We do not quite know why the newspapers publish biographies
of the late Lord Hominy, who died somewhat suddenly on Wed- nesday, in his 73rd year. He was a Peer of excellent character, a fair average judge, though of no unusual power, and a man with philanthropic leanings, but he would but for his father have remained comparatively unnoticed in the crowd. His best title to remembrance as a politician is that in the Peers he acted as a sort of moral barometer, marking, as it were, the moral value of any proposal. If Lord Romilly supported it, it was not sure to be good ; but if he opposed it, it was pretty sure to be bad. As a judge, he was remarkable rather for fairness and temper than for strength or originality ; and as as a literary man, his greatest service—an important one—was the aid he afforded to the organisation of the department of the Archives. He watched that sedulously, his appointments were careful, and it was not his fault, we believe, that everybody engaged in the work was so infamously paid.
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