The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-26 00:00:00

THE NEW PEE

Mr. Gladstone has made his first peers. They are
Sir John Lawrence, henceforth to be known as Baron
Lawrence of the Punjab and of Grately in the county
of Hants ; and Sir James Wilde, whose title is not
yet announced. Indians will, we suspect, feel rather
aggrieved that only the lowest grade in the peerage
hasbeen conferred upon their late Viceroy. Surely the
"saviour of India " was worthy of some higher dignity
than that conferred upon men like Lord Kesteven, Lord
Ornathwaite, and the other no doubt highly respect-
able country gentlemen who were lately raised to
the peerage. Surely, too, if Sir Charles Wood was
thought worthy of a viscounty for his not very
brilliant seven years' administration of India, Sir
John Lawrence, who has served in India for forty
years, and during a large portion of that time has
held the most important posts, deserved at least an
equal dignity. Sir James Wilde is raised to the
peerage on account of his high legal attainments.
He is not known as a politician nor as
a public speaker. Being the brother of the late
Lord Chancellor Truro, and the son-in-law of the
Earl of Radnor, and being also ennobled by a Libe-
ral Government, he is no doubt a Liberal. Ile is 53
years of age (six years the junior of Sir John Law-
rence), was educated at Winchester, and Trinity
College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar at
the Inner Temple in 1832, and went the Northern
Circuit. In 1840 he was appointed junior counsel
to the Excise and Customs. He took silk in
18,55, and became counsel to the Dachy of
Lancaster in 1859. In 1800 he was made a Baron
of the Exchequer, Lord Campbell being then Lord
Chancellor. In 1863, on the death of Sir C. Cress-
well, he was transferred to the judgeship of the
Court of Probate and Divorce, where he has attained
the very highest reputation. We have yet to learn
If he will add to the debating power of the Govern-
ment in the House of Lords. It is probable that
he has been chosen less with this object than
with that of increasing the judicial element, which at
present is lamentably weak. It is well known that Mr.
Gladstone earnestly endeavoured, though in vain, to
induce the Lord Chief Justice to accept a peerage,
It is an unusual thing for two brothers to obtain,
peerages for legal attainments and services. We
believe that until now there has been no instance of
this since the two eminent sons of the Newcastle
pitman, Scott, became Lord Eldon and Lord
;Stowell.

THE HUSH CHURCH.

The opponents of the Irish Church Bill have at
last found out a plan for plaguing, if not converting,
those who do not agree with them. They are pub-
lishing from the _English Ckurchnian a programme
for the clergy and others to act upon before the bill
goes into committee. Among other suggestions is
the following :—" Let all the pulpits in the United
Kingdom resound on the Sunday morning before
the day appointed for the consideration of the bill
with short and judicious sermons on some such text
as Acts v. 39, Lest haply he be found even to fight
against God.' Do the supporters of Church and
State wish to keep Liberal Churchmen away from
worship on that morning, or to drive them to Non-
conformist places of worship ?

THE BLACKBURN ELECTION.

Very late in the day the Liberals of Blackburn
have fixed upon their candidates. They have resolved
to adopt Mr. John Gerald Potter and Mr. John Morley,
the editor of the Fortnightly Review, and to pay
their expenses. The nomination day is Monday,
and the election takes place on Tuesday next.

THE 11FrRESENTATION OF MARYLEDONE.

Marylebone is one of those anomalous borougnsl,
which, while containing alarge portion of the London
aristocracy, allows its politics to be managed-
by very fourth-rate men. A little while
ago some of these decided that Mr. Harvey
Lewis, whom Vice-Chancellor Malins accused of
" false, fictitious, and fraudulent" conduct, should,
pending his appeal, not be asked to resign. In the
meanwhile he does not venture to appear in the
House, and is likely to be absent for many months.
This fact, rather than the scandal brought upon the
borough, seems to have stirred up certain of the local
wire pullers, and they have just held a very stormy
meeting, at which, after an immense amount of confu-
sion, thefollowing resolution was passed :—" That this
meeting, regretting the present anomalous state of
the representation of the borough of Marylebone,
whereby the Liberal Government is deprived of its
due, hereby call upon Mr. Harvey Lewis to resign,
as the recent legal proceedings have deprived him of
all power and influence in Parliament." Then
came the question as to who should be
his successor. This excited even more uproar
than the other matter. Dr. Sandwith's name elicited
accusations of infidelity, to which Mr. Baxter
Langley retorted that they had had enough of
" Gospel .mongerin, " in the person of Mr. Thomas
Chambers, the other representative. He believed
that a general election would take place in July, in
consequence of the rejection of the Irish Chum—
Bill by the Lords—a most wild supposition—,
and he advised that Mr. Grant (who was
defeated in November) should be asked to
stand now, on condition that he gave his
support to Dr. Sandwith next summer. Eventually
it was resolved to present a requisition to Mr. Grant
without any conditions. Mr. Grant was fourth on
the poll at the general election, having received 1,533
votes less than Dr. Sandwith. But while the second
has determined that he will not stand again unless
his election expenses are paid, the first is prepared
to spend any amount of money, and in November
vied with Mr. Lewis in his patronage of the
-publicans.

Marylebone is rather unhappy in its representa-
tives. Mr. llarvey Lewis is not the only person whom
the borough has honoured with its confidence, and who
has afterwards forfeited it. The career of Mr.
Edwin James is known to all the world. Curiously
enough, within a few hours of the time that the
electors were calling upon Mr. Lewis to resign on
account of 'Vice-Chancellor Malins's severe strictures,
the Master of the I; oils was passing judgment upon
Mr. Lewis's old colleague, Lord Fermoy, and con-
demning him and the other directors of the Land
Credit Company of Ireland to pay calls upon 535
shares, which they applied for, in the names of their
nominees, for the purpose (as alleged in the bill) of
rigging the market.