New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-05
HONORS IN ENGLAND
The New Peers. Baronets AMI
Knights.
London. June o.

confronted with the list of birthday hon.
ors. frankly admit that II would be diff
cult for a Prime Minister to lead his
warding partisans for timely service and
for generous contributions to the cam
paign fund. The seven new peerages are
frankly political, and. with one or two
exceptions the forty-odd baronetcies and
knighthoods and the five appointments
to the Privy Council are gifts in recogni-
ton of sacrifices for party or of financial
support.
Political obligations are incurred when
a seat is provided for a defeated member
of the government, when veterans are
thrown out at a general election, when
subscriptions are renewed year after
year for expenses at headquarters or
when platforms are ornamented in pro-
vincial towns by captains of industry
and business men Of high reputation.
The debts are paid when peerages are
bestowed. and the other honors at the
disposal of the crown are freely distrib-
uted. If there were no recognized sys-
tenn OF compensations and sOlat1ums the
political chest would be empty and lead
ership would become an intolerable bur
den Moreover, ambitious political host
esses would be denied the inestimable
privilege of being addressed as Ladies'
The large number of Radical aspirants
for social distinction implies that the
agitation against the House of Lords is
more artificial than the advanced men
are prepared to concede. 1t has been
essy to find seven thoroughsoing LID
erals who are willing TO immediate them
selves on the altar of privilege, and 1t
cannot be doubted that seventy times
seven would readily be induced to &C
cept peerages If guarantees were op-
tanned for wtping out the Conservative
majority in the upper house. BRUSH
matrons can be depended upon to save
the second chamber. whether they sue
coed or fail in securing suffrage Their
appreciation Of the dignity of rank and
titles may not be democratic nor Logical,
but II is sincere. and their husoanus'
sons and brothers are affected by II.
Advanced Radicals may have WORKED
themselves I'D into white heat oyer
the usurpations of irresponsible peers
h,,t thew have not declared war upon
titles If they succeed in muzzl1ns or
paralyzing the hereditary legislators oy
veto bill or otherwise they Ull De
satisfied The abolition of the g1ldeo
chamber. with its social prestige anu
eIorified traditions. is not advocated py
anv revoIutionists outside the Labor
erorn The reconstruction Of the upper
house IN popular basis is the Radical
zeal This implies the maintenance OF
titled class, with consolation prizes Tor
sound Liberals. who have worked their
way I'D from the bottom ana Nnos7
wives covet pride of station.
The new peers. baronets and knights
are mainly seIf-nlade men Some Of
then, have an1assed fortunes as con-
tractors in engineering works or as
ma nipulators of colonial stocks. others
have discovered diamond fields or estao-
Iished great commercial or lnoustriai
ENTERPRISES: others have commander
success IS tourist agents. art publishers.
practical politicians and professional
halt at the halfway house of haronet-
age and knighthood they bring 1resh
blood into the privileged class and help
to keep II in touch with the masses OF
working people When their titles to
social distinction are examined-and
few of them have not emerged from the
obscurity Of mediocrity long enough TO
have their records compiled in Who's
Who or any other encyclopedia OF cur
rent biography-there Is pracucal evil
dence of the levelling process which Is
the peerage.
A large proportion of the titled legis-
Iature stands for recent creations; only
a small fraction represents noble fam
lilies of ancient lineage. That is the bit
ter lament of the oldtime aristocracy:
that plutocracy and democracy between
them have vulgarized the peerage and
reduced it to so pitiable a plight that 1t
does not really matter whether the
claws of the Lords are clipped or the
hereditary legislators are replaced by
elective Senators or glorified county
Mr.. Asauith has followed Lord Rose
bery,s example in singing out represen-
tatives of art and literature for the
honors of knighthood. This is a timely
to good letters and the fine
arts when similar favors are bestowed
upon the chairmen. and managing di
rector of the mining company, in whose
fields the huge Cullinan diamond pre-
scented to King Edward was found. Sir
Alfred East has we'll deserved the COM
pliment paid to him by the crown. Not
only has he been a landscape painter of
noble aims, interchangeable industry and
of methods. but he has also
with life the r1oribund
Society of British Artists. engaged in
important International labors on the
Continent and in America and COM
manded recognition from foreign art
societies.
Mr.. CUTLER COUGHS title TO distinction
as a representative novelist is not so
clear as the painters: but he Is so sim
cere a literary worker. so worthy and
amiabe man, that no associate in fic-
ton and poetry will either begrudge him
the knighthood or explain it away as a
reward for sturdy Cornish Radicalfsm.
Neither George Meredith. while he lived.
nor Thomas Hardy in the wild heathS
Of Wessex, nor Maurice Hewlett in his