"My Lords, these are the aristocracy of this country to whom I allude. Reduce these men, and you inflict an irretrievable and irreparable injury upon the country. Lower them in the scale, and you have deranged the social machine beyond the power of correction. God forbid that the successful manufacturer or that the princely merchant should not take his place among the landed aristocracy of this country! Such infusions add fresh vigour and power to that class of the community; but depend upon it, if you sweep that class away at once with all the associations attached to their names, their families, their histories, and the previous associations which belong to the character of their families, and substitute a new body of capitalists, to come amidst an unattached tenantry, and a neighbourhood where no associations are connected with their names, their moral influence and effect will be irretrievably lost."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomUniversity of Oxford alumniConservative Party (UK) politiciansWhig (British political party) politiciansLeaders of the House of Lords (United Kingdom)
Original Language: English
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Speech in the House of Lords against the repeal of the Corn Laws (25 May 1846)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Smith-Stanley%2C_14th_Earl_of_Derby
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Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
1805 – 1868
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby KG GCMG PC PC (Ire) (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. To date, he is the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He is one of only four Br
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