THE FORCE OF MERIT.

West Coast Times, Issue 1748, 9 May 1871, Page 3

THE FORCE OF MERIT.

Lord St. Leonards, the son of the late Lord Tenterden, was the giandson of a barber ; Lord Belper is the son of a manufacturer, and in early life was a msnufac-

turer himself; the late Lord Brone;hton— » better known by his old name of Sir John Hobhouse — was a partner in Whitbread's brewery ; the late Lord Carington's father was a baker and money-lender ; Lord Leven is, or was within the last few years a London banker ; as also was Lord Overstone, whose father began life as a humble dissenting minister in North Wales and Manchester ; the late Lord Clyde's father was a journeyman cabinetmaker ; the fatherof Lord Chancellor Eldon, and ofLord Stowell, was a coal-agent at Newcastle ; Lord Campbell's father, though a Campbell by descent, was so p>>or that the future Chancellor, while reading for the bar, had to suppoit himself by his pen, writing musical and dramatical critiques for the , Morning Chronicle ; Lord Cranworth was the son of a plain country clergyman 5 so also was the first Lord Ellenborough ; Lord Annally's father kept a second-hand bookstall in Dublin, and did a little business also in another way, as a money-lender ; while worse than all, according to strict law, Lord Leconfield never had a father at all, being the illegitimate ton. of one of the Eails of Egremont. who bequeathed to him his magnificent estate at Petworth, and so qualified him for wearing a coronet.

Men born blind can't be carpenters, because they never saw.

A hairdresser once made an unsuccessful attempt in tragi dy. To silence an abundant hissing, he stepped forward with the following speech : " Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I dressed you ; to-night I address you ; and to-morrow, if you please, I will redress you. While there is virtue in powder, pomatum and horse tails, I find it easier to make an actor than to be one."

A young lady hesitating for a word in de«cribing the character of a rejected suitor, said : "He is not a tyrant, not exactly domineering, but — " "Dogmatic," suggested her friend. " No, ho has not dignity enough for that ; I think pupmatic would convey my meaning admirably." We don't doubt it.

The way in which a good stiff female theologian, without a morsel of logic, sticks to her notions is a marvel of unquestioning faith. Various are the grounds of divorce in this much divorcing age ; but what does the leader think of a lady in Ohio who demands to be separeted from her husband because "he does not believe in the damnation of still-born infants ?'' Wei', we do not know that the good woman is singular in her view of the matter — does she differ in this respect from most of the theologians of certain churches?