A FRENCH VIEW OF MR. TENNYSON'S PEERAGE.
M. Jules Claretie, commenting in the Paris Temps on the Tennyson peerage, says :—" A nobility reornited, like the English, from men of great ability and reputation, has considerable ohances of duration; and here is an aristocracy which almost reads a lesson to our democracy. ' The English feel that a man like Tennyson deserves a seat among the potentates of his country, simply because he is a great Englishman. Politics have nothnig to do. with the mattor. An inspired man emerges from the multitude. He is hailed, and after being read, re-read, and paid an; a guinea a line, he is made a peer. I should not ask so mnoh from Frenchmen, but merely a little more attention and respect for prominent men of genius. Alas 1 we are far Irotn following the good example set across the Channel. If with us a poet were made senator simply beoause he was a poet, all the small papers would ask whether our Senate waa in ita dotage. A versifier a peer! a composer of sonnets in the Senate ! the wits would roar with laughter."
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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6936, 9 February 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)
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189A FRENCH VIEW OF MR. TENNYSON'S PEERAGE. New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6936, 9 February 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)
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