20 JULY 1872, Page 2

Lord Napier (of Merchistoun) has been created Baron Ettrick in

the Peerage of Great Britain. He was a good diplomatist and a fairly successful Governor of Madras, and a peerage is no more in such cases than the ordinary reward. The principal value of it to him, we imagine, is that it will enable him to sign "Napier- and Ettrick," and so distinguish himself from his namesake, Napier (of Magdala), whose new title created a confusion of identities which must have been unbearable to the elder Peer. The old rule was to insist that a new Peer should not take any title already worn, but it seems to be falling into disuse, to the bewilderment of future historians and living journalists