TITLES FOR NEW PEERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 12 March 1930, Page 8

TITLES FOR NEW PEERS

MOW TIII-Y ARE CHOSEN Twice a year as a rule it falls to new--1 v-crealcd peers to undertake the business of choosing their Lilies, says a writer in “The. Times.” It is a momentous choice, for a peerage title, once chosen, is an unalterable possession, save by a further step in the peerage, and if there is a son and heir it may bind posterity fur unknown generations. A younger son of a noble family will usually take his family name and associate it with his own home, while many another will he content to do likewise unless his name is already in use as a peerage title. Sneli anticipation must often lie the chief pitfall. An earl-designate tiinls almost all the counties in the country appropriated, and sometimes also his family name, which he may not wish to change. Thus Sir Edward Grey, who was to receive an earldom, obtained fioni I lie Crown the reduction of the honour to a viscounty because the head of liis house, was already Earl Grey. -Mr I Sal four was fortunate in finding a little village hearing the name mi which lie has shed such lustre, and could therefore become Earl of Balfour in preference to Earl Balfour. There is mueli virtue in this “of,” apart from territorial considerations: dellieoe of Seapa, Beatty of the North Sea. Kitchener of Khartoum and of the Vnal, Byng ot Vimy, and Allenby of Megitldo are modem examples. So also. Davidson of Lambeth commemorates a distinguished archiepiseopate. New peers might, often have recourse to the long roll of extinct peerages. hut. careful research is advisable,, for the associations of an old title are sometimes hardly respectable. Our modern interiialionalisl.s may find it more consonant with their sympathies in future to draw upon the names of foreign places, though the few precedents—those of Marquess Douro, Earl St. Vincent, Earl of Camperdown, Earl of Ypres and Viscount Barfleur—happen to appeal to the pride of mere nationalism. Still, precedents are precedents, and we may yet live to see an Earl of .Moscow and Viscount Leningrad.