A further corollary naturally following this last, and almost, indeed, forming part of it, is, that these several kinds of government decrease in stringency at the same rate.  Simultaneously with the decline in the influence of priesthoods, and in the fear of eternal torments—­simultaneously with the mitigation of political tyranny, the growth of popular power, and the amelioration of criminal codes; has taken place that diminution of formalities and that fading of distinctive marks, now so observable.  Looking at home, we may note that there is less attention to precedence than there used to be.  No one in our day ends an interview with the phrase “your humble servant.”  The employment of the word Sir, once general in social intercourse, is at present considered bad breeding; and on the occasions calling for them, it is held vulgar to use the words “Your Majesty,” or “Your Royal Highness,” more than once in a conversation.  People no longer formally drink each other’s healths; and even the taking wine with each other at dinner has ceased to be fashionable.  The taking-off of hats between gentlemen has been gradually falling into disuse.  Even when the hat is removed, it is no longer swept out at arm’s length, but is simply lifted.  Hence the remark made upon us by foreigners, that we take off our hats less than any other nation in Europe—­a remark that should be coupled with the other, that we are the freest nation in Europe.

As already implied, this association of facts is not accidental.  These titles of address and modes of salutation, bearing about them, as they all do, something of that servility which marks their origin, become distasteful in proportion as men become more independent themselves, and sympathise more with the independence of others.  The feeling which makes the modern gentleman tell the labourer standing bareheaded before him to put on his hat—­the feeling which gives us a dislike to those who cringe and fawn—­the feeling which makes us alike assert our own dignity and respect that of others—­the feeling which thus leads us more and more to discountenance all forms and names which confess inferiority and submission; is the same feeling which resists despotic power and inaugurates popular government, denies the authority of the Church and establishes the right of private judgment.

A fourth fact, akin to the foregoing, is, that these several kinds of government not only decline together, but corrupt together.  By the same process that a Court of Chancery becomes a place not for the administration of justice, but for the withholding of it—­by the same process that a national church, from being an agency for moral control, comes to be merely a thing of formulas and tithes and bishoprics—­by this same process do titles and ceremonies that once had a meaning and a power become empty forms.