The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-01 00:00:00

THE PEERAGE.

(From The Times, Tuesday, Dec. 28,
We are able to announce that the Queen has been
graciously pleased to revive the Dukedom of Gorden
in the person of his Grace the Duke of Richmond,
who inherited Gordon Caitl# and the estates of the
last Duke of that name. Her Majesty has further
signified her pleasure to raise the Earl of Aber.
gavenny to the dignity of a Marquisate • to confer an
Earldom upon Lord Wharncliffe ; and bestow an
English Peerage upon the Earl of Erne. The follow-
ing gentlemen, will, we have reason to believe, be
summoned to the House of Peers :—John Ralph
Ornasby•Gore, Esq., Member for North Shropshire;
Henry Gerard Sturt, Esq., Member for the county of
Dorset; John Tollernache, Esq., of Helmingham- hall,
Suffolk; and Sir Robert Tolver Gerard, Bart., of
Bryn, in the county of Lancaster.

The Times has the following leader on the above :

The promotions to the Peerage which we announce
this morning and the further changes within the,
ranks of the Peerage itself, though of importance prin-
cipally to those who are directly affected by them, are
yet, on several accounts, deserving of more than a
formal notice. They will, it is true, add no new name
to the recognised aristocracy of the country which ex-
tends very far beyond the limits of the Upper House ;
nor will they in any way affect the balance of political
Parties, since they will only swell somewhat further
a majority which was already clearly marked. Their
claim upon our attention is derived in part from the
character of the august body in which fresh mem-
bers are to be enrolled, or in which old members are to
sit henceforth with such accession of dignity as may
be drawn from an accession of title. Nor is it without
interest to ask, in reference •to some of t evises
before us, the reasons which may have i nduced Her
Majesty to confer, or the recipients of her favour to
accept, the proposed boon. There is a certain pro-
priety in the reunion of so illustrious a title as the
Dukedom of Gordon with the estates which have
descended to the Duke of Richmond, but it is not so
easy to conjecture the motive which can have per-
suaded the representative of the ancient house of
Abergavenny to merge his ancient Earldom in the
lustre of a modern Marquisate. With respect to
those who are not yet titular Peers, the rank to
which they are shortly to be raised and the names
of honour which they are to hear will explain
sufficiently the motives by Which their choice has
been determined. There are, no doubt, or are
said to be, some untitled county families so well
satisfied with their rank that they have not only no
wish to raise it, but no notion that it could be raised
by their enrolment in the Upper House. But such
instances are at least rare. For most Commoners a
Peerage is, and ought to be, an obj•=ct of legitimate
ambition; nor. is it possible to deny that the attain-
ment of it does in some way set, as it were, a seal
upon their position, and elevate even those who would
be least willing to admit that elevation was in their
case possible. What we are all concerned with is
chiefly that our Upper House should be representative.
We wish it to include a fair proportion, not only of
the talent, but scarcely less of the wealth and social
influence of the country, and we may acquiesce gladly
in promotions which, like those before us, tend to
render it in these respects more complete. Our readers
will remember a saying attributed to William Pitt,
that every one with twenty thousand a year had a good
right to be a Peer, if he wished it. If this rule
were now to be carried out, the number of our Peers
would, we fear, be pomesvhat Inc:mix-et-gently large.
Tne altered value of money may have made it necessary
to fix at a far higher sum the income which should carry
a Peerage. The principle, however, will be the same,
and we cannot refuse to admit that in determining who
ought or ought not to be thus distinguished great
wealth, and particularly great ancestral wealth, must
always be taken largely into account.

