The death of the Earl of Hardwicke places another blue
riband at the dis- PoLd of the Government: the one lately vacant has been conferred on the Duke ofGrafton; Lord Melbourne, to whom it had been offered by his Majesty, together with an earldom, having, in that spirit of disinterestedness which has forked his conduct throughout, declined the distinguished honour.— Times.
Lord MELBOURNE rises in our estimation, and we are confident he will gain ground in the good opinion of the country generally, by his manly refusal of the paltry decorations which were intended to gild over the insult put upon him by the King. Lord VILBOURNE is not a spaniel, to be kicked out of the room, and then be patted on the hack, and told not to bark. He must feel that he has been most unworthily treated ; that he was made the umrument of the King's irresponsible advisers, to be turned adrift as soon as his work was done. His refusal of the Earldom and the Garter must have spoken to the conscience of the King. It Lis pity that his Majesty could not have chosen a less spirited and honourable man for the Duke of WELLINGTON'S warming-
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