27 OCTOBER 1888, Page 2

The Earl of Dufferin has been created Marquis of Dufferin

and Ava, and Earl of Ava. The Viceroy has deserved a public recognition of his great services, and we suppose the marquisate was the easiest, though we never can understand how a Peer can consent to have all his -sons called Lords, and so shut them out from half their possible careers. But is not the second title just a little too magnificent? It is carefully noted that it was given by the express wish of the Queen, and not at Lord Dufferin's suggestion ; but does her Majesty know what the word conveys P It is, in history at all events, the name of the whole Burmese Empire, not of its old capital only,—that is, of one of the most splendid and separate of British Dependencies. An Earldom of Canada or a Marquisate of Australia could hardly be more mouth-filling, and it will have, moreover, to be used, though by the eldest son. The Marquisate of the Punjab was bad enough, but that title was never used, or could be ; and, after all, the Punjab, vast as it is, is only a province. Ava is an Empire. The Queen might almost as well have created Lord Raglan, if he had survived and been victorious, Earl of Russia.