The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-06-14
PoNsoNBY IN ASSAULT
Titles and Honors Can be Purchased
In England the Same as
Autos or Cab
bage.

IS4<LSSUSS June 1o.--IlIy tu0 poor
peer who doesn't care for his rank
but who is unable to get rid OF it.
Arthur A. Ponsonby, liberal m member Of
parliament for Stirling, feels a genu-
inc sympathy for him, and has shown
this In practical manner by intro
ducing bill for the abolition of all
hereditary titles. Curiously enough
this assault on the ancient nobility
comes not from representative Of
the slower classes" but from scion
Of one Of the noblest houses In Eng
land.
Ponsonby is son Of the late Gen
eral Sir Henry Ponsonby, one Of
Queen victoria's favorite courtiers,
and his great grandfather was the
Earl Grey who was premier of Eng
land. All his family have served
British monarchs in some form or
other-his elder brother, Colonel Sir
Frederick Ponsonby, is King Georges
favorite equerry and assistant priv
ate secretary-but Arthur Ponsonby
is a rebel. Some years ago, with
two other parliamentary critics Of
royalty, Keir Hardie and VIII
Thorns, Ponsonby was excluded from q
royal garden party by King Edward.
AS all the other members of parlia-
ment had been invited Ponsonby
claimed that 1t was an official func-
tion and that he had a right to be
hidden. He raised the matter In
parliament only to be snubbed by the
speaker, and after that court circles
were absolutely closed to him.
There are unkind critics who say
that Ponsonby's democracy is due to
the fact that despite his noble blood
he has no title himself, but his
friends brand this as calumny. At
an early age he shocked his courtly
father and brothers by his disregard
Of the nation but Ponsonbys were
born to serve royalty, and the climax
came when he became private secre-
tary to liberal premier, the late Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Pom
sonby quickly began to show publicly
partially for what his family
called the mob" and his criticism Of
King Edward finally brought about
his family and social ostracism.
Ponsonby has no desire to deprive
living noblemen of their titles but
this bill provides that any titled per-
son may voluntarily relinquish his
rank, and that on the death of the
present holders all titles shall die
out In advocating his bill Pon:on-
by declared that hereditary titles
were out of date in these democratic
days and that in addition to accentu-
ating class distictions they were the
main cause of the objectionable
snobbishness, sycophancy and funk
eyism of British social life Aristo-
cratic critics laughed heartily at the
language of the renegade" but even
they could not deny the justice of his
contention that most men are quite
free to choose their profession, their
trade, the particular walk of life that
they desire to pursue, but there is one
man who is not free and that is the
eldest son of peer. He cannot
avoid it any more than he can avoid
death ITSELF"
Proceeding to cite the misfortune
of noble statesmen who had been
translated to the upper house, Pom
sonby particularly instanced the dis
tastes Of Earl Curzon, Viscount Midle-
ton and the Earl of Selborne for the
titles which drove them from the
fighting arena Of the house of COM
mons to the sedate backwaters of the
house of lords. These three noble
men in question declared some years
ago: '.The world supposes such 4
man to be the fortunate heir of what
is called the accident of birth. He
is in reality the hapless victim of the
accident of death. He has become
peer. From this lot there is no es-
cape" Ponsonby added that there
we're several members of the present
house of commons who would sincere
ly regret leaving the lower chamber
on succeeding to the inevitable titles
on the deaths of their fathers, uncles,
brothers or other relatives, and TO
this there were sympathetic murmurs
of assent.
An Illuminating debate on the whole
question is certain. Many poor or
comparatively poor peers have al
ready publicly complained about the
cost Of living up to their rank. The
present Earl de la War;, descendent
of Edward the First's famous warrior,
las been heard to bewail the fact
that he was not born plain Gilbert
Sackville, instead of beng saddled
with a poverty stricken title, and the
versatile Earl of Roslyn, has endeav-
ored to hide his rank on the stage I'M
der his baptismal name of James
Erskine.