The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

THE RENT DAY AT KNOWSLEY.

Thursday last being the rent day of the Earl of
Derby, hi■ lordship's tenants, to the number of three
hundred, were entertained to dinner in the coach-house
at Knowsley, in a style of true old English hospitality.
It will readily be believed that three hundred stalwart
Lancashire farmers, full of high spirits, inspired by the
general agricultural prosperity ; a lively sense of grati-
tude to their generous landlord, of whose great talents,
high position, and spotless reputation every man of
them feels personally proud, as if he somehow had a
right to participate in them, and had done something or
other towards their acquisition; and with appetites
sharpened by a frost which had brought the thermo-
meter down to 23 degrees and a decimal fraction—would
do ample justice to the substantialities under which the
well spread tables groaned. We need not describe the
exhilirating sceae—a lively imagination may conceive
it, but an attempt at description would only do it in-
justice,,and detract from its richness of effect.
The young Lord Stanley, the hopeful heir of an
ancient and noble race, presided on the occasion.
With becoming condescension, but with that grace
which is inherent in true nobility, and veils the conde-
scension, so that the humblest member at the board is
placed entirely at his ease, his lordship well and ably
did the honours of the day. The same ambition to ex-
cel which prompts the esquire in the field to win the
spurs of knighthood,--which impels the heir of one of
the oldest peerages in the kingdom to command the ap-
plause of listening senates,—which prompts him to be-
stow his eloquence at the meetings of Mechanics' Insti
tutes and other popular assemblies, and without which,
indeed, no true greatness can hope to be achieved,—
were called into requisition in this humbler sphere. The
earldom of Derby stands at the head of all our local no-
bility, and it delights us to see that, as generations roll on,
the scions of this illustrious house are conscious of their
responsibilities as well as of their rights, and nobly sus-
tain intellectually and morally the high position which
they inherit. The late Lord Derby may be emphatically
said to have been the most respectable man and the most
perfect gentleman in the kingdom ; the present Earl is
the acknowledged head of the great political party
which he represents ; his life from boyhood has been de-
voted to the public service ; his talents and his elo-
quence, no less than his high rank, have secured him a
public reputation co-extensive with the globe, and what
is very much better he enjoys in his ancestral halls and
in the bosoms of his tenantry the character of a liberal
landlord, an agricultural improver, and a hind-hearted
man. While he maintains amongst his equals the dig-
nity 'of his birth, of his station, and of the honours" and
rewards conferred on him by his sovereign, he can un-
bend in his elegant retreat at Knowsley ; and while at
all times the farmer's friend, he can occasionally stoop,
on festive occasions, to become the farmer's companion
for a time.

Itdelights us tofind that thepresent Lord Stanley, like
the young lulus, is following in the footsteps of his distin-
guished sire, that while he aspires to greatness in the state,
he does notshrink from the humbler and more domestic vir-
tues which grace the character of a country gentleman, and
which have made " the fine Old English Gentleman"
one of the most admirable types of the Anglo-Saxon
race. It augurs well for the future good of the country
to find the sons of our highest aristocracy, instead of
spending their lives in indolent enjoyments, and in the
questionable indulgencies of a Sybarite, nerving them-
selves from their youth to shrink from no labour, no
exertion, no effort personal or mental, which maq qua-
lify them for the due discharge of those high respon-
sibilites to which they are calld. We congratulate
ourselves on this cheering prospect, and we congratulate
them ; and it is by no means inconsistent with our pro-
fession, as political reformers, to hail as an omen for
good this devotion of young men of rank and title, and
" great possessions," to the disinterested service of their
country and _their 'kind. - YOrimost amongst -these is
the heir of the House of Derby. Long may he live to
fulAl "ti. promise of his youth."—Liverpool Chronicle.