The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-13 00:00:00

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[PRICE 4D. STit:AiI"ED.

Spirit al the . Public Journals.

. (From thc Tiincs of tAis day.)
'The discussion on the right of the Crown to
create a peerage for life his iroir'reached a point
at which we may do wiser t - resume the whole
question, to see whence .ittaro'se and Whither 'it
tends, and to exaaitie.itlfrOnt the. point of view of
each of the disputants who have been so fully heard
before the public. •
. _ _

What, then,. has been the cause of this contro-
versy ? Clearly.and undeniably this—the the ap-
.
pellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords has be-
come a scandal and a reproach to'that noble body
and an intolerable oppression and grievance to the
public. Of our two . appellate courts the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council has been con-
tinually rising while-the House of Lords has been

as constantly falling in the opinion of lawyers and
litigants, till its high appellate functions have be-
come a source of weakness to the very body of
which they were once considered the strength and
honour. The neglect of all judicial propriety, the
smallness of the numbers, the diversity of the opi-
nions, have struck with astonishment and dismay
lawyers trained up in the 'snore seemly and labo-
rious arena of courts, the decisions of which it is
the high privilege of the House of Lords to over-
rule.' The grievance has become intolerable, and,
irrespective of any •question of prerogative, irre-
spective of the prejudices .of the Peers for heredi-
tary nobility, of the anxiety of lawyers to maintain
the dignity of their craft, of the wish of the Go-
vernment to remedy without legislative, action this -
canker, which eats into the very heart "of justice,
this poison, which adulterates its sweet waters at
their very fotmtain head, will, be and must, be re-
medied. From this point the discussion sets out;
to this it must return, and by this test must we
assay everything that is offered, if we would really
comprehend the difficulty and really appreciate the
possibility of a solution.
On the question of law we cannot doubt that
the Government has been well advised. The
authorities establish the legality of peerages for
life ; and, on the other hand, there is nothing
whatever to be urged, except a note of doubtful
authorship and not very powerful reasoning, attri-
buted, perhaps unjustly, to Mr. Hargrave, who, if
one of the most learned, was also one of the most
pedantic of men. The argument " from desuetude"
is of the - greatest force in any case. where the
prerogatives of the Crown are brought into contact
with popular. rights ; but in the matter of the
peerage, the creature and child of the prerogative,
moulded and fashioned by the, will of the Sove-
reign, which gives pre-eminence tosome,withoot
taking away from the equal rights of the rest, these
doctrines seem to have neither place nor applica-
tion. It is beyond dispute that originally a peer-
age w4a,s considered susceptible of all the limitations
incidental to. a freehold estate, and, if the policy
of one ago had suggested one•form, that is no rea-
son why another should•be illegal, any more than
those forms of settlement which conveyancers have
thrown aside as ill-adapted to the wants of the pre-
sent day.
If, however, we turn to the majority of the House
of Lords we find in them a surprising neglect of the
real interests of the public, and a strange misun-
derstanding of the real bearings of the 'question.
They cling to hereditary peerage and argue against
the law which is their safeguard, the prerogative
of which they are the creatures, and the constitu-
tion which -is their palladium, because they be-
lieve the power of transmitting their dignities to
their sons confers luitre and importance on
their Order. They do not seem to observe that
hereditary • dignity is, neither honourable to the
peerage nor the individual, unless it be attended
by hereditary wealth, and that nothing so infallibly
rains a priilleged class as that any large portion
of its members 'should fall. into poverty. or
social disrepute. They are offered the support of
a class of men who would adorn the debates
and maintain the intellectual position of the hou4e,
without transmitting their position to descendants
less useful and less influential than themselves,-
without aiming in any degree into competition with'
the territorial and hereditary nobility. From their
-talents the, hereditary nobles would derive lustre,
and their merits would sustain the repute of a
Chamber the energies of whose hereditary occu-
pants wealth and ease are so continually under-
mining ; and, worse than all, while intent on this
peculiarly selfish view of the subject, the peers tell
the public, who care much less for dignity than
for justice, thatthey must be content with the in-
tolerable abuses of the appellate jurisdiction of the
House of Lords as they stand, and that they will
not lighten them with one of their fingers.
Still more rs.arvelloug is the infatuation of the
lawyers. Nothing is more melancholy in general
than the history of the succession to law peerages
—a topic susceptible of ample illustration, were we
to accept Lord Lyndhurst's challenge, and enume-
rate the melancholy instances of the degenerate,
impoverished, and disreputable descendants of great
lawyers whose names encumber the hereditary
peerage. The family of a great lawyer is most fre-
quently ill brought up ; the father is immersed in
business, the mother seldom equal to the position
to which she is raised. When a great lawyer is
offered a peerage, he has to consider whether
his eldest son is worthy to succeed him, and
whether, if he be, lie will starve his younger chil-
dren to provide him with an estate suitable to the
dignity. To such a man one would have supposed
a peerage for life a most welconao refuge, but
vanity carries it against prudence and modesty,
and lawyers must transmit their titlesl to
their posterity even while threy are well assured
that that posterity will disgrace them. We ear-
nestly hope, then, that Government will not re-
cede from the position it has taken tap, will not
allow the prerogative of the Crown to be cut down
and destroyed by the Chamber that is its creature
and its offspring, nor permit the Peers to apply for
the elevation and isolation of their Order those
doctrines of prescription which have hitherto oaly
been used as the defence of the rights and liber-
ties of the Commons. Any ono who considers how
larg,e'a portion of the business of the House of
Lords is transacted by the first founders of peerages
will see the necessity of infusing more of this ele-
ment into that assembly. Life peerages may or may
not render the House of Lords an efficient court
of appeal, but they will, at Any rate, give to its
debates weight and consideration which the house
can only otherwise purchase at the risk of impover-
ished descendants. As for the judicial powers of the
House of Lords, since that house itself has so reso-
lutely declared against any attempt to palliate their
inefficiency, and since, nevertheless, some speedy
and efficient cure must be applied, we would hum-
bly suggest that,- while their lordships are wrang-
ling ever their dignity and privileges, a bill should
at once be introduced, transferring the appellate
jurisdiction of the House of Lords to the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, thus relieving the
peerage from a duty which it cannot discharge and
which it will not resign, the lawyers from the dread
of emancipation from pauper peerages, and the
suitors of our courts from a jurisdiction the scandal
and disgrace of the judicial system of the country
over which it presides.

