Evening star., 1923-12-24
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

B1 HE MAHatiSE LIE FoNIbNoh.
Great Britain has already a con-
siderable number of peers OF the
realm who are active members of the
bar. The former objection to the
practice Of their profession in the
courts on the ground that, as men,
bers of the house of lords, they are.
ipso facto, judges of the highest
tribunal of the realm has been over
come. But now the English bar is
about to receive a new recruit in
the comely person of a young peeress
Of the realm in her own right, namely.
Lady Clifton, seventeenth holder or
the Barony Of Clifton. created in
1908. She is the only daughter OF the
late and eighth Earl of Darnley and
at his death succeeded to his Clifton
barony. his earldom of Darnley and
his entailed estates, comprising
Cobham Hall and Park. in Kent. so
rich in Charles Dickens associations,
going to his younger brother. the
present earl.
The committee of privileges of the
house of lords has still under con-
sideration a claim put forward by
the late earl for the old Stuart duke
dom ofsLennox, which is supposed to
of King Charles, when the last duke
of the line died, leaving his estates
to his sister. 1t has always been
question as to whether this Stuart
dukedom Of Lennox was heritable,
like most other old Scotch honors, in
the female as we'll as in the male
line. Charles II took it for granted
that it could not descend in the
female line and. consequently, hold
ing that the dukedom had become
extinct, bestowed 1t upon the Duke
of Richmond, his natural son by his
Bretonne favorite. Countess Louise
de Querouailles. whom her own
sovereign, Louis XIV. created Duchess
of Aubigny in the peerage OF france
MANY Of the ablest genealogists in
sist that Charles was wrong in this
assumption and that the strawberry
leaved coronet of the last of the
stuart Dukes of Lennox should have
gone to his sister. Should the com.
mittee of privileges Of the house OF
lords finally decide in favor OF inc
of the female descent of the Lennox
dukedom, then young Lady Clifton
would become Duchess of Lennox IN
her own right and still greater
ornament to the British bar than she
will prove as a mere, baroness.
Lady Clifton has tried her hand at
quite a number of callines since
growing up. Thus she dabbled Tor
time in Journalism. and worked Tor
an entire year on the stan OF Lon
porter and then as head or one OF
the editorial departments. But she
finally determined to abandon news
paper work for the bar and that Is
why this comely and gifted descend-
ant of that Earl Of Lennox who fg-
ures in Sir Walter Scotts epic poem
"Marmion' is about to be called to
the bar in Middle Temple. Still un.
married and twenty-three years OF
age. she lives with her mother. the
who has dropped that title since her
second marriage to Vice Admiral Sir
Arthur Leveson, who commanded the
second battle squadron In the North
sea during the great war.
If poor Lady warwick was, in spite
of her energetic appeals to the elec-
tors. defeated in her efforts to win a
seat In the house of commons, as a
particularly radical member of the
labor party, it was because that no.
body appeared to be willing to treat
her seriously. Her arguments did
rot seem to carry conviction and, in
her rather gorgeous apparel of furs
and velvets, in a hamboyant red au-
tomobile, with big diamonds in her
ears, and liveried servants on the
drivers seat of. her conveyance, she
did not suggest sincerity in her de-
nunciations of wealth and property
and in her demand for its more equit-
able division among the people. Nor
did she succeed in explaining how the
capital levy which she advocated
would diminish the unemployment,
which is one OF the principal prob-
lens with which the nation was con-
fronted.
But what. above everything else,
her seriously WAS the bitterness Of
her abuse and the ssvageness of her