A NEW YEAR'S WONDER.
A POOR Peer has refused a pension ! The reader looks incre- dulous, and asks for the name of this singular personage ; ob- serving, that all the poor Peers of whom he ever heard are, or are anxious to be, pensioned. GEORGE THICKNESSE Teenier, Baron Audley, is the man. Tire Times and the Post record the fact as follows — " We believe that the House of Peers, on its reassembling, receives an addi. tion in the person of Baron Audley, who will then be of age. Though the influence which results from wealth moat, with regard to this young nobleman, be at present extremely circumscribed, yet if we may calculate upon advan- tages from good example, the country may look forward to much benefit from his lordship ; for, in the midst of financial pressure, he has declined any aug. mentation of income in the shape of pension, and has declared his determina- tion not to adhere to any political party in any manner which may cramp the exercise of his better judgment."
Lord AUDLEY will put his brother Peers to the blush by his marvellous virtue. He will indeed be a rara avis in the lordly collection. We can fancy the looks of astonishment which he will attract on his first entrance into the house. Some will think him absolutely crazy. Others will say," He knows what he's about— the pension offered was too small." But this reason will appear as unsatisfactory as malevolent, to the great majority of the august assemblage; for their rule is to take what they can get, on the " instalment" principle. Nothing in the shape of booty comes amiss to them ; and if they cannot obtain much, they are thankful for a little,—not allowing even the odd shillings and pence to slip through their fingers. Lord AUDLEY will be stared at as a prodigious ass, ignorant or careless of the chief privilege of the Peerage, that of appropriating public money to private expenses. It is to be feared that the "benefit'' anticipated from his "example" will be as "circumscribed" as Iris fortune. They who will admire his disinterestedness, are out of the reach of the temptation which he resisted. They who might and should profit by it, will not. A question occurs, which Mr. SPRING RICE, who boasts that public services alone are rewarded by pensions under the virtuous W higs, ought to answer. Upon what grounds was Lord AUDIJile offered a pension ? How, where and where did this young noble- man, whose entrance into public lit is trumpeted by the Tories, establish his claim to a pension ? Did not his avowed " deter. mination not to adhere to any political party" point him out to Mr. RICE as one whose vote was in the market ? Was not the pension offered as the price of his vote ?
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