The death of the Duke of Northumberland on Monday at
the age of eighty-eight is noteworthy because he stood in a way at the very head of the aristocracy. He was head of a house which has been great ever since the Conluest; he had large possessions even for this era of millionaires ; and though not a man of genius, he had a fine character, and intelligence enough to seat him in the Cabinet when Conservatives were in power. He spent great sums on the improvement of his estates, he protected and encouraged his tenants, he did well all the official work he had to do, and was in short one of those persons who justify the difficult and doubtful theory that an aristocracy benefits the country. If we are not mis- taken, the Duke as a young man was the original of Lord Beaconsfield's Tancred ; and certainly he had in him a vein of mysticism, or he never could have joined the Catholic Apostolic Church, or believed in the unknown tongues. He is succeeded by his son. Earl Percy ; and his grandson, Lord Warkworth, is one of the moat promising Members of the House of Commons. A man with two " Firsts," who can write, who has travelled, and who will inherit an ancient dukedom ought in England to go far.
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