The Poet-Laureate is really to be made a Baron, and
it is said that he will take the title of Lord Tennyson D'Eyncourt, an old title in the Tennyson family. The news has been received with universal and, we think, legitimate depression. It is felt that Mr. Tennyson is clearer to the English people than Lord Tennyson D'Eyncourt can ever be ; nor is there anything to set off against this feeling in the probable gain of the House of Lords. It will not be easy to think of the great lyrical poet apart from the worldly distinction he has thus gained for himself by his poetry, and yet it will be still less easy to think -of him as having naturally grown into that sort of distinction. The peerage will be at best an ill-fitting Court costume, which will be bewildering at once to the political and the poetical associations of Englishmen. We heartily wish that Mr. Tennyson had refused the graceful tribute paid to his noble genius.
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