28 FEBRUARY 1874, Page 1

The late Government, we perceive, has raised the head of

the Grosvenors to the first rank in the Peerage, the Marquis still deriving his title from Westminster, the principal source of his swollen rent-roll. There is no possible objection to the promo- tion, which conciliates a very powerful clan, except perhaps this, —that the Grosvenor is the only family of equal standing in the

some day it may be possible -to buy a freehold in Belgravia. Earl Spencer althrwas offered a Marquisate, which he declined, being an educated-enan; and aware that an old Earldom is worth about five branthnew Marquisates. The higher title has never been popular, and involves this nuisance,—that as all the sons are Lords, they cannot get on in any sphere but politics ' 'One of Mr. Disraeli's first acts, we perceive, has been to give Sir John Pakington a peerage, probably under the impres- sion that as few temporal Lords know much about- education, Lord Hampton may be able to keep them from running too wild a muck against the Endowed Schools' Commission. He will cer- tainly be useful in the Upper House, and as certainly unpopular, being, when on his legs, indecently regardless of the dinner-bell.