The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-15 00:00:00

In the peerage of England there are twenty Dukes, their
order of precedency being, of course, regulated by the dated
of their respective patents, and within four of the bottom of
that distinguished list stands the representative of the ancient
house of Percy, taking rank immediately before the Duke of
1 Wellington. But though the deceased Peer did not stand
high in the roll of his order, fortune bestowed upon him per-
haps as long a rent-roll, and estates more ample and less en-
cumbered, than belonged to any member of the English aris-
tocracy. The deceased Peer was one of two twins; hi never
possessed a robust constitution, and he did not attain d'very
advanced period of life. His Grace was born on the 17th of
April, 1785, and at the time of his death had, therefore, not
completed his sixty-second year. At a very early age the
Duke, then bearing the courtesy-title of Earl Percy, went
to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took the de-
gree of A.M. in 1805, and that of LL.D. in 1809. Every
reader will be prepared to learn that a man of hut
rank obtained a seat in the House of Commons imme-
diately on his attaining sufficient age to qualify him
for that trust. Buckingham was the first place which had
the honour of being represented by the future Duke of
Northumberland. As a politician he enjoyed all the merits
of undeviating consistency; he began life as a Tory and a
supporter of the Protestant constitution, and every vote and
wish of his was to maintain the settled constitution of these
realms as it existed when his own political career commenced;
he was, however, by no means indifferent to social ameliorations;
the poor on his own estates were carefully provided for, and
his sympathies with suffering humanity even extended to the
African negro ; for we find that his maiden speech, delivered
in the House of Commons on the 2d of February, 1806, was
that of an earnest advocate for the abolition of the slave trade.
The death of Mr. Fox took place very soon after the late Duke
entered the House of Commons, and that much lamented event
created a vacancy in the representation of Westminster
which Lord Percy was elected to fill. As member for that
most important city he continued to sit only till the next
general election. To the surprise of the quidnunes, he did
Rot again present himself to the constituency of Westminste4
but came in for the borough of Launceston, where his family
interest commanded a predominating influence. In 1807 he
was returned without any contest for the county of Nor-
thumberland, and continued to be its representative until
very near the close of the Perceval Administration. It was
on the 17th of March, 1812, five years before the death of
his father, that Lord Percy was summoned by writ to the
Upper House. The records of the representative branch of
the Legislature present no striking evidences of his industry
as a politician or his talents as a statesman. He was a man
whose intellect and attainments procured for him a very
moderate degree of respect, and nothing could be more ob-
vious than that if he had not been "born great" he was not
very likely to have " achieved greatness." When the sub-
ject of this memoir was a young man the dread of foreign
invasion led to a very extensive armament of yeomanry
and volunteers. The force which bore the desig-
nation of the Percy tenantry deserved to be called
almost an army. It comprehended a body of horse
artillery, six troops of cavalry, and seventeen compa-
nies of infantry, which were clothed, appointed, and main-
tained at the expense of the second Duke. The command
of this force was entrusted to the then Lord Percy. That
he was popular with that corps will readily be supposed, and
there is nothing very extraordinary in the fact, that on his
elevation to the House of Peers, the regiment of the Percy
tenantry presented him with a superb sword. From the time
that lie took his seat in the House of Peers till his marriage,
little remains to be related respecting the sayings or doings
of Hugh Earl Percy. When he had reached the thirty-second
year of his age he ceased to be a bachelor. The Lady Char-
lotte Floreutia Clive, second daughter of Edward, first Earl
Powis, was the lady destined to be become the partner of
his life. Their union took place on the 20th of April, 1817,
her Ladyship being then in the thirtieth year of her age.
Having at all times enjoyed the reputation of great good
sense, much amiability, and many accomplishments,
she was, at the proper time, appointed governess
to the Queen, which nice she held until her
Majesty reached that period of life which rendered
such services superfluous. Although Lady Charlotte
Clive, in due time Duchess of Northumberland, was
well born and well dowered, yet there can be no doubt that
for any lady in this laud an alliance with the Lord of Aln-
wick Castle would be a signal advancement in life, far no
man enjoyed higher titles, more superb residences, or finer
estates. He was to be Duke and Earl of Northumberland,
Earl and Baron Percy, Baron Lucy, Poynings, Fitzpayne,
Bryan, Latimer, and Warkworth. He was to be the owner
of Alnwick, Warkworth, and /lender Castles, in the county
of Northumberland, of Werrington Park, in Cornwall, and of
Sion House, in Middlesex. He was, through his maternal
descant, the representative of the old Earls of Northumber-
land—of that Manfred, the Vane, who made irruptions into
France in the ninth century, and whose posterity, settling in
Normandy, took their name from the domain of Percy,
in that province. William de Percy, with his brother
Serle, accompanied William the Conqueror to Eng-
land, and obtained , from that monarch a grant
of 86 manors in Northumberland, and 32 in Lincolnshire,
and of course became a baron. The ninth in succession front
him was created Lord Percy of Alnwick, and the fourth
Lord Percy was, at the coronation of Richard IL, advanced
to the Earldom of Northumberland, with a barony in fee
transmissible to heirs female as well as male, The eleventh
Earl of Northumberland died without male issue in 1670 ; he
had an only daughter, who became his sole heiress, and she
succeeded to the baronial hcnours only. The sixth Duke of
Somerset became her husband, and their son, the seventh
Duke of Somerset, having been summoned to Parliament as
Baron Percy, was created Earl of Northumberland, with
remainder, in case he had no male issue, to his son-in-law,
Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart., who had married his Grace's
daughter, the Lady Elisabeth Seymour, and who in due
course succeeded to the Earldom on the demise of the Duke
in 1750, obtaining in the same year an Act of Parliament to
allow himself and his Countess to assume the arms and
name of Percy. His Lordship was created Duke of
Northumberland on the 22d of October, 1766. The
Smithsons are an old Yorkshire family, the first baronet of
the line receiving his title on the 2d of August, 1660. Hugh
the second Duke, eldest son of the first, married a sister of
the Earl of Bute, by whom he had no family, and from
whom he was divorced. Secondly, he espoused Frances
Julia, third daughter of Peter Burrell, Esq., of Beckenhass,
'in the county of Kent. These were the parents of the Noble
Duke whose life and character now engage our attention.
His twin sister was the Lady Agnes Percy, who married
Colonel Buller, of Penlynt, in Cornwall. On the 10th of
July, 1817, the second Duke of the Smithson line paid the
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honours and estates, which he lived to enjoy daring the long
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period of thirty years. Of the House of Lords he was by ne
means a distinguished member. He usually voted or gave
his proxy to the leader of the Tories for the time being; but
he scarcely ever took any part in the business or delibera-
tions of Parliament.

