Morning journal and courier., 1884-01-21
EngIand's House of Lords.
How the BIue-Blood Peers Violate the Moral and Statute Laws.
 From ths St. Louis SpsctatorJ

HOW the hEuSsbAOOu H00Ek IUAAI0 tnS Moral and Statute Laws.
 From ths St. Louis Spectator
 According to s'Cockaigne" there are twen- ty one dukes to sit as such in the House of
 Lords (being English titles), and four or five
 others, who are Scotch Irish, and who therefore sit by virtue of an English title of inferior degree as marquises or earls. Of these twenty-six dukes, then, how many of them take an active part in the delibera- tions of the House of Lords? Two-the Duke of Argyll and the Duke of Richmond. Of the others, the Duke of Northumberland was in theisst Cabinet ys Lord PriEs Scala most important offiee-and has, since Lord Beaconstields government collapsed, fallen back into as much obScurity as the second richest duke in England could attain. A melancholy, dismal old man he Is, over powered seemingly with a sense of his own greatness, greatness which would be vastly enhanced in the estimation of many did he come in direct line from the historic Hot spur," instead of possessing the plebeian pat romymic of Smythson, which gracious sov- ereien kindly altered to Percy to suis the ouirements of the title. The Duke of Marl-
 borough is another peer whose line IS crook cd.
 Though Churchill still, he does not come down from the "Great Duke" AS to the
 present duke's fitness to make the laws of the land, it need only be said that he Is the infamous bIackguerd, liar, wife beater and profipate scoundrel, the late Marquis of Blandford. The Duke of Bedford Is grasp ing miser, with about as much heart or gene rosity as @ pawnbroker. He has lately dis tinguished himself by haggling over the sale of a piece of land to the Metropolitan Board of Works when he should have made pres ent of it. He is enormously rich, his ances- tors having acquired as kings and queens favorites, most valuable church property, taken by the Grown upon the destruction of the monasterleS.
 The Duke of Westminster, though the richest duke in the land, with B daily income | that would support many people for year, l is another miser, whose mind seems only oc- cupied with the advancement of his own per sonaI interests and the qualification of the chronological quality of amativeness, which he must possess to great degree, to judge | by his hasty marriage to young cousin of | his own, before a decent term of wIdower- hood had been passed after the loss of his wife, who in her day was the most voluptuous looking woman and striking beauty in high | life The Duke of Sutherland passes most ] of his time in forming joint stock companies 1 to buy land in Canada and the States, and his duties to his country legislator are per | haps about the last subject to which he gives | & thought The Duke of Manchester is an- 1 other promoter of foreign schemes. He Is | what in England is called & ''poor duke, and so he has to do something to make mon- | | Iawmaker, His son and heir, Viscoant Man de71lIe, is a wretched specimen of a noble man, He is druukard of the most con. | firmed sort, and his country cannot hope for much in him either. Like Lord Blandford | and some others, he is tabooed in London
 society, and finds it more congenlal to stay l in America as long es he can. The Duke of | Leeds is positive nenentity. He is another l opoor" duke, So are the Dukes of Athole, | Montrose and Buckingham. The Duke of Beaufort is horsy dandy, who has been one of the 'smashers' of society for over thirty
 years. He cares more for the smile Of Con | nie Gilchrist, the short-petticoated young I "Gaiety" actress, whose protector he has | hean since she WAS fourteen, than he does l for the legislative councils of his native land The Duke of Grafton Is new man His | son, who will succeed him and who became
 the Earl of Huston upon hls father succeed ing to the dukedom the other day, has al ready distinguished himself as an arran blackouard and is married to and has fami | lv by notorious courtesan named Katt Cross.
 The Duke of Portland poses ss 'tgoody | poody'' young man, and wins the approving smiles of mammas and properly brought uI
 young Iadies-the sort of man, in fact, who | would (were he not stupendously rich) be
 cordially detested by any girl of spirit who 1 was fond of having lark His great uncle
 whom he succeeded two or three years ago, had been (so it was thought) ieper foi
 many years and was never seen by any body.
 The Duke of Norfolk, though no politician, l is a steady, sensible young man, and is thor
 oughly liked by everybody. The Duke of Hamilton is as every body knows, ''reform inp'' blackguard So much for the dukes or course. have left out the "royaI' dukes Nobody ever counts them, poor fellows Politically speaking they have no will of theil own, but but do what the Prime Minister
 bids them They take no part in the nations l councils as members of the House of Lords
 though all have seats in it. Now for the marouises. There are nineteen of them who
 sit as such in the Lords, besides those oi Scotland and Ireland, who have their seats
 by virtue of lesser English titles. The Mar
 quis of Salisbury is the only one of whom | great things can be said. The Marquis o1 Abergavenny (pronounced Abergenny), ths
 present head of the Nevills. is mediocre 1 man as a hot-headed Tory, with the cramped idess of the past always uppermost in his l mind, can be. The Marquis of Lansdowne has just been sent out to Canada as GoSerno
 General-a good sign that he can be spared
 from the House of Lords-and the Marquis of Ripon is the Viceroy of India Beyond l these four what, as public men, do the rest.
 with, perhaps, the exception of the Marquls
 of Bute-amount to? Next in order come
 the earls. The peerage is most pIonnc In
 this degree, there being in the House oi