1830.] Walk through the Highlands. ed wonderfully to confirm the favourable impression we had made. We discussed our repast, and a glass of whisky on board, and as the evening, though fine, was somewhat cold, wrapped ourselves up right comfortably in blankets and great coats, and enjoyed surprisingly the scenery around us. A gentle gale swelled out our canvass, and we proceeded pleasantly, though at no great rate. The boatmen, after their meal, threw themselves down carelessly in different parts of the vessel, and their fancies seemed to have been wonderfully elevated by the whisky, and they chatted, sung, and laughed with the greatest vivacity. We could not indeed understand them, for theirs appeared to us a sort of chough's language, "gabble enough, and good enough," yet we did not fail to derive much satisfaction from their witticisms, which were enlivening and somewhat practical. One indeed upderstood and spoke English tolerably well, and he joined our party, while the other three were most bountiful of their jokes amongst themselves. Now it was that he confessed our situation had been extremely perilous in the morning, and complimented us upon the self-command and coolness we had displayed in the midst of it. At this time the scenery around us was wonderfully splendid. We were gliding smoothly over the undulating bosom of the Atlantic, surrounded by rocks and islands famed in song. Evening was preparing to cast her dim mantle over all things; the sun was sinking gradually in his watery bed, throwing a dazzling and golden light over the gently rippling waters. The clouds, tinged by its departing beams, displayed the most fantastic shapes, and appeared to figure out to us the wrathful heroes of other years, meeting dreadfully in the combat, or encouraging their fleet hounds in the chase. Little imagination was necessary to picture out these and divers other strange appearances in Heaven's wide canopy. Indeed the night was so transcendantly magnificent, that it did not fail at the time to call forth our greatest admiration. Suddenly the great lumi nary sunk beneath the wave, and twi light gave to the objects around beauties which they had failed to exhibit in the more vertical glare of his beams. In the full enjoyment of all this splendour, we had unconsciously sunk into silence, our eyes directed towards 109 the still glittering west. At length our crew gradually raised the song, and once more we "listened to the breeze of night, to hear the voice of the rowers, to hear the song of the sea." Many were the tunes which they chaunted, but their voices were inferior to those of our first party. They were harsh, their songs rather boisterous than plaintive; apparently drinking songs, rather than, as in the first case, the lamentations of ill-starred lovers: and though we listened to them with pleasure, they failed to give us that satisfaction which we had experienced from the more musical and pathetic strains which had fallen so gently on our ears while sailing swiftly by the now dilapidated turrets of the once powerful Castle Duart. These men beat the time violently with their hands; their whole appearance, and all their gestures, being perfectly savage and bestial. I know not what might be the subject of their songs, but they refused to begin them till they were assured that we knew nothing of Gaelic. It was probably some joke against ourselves or our country, for they laughed much and loudly, though at the same time they did us the favour carefully to assure us that their songs only meant that "they would bring the Englishman safe home again," and protect him from all the danger of the seas. Complete darkness now surrounded us, and once again the seas sparkled round our boat of night, highly beautiful indeed, but with a brilliancy very inferior to that displayed on a former occasion. Perhaps too we now derived less pleasure from their appearance, as well as from the songs, because they had each ceased to possess that most powerful of all charms-novelty. We sighed for our inn at Ulva, and as the wind had now almost entirely died away, our sailors again took to their oars, regulating their labours by the song. They pulled manfully, and after an interval somewhat tedious, we re-landed on our wished-for island, a little before eleven. A SUBSCRIBER. ON CREATING PEERS FOR LIFE. WE have been favoured with a private circulation, bearing the title of "A Letter to the Duke of Wellington, on the Propriety and Legality of creating Peers for Life: with Precedents." To guard against the evils of an im On Creating Peers for Life. 110 poverished and needy Peerage is indisputably an object worthy the attention of a wise Minister. The constituent members of the Upper House have been vastly increased in number during the two past reigns; and fears are entertained lest they should become too numerous either for the maintenance of their own respectability and dignity, for the welfare of Government, or even the safety of the State. That such evils have arisen from a profuse disposal of peerages is matter of experience. The first is at this day exemplified on some parts of the continent; where, from the general diffusion of titles, they have in a great measure ceased to distinguish rank, and rather appear to be indiscriminately sprinkled as nicknames throughout all the grades of society. The inconvenience to the Government of a numerous dependent nobility is manifest; families once raised above the sphere in which fortunes are to be made by personal exertion, hang about the Sovereign and the Minister for support; and, too many to be all relieved, they become disappointed and discontented. Upon this the State and Constitution are endangered. It is a popular cause for alarm that the Peerage should be at the beck of a Minister; but, beyond this, the unsatisfied portion of a needy aristocracy become the leaders of faction and sedition. England has already suffered in this way. Elizabeth, whom history deems one of our wisest sovereigns, and who attached to herself the most devoted servants, as well as attained the greatest popularity, was yet the most sparing of her honours. She found