itself, certain famihes had risen to splendour by wealth, and by the preservation of it from generation to generation under the law of entails; some had produced a series of men of talents; famiUes in general had remained stationai-y on thfe grounds of their forefathers, for there was no emigi'ation to the westward in those days; the Irish, who had gotten pos- session of the valley between the Blue Ridge and the North Mountain, formed a barrier over which none ventured to leap; and their manners presented no attrac- tion to the lowlanders to settle among them. In such a state of things, scarcely admitting any change of station, society would settle itself down into several strata, separated by no marked lines, but shading off imperceptibly from top to bottom, nothing disturbing the order of their repose. There were, then, first aristocrats, composed of the great landholders who had seated themselves below tide water on the main rivers, and lived in a style of luxury and extravagance, insupport- able by the other inhabitants, and which, indeed, ended, in several instances, in the ruin of their own fortunes. Next to these were what might be called half breeds; the descendants of the younger sons and daughters of the aristocrats, who inherited the pride of their ances- tors, without their wealth. Then came the pretenders, men who from vanity, or the impulse of growing wealtli, or from that enterprizc which is nntural to talents.

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