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comment of the London Spectator on the honors bestowed by the British government on the last Queen's birthday.
“Lord Salisbury was not distributing them eccentrically, but according to the regular custom, taking wealthy squires like Mr. E. Heneage and Colonel Malcolm of Poltalloch for his peerages; and giving baronetcies to Mr. R. U. P. Fitzgerald, W. O. Dalgleish, Mr. Lewis McIver, Mr. J. Verdie, and Mr. C. Cave, because they are wealthy men who have done service to the party.”
1 The Spectator is, on the whole, the ablest of the great English weeklies, and the fairest; it is not at present opposing Lord Salisbury, nor is it saying this by way of censure.
In what respect does all this differ from the methods of Tammany?
There is nothing new about it; in the Greville Journals (July 2, 1826) the writer reports: “A batch of peers has been made; everybody cries out against Charles Ellis's peerage (Lord Seaford); he has no property and is of no family.... However, it is thought very ridiculous.”
But it is evident that it was only the want of wealth that made it ridiculous; and yet this appointment was made by Canning.
1 Spectator, May 23, 1896.
New York, Harper and Brothers, 1897.
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