The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-02 00:00:00

AGAIN THE INCURABLES.

Lord Palmerston at last has completed his Cabinet,
and perfected his Ministerial corps. New writs have
been again moved. Three Commoners—all, however,
bearing the title of " honourables," that is, members of
aristocratic families—are placed in important admini-
strative departments. Noble connexions and safe seats,
as usual, govern the Premier in his selection of pub-
lic servants. When is this exclusive and destructive
system to end ? Nepotism is an incurable disease
of the aristocratic body politic. The corrupt pro-
motio❑ of nephews by the reigning Popes partly accele-
rated the Reformation. The French ewblessc were
awfully punished for their greediness and their mono•
poly of public offices, places, and virtual sinecures.
The British Peerage ought to take warning. It is
not half a century since it lost the power cf quar-
tering its male and female younger members on the
pension lists. Sinecures, in which numbers of them
❑estled, have one after another ceased to disgrace our
times. With the exception of a few old " lives," enjoy-
ing compensation and expiring life interest', we see
the close of that provision for state paupers. But,
wise in their generation, our nobles as they lose one
indefensible means of provision for their poorer relatives
at the cost of the public, usurp an unfair title to the work-
ing offices of our public adminietration. Nor are any
places with tolerable salaries below their acceptance. We
have Russells upper servants to the two Houses of Parlia-
ment, the Duke of Bedford enjoying a princely and accu-
mulating fortune ; the colonies afford an out loor relief ;
and -our despicable continental diplomacy yields an-
other workhouse for poor and wild youths, of which
the aristocracy now largely avails itself. In fact, no
office is too low, no income too mean, when better
provision cannot be managed. Not ten days age we
commented on the income tax "special" in-pectorehip,
bestowed on Mr. A'Court, and the passing over old pub-
lic servants, incomparably better entitled and qualified.
We now come to the acts of the past week.

It is far from our intention to be unjust or personal.
Mr. Edward P. Bouverie is a man of merit, of industry,
and some ofFcial experience. He was two years Under-
Secretary of the Home-office, and since 1853 he has well
discharged the duties of Chairman of the Commons'
Committees. As a younger son of Lord Radnor, he is
.a decided Liberal, and well instructed in the principles
of political economy. But why remove him from his
late equally welt-paid office in Parliament, and thus pace
the administration of the Bard of Trade uucte:r the pre•
sidency of two noble families wholly unconnected with
trade and commerce ?

The Honourable Henry Bouverie William Brand,
made a Lord of the Treasury, is only objectionable as
another instance of class patronage. Mr. Brand is an
intelligent man, perhaps worthy of a better working
office ; and Mr. Canning used to say, that the sole func-
ti fns of junior Lords of the Treasury were to make a
house and vote with the minister. This may he called
only a politic nomination—the borough of Lewis being
a safe return. But then comes the third selection
from the Suffolk family, the Honourable James Ken-
neth Howard. This gentleman who, we believe, was
formerly precis-writer in the Foreign-office, and who
represented the family borough of Malinesbury in the
two preceding Parliaments, we have no wish to depre-
ciate. He is the fortunate successor of Mr. Kennedy,
the ex-commissioner of the Woods and Forests. We
do not dispute Mr. Howard's qualifications and agri-
cultural associations for his new office. We simply
point to all these instances as a curious illustration
of the now notorious prieciple in the disposal
of patronage. All are "in the family way." Superior
merits and more plebeian claims are sacrificed to
the wants of our aristocratic governing class. Mr. Bou-
verie, we have already observed, has special merits of
his own, and the public service will never suffer in his
hands ; but whatever the qualifications of Mr. Howard
for 1,5001. a-year for life in the Woods and Forests,
would that honourable gentleman have been the succes-
sor of Mr. Kennedy unless he had been the scion of the
House of Suffolk and the son-in-law of the Marquis of
Lansdowne? The venerable statesman has certainly
earned the grateful respect of his countrymen. But as
his only daughter will possess on his decease a large and
ample fortune, o as it worth while or creditable, to vest
such an office inthe meanwhile, in his son-in-law, when
the Hon. Charles Gore, married to the widow of the
noble marquis's deceased son, Lord Kerry, holds the
first c immissionership 'I Thus the two commis-
sioners of that department of the Woods and Forests
will be virtually brothers-in-law l Lord Brougham has
rather indigi antly commented on the Commissioners of
Customs of Adam Smith, and the Excise appointment
of Burns, as jobs which could nat happen again. We
are more reconciled to such like past national gratitude
than to the above modern distribution of places among
our younger nobility. Can we wonder that a member
of the House of Commons has given notice that he will
ca'l the consideration of Parliament, after the recess, to
this appointment for the co-administration of our Woods
and Forests ? We last week indicated that the then va-
cant commissionership we.s likely to be bestowed on Mr.
Henry Roberts, the ex-private secretary of the Duke of
Newcastle, and late under-secretary of the War Depart-
ment. This gentleman is reported to have refused it, as
less by 5001. a-year than his recent salary of 2,0001. If
such be the fact, we think Mr. Robertshas disqualified him-
self for any further office, except a return to Jamaica.
But it is rumoured that the Duke of Newcastle, before
leaving office, left a " minute" guaranteeing to his pri-
vate secretary the right to a salary in some new office
equal to the 2,0001. a year in the old one, should Mr.
Roberts be displaced by Lord Panmure, or any second
comer I. This singular and scandalous "minute," it is
said, will be the subject of a motion for a return, after
Easter, in the House of Commons. Verily a re-organ-
sation of the civil service is needed, but certainly all the
"honourables" would successfully elude the ingenious
tests proposed by Sir Stafford 11. ✓Northcote, Sir C. E.
Trevelyan, and the Rev. B. Jowott. All the right hon-
ourables and honourables can spell and write ; and they
profess their capacity and accomplisntnents for our most
lucrative offices of public administration.—Dail;/ Ncw3.

SOCIETY OF AETS.—The seventh exhibition of inven-
tions is now open at the society's house in the Adelphi,
and will continue so during the present month. It con-
sists of a collection of articles recently invented, patented
or registered, and comprises models of motive machines,
building contrivances and materials, hardware, naval
and military mechanisiP, philosophical instruments, ag-
ricultural implements and saddlery, and articles for per-
sonal and domestic use. The exhibithn displays a vast
amount of ingenuity of contrivance and variety of in-
vention, and it is as interesting as it is instructive, It
well repay visit.