The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-01
BARON BOZ.

OF mysthcatlOn, TO learned but simplC-minded
gentleman lit is whispered that you are to be
made n peer 20 dear, no; | hope not; it
would not suit me at all, ~ was the reply. 'Wel
/ suppose" suffered Lamb THAT you cannot
help yourself; they will make you uapeer whether
you wish or not And off went poor George
Dyer, deyising ways and means to keep himself
from being made a peer. We trust that Mr..
Charles Dickens is not in similar dilemma; but
il is whispered that he is to be created one of
the new life Deerage. Men of letters in England
have been made belted knights or baronets; but
although titular distinctions of a higher order
have been bestowed upon writer's and scholars,
IT has been for political services, as in the we'll
known cases of Bacon, Brougham, Bulwer. and
Macaulay. Upon the whole, we think that n
writer whose claim is on the public affection,
and whose throne is in the public
heart-and of whom is this more emnently
true than of Mr.. Dickens ?-can i'll afford to
discard the CHEEKY and familiar name which has
been uttered by so many lips with admiration or
affection. When we would express the one, we
use plain Mr. but when we are governed by
the other. we drop even this. We presume that
nobody has said or written ''NIr. Burns" since
that great man died; yet tits noticeable that we
almost always say ''Mr. Carlyle as if Thomas
were person by no means to be trihed with.
Goldsmith happened to be a sort of doctor of
medicine, and johnson made an Ii. D., and
so both are known doctors to this day;
although we relieve ourselves sometimes by saying
poor Goldy, and sometimes by writing Sam
Johnson" What blessing it is that the fashion
of making literary lords has come in so late
Otherwise we would have had Baron Boltcourt
or Sir Oliver Goldsmith. That would not have
suited us at all. We have always thought the
Sir before Richard Steelc's name an imperti-
nent superfuity. 1t is impossible to forget that
in making Mr.. Dickens nobleman
all the honor and glory would
be on the side of the Government. The
fame of that gentleman is established. He has
already an estate in every generous mind, and
not even in the days of chivalry could the most
powerful lord boast such band of retaners.
His are achievements as great as any which ever
won spurs or a corOnet; his have been blOodless
triumphs over cruel wrongs and panoplied in
justice; his battles have been waged against out
rage and oppression with the pen, and why
should he be called to honors which are oftenest
associated in mems minds with the butchery of
the sword, or with revolving subserviency to
the crown? The credit of the installation is car
ried to the side of Government 1t does not
make the genius of Mr.. Dickens one whit greater
but it shows its own wonderful appreciation of
genius in general. 1t trades in popularity upon
his brains 1t claims n share which does not in
the least belong to it of his ardyearned laurels
1t calls upon the world to admire its magnan-
nifty i'll bestowlng such uneXampled hOnOrS upon
writer of rOmances, who has neither conquered
armies nor captured fleets, nor even made a
monstrous fortune upon the Stock Exchange.
1t cannot be forgotten, either, that the honor
offered is cheap one. Admission to a life
peerage, while great hereditary nobility con-
tinues to exist in England, will bring but little
social consideration, and the real princes will
look down upon the mock princes, as barOnets
have always looked down upon knights.
nobeman whose patent dates from the Conquest
will regard a novel-writing peer much as the
Duke of Norfolk might look upon Scotch
Judge; and will my Lord" him as the grandees
of Spain used to 'My Lord" the new dukes and
marquises while they addressed each other
with careless familiarity. Succession is the root
and essence of nobility. A peerage without a
pedigree, or the prospect of creating one, is
substantial solecism. While it brings no special
social consideration, it involves increased ex-
pendture in keeping up a barren dignity. 1t
does not found a family. 1t does not make a
man an ancestor. He is lower in the pages of
Burke or of Debrett, for all his peerages, than
the poorest baronet
Finally, we must be allowed as American Re-
publicans to put in our protest. Mr. Dickens
Charles Dickens-Dickens-bel to us. He
has been more generally read and more popu-
larly admired here than even in England. If
we may be allowed to speak with certain
rough sincerity, it shall be to affirm that upon
this side of the water we don't like Lords at all.
If the Queen would but ask Mr.. Dickens to din
ner, or butwrite him half-familiar note to say
how much enjoyment his last book had given
her, we should be pleased if we thought that the
attention gratifed him. Butwe give notice that we
shall call him plain Dickens TO the end, whatever
may be the augmentat ions of his escutcheon.
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