herself better served by the expectant than by the ungrateful or the disappointed. Her successor James, naturally more liberal in his disposition, was tempted by successive bad counsellors and by his necessities to an opposite extreme. The colonization of Ulster (in itself a wise mea. sure) was the original plea for the sale of his new order of Baronetcies. It led him to allow of a similar disposal of [Aug. Peerages; and to disgrace that prerogative of which he was in theory so jealous, by allowing its honours to be at the command of the highest bidder. The profit was conferred on some greedy courtier, who made the most of his turn; and doubtless the King imagined that he thus obliged two parties at once. In that he was quite mistaken; the individual who had purchased his stalking-horse of the broker in the market, acknowledged no obligation to its breeder; and many purchasers found cause of offence in subsequent creations, where others had cheaper bargains than themselves. It is to these circumstances we may in a great degree attribute the numerous titled names seen opposed to the Crown, the fountain of their honours, at the Rebellion. Charles, during his troubles, erred in a similar manner, though less wantonly in reward to his faithful adherents, he had little but titles to bestow. Originally, perhaps, of low fortune, and drained lower during their persecutions, many of the parties thus raised left their families by no means in a condition to support their rank. Sir Edward Walker, Garter (whose essay on the subject is most pertinently quoted in the Appendix to the present pamphlet) thus remarks upon them: "To speak a little of the many titles of honour given by the late King [Charles the First] during the Rebellion. Although much may be said for the doing of it, yet I fear, considering the small fortunes many of them have for to support their dignities, and the great pretensions they have, his Majesty, when it shall please God to restore him, [this was written at the Hague in 1653-4] will find trouble enough to content them. Whereas, had his late Majesty been pleased to have made them Bannerets, or otherwise personally gratified them, their posterities had stood upon their own merits for the future; whereas now they will have place and voice in Parliament, and (being but men,) may prove as discontented as others that had as great obligations, and yet proved ungrateful." It is in favour of such personal in *The price of a Barony had been 10,000l., when the profligate Buckingham thus audaciously wrote to the King: "Here is a gentleman called Sir Francis Leake, who hath likewise A PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. 'Tis worth but eight thousand; he will give it me, if you will make him a Baron." The King obliged his favourite, at the expense of his own credit. In the same mode of depreciation, Sir John Holles, having given 10,000l. for the Barony of Houghton, was made Earl of Clare for 5000l. more, although the price of an Earldom had a few years before been 30,000. But our readers will find an assemblage of notices of those venal prostitutions of the Royal prerogative, in a review of Nichols's "Progresses of King James the First," in our vol. xcvi. i. 151. 1830.] On Creating Peers for Life. stead of hereditary honours that the forcible and well-argued pamphlet before us is written. We shall give, as far as we are able, a summary of its contents. Justly regarding the Lords' House as an integral part of the British Constitution, the author considers the pre"To sent peerages to be inviolable. provide (he says in p. 25) against the evils which may attend peerages already created is impossible." But it is suggested that by confining the hereditary peerages to extraordinary services, and to cases where strict entails of a fortune adequate to the maintenance of the title can be secured, such evils may very properly be avoided for the future. And that the House of Peers may not languish for want of an infusion of fresh talent-particularly legal talent, which as a court of judicature it so greatly requires-it is proposed that peerages should be created for life. That this arrangement would be consistent both with law and precedent is fully shown by the author. For the law, the highest authorities are quoted, and none are found to dispute it. Of precedents two lists are given, one of various early peerages created for life only, (and with female instances extending down to the reign of George the Second); and the other of those created with every variety of arbitrary remainder, showing that the Crown, as the creator of the title, may arrange the remainder in any manner it may judge proper. The very two last instances are-that of the Earldom of Norbury in 1827, limited to the second son in exclusion of the eldest; and that of Viscountess Canning in 1828, with remainder not indifferently to her own male issue, but to those only she had by her late husband. The "legality" of the proposed measure is thus briefly ascertertained. The important reasons for the "propriety" of its adoption we have already incidentally noticed; and may be summed up as follow: 111 1. To prevent the parties inheriting peerages to be hereafter conferred, becoming, through want of means, either disgraceful to themselves, or injurious to other branches of the community. 