HONOURS.
FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.
WHITEHALL, 29111 October MI—The King has been graciously pleased to ordain and declare that Dame JANE, the wife of Sir Iluw DALRYMPLE HAMILTON, of North Berwick and Bargeny, Bart.; Dame HENarrrra, the wife of Sir JAMES FERGUSSON, of Kilkerrao, Bart.; Dame ADAMINA, the wife of Sir JOHN DALRYMPLE, or Oxenford. Dart.; and M atm the wife or JAMES HONDAS, or Dundas. Esq..—the sisters or ROBERT DUNDAB Earl of CAMPERDOWN of Laniiie, in the county of Forfar, and or Gleneagles in the count y of l'erth, Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, aud Baron Duwan of Lon- nie albr,said—shall respectively have, hold, and enjoy, the same title. place, preemi- nence, und precedency. In all assemblies or meetings whatsoever, as the daujhters of an Earl of the United Kinjdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; and that the same shall take effect from the date of the letters patent of the creation of the said Earldom of Ltampen:own.* • This grant is, we believe, without a precedent. It has long been a coin- 111011 practice, when the eldest son of a Peer dies in his father's lifetime, leaving issue, to give such issue the rank and precedency which they would have en- joyed if their parent had succeeded to his ancestor's honours; and the same thing has been done in the case of collateral succession to the dignities of a family, —the rule being, to call in the grace of the Crown to place individuals in the situation in which they would have stood if their fathers had been living at the time of the grant. But the difference in this instance is, that the sisters of the present Earl of CAMPERDOWN have obtained a rank to which they would only have been entitled if their father had been created to or inherited an honour which neither he nor any o his ancestors ever possessed. The precedent affurd,d by this grant affects all the ancient nobility of the country. By con- ferring upon the sisters of an ennobled person the same rank as his daughters, the privileges of the Peerage are infringed upon ; because it is inconsistent with the nature of an hereditary nobility to trace from any other source than the loins of the first grantee. If sisters are to be admitted to the honours of the brother, why may nut the uncles or the aunts?—and, by stretching the principle a little further, the first or second cousins, could the propositus be found in the great_ greatgrandfather, or more distant progenitor? Admiral Lord Du kca N's merits were undoubtedly great, and through them his sons and daughters possessed the rank of a Viscount's children. His eldest sun has been lately inane an Earl ; and surely here the bounty of the Crown might have stopped, without creating a precedent in favour of that Earl's sisters, which has Iran and may again have the effect of adding to the already much too crowded list of hereditarily titled and privileged persons. It is worthy of remark, that the only brother of the Earl of CAM PE anowN, Captain the Honourable HENRY DUNCA e, C.B. Surveyor-General of the Ordnance,—a Naval officer of high reputation,—does not share this mark of the King's favour to his family ; a circumstance which renders the act as anomalous towards the objects of it, as, iu our opinion, it was uncalled for, and improper.
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