In the year 1825 Charles X. of France was crowned with
all the splendour and gaiety which mark every public cere-
monial in that country. Upon this memorable occasion the
Duke of Northumberland was appointed to represent the
Majesty of England. The expenses of that " embassy extra-
ordinary" where wholly defrayed from the Duke's private
purse; yet his superb equipages, and the magnificent array
of his attendants quite outshone the splendour displayed by
the Ministers of the Czar, or even by the representatives of
the Imperial Crown of Austria. But it is said that our Duke
could not utter a word of French, to the great horror of the
Parisians, who scarcely believed that a man possessed any
knowledge whatever who had neglected to cultivate their
own polished dialect. Neither could they be taught to
imagine that any subject of the British Crown possessed suf-
ficient wealth to render the expenses of such an embassy a
matter of trifling consideration. The amount of his Grace's
disbursements on this occasion may be estimated from
the fact that Parliament voted a sum of 10,000/. to pup-
chase a diamond-hilted sword as a present to his Grace, is
order to mark their high sense of the manner in which
he had maintained the dignity of his Sovereign at
the French Court. In the year 1829 the Duke of
Northumberland was selected by the Duke of Welling-
ton to succeed the Marquis of Anglesey in the office of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; the Duke, of course, gave his
entire sanction to the Orange party, and was, therefore,
viewed with aversion by the Roman Catholics, but he pos-
sessed neither the talent nor the energy to make himself
thorough!, hated, and so he continued in a quiet sort of way
to administer the government of Ireland until Lord Grey
became First Minister, when the Noble Marquis whom be
had succeeded in turn replaced him. Although the Govern-
ment allowance to his Grace while Viceroy of Ireland was
reduced by 7,0001. a year, yet the splendour of the Viceregal
Court was rather increased than diminished during his ad-
ministration.

His Grace had for some time before his death been labour.
lug under the effects of influenza, but no apprehension. was
entertained by his friends that the malady would terminate
fatally. On Thursday morning, however, one of his atten-
dants entered his sleeping apartment at the usual hour, and,
receiving no answer to his inquiries, became alarmed and
called in others of the domestics, when it was discovered that
the Duke was dead. His Grace is succeeded in his title and
estates by Lord Prudhoe, who is next brother to the de-
ceased Duke, and who, until the year 1116, was known by
the title of Lord Algernon Percy.— Times.

PRICE OF BREAD AND FLOUR.
During the present high price of all descriptions of provi-
sions it is important to ascertain whether the whole of the
price paid for bread is justly due to the enhanced value of
grain. For this purpose the following comparisons have been
made with the prices in Paris, in which place, as is well
known, the price of bread is fixed by law, according to a
scale varying with the value of flour :—The highest price of
white wheat in Paris is 56f. per 14 hectolitre, which is equal
to 85s. 6d. per quarter; and the highest price of wheat of
the first quality in London being 80e. per quarter, it follows
that fine wheat is per cent. dearer in Paris than in London.
The highest price of flour of the first quality in Paris is
62f. 45c. per 100 kilogrammes, which is equivalent to 625. 6d.
nearly per sack of 2801 b. English weight; and the highest
price of town-made flour in London being 655. per sack,
.it
fbllows that flour is 4 per cent. dearer in London than.=
Paris. The price fixed in Paris for bread of the first
er
loaf
is 51c. per kilogramme, which is equal to 84:it P
41b. weight English; and the price of brea
loaf, it follows that
the full-priced bakers being 10d. per 41b.t.London at
dearer in London
bread is rather more than 141 per eeet
that flour here is rather
dearer in Paris than in London, yet
d still higher, than in Paris.
than in Paris. It follows, therefore, that although wheat is
higher in price, and bread

FRENCH I'LAY.—Her Majesty and Prince Albert,
,S
of
Count Mensdorf, and attended by the
y
Marchioness
accompanied b
bourn, the Earl of Morton, Colonel Grey
and Captain Gordon, honoured the French plays with their
presence on Friday. There were also present the Duchess
of Sutherland, the French Ambassador and suite, the Belgian
Minister and Madame Van de Weyer, Viscount and Via-
countess Mahon, Lord and Lady Dillon, Lady Colthuret,,
Lord Suffield, Lady Joddrell, Lord Alfred' Paget, he.
The I:onde de Montemolin visited the House of
commons on Friday, to hear the debates en the Irish Rail-
way Bill proposed by Lord George tientinck. The Conde
was attended by General Montenegro and Colonel Merry;
and during the progress of the debates many of the Mem-
ber, who have had the honour of being presented to the
Conde joined. his party, and explained the procidedilige of the
lionse, in which he took much interest.
Fan. 12.—A report has got abroad
that ham. 111 tjt,,t‘',! steamer Medea, having on board his
Exce.ilenev Sir Seymour and f.anify, bound tv
Lisbon, has been compelled to put back into Plymouth,
having been on shore. Letters have arrived which state the
cause of her return to port to be the severe illness of Lady
Seymour, but which was mitigated by the weather having
moderated.

WAKEFIELD CORN MARKET, FRIDAT.—The sup-
plies this week are small, particularly of barley. We expe-
rience an animated demand for wheat at 4s. per quarter ad.
vance An improvement of 2s to 3s per quarter is obtained
on barley, the quantity offering being quite inadequate to
the wad's of maltst,os. Oats and shelling are more ready
of sale at rather better prices. Beans are Is. per quarter
dearer.

The anntihl bait in aid of the French Benevolent
Society will take place at llanover• square ROQIIN 012 th•
15th instant.