The most eminent writers were, as usual, in the pay of the Government,
and BURLINGTON, A TALE OF FASHIONABLE LIFE in three volumes post octavo,
was sent forth. Two or three similar works, bearing titles equally
euphonious and aristocratic, were published daily; and so exquisite was
the style of these productions, so naturally artificial the construction
of their plots, and so admirably inventive the conception of their
characters, that many who had been repulsed by the somewhat abstract
matter and arid style of the treatises, seduced by the interest of a
story, and by the dazzling delicacies of a charming style, really now
picked up a considerable quantity of very useful knowledge; so that when
the delighted students had eaten some fifty or sixty imaginary dinners
in my lord's dining-room, and whirled some fifty or sixty imaginary
waltzes in my lady's dancing-room, there was scarcely a brute left among
the whole Millionaires. But what produced the most beneficial effects
on the new people, and excited the greatest indignation and despair
among the old class, were some volumes which the Government, with
shocking Machiavelism, bribed some needy scions of nobility to scribble,
and which revealed certain secrets vainly believed to be quite sacred
and inviolable.
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