The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-29 00:00:00

LO? DON, MONDAY, NOV. 29, 1869.

"THE QUEEN has been pleased to direct letters
patent to be passed under the Great Seal, granting
the dignity of a Baron of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland to the following persons
and the respective heirs male of their bodies lawfully
begotten." Such is the announcement in Friday's
Gazette, followed by the names and titles of the gen-
tlemen who have been exalted into the rank of noble-
men, or who have been raised from a lower to a higher
place in the peerage. There are eight of them, but
there were to have been twelve. The weather having
been unfavourable in October, Mr. GLADSTONE passed
the wet days in " creating " a dozen peers. One third
of them refuse to be created. Like the famous
Welsh baronet of a former generation, who thought it
a finer thing to be Sir WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN
than to have a dukedom, Mr. CIERISTOPIIER
RICE MANSEL TALBOT, of Penrice Castle, Lord-
Lieutenant of Glamorganshire, and for forty years
M.P. for that county, prefers to retain the name
which lie holds in common with the family of the
premier earl of England to being made Earl of
CARDIFF or Marquis of WORMSIIEAD. So, too, Mr.
EDWARD ELLICE, Lord of the Baronies of Glengarry
and Glenquoich, thinks that his old Highland title
is worth more than any coronet which a Lowland
Minister can give him. Then, again, there is Mr.
WENTWORTIIBLACKETT BEAUMONT, of Bretton Hall,
who has money enough to buy up half-a-dozen
peers—he, too, will not be kicked upstairs.
Finally, there is Mr. GROTE, the banker—historian—
politi .
cian, who trebly merited such reward as
there is in the bestowal of a coronet ; he too declines
Mr. GLADSTONE'S offer with thanks.

It is impossible not to see in these four refusals a
proof of the diminishing value of what was once
thought the highest reward. Fifty years ago a man
would have betray his party, and sell himself
for the honour which is now held so cheap ;
just as fifty years ago many a clergyman
would have stooped to any meanness in order to gain
a bishopric, the offer of which in our days so often
elicits a genuine nolo episcopari. What is the cause
of this difference ? Why do gentlemen of fortune
refuse coronets ? Why do clergymen of great abili-
ties refuse mitres ? For exactly opposite reasons.
The clergyman dreads the toil which the bishopric
imposes—dreads lest when, like Archbishop
TAIT, he has finished his eightieth letter
in a morning, he should be suddenly stricken
with paralysis In the course of half a century
public opinion has become so exigent, requires such a
vast amount of work to be done for the episcopal pay,
that only strong men should undertake the duties,
and even they must do so with the conviction that
episcopal lives, instead of being proverbially long,
are likely to be shortened by episcopal labours. On
the other hand, the peerage is contemned because
it has to a large extent ceased to offer
the career which it once offered. Thirty years ago,
when the House of Lords was a very much smaller
assembly than it is now, the individual influence of
each peer in the House was relatively greater. The
frequent creations that have taken place since then,
about 160 altogether, far exceeding the number
which have become extinct, have lessened the power
of each peer. But this is by no means all, nor the
most important change that has taken place. It is in the
altered relations between the two branches of the Legis-
lature that we find the chief causes of the present reluc-
tance to accept the once highly-prized distinction.
Before the first Reform Bill the Upper House was all,
but omnipotent. For nearly forty years its power has
been departing from it, until it has become, as the
Bishop of PETERBOROUGH has declared, little
more than the registrar of the decisions of
the Commons. We are not now discussing if this
change is beneficial or injurious. It is sufficient
for our present purpose to note the fact, for it offers
the true solution of the problem we started at the
outset. No one can doubt that a really ambitious
man—be he ambitious for present power or for pos-
thumous fame, to serve himself or to serve his

country—has a much better chance of accomplishing
his wish in the House of Commons than in the
House of Lords. Fancy Mr. GLADSTONE or Mr.

DISRAELI becoming a peer. They would just as soon
think of going up with the next batch of mayors and
sheriffs to be knighted. Who can doubt that if the
present Marquis of SALISBURY and Earl of DERBY had
had the power they would have renounced—the one
his marquisate, the other his earldom, in order to
retain the right still to strive in that noblest
of arenas, the British House of Commons ? tiro
must therefore expect that hereafter new peers will
belong less and less to the leaders of public, opinion
and the chiefs of political warfare. The gentlemen
who accept the dignity will be wealthy, highly
respectable, and locally esteemed. But they will not
be famous. The honorary rewards which the ablest
men ill seek hereafter wal be such as they
can hold consistently with the retention of their
position in the Lower House of the Legislature,
ribbons, stars, and letters of the alphabet. Should
one of the vacant garters be offered to Mr. DisnAELI
—should one of the most highly-prized privileges
of the nobility be bestowed upon a commoner—we
shall see another great step made towards depriving
a peerage of its former worth.

IT is early yet to think of next year's estimates ;
but that terrible trial which Mr. LOIN-F. has in store
for us, when he will compel us, at the very time that
we have all our Christmas bills staring us in the
face, to pay a whole year's income-tax at once, makes
us expect that the cruel CHANCELLOR of the LEx-
cgEqi:Eß will relieve our misery as soon as he can, and