eII

The list of new Peers which we announce this morn-
ing will be found to fulfil very properly the conditions
on which we should desire to insist. The four prospec-
tive Nobles will bring.to the House of Lords as much
as they would receive by joining it. The class to which
they belong is not one which can be left out with pro-
priety, while .it is only natural that each Minister in
his turn should place before Her Majesty the names of
his own followers, and that in this way, by the suc-
cession of Parties, all should be represented in the
end. Mr. Ormsby-Gore and Mr. Gerard Sturt have
already the degree of distinction which attaches to
tounty Members. Mr. Tollemache has held in the
past the same post of honour, and still holds it
vicariously in the person of his eldest son. The choice
of Sir Robert Gerard deserves notice because Sir
Robert Gerard is a Roman Catholic; and we are glad
to find fresh proof, if fresh proof were needed, that
Roman Catholics, as such, will never be distrusted by
their Sovereign. Mr. Sturt's name will doubtless be
remembered by our readers in connexion with the
famous debate on the breed of English horses. The
Earl of Erne, who has sat hitherto as an Irish repre-
sentative Peer, will sit henceforth in his own right
as the possessor of an English peerage. Lord Wharn-
cliffe will receive an Earldom—a kind of promotion
clearly in place for a family whose first patent of
nobility dates from the last century, but much less so
for a house which, like that of Abergavenny, was
ennobled five centuries ago. The added rank to be
:conferred on the Duke of Richmond may be a matter
for some surprise, but it can certainly be none for cavil.
If it pleases his Grace, who is already a Peer of Scot-
land as well as of England, to add a Scotch Dukedom
to his English one, the rest of the world may be well
content that he should do so, and may be glad that.
the honours of the great house of Gordon shOuld not
be suffered to remain in abeyance, but should be
revived and perpetnated.by the inheritor of thaAordon
estates. The list of new Peers may be pronounced,
on the whole, unexceptionable; and though wealth
and social dignity have perhaps been the chief things
considered, a little to the exclusion of other claims to
rank, yet we need not wonder that these powers
should have prevailed, and that the gain to the House-
of Lords should be more clear in other directions than
in that of an increase to the administrative talent
which it already abundantly includes. _
It is curious to compare our own new Peerages with
the corresponding oreations 'or -elections Which have
recently been made in France, In neither country
has the possession of the highest political ability been
the ground on which the choice has been made. The
method, however, which has been thus far similar in its
results has in itself been wholly different The will of
the nation has been in both cases only indirectly ex-
pressed;r but in France it has for the present been by the
ect vote of the Assembly, in England by the momin-
ation of the Sovereign, that the coveted honours have
**We/SO. The new French appointments contains
blcouise,soinenames whose.titles are on every anceorint-
unexceptional", bat they liive also as yet omitted some
others whose extbuiion it would be impossible to
justify. If we bear in mind the difference betwaen
the two case's, we may,Suid .it less easy to look with.
satisfaction upon the French appointments than
on our own. The French Senate is far from being a
fair equivalent for our ancient House of Lords, but
there is nothing else in France which can supply a
more exact comparison. A French Senator will. be
much more likely than an English Peer to be asked
to give his' raison, crdtre. The body of which he
, will be a' member has still to make its name
and to assert its right to, a place -among the ruling.
Powers. It is, therefore, in the more danger, since it
must hold its own without the support uf a fong and
honourable tradition, and it will be most unfortunate
for it if any of the gretat forces of the nation are not
included within its ranks. We may admit that, man
for man, some more important personages have just
been raised to the French 6enate than to the
English Upper House, but we may yet doubt
whether the selection has been made with equal
wisdom. The matter is one in which France
can less easily afford to be One-sided. What we
have hem able to do by slow degrees, And by a pro- ,
cess which his gone on for centuries, is to be done
In France within the short space of a 'twelvemonth,
and we must not wonder if the results are very much
more incomplete... Our House .cf, Lords,
.149wever
difficult, it may
.be to offer. in, its 'defen'ce a Oeory
which 'shall be perfect every 'point, is a body
which beyond all question contains its full share of
representatives of the real,,powers that exist among
us, ncr will its character in this respect be it all in-
jured, if i,t can scarcely be said to be heightened, by
the 'additions which are so shortly to he made to it.
We cannot asiyet say the same for the French Senate.
We can only hope,that at the forthcoming elections
its present deficiencies may be, at least in some Part,
remedied.,

OUR EGG SUPPLY
'
“iicononly " writes in The Echo:—
Sir,—The extent to which we are dependent upon
our Con i
Continental neighbours for eggs, is hest shown n
the Board of Trade returns, the value of eggs imported
during the. first eleven months of this year having
feached iiet lees a sum of £2,426,806, repr- 1-, at
an average price of six shillings per Min, lcre
than 800,000,000 eggs.

"et-