The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-05 00:00:00

LITERATI ]U

QUARTERLY REVIEW, N. S -LONDON, IS3O.
If not a very brilliant., this is at least a very
intelligent number ; the articles are none of them
showy or glittering, but of a sound, useful,
practical character. The first entitled " English
Peerage" is an elaborate history of the origin of
many of the families of our English Aristocracy.
The following is a curious, if not an instructive

paragraph :
" The foundation of great families may, perhaps, be
deemed an inquiry more curious than instructive. Hallam
says, that almost all the richest of the English aristocracy
derived their vast possessions from the spoils of the Re-
formation. This is not precisely the case ; but is partly
true. It is well known to have been the case with the
houses of Cavendish and Russell. The latter Burke, in
his most indignant letter, provoked by a most ill-timed
and cruel sarcasm, had made known to all the world, in
terms of burning and inimitable eloquence. The widow
of, Sir William Cavendish, Elizabeth Hardwick, who after-
wards married George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
amassed the greater part of the Cavendish wealth. She
set up three sons—Henry Cavendish, William, created
Earl Of Devonshire, and Sir Charles Cavendish, the father
of William, Duke of Newcastle—all with immense estates.
It was not that these estates were always gifts from the
Crown ; but they were cheap purchases : the circulating
capital being probably in no degree equal to the vast terri-
tories which were brought to market. But the Devon-
shire rentd received an enormous accession by the Bur-
lington property, made in Ireland in the reign of James I.
by the great Earl of Cork ; and by the remnants of the
Clifford property in Yorkshire. The foundation of the
Fitzwilliam estates was, perhaps, by advantageous pur-
chases of abbey lands in the time of Henry VIII. ; but a
great increase was made by acquisitions in Ireland in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth; and, lastly, by the Wentworth
property, through the present Earl's mother. The Lons-
dale wealth has mainly sprung, we presume, from the coal
mines, on the ancient estates of that ancient family.
13necleuch has beeh 'an accumulation from heiresses,
including here in England almost the whole 'Possessions
of the_,Dukes of Montague. The Gower estates have
Mao' mainly come by marriage, beginning with the
Levesons ; but the grand augmentation was the
canal property of the late Duke of Bridgewater ; to
which are now to be added the Sutherland estates of the
present Marchioness—a principality in themselves. The
Grosvenor riches come mainly from an heiress, who
brought in marriage the London building-land, about two
generations back. The Spencer estates are the accumula-
tions of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, added to the
paternal Sunderland property. The Northumberland
estates are mainly the old feudal property of the Percys.
The Rutland estates are chiefly the baronial territory of
the ancient house of De Roos; the Portland are derived
from that branch of the Cavendishes who were Dukes of
Newcastle ; and those of the existing ducal family of New-
castle come from the Holleses. The Hertford were
chiefly acquired by old Secretary Conway, whose charac-
ter makes a figure in the early part of Clarendon's History.
It will hence appear that Mr. Hallam's assertion ought to
be much qualified. The Marquis of Winchester, however,
and Lord Pembroke, were great sharers of Abbey lands,
as is noticed by Naunton."
_ _ _

" Hardy's Travels in Mexico" is a short but
spirited notice of a work which, from the nature
of its details, and the way in which they have
been wrought out, has attracted no slight atten-