The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-16 00:00:00

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ZINN WATIZ AT LONDON DRIDON.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16.

We easter to satiafaction in being told that the
Mamie of UN SDOSS E hu declined the Dukedom
whisk was placed within his reach. What fresh
bower, at the close of a long and distinguished
political and social career, illustrated by friendship

and intercourse with all that has been most eminent

in his time, could a step in the Peerage have con-

tetrad on Lord LAnsts.v ?lone-\t ell. The

country would not and could not have sympathised
with a promotion that deprived it of the old familiar
title by which the venerablo Statesman has been so
Wag sad so well known to it, and which has already
beams historical.

Who know anytlrng of the late Lord SHEL-
sclies, the friend of CHATHAM, the early patron of
BENTHAM, the associate of the great thinkers of the
last century. the eminent politician, and one of the
first of the disciples of Free Made, by the title of
the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, which closed hie
career? And who would have recognised our Mar-
quis of LANSDOW NE in the Duko of KERRY ? The
Dukedom would have operated as a concealment
and a puzzle in the next generation. Accepted, too,
at the instigation of colleagues long connected with
him, and no doubt deeply and affectionately grateful
to him, rich • title would have looked like Whig..
gery crowning and applauding itself.
It is for History, not the Crown, to distinguish
and reward the life which Lord LANSDOWNE hes
devoted to his country. It is for History to show (in
due subordination to truth, and without magnifying
its proportions or exaggerating his merits) how in
him a just and righteous opposition to the obstinate
and deliberate abase of power in the earlier part of
his honourable public life ; how a firm end wise asser-
tion
of popular rights at a time when they were
disregarded by the Government and despised by a
corrupt Legislature ; how the cultivation of that
which was noble, generous, and liberal in the
nation, when it was denied influence or au-
thority in the State—en prepared and disciplined
his mind, that, when a long tenure of power
naturally and legitimately fell to his lot, he
exercised without abusing it, co-operated in all the
great triumphs of his party, and, while de►th, deser-
tion, timidity, and selfishness thinned the ranks of
that party, remained firm and steadfast to the
last, equally the friend of the Crown and the people.
Lord Joan RVSSELL has repeatedly referred to the
benefits which the " temperate wisdom of the Marquis
" of LANSDOWNE " has conferred on the Administra-
tions to which he has belonged ; and not the least
graceful act inspired by that wisdom is, in our esti-
mation, this refusal of a Dukedom.
Lord PALMERSTON has, it is understood, met with

some hesitation, if not actual refusals, in other quar-
ters as to the Peerages he has had to bestow. We
confess we are not very sorry for it ; for the prin-
ciple of selection adopted seems to us to have been a
bad one. No doubt, it is for the popular interest
that the Peerage should be recruited. Statistics,
and common sense, alike show the tendency of the
hereditary branch of the Legislature to decline in
numbers, without recruitment ; and the more the
House of Lords becomes limited in numbers, the
greater the power of the Aristocracy over legislation,
over Government, and over the public service. To
maintain it at a large and liberal standard is, there-
fore, proportionally to popularise that Assembly and
to lessen the influence of the Aristocracy in the State,
provided the new creations are made in a right and
proper spirit, and that the fresh blood is drawn from
the popular ranks.
When Mr. PITT found the House of Lords too
independent for that subserviency to the Crown
which unfortunately perverted and injured his great
political capacity, he unscrupulously abused the op-
portunities GEORGE 111. allowed him by unduly re-
presenting in the Peers the mere territorial interest
of the country, and had no better principle
than multiplying and strengthening Toryism.
This brought odium on what was, and in
the British Constitution really is (rightly con-
sidered and need) a popular right; and that odium
disinclined succeeding Monarchs to give their poli-
tical servants frequent opportunities of introducing
a better style of Peers. The necessities of party
compelled Liberal Governments to be exclusively
partisan, when the great wealth of the country was
opposed to them, in the chances of promotion
afforded them. With Lord Meow:rustle poli-
tical fidelity was the sole test of fitness,
irrespective in too many instances of station,
character, or fortune : and thus discredit was
brought on his additions to the House of Lords. To
avoid that discredit,lSir RnueaT Pen. characterir
tically practised Purism under circumstances where
self-denial and abnegation were no great merit. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL and Lord ABERDELN followed his
example ; and in the course of time it has been left
for Lord PALMERSTON to regain with greater free-
dom and latitude of choice those opportunities which
every Prime Minister ought in this country to pos-
sess within proper limits; for the recruitment of the
Peerage ought not, in a restricted Monarchy, to be
dependent on the personal opinions of the Sovereign,
but on the advice of responsible Ministers.
Well disposed, then, and from a liberal point of
view, to regard favourably additions to the Peerage,
we yet, with the exceptions of Lord BELPRE and Lord
MACAULAY—for Viscount EVERSLET'S creation was
• natter of conrse—can see little on which to
es•gratulate the really popular party of England in
dm selection or the offers Lord PALMERSTON has
made—an opinion in which Sir BENJAMIN HALL
Will probably concur. The principle on which Lord
Pat.meastoe has recently acted seems to be to make
tie Aristocracy more aristocratic and exclusive, not
le enlarge and extend its arcs, Take, fur instance,
tke care of the new Lord Eimer. He le a junior