The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-01-29
ROMANCE OF THE HOUSE OF
LORDS,--AND WHAT THE
COMMONS WILL NOW Do

some of them took their seats ille-
gally, for they had been attained. or
those 'wenty-nine not five remain.
We owe the English peerage to three
sOurces-the spoliation of the church,
the open and fiagrant sale of honors
by the elder Stuarts and the borough
mongering of our own times. These
are the three main sources of the eX-
listing peerage of England
INCREASE OF THE PEERAGE.
There is a great deal of truth IN
that statement Queen Elizabeth
raised the peerage from thirty to
sixty and the Stuarts increased the
list to 1GS. After the revolution OF
1858 there were $50 peers. When
George came to the throne there
were IT'S, and it was then proposed
, to make that number the permanent
maximum. The effect Of such a pro-
posal would have been to create a
close corporation Of the great land
! holders of the kingdom, which, OF
course, would not have oeen permit
ted to exist many generations, be-
cause the great powers have been
limited to a comparatively few fam
lilies.
The proposed limitation was vio-
lently opposed in the. house of com
mons and had to be abandoned, TO
make the house of lords a popular
body and prevent a monopoly in the
hands a few families, no less than
3SS new peers were created during
the reign of George H. This was the
policy of William Pitt, who selected
them from the trading, manufacture
ing and professional middle classes.
/ This was a renaissance, the introduc'
tion of new blood, new ability and
! great wealth into a decaying nobility,
which might have exhausted itself and
died of decay if it not had thus been
revived.
There are now more than 600 peers,
and only thirty or more can trace
their lineage back of the reforma-
ton.
The permier of the peerage, the
Duke of Norfolk, is sad t. trace his
lineage to an ancestor who must have
resembled Gurth the swineherd, in
Ivanhoe, and his title dates back to
1888. The Towards, it is said, got
their names from a hog-ward or pig
keeper in 1889. The title of the Earl
of Shrewsbury dates from 1442; that
of Hereford from 1850; that of Win
chester from 1441. The oldest title OF
any peer is that of Hastings, when
dates from 1904
The Duke of Bedford is descended
from a fishmonger, who kept a shop
J near where Covent Garden market
! now stands, and that property, which
/ yields his grace an income of many
, thousand pounds a year, has been in
the family ever since The Duke OF
; Devonshire is said to be descended
, from the valet of Cardinal Wolsey.
The Dukes of Grafton, Richmond and
; st. Alban are descended from natural
| sons of Barbara Villiers, Louise Quer-
: ouaille and Nell Gwynn by his gra-
, cious majesty Charles II. The duke
t dom OF Beaufort, also created by
Charles II, represents an honor con-
ferred upon the natural son of John
? of Ghaunt The Duke of Buccleuch
| is descended from the Inflated Mon
mouth and sits in the house of lords
I by title derived from that pretender
? to the throne. Even so late as 1881
? the earldom of Munster was created
2 for the benefit of a natural son Of
? William w and Mrs. Jordan. At least
/ seven peers are descended from Dutch
5 Wallets brought from Holland by the
l Prince of Orange and they are now
: numbered among the proudest and
: most influential of all the dukes and
= earls in the British empire.
r THE writ Of the king ennobles the
r blood"
i USED FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES.
4 William Pitt is said to have been
/ the first prime minister to ufe an
= elevation to the peerage for politica
1 purposes, and he thus brought to the
support of his government bankers
s merchants, contractors, manufacture
4 ers and brewers, distillers and Other
e men of great wealth and business
e ability who gave his party a gener
?. Gus financial support and arrested tn,
II decay of the nobility. His exampl
u. has been followed by all succeeding
y. prime ministers, so that the presen
a peerage is composed very largely G
ie