New orders of
men had arisen in the country, new sources of wealth had
opened, new dispositions of power to which that wealth had
necessarily led. His own house, his own order, had
established themselves on the ruins of that great body, the
emblems of whose ancient magnificence and strength surrounded
him. And now his order was in turn menaced. And the People--
the millions of Toil, on whose unconscious energies during
these changeful centuries all rested--what changes had these
centuries brought to them? Had their advance in the national
scale borne a due relation to that progress of their rulers,
which had accumulated in the treasuries of a limited class the
riches of the world; and made their possessors boast that they
were the first of nations; the most powerful and the most
free, the most enlightened, the most moral, and the most
religious? Were there any rick-burners in the times of the
lord abbots? And if not, why not? And why should the stacks
of the Earls of Marney be destroyed, and those of the Abbots
of Marney spared?
Brooding over these suggestions, some voices disturbed him,
and looking round, he observed in the cemetery two men: one
was standing beside a tomb which his companion was apparently
examining.
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