The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-26 00:00:00

REC ENT PEERAGES.

It is somewb act remarkable that during the time
the Earl of Al ierdesen presided over the destinies of
this country— -a period extending from the resigna-
tion of the D erby Government in December, 1852,
to the access ,ion of Lord Palmerston to power in
February, 1,855—he did not confer the honours of
the peerage upon a single supporter of his Adminis-
tration. Hs, did not even create a peer in the person
of his owrs Lord Chancellor, for at the time Lord
Cranwort. h was called to the woolsack he had already
been in the House of Lords two years, having been
elevated to the Upper House by Lord John Russell
in December, 1850, Nor for many months after
Mord Palmerston assumed the helm of the State
areseel were any additions made to the ranks of the
Ministerial supporters in the House of Lords.
Ear.y, however, in 1856, Sir James Parke, one
Id the Barons of the Court of Exchequer, retired.
after an experience of 28 years upon the judicial
bench. It was believed that Sir James would be of
great assistance to the five law courts of the Upper
House—Lords Lyndhurst, Brougham, Campbell,
St. Leonards, and the Lord Chancellor; so on the
16th of January, 1856, the Queen was pleased to
direct letters patent to be passed under the Great
Seal of the United Kingdom, granting to the retir-
lug judge the dignity of a peer under the style and
title of Baron Wensleydale "for the term of his
natural life." Parliament assembled on the 31st of
Ja unary, and almost immediately Lord Campbell,
the Earl of Derby, and Lord Lyndhurst, with other
members of the upper branch of the Legislature,
brought the matter before the attention of their
Lordships' House, questioning the right of
the Crown to create peerages for life. Debate
after debate succeeded, and at length the Peers,
believing the innovation to be an attack upon
the constitution of the House of Lords, decided
that such a patent gave the recipient of the
honour no right to sit and vote in, that House,
and recommended Ministers to create the title
afresh. To this they at first objected, but after six
months' consideration Lord Palmerston bowed to
the decision of the Peers, for on the 23d of July a
new patent was issued, with the usluasl67smiraiGndilebrertot
heirs male. On the 26th of Feb., 8
John Heathcote;Bart., onewhile M.P. for Rutland-
shire, ascended to the Painted Chamber as Lord
Aveland. Sir Edmund Lyons, for his services as
commander of the Black Sea Fleet during the Rus-
sian war, -was, on the 23d of June in the same year
created a peer under the title of Lord Lyons. On
the 29th of August the Prime Minister made an-
other addition to the law lords. The Right Hon.
Edward Strutt, who for more than a quarter of a
century had been a steady adherent of the Liberal
party in the House of Commons, and who at that
time represented Nottingham in conjunction with
31r.Walter, now M.P. for Berkshire, was elevated to
the peerage as Lord Belper. About a fortnight after-
ward—on 10th Sept.—Mr. Edmund Burke Roche,
who had sat for the coanty of Cork from July, 1837,
to April, 1855, was raised to the peerage of Ireland
as Baron Fermoy. His lordship was returned for
"Marylebone upon the retirement of Sir Benjamin
Hall from that borough in July, 1859. On April 4,
1857, Lord Cowley, who with the Earl of Clarendon
represented England at the Conference at Paris in
1856, was rewarded with an earldom for his diplo-
matic services. On the 11th of the same month the
Right Hon. Charles Shaw Lefevre, who for 18 years
had discharged the duties of Speaker of the House
of Commons, was gazetted as Viscount Eversley.
On Sept. 10, Lord Robert Grosvenor, who for a
period of 35 years in the House of Commons had
zealously supported the Liberal policy, was elevated
'to the peerage of the United Kingdom as Lord
Ebury. On the same day the Right Hon. Thomas
Babington Macaulay, who had retired from the re-
presentation of Edinburgh, February, 1856, joined
the ranks of the Government supporters in the
House of Lords as Lord Macaulay. Oa the 15th of
January, 1858, the Hon. Charles Compton Caven-
dish, who had sat for Bucks since 1847, was raised
to the peerage as Lord Chesham. This was the last
peer created in Lord Palmerston's first administra-
tion, for in the succeeding month the noble viscount
resigned upon the carrying of Mr. Milner Gibson's
adverse amendment on the Conspiracy Bill, and
Lord Derby reigned in his stead. As in the forma-
tion of his first Government, so in the construction of
his second, Lord Derby's first peer was his Lord
Chancellor. On the Ist of March, 1852, Sir Edward
Sugden ascended to the woolsack as Lord St.
Leonards ; on the Ist of March, 1858, Sir Frede-
rick Thesigor received the seals as Lord Chelms-
ford. On the 2d of August following Sir John
Yarde Buller, who had represented South
