704 Notes of the Month, $c. [JuNE, 



strength and acuteness combined. " It was plain that the claim rested 

 on tenure : but what was the nature or kind of the tenure ? Was it tenure 

 in fee ? If it was, did the claim depend on the legal estate? or did it 

 extend to the equitable ? Suppose he (Lord Eldon) were tenant in fee 

 of the castle and barony of Berkeley, would he be Lord Berkeley ? 

 Suppose the tenant having the legal estate should mortgage it, and the 

 mortgagee were in possession, would the mortgagee, as having the legal 

 estate, be Lord Berkeley ? or would the mortgager be Lord Berkeley, as 

 having the equitable estate ? or would both of them be Lords Berkeley ? 

 Did the peerage belong to the tenant in tail, or the tenant for life, as 

 well as to the tenant in fee ? It must be made out that it did ; for this 

 was only a tenure for life. Suppose the estate were sold, would the 

 peerage pass along with it ? Suppose the tenant became insolvent, and 

 the estate should be sold by the Insolvent Debtors' Court, could the 

 peerage be sold along with it ? The estate for life, too, in this case, was 

 subject to a term for years. Suppose the termor in possession, would 

 the tenant for life be a peer notwithstanding?" 



Here are six suppositions, any one of which might be branched into 

 ten times the number, and of which the tenth part might be fatal to the 

 claim. On the whole, we think that the colonel, at the head of 30 } OOOL 

 a-year a colonel, too, though of militia, a capital fox-hunter, a con- 

 ductor of theatres, a first figure at balls, and prodigiously sought in 

 matrimony by all the match-making mammas in Gloucestershire may 

 think himself well off as he is. Why should he want the peerage ? we 

 are perfectly assured that the peerage does not want him ! 



A capital work has just been produced by Mr. Burke, which will 

 complete all that was wanting to the public acquaintance with our 

 official ranks, and personages of all kinds. His " Heraldic Dictionary 

 of the Peerage and Baronetage" has already become a standard volume, 

 and deserves it, for accuracy and knowledge. The present work is en- 

 titled" The Official Kalenderfor 1830; or a detail of the public insti- 

 tutions, public functionaries, of army, church