13 NOVEMBER 1869, Page 2

Mr. Gladstone is about, it is said, to create ten

new Peers :- The Earl of Southesk, the Earl of Listowel, Lord Edward Howard, the Right Hon. J. Fitzpatrick, M.P., Sir John Acton, Bart., C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., M.P., Colonel Greville-Nugent, M.P., George Carr Glyn, Esq., T. Agar Robartes, Eeq., and Edward Ellice, Esq., M.P. Sir John Acton is a distinct acquisition to any assembly, representing, as he does, a body else without re- presentation,—the Liberal Catholics ; and Lord E. Howard is the spokesman of the old English Catholics ; but we can't honestly say we like the lot. The remaining Com- moners have evidently been selected on Lord Salisbury's idea, that the great business fortunes should be represented in the House of Lords, and may, for what we know, represent personalty very well indeed ; but, except the two Catholics, not one has any mental distinctiveness about him known to the public, or has done any service to the State. We want strength, no doubt, in the Lords ; but coronetting millionaires will not make a party, or, unless they are made in heaps, turn a division. Ten in a batch will just irritate the old Peers, without making their irritation unimportant.