2. To reward distinguished merit, without the necessity of incurring that danger; and 3. That the House of Lords may profit by individual talent, and in particular be supplied with those various descriptions of legal talents and acquirements which it so much requires; by giving the judges of the several courts personal seats and votes, but without the privilege of transmitting them to posterity. With regard to our present law Lords, the author mentions these facts: that many causes in the House of Lords are appeals from the Lord Chancellor in one place to the same Chancellor, unassisted, in another; that though the opinions of the Judges are at the command of the House, they have no right to give them except when asked, which being seldom done, they are not accustomed to attend; that Scotch appeals are now decided by English lawyers alone, who cannot be expected to be intimately acquainted with the peculiarities of the laws of Scotland; that the claims to Peerages, which are discussed before the House of Lords alone, offer a field for legal investigation (involving the constitution of the House itself,*) which has become almost deserted since the death of Lord Redesdale; and, finally, that "cases are also every day occurring-divorces for example-in which the assistance of civilians is desirable; but the only noble Lord who is eminent for his knowledge of the civil law has attained an age which precludes the possibility of even occasional attendance in Parliament." It is further remarked that the modern practice has been "to raise a Judge to the Peerage when his infirmities oblige him to retire from his own Court; as if by transplanting him to an aristocratic soil, health would necessarily be * In p. 62 we find the following allusion to the singular claim of Colonel Berkeley to a seat in the House, as Lord of Berkeley Castle per Baroniam: "There is at this moment a claim before the House, which, if admitted, will give to the possessors of all lands which five centuries ago were held of the Crown by a certain tenure, a right to the Peerage, with precedency over two-thirds of the Barons of the country. Many hundred instances exist of lands being once held by this tenure, the owners of which will have the same right as the present claimant : and, as each of them can, like himself, transfer those lands to any other person at his pleasure, Peerages, unless the Legislature interposes, may be sold to the best bidder." 112 On Creating Peers for Life. restored to his body, or vigour to his mind. But Nature is indifferent to honours; and infirmities will seize their victim, without considering that it was intended he should hear appeals in the House of Lords." Even when an individual is less advanced in years, the general uncertainty of life forms almost a sufficient objection against making a Peer of a man with a family but no wealth; and “a recent instance" was memorably unfortunate. In that case, "the expediency of placing a learned Judge in the House to assist in its decisions, was so great as to surmount the obstacle; but he died before it had been benefitted by his services, leaving his successor without a sufficient income to maintain a private gentleman, and who has already become a pensioner of the crown."—p. 13. The author has not overlooked the most obvious objections that may be made to his proposal. He presumes them to be, 1. "That the dignity of a Peer of the Realm is in its nature hereditary, and that, if deprived of that quality, the constitution of the House of Lords will be changed." This he affirms to be merely an assumption arising from the general practice; but that, besides the precedents of creations for life which he adduces, the power the Crown has always possessed of limiting a peerage according to its pleasure (as in the before noticed cases of Norbury and Canning, and a multitude of others,) sufficiently proves that it is not necessarily hereditary. 2. "That creating Peers for life will tend to form two classes of Peers." To this it is replied that the Representative Peers of Scotland and Ireland (the latter possibly ancient, the former undoubtedly so,) are already specimens of Peers for life. That Bishops are also Peers for life; and that, if the children of the proposed Peers partake of the present privileges of Peers' children, they will so far have the advantage of our Spiritual Peerage, whose wives and families have not special rank allotted to them. It may be added, that the tenants of old peerages wanting heirs, are in no better condition than Peers for life. At all events it is presumed that the learned men we have been principally considering would from their personal characters never rank as a despised class, whatever danger there may be of that being the fate of their posterity, if hereditary Lords. [Aug. Thirdly, are to be considered those standing merits of an hereditary aristocracy, "that the living representative of a man ennobled for his services becomes a memorial of his virtues, and stimulates others to similar exertions; and that one of the chief incentives to serve our country is, not only the hope of acquiring for ourselves, but of transmitting to our posterity, the dignity of a Peer of the Realm." These advantages are not denied ; but in the present plan others are correspondent. The descendants of a peer for life, instead of becoming degenerate, as those of some hereditary peers, may be stimulated to achieve the same or higher honours. If fewer are able to transmit a title to posterity, more will be able to attain one. It must, also, be distinctly understood, that our author does not contemplate a cessation of the creation of peerages for perpetuity, but only that none be conferred without correspondent fortune, or without those eminent services on which the nation, by Parliament, may be disposed to confer such fortune. We have only to add, that we feel well satisfied with the plan recommended in this letter. It is highly desirable as an improvement to the judicial character of the House of Lords; it may properly give the first coronet to a distinguished Senator of the lower house, an hereditary peerage following or not according to circumstances; and for military or naval services it may take the place of that something better than a Baronetcythe Irish peerage; from the creation of which the Crown has been so nearly debarred since the Union, and has thus perhaps been occasionally forced to confer British peerages where an Irish title would otherwise have sufficed. Finally, we presume there would be the same moral checks to a King or his Minister's excess in creating peerages for life, as at present on their conferring hereditary peerages; the prerogative being now unlimited (as to British peerages) except by public opinion. Nor will the present Peers object to a measure which will so greatly tend to maintain the respectability and dignity of their order. The commencement of a new reign is a proper era for its adoption. |