NEWS OF THE WEEK.
LORD John Russell took his seat in the House of Lords on Tuesday as Earl Russell, of Kingston-Russell in Dorset, and Viscount Amberley, of Ardsalla, in Meath. Most Whigs will feel that a rank less than an earldom would have been below his just claims, yet it must not be forgotten that overleaping the Barony is a rare and excep- tional feat. It is one which was frequently performed under the Stuarts, but in a hundred and twenty years but seven persons have been similarly distinguished, and they were almost without exception men of historic merit. In 1742, Sir Robert Walpole was created Earl of Oxford, but it was on resigning the Premiership after a tenancy of two-and-twenty years. The elder Pitt was also created an Earl in 1786, 'but then his wife had previously been made a Baroness, so that the dignity was in effect only a step in the peerage. Again, in 1797, so strongly was the popular feeling excited by the battle of Cape St. Vincent, that the fortunate Admiral was raised to the earldom, which still keeps alive the memory of his achieve- ment. No other instance occurs in the whole reign of George III., during the Regency, or in the reign of George IV. Even the Duke of Wellington passed through all grades of the Peerage. Of late years, however, the practice has been a little more frequent. In 1831, a younger son of the Duke of Devonshire was created Earl of Bur- lington, but as it was known that the earldom would merge, let involved no addition to the roll. The eldest illegitimate son of William IV. was also raised to the peerage as Earl of Munster, and almost the first peerage granted by her Majesty was the Earldom of Leicester, to Mr. Coke, of Norfolk. The only other instance was Lord Francis Egerton, raised on the advice of Sir Robert Peel to the Earldom of Ellesmere. Earl Russell has higher claims than any of his predecessors in this reign, but the precedent ought not to be developed into a practice. If it is, the mere barony will be despised, and the peers once more divided into greater and lesser barons. It will be seen that Earl Russell takes one of his titles, as we stated a fortnight since, from the Ardsalla property, and we have every reason to believe that the statement which accompanied it as to Mr. Roundell Palmer, though officially denied, was only technically in- accurate.