Devon in the Conservative interest from
1835, was raised to the Upper House as Lord
Churston. On the 16th of the same month Sir Colin
Campbell, who had saved India, " the brightest star
that shines in our commercial constellation," received
his well-merited reward in the honours of the peer-
age to which he was called as Baron Clyde
of Clydesdale. Still in August, and on the 28th of
that month, the Right Hon. Thomas Pemberton-
Leigh, who had declined the Chancellorship in Lord
Derby's first Administration, was sent to the House
of Lords by that Minister as Baron Kingsdown.
On the 14th of April, 1859, the ranks of the Go-
vernment in the Lords were increased by the acces-
sion of Colonel George Wyndham, of Petworth,
Sussex, who took his place among his peers as
Lord Leconfield. On the following day, Mr.
W. Tatton Egerton, who had sat for North
"leahire from 1832, was added to the rolls of
the „ a
—"age as Lord Egerton of Tatton ; and
en the 16th the third peer in as many days was
created ia the
arp,erson of Sir Charles Morgan,
aforetinae Monmouth. Sir Charles was
ta
to beember for Brecon, and was henceforth
known
conferred b_as..Lord Tredegar. The last honour
May 21, Ijs9.l4aDerby Administration was on
viscount Canning, the pacificator
of India, received agraneeerarldom for his services—an
act all the more
ul on the part of a Govern-
ment which only a
had
before, through
its Secretary of State
h severely censured the
policy of the Governor-General,
the sacrifice of the writer of that and escaped defeat
only through
de-
spatch—Lord Ellen borough,
An the month of June,
1859, Lord Palmerston reappeared upon the Trea-
sury benches as the head of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, and was not long in
taking"Ae measures to coun-
terbalance the influence of the Conaervative peers
created by Lord Derby.the
On the 2ase
then for Ma same
month Sir B. Hall,M.P.' l'eleboae
elevated to be a , was
member of the higher branch of
see
e
Legislature as Lord Llanover.
Smith,
nthl7
hfollowing day
the Right Hon. R. Vernon
borough ofo from the
year 1831 had represented
the
North-
ampton, received the title of Lord Lyveden, and
l took
e 8
his place in the Upper House.
On th of
August the Right Hon. Henry th
forLabouchere, 29
years representative of Taunton, was rewarded with
a peerage, taking his title from the name of the
town which had so often returned him as its mem-
ber. On toe 13th of February, 1860, Lord Ward
was honoured with the extinct title of Earl of
Dudley. On the 27th of June, 1861, Sir Richard
Bethell was elevated to the woolsack as Lord West-
bury ; and about a month later, on the 30th of July,
her Majesty's Principal secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs was rewarded with an earldom,
retiring among the cool shades and vene-
rable associations of the House of Lords ac
Earl Russell. On the sth of August the
Right Hon. Maurice Fitzhardinge Berkeley,
who had filled the office of Lord of the
Admiralty in several Whig Ministries, was created
a peer by the title of Baron Fitzhardinge. With this
Lord Palmerston appears to have been satisfied for
tahseeansoobnl,efim
for very nearly two years elapsed before
Premier bethought
him that the ranks of
the Ministerialiin
the Upper House required
augmentation, :t Was on the 7th of July in the
present year that the eldest son of the Duke of
Somerset, who, according totheaounrdon Gazette
l i ,was
commonly known as Earl St. Maur
the House of Lords in his father's lifwetaistnce uenadetor
the style and title of Baron Seymour. On the day
of the prorogation of Parliament, the 28th of Jul
Mr. Brand moved for a new writ for the boroueyl;
of Pontefract, Mr. R. Monckton llilnes, who had
represented the place for 25 years, having accepted
the office of steward or bailiff of her Majesty's
Chiltern Hundreds. A few days afterwards NIL

Milnes merged into Lord Houghton, while Colonel
White, of Woodlands, a long-tried and honest sup-
porter of the Whigs, was thenceforward to be known
as Baron Annaly, in the peerage of th© United
Kingdom. It will thus appear that during the
seven years and few months which represent Lord
Palmerston's two administrations, he has created 17
peers and one Irish peer, besides raising two, Earl
Cowley and Earl Dudley, to a higher gradation in
the peerage. Lord Derby, during his 16 months of
office, added the names of seven new peers to the
rolls of the House of Lords, and advanced one a
step—Earl Canning. A peerage created by each
Nlinieter is already extinct—that of Lord Macaulay
by Viscount Palmerston, and that of Lord Clyde by
the Earl of Derby. Lord Canning's earldom also
died with him. Between the oldest and the most
recently created peerages there is a difference of
exactly six centuries, the barony of de Ros having
been in existence since the year 1264. Western
Morning News.