31 OCTOBER 1868, Page 3

The death of the Duchess of Sutherland on Tuesday is

a social -event too important to be passed without notice. This lady, 'besides her high character and great influence in private, was once the most powerful and respected of courtiers, acted through her long career as a consistent Whig, and was in her latter years the centre of a group of nobles quite unrivalled in social power. Her- self a Howard and a Cavendish, she was the wife of a Duke, the greatest landowner in Scotland; her son owns Sutherlandshire, and her daughter-in-law the best part of Cromarty; one daughter married the Duke of Argyle, another the future Duke of Leinster, -and a third the future Marquis of Westminster, while a grand- -daughter will be Duchess of Northumberland. In a few years this single clan may possess five Dukedoms, and an Earldom, and a rent-roll of a million and a half a year. Her Grace did one great act with her social influence. She got half the great ladies in England to sign an address to their sisters in America on behalf .of the slave. The Carlton laughed, but emancipation ceased to be vulgar in women's eyes.