The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-09-09
THE PRETENDERS.
Some History in Connection
with the Old BritOGs.
DUKES, EARLs AND BARONS.
How Titles are Conferred by the
ReigniDg Sovereign Tie
AIistOcracy.

In the early days of my residence in
England l visited a man of title who
had inherited a venerable hall that i'm
pressed me profoundly. The chapel
was a part of the edifce, stately and
ancient, with Two entrances, one for the
family direct into the chancel, and an
other for the people through the porch.
Ny host showed me his own armorial
bearings on the wall, the brasses bear
ing his name on the pavement, and the
tombs of ancestral crusaders were al
around. 1 thought how delightful to
trace ones lineage back to these fighters
or the cross ID " orship under the walls
which ones forefathers had founded
long before America was discovered.
But afterward learned that this aris-
tocrat, who is not now liYi g, was alto
gether of another blood. His aunt had
married into the ancient family, and
the elder race becoming extinct, she had
left to him who had no share in the line
all the possessions Of which he was so
proud. He had assumed the name and
arms of the Crusaders, and assumed
also the pride of line age and the anceS-
tral dignity, to which he had no more
right than the american and Democrat
before whom he paraded his honors.
The naughty old Barons in their tombs
had furnished no drop that flowed in his
viens, and if their shades revisited the
chapel and the hall which once were
theirs, the present proprietor must sleep
M, 1cIf In far 10 -,
who followed the Lion Hearted" and
whose names and arms still decorate
the chancel that they built, whose
bones, perhaps, have not altogether
crumbled in their marble tOmbs, stalk
ing at night in the lofty aisles. and fret
ting at the assumption OF the intruder.
For him to occupy their place is bad
enough, but to appropriate their honors
and even their name must madden
them. When at last he is laid by their
side in the ancient vaults, how the
ghos3s will accuse him of coming TO
their company without warrant or
summons.
But the7 are helpless now. The great
est baroDs that ever formed a part of
the English nobility have suffered the
same outrage. From the Queen down
to its pretenders who wear the honors.
The loyal family is of the younger line,
and the rightful heirs by blood are scat
tered over Europe, in exile, while heavy
German princelings are wearing the
crown of the Tudors and Plantagenets.
If it comes to divine right, or the loyal
ty due to sOvereigns on account of birth,
the present family has'Only a spurious
royalty.
7 The dukes and earls and those of les
ser degree follow the exalted example
of the throne. There is no Iprouder
title in England than NOrthum berland.
and no greater name than Percy; but
Percy was extinct hundreds of years
ago, and the present duke is Smith
son. In the last century one of that
name Was ennobled, and took not only
the lofty title. but the high-sounding
ia-i.'. name. You might do it Just as
reasonably, my Democratic reader WHO
ever you are. How Hotspur would
scOrn the connection and punish the i'm
pertiuence of the Smithsons if he could
return to AlnWick for single hour.
Half the great names in the peerage
have been thus revived. The Richmonds
are not Richmonds, nor the Oxfords
Oxfords, nor even the Hollands Hol-
lands. The WarWicks of Warwick
Castle have none of the blood Of Il ell
king-maker. The first dukes of BedfCrI
were Tudors and Plantagenet7. with
whom the present duke can claim 10
kin. The Earl of Essex of to-day is of |
an entirely different stock from the !
great peer of Elizabeth's reign, and the |
Leicester who married Amy RObsart |
looked down in his time on the ancestor
of the man who now bears his title |
and name, Some modern politician or |
courtier is to be promo ted for bis vote |
on the Irish Union or the support of I
disgraceful measure or a still more dis !
graceful Minister; he turns over the list |
of extinct peerages, selects an historical
appellation. and comes into the ancient I
renown. The ignorant think of him as
descended from Essex or Northumber.
land. Or a bastard son, sprung, it is
true, from an ancient line, but conceived I
in shame and born in iniquity, rises
into prominence, and persuades the
sovereign or the Premier to bestow on
him the name or title to which. accord
ing to all the laws of nobility he has
least right OF all; but he wears the cor
onet and sports the arms.
For the Queen is the fountain OF
honor. She can, it is said, make every
man in England a peer. She can not
only give to any man any title that he
asks, but can confer the arms as well,
which, if there is anything in heraldry,
should be exclusive property. The
vIlest wretch may become noble az g
troke; a man kneels down a commOner
and rises a knight; We all know this;
bat shat she should bestOw a second
time the venerable titles that have &C
ouired historic renown is damaging to
the very principle of aristocracy; that
the family names should be torn from
these bsTons of the middle ages, the
names which they rendered iilustrious,
OF which they were so proud, and given
to some modern place-hunter, is 10 a
Democrat inconceiYable. Even the
arms they fought for, the crest they de-
vised, the bearings on heir shields that
indicated their &c DIS or their character
or history, must be shared with some
pretender or usuIper of to-day.
One of the most pretentioCs mobiles in
OF this generation. OF largest
possessions and exalted rank. bears a
name that all the world knows; that
was famous a thousand years ago.
- aF1.a.