New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-15
DIGNITIES AND INDIGNITIES.
SIX NEW BAROyETs-CURiOsITIEs OF
TRAY Ell.

Mr.. Gladstone. Last year he made six Peers. Now
he has made six Baronets. The dignity of o
baronetcy is a coveted thing. spite CT the number
of these titles and OF The queer origin Of them. and
of the mild ridicule which clings about the name
Till yesterday there were GOA baronets of England
to-day there -OO and to these have to be added
1O2 baronets Of Scotland and 81 baroneis OF Ireland
Ano less thqn 500 in all. The inferiority Of Ire
land in the matter of baronets will be sure to strike
you. II may strike Mr. Patrick Collins Also or Mr.
Cox, and | dare say we shall hear of the New
York Aldermen instructing Mr. Lowell to make
demands on the British Government for more Irish
baronets. Perhaps Mr.. McSweeney would consent
TO be liberated out of the British dungeon which he
is so 10th to quit if he were made baronet. Sir
Patrick McSweeney, Baronet. would sound well.
do not know that this patriots namc IL Patrick,
but hope it is. The attendance of Sir Patrick and
Lady McSweency at the next Levee OF the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland might he expected to have
healing effect on Irish wounds. Then there arc
the odd 500 other suspects still immured in Kill
mainham and other dens of tyranny. Why not
make them all Baronets2 This is solution OF tho
Irish difficulty which has not yet been proposed.
Lord Beaconsfeld was wont TO speak of baronets
with freedom. When King James invented
Baronets land like other inventors sold his idea
for money he promised that the grantees Of this
new title should be of gentle blood. But Lord
BeaconsGeld declares that a baronetcy. has now
become distinction Of the middle class our
physician, for example, is baronet. and dare say
some of our tradesmen brewers people OF that
sort" Yet this is less ferocOus than what the same
writer says of The Peerage: We owe the English
peerage to three sources: the spoation sof etho
Church. the open and 1agrant sale of its honors
by the elder Suarts and the borough mongering Of
our ow n times.v a remark which gives rise to tho
question Under which of these three heads lis
the creation of the Earldom of Beaconsfeld to be
set downi
All the six baronets now created are Members OK
Parliament, except Mr.. Adam; who doubtless owes
his elevation to his being the of his father, tho
late Mr.. w. 7. Adam, sometime Liberal whip and
for q short time Governor of Madras. They do not
call for much comment. Mr.. Milbank and Mr.
Hussey Vivian are the two men who cannot be in-
cluded in Lord Beaconsfeds about the
middle class They are of the patrician class Tho
Mlbanks of Yorkshire are great people in that
county, and considerable landowners. Mr.. Mil
banks mother was, moreover daughter TO a Duke,
and lie is nephew to the present Duke OF Cleveland
and a member of BroOks's This latter claim to
distinction he shares with Mr.. Vivian, who Is
Deputy Lieutenant of Glsmorganshre and has been
thirty years in Parliament Mr. J. W. Pease is q
Quaker The Peases of Darlington, or perhaps
should say of Durham, are a wellknown and very
wealthy family One of them, not this one, lately
proved his liberaty in matters of money AMI
belief by giving some 100000 to help endow new
Bishopric of the Church of England Mr. A.
Matheson is Scotchman, Of Altadale in Rosshire,
where his family, are told, has resided for up
ward of 600 years He is a merchant in London, q
director of the Bank OF England, and, as ono
chronicler oddly phrases IT, of other important I'M
dertakings. 1t is probably some time since that
experimental term has been applied to the Bank
of England; as if it were one OF Mr. Albert Grants
bubble companies, which 1t is not
Mr. NJ A. Bass is one of the firm whose name Is
borne on bottles with a red pyramid all over the
world. Lord Beaconsheld Lady Joan Fftz-
Warene into whose mouth he puts the remark. was
certainly wrong in reckoning brewers and trades
men in the same category Brewers and bankers,
as said the other day with reference to one OF the
new peerages are a caste apart. don't know why,
unless it be that they don't sell things over the
counter The reason once given for never making
a doctor a peer that guineas passed directly
into his hand from myOurssurreptitousy, 1t is true,
but still the physician does stretch out his hand Tor
the money, and that appears to be reproach TO
him. Some pious American complained the other
day of my use of the word tradesman, as if means
to express or imply taunt. Not at all. 1t is the
word in use here to denote certain class; and to
avoid using il would be misleading. This Is .
country of cisses and castcs. Distinctions exist;
TO ignore them would be the most childish aiiecta-
tion The Mr. Bass who is now made Baronet 10
not the elder Mr. Bass the head of the firm and col
league to Sir william Harcourt in the represents
ton OF Derby nut his son. The father, man OK
over eighty. declined the dignity. The result Is
that the son will henceforward take precedence OK
the father in society, II you, ask them both TO
dinner Sir Michael will go down before Mr..
Michael But these are soemnitieS into which
will 90 no deeper. They must be left to Burke and
Dod or to Bluemantle andl Rouge Dragon, OF tho
Heralds College; which itself is SAID TO be place
of much American resort.
The breakdown OF the boat from Boulogne to
Folkestone last Tuesday has drawn attention to the
state of the Channel service; and none too soon.
Mr. st. George Miyart has written letter to The
Times : o " lady passenger" has done tue same to
The Dailu Ne,cs: a question has been asked in the
House OF Commons, and Mr. Chamberlain has
given the stereotyped answer that an inquiry will
be made. Official inquiry is a most proper thing,
but excepting the officials of the Board of Trade
everybody knows what happened. The South
Eastern Railway. which works the Channel traffic
between Folkestone and Boulogne, has two new
and swift hips-the Albert Victor and Louise
Dagmar. 1t has other boats which are neither new
nor swift; among them the Albert Edward. On the
day in question there were $40 passengers from
Paris to London. OF these ten put the
Albert Victor which is not only and swift but
half as big aga.n as the Albert Edward on which
the odd 300 embarked. The Albert Victor
made the passage and landed its ten passengers at
Folkestone in an hour and half. The Albert Ed
ward broke down half an hour out of Boulogne;
cylinder pipe bursting, and only the pluck and
promptness of an engineer preventing an explosion
of the boilers
II was q rough day. The steamer wes helpless.
ana drfted along the coast in full view of Boulogne.
whence no help was dispatched. The captain at
e. .f...,l 70 iira his sicnal did finally dla.