18 JUNE 1870, Page 20

DEB RETT.* AFTER more than a century of annual publication,

" Debrett's Peerage" still maintains its position, while the companion " Baronetage and Kuightage " is almost as good as it can be as a natural history of the inferior orders of the British titular aristo- cracy. There are larger and more comprehensive works in which the reader may follow the ramifications of family relationship to the second or third degree of cousinhood, and in which he may satisfy his appetite for fabulous pedigrees to the utmost, but they are

• Debretes Illustrated Peerage. 1870. Debreti's Illustrated Baronet age and Enighlage. Dean and Bon. 1870.

more for the special instruction and edification of the aristocratic classes themselves than for the information of the outside public.

For the large class, however, who simply require a compact and accurate book of reference as to the marriages, titles, localities, and armorial bearings of the titled aristocracy, and also as to the principal events in their lives, Debrett is nearly as good as can be.

The "Peerage " proper contains in alphabetical order every title held by every peer, with reference to the principal one in the case of inferior titles ; every family name, with similar references ; a full account of each peer under his proper designation, and of his predecessor in the title ; and is followed by a list of all the younger sons and married daughters of peers. The" Baronetage "is equally full and comprehensive as to the descent and public career of each individual comprised in the ranks of the order, and the "Knightage " is full of concise information as to the public services of the distinguished soldiers, sailors, and civilians who form its members. The accuracy of all three departments on all important points is commendable ; but there are manifest signs either of the employment of inexperienced hands on the routine work, or of great haste and carelessness in minor matters.

Thus the family names of the Duke of Leinster and the Earl of Munster are transposed, and the Earl of Norbury is on one occasion gratuitously promoted to the rank of Marquess. The heraldic portion is good, so much so as to justify Lord Palmerston's high compliment to the editor quoted in the preface. The engravings are clear, and the blazoning full and precise. We cannot congratulate the editor, however, on his success in the translation of Latin mottoes in every ease. If he could find no better translation, a paraphrase for the punning motto of the Onslow family, " Festina lente," than "Quick without impetuosity," it had better have been left in its original epigrammatic and paradoxical form. "A dishonouring stain" is clumsy in the trans- lation of " Labes pejor morte," and "By virtue and valour" for " Virtute et valore" is something worse. " Je garderai" surely means "I will keep," rather than "I will guard,"—like Lord Audley's "Je le tiens." "Tache sans tache" is actually translated "Spot without spot;" and similar carelessness is manifested in many other instances. Certainly this part of the work has not undergone the careful supervision that the more technically heraldic portion has. It is to be regretted, too, that considering the mass of informa- tion at the command of the editor with regard to the bearings and mottoes of the Peers, space was not found for some brief notice of the causes and circumstances, when ascertainable, of the grants of the more distinctive coats and crests. Mottoes, it may be re- marked, form no part of the hereditary bearings, being purely personal, and changeable at the option of the individual. But, in most cases, there has been something in the circumstances attend- ant upon the adoption of the original motto which induces families to retain it. No Bruce is ever likely to abandon the proud lament of his family, " Fuimus," even though a Bruce died but recently after bearing vice-regal away in two opposite hemi- spheres, and ruling at the time of his death over an empire such as his royal ancestors could never have dreamed of. There will always be Napiers "Ready, aye ready," we trust, while the descendants of the Abyssinian general are not likely to forget their ancestor's mission, specially recalled by the words "Tu vincula frange." No Geraldine will ever cease to commemorate his ancient family history by the cry of " Crom a boo !" The Pellews need no motto but "Algiers"; and "Salamanca" will ever be the pride of the Cottons. "Thus" was the emphatic motto chosen by the first Lord St. Vincent when raised to the Peerage, after his destruction of the Spanish fleet. On the other hand, some of the general maxims adopted by some of our great historic families are curiously inappropriate to individual members, and even to the family history,—" Sans changer," for example, being the motto of the Stanleys, a family whose history probably presents more instances of sudden political changes of party than that of any other of the aristocratic houses.

Notwithstanding the assertion of Mr. Disraeli, through one of his characters, that the British Peerage is now composed chiefly of descendants of successful lawyers or the illegitimate children of Charles II., and the belief of another that after the Wars of the Roses a Norman-descended baron was as rare as a wolf in England, a glance through the pages of " Debrett's Peerage" shows one that no inconsiderable proportion of the present House of Peers can claim a very respectable antiquity of descent. It is true that at the time of James I. the Peerage only consisted of fifty-nine actual peers, but it must always be recollected that in consequence of the close association that has a lady, and seems to have as little hope of being able to marry her as always existed in England between the possession of land and the can be conceived. Her father is deeply 0

Peerage, a large proportion of the modern creations were granted to descendants in the female line of older stocks, the males of which had hacked each other to pieces in Plantagenet times, while their estates had passed by female descent into other families. And again, the ancestors of many recently created peers held a position for centuries which in any Continental country would have brought them within the pale of feudal nobility, but which in England did not certainly entitle them to a seat amongst the Barons of Parliament, and consequently not to the technical rank of nobles. "Debrett" does not profess to be a genealogical peerage, but it would be a great improvement if in every instance, where practicable, a few lines were given as to the original claims to the distinction possessed by the first peer. It may be said that for practical purposes now-a-days the personal qualifications of indi- vidual peers are more to be considered than the origin of existing houses. But for all that there is a good deal of interest, apart from the mere genealogical point of view, in tracing the varying circumstances which at different periods have been considered to entitle men to the peerage. Since feudal barons were the only members of the Great Council, appropriators of Church property, lawyers, officers, bankers, merchants, "men with ten thousand a year," and of late, manufacturers, have founded noble houses, and the dates at which each class first acquired the right to be con- sidered eligible are significant of constitutional no less than social changes. But considering the amount of information compressed iu " Debrett " as it is, it would scarcely be possible to add to its scope without altering its form and price. It is already a work only to be classed with the Post-Office Directory and Bradshaw's Rail way Guide.