TURNPIKE TRUSTS.—The general report made by
order of the Secretary of State was published on Satur-
day. It shows that the financial condition of the turn-
pikethe trusts generally continues to improve undterdur.
regulations and arrangements made by Parliament
ele-
ing the last few years, notwithstanding the
ci
nrea.lsBes3of
werethe r revenue t,)
11., alg.l
against 1,142,591.
totalgglr iruec receipts
al7ld6ll;7lB37Bl„.7sinamins3lBagsla,in 73871p5ein9n-di expenditure was
alid
1853 was 5,663,2711., and the unpaid interest 942,5251.
1,115,1241. in 1850. The amount of bonded debt in
swthille,l266
Comparing the several items of 1853 with those of 1852
it is observable that the toll income in 1853 was further
reduced by 6,0441., but, looking at the total amount of the
toll revenue (1,068,7821.), this reduction is only equal to
l lhse
O and cannot be deemed unsatisfactory.
reover, is partly accounted for. The
a
ur3neddt oupfcect per cent
borrowed in 1853 was 16, 010/ b •
T.
amount eing nearly
equal to that borrowed in 1852. The total sume expended
in repairing the roads in 1853 was 611,1201., being an
pin-
crease of 36,4641. as compared with the receding year-
Of the t )11 income alone 586,6331. was expended on re-
pairs, 108,3811. on salaries and law charges, and
357,0361. on payment of the debt and interest. Between
1837 and 1853 thi toll income has fallen from 1,509,985/.
to 1,068,7821:, or to the amount of 441,2031., but within
the same period the annual expenditure fora repairs has
been reduced by 327,3551. the, expenditure on law
charges, &c.,
17,4361., and the 'expense of the debt and
interest by 55,951/. ; 41,;053/.. was expended for "im-
provements " in 1853. The debt has been gradually re-
duced upwards of 1,000,0004 and the average rate of
interest payable on the existing glehis has.also been re-
duced,. as well as the'boudtod, mr`nortgage debt. The
total expenditure in 1853. exchded thei income by
26,5061.—an unusual oircuinstance, arising from the
payment of larger sums for repaifs and improvements.
The result was a reduction of the balance in hand from
336,404/. to 309,8981. Steps have been taken, an
tr d with
much success, to bring the affairs of tarapiketrusts
generally into a more healthy and prosperous state.
The report is signed by Ur, W. Niamey.

T_ -_~"~

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7

1-;

BE TWO/RUSSIAN PLENIFOTEINy;%fI
TIAMES. !-'

T T A e.,! nl
. 7 5,44 v
Le Nord publishes the following biographical a,aato
notices of the two Plenipotentiaries of Russia
• the-forthcoming Conferenoe
" Count Orloff, Aide-de-Camp Genera], General
of Cavalry, Commander of the Military Household
of the King, and Member of the Council of the
Empire, belongs to one of the most illustrious
families of his country. He is about 70 years of
age, but still brisk, active, and healthy. He took
part in almost all the wars which signalized the
commencement of our century.
• " Wounded first at A uaterlitz, be was also seven
different times wounded upon the field of Bona,
ditto, and was
..,aft:er wards ,made Aide-do-Camp of
the Emperor Alexander:: I. In 1825 he was a
General, and conarnanded'in that capacity the re.;
giment of Horse. Guards. wliiieh; in Deceiubor, 1826,
first hurried to suppress the'entetete''. -Count Orloff
gavotokens that day of boundless` courage and de-
votion, and from that moment dates his intimacy
with the Emperor Nicholas, of whom he was one
of the first advisers, and whose personal friend he
was. In 1828 he commanded iu Turkey the divi-
sion of HorSe Chasseurs. In 1829 lie was named
Plenipotentiary, and signed at Adrianople, with
• Marshal Diebitcii and Count Frederick Pahlen,
the treaty of Adrianople. . Atter the peace lie re-
mained some time at Constantinople as Arnbam-
sidor. Recalled to the companionship of the
Emperor, be accompanied his Imperial Majesty ia
his various travels.
" We next find him on a mission in Holland and
at London, where the affairs of Belgium were ar-
ranged. The year 1533 found him also at the head
of the expedition which saved Constantinople from
the-victorious army of Ibrahim Pasha, and he
signed the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi. Since 1845
lie has replaced Count de Benckendorff, deceased,
as chief of the third section of the Private Chan-
cellery of the Emperor, and of the gendarmerie of
the empire, the colonels of which, distributed over
all the governments, have less a mission of police,
properly so called, than a general inspection of all
the _.administration of the country, and also of
control over the governs rs as well as the governed.
.This post, full of trust,. gave to Count Orloff free
access at all-hours of the ,day to the Emperor, and
the r!glit to speak to him of all and everything.
" It has been remarked,-anti justly, that the two
persons who have filled theset important functions
near the Emperor Nicholas-=Count Benckendorff
and Count Orloff—were precisely the men re-
nowned for their loyalty, their spirit of justice,
and moderation. These functions Count Orloff
still fulfils With the Emperor Alexander 11. We
cannot give a better idea of the sentiments which
this Sovereign entertains towards him than by re-
producing the conclusion of the rescript addressed
to him on. the 22d of August last, on the occasion
of the anniversary of his 50 years of service :
At his last hour, in a final and sacred interview
with-me my father enjoined. me to thank you as a
friend who had always been faithful and devoted.'
"'This is the personage chosen by the Emperor.
Alexander to represent Russia at the' Peace Con-
ferences at Paris.

" Baron Brunow (Privy Councillor) comes from
a noble family of Courland. He has passed nearly
.40 years in a diplomatic career, in which he has
acquired an European reputation: He was with
Count Orloff at the negothations of Adrianople.
He then ' accompanied hint to Constantinople as
Counsellor of the Ambassador, then to Holland and
England, and to Constantinople in 1853.
" These two statesmen have linen accustomed to
work together for nearly 30 years, and, if we may'•
judge of the success of the negotiations about to be,
held by the success of those in which they have'
already taken part, we cannot but entertain most
favourable hopes of an early re-establishment of
peace. Cu returning from Turkey in 1830 Baron
13m-flow remained attached to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs as chief redoteteur. He then ac-
companied Count Nesselrode to several congresses
and diplomatic conferences. After remaining one
year as Minister at Stuttgart, he was sent on an
extraordinary mission to London, where he signed
the treaties of 1840 and 1841. He remained there
as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten-
tiary until the rupture of diplomatic relations be-
tween England and Russia. Since the autumn of
the past year he has been -Minister to the Germanic
Confederation."

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