The Washington times., 1901-11-03
MEN WHO JUST MISS PEERAGES.
And Some who Get Them Under Drs-
matte circumstances.

II is amonG the many curiosities of the
House of Lords that, while many men
enter it by the most devious and obscure
roads and others find their way in by
mistake. there are others who get to its
very portals, when death intervenes and
shuts them in their very faces.
OF this unfortunate number was Sir
John Macdonald. the great Canadian
statesman, for whom a patelt of peerage
was actually being prepared when news
came that he was dead and would never
need his coronet
The same irouical fate overlook the
late Mr.. w. H. Smith when he proposed
to rest from his labors OF the Commons
and the Queen had intended 10 convert
The Woodworking politician into a Wis
,ount. In both these cases, however. the
dignity was not lost. for it was trans
ferred. by the wish Of the Queen, TO the
wives of the dead statesmen.
Lord Leighton, too. found his dignity
snatched from him before he had fairly
grasped it, for death came quick on its
heels, and his tenure of q peerage was,
perhaps. the shortest on record.
1t is not often that a mistake is made
in comforting such an honor as that of a
peerage; but it has happened at least
When the Prime Minister offered bar
onetcy to the late Lord Hammond Chen
plain Mr. Hammond, by some curious
error the word "barony" was substituted
for ''baronetcy." and Mr. Hammond's
prompt acceptance OF the dignity made
the mistake irrevocable. He blossomed
into Lord Hammond; but. as he had no
son. the dignity died with him.
Many of our peers who have lived to
take their seats in the House of Lords
have previously filed roles which a House
of Lords messenger would consider be-
meath his dignity One well-known earl,
the thirteenth of long and distinguished
line of earls, earned his living as jockey
for many years before succeeding to his
dignities
Another earl received the news of his
elevation under very singular circum-
stances. He was a clever musician and
as poor as he was musical. and earned
more or less precarious income by playing
and singing on the sands at seaside re-
sorts.
When 4 solicitor went down TO Brighton
to announce his accession to the earl
dom he found the new peer engaged in a
chatting contest with tripper and on the
point Of coming to blows with him.
A third earl. who so far has not found
his way into the House of Lords, is the
son of an Aberdeen bank agent, who un-
expectedly awoke one morning to find
that by the death of very remote cou-
sin he was full-blown Scottish earl. The
present peer, the son of the Aberdeen
banker, had gone out to America some
years earlier as a cowboy, and was on
his fathers elevation, which made him
III I,e- Il r1rIy-
ing primitive life of a 'backwoods"
farmer.
When a fourth earl came into his title
he was picking up a living in New Yea
land as farm laborer, content with a To-
cal reputation as an expert fencer and
ditcher.
One Of our barons is at this moment
head man of an Indian village in the
Northwest Provinces. as good a native as
any of his Villagers. and married
TO a native woman: and an English earl
whose romantic promotion is still of re-
cent memory went straight to the House
of Lords from the humble position Of hall
keeper in Chelsea.
Many men following humble vocations
have positively refused TO be made peers
1t il said that the last Baron Beauville
was gardener at Tunbridge Wells, who
preferred to die a gardener rather than
assume what he facetiously called bar
rem title. The heir to the Niscounty of
Allen is said to be a South London gro
Ger who elects to stick to his counter;
and the heir to the Barony of Fernbor-
ough, who was found in a workhouse,
fatty declined to bother himself about
titles
Among members of the zpeeraSe who
might, under happier - conditions, sit
among our legislators IN, the House of
Lords are no fewer than nine ladies. Of
whom one is a countess. another vis-
countess. and seven are haronesses, all
in their own right 1t IS only right. per-
haps. to say that one OF them. Baroness
Beaumont has not emerged from the
nursery. and is still more fascinated by
dolls than by titles and coronets.-Tid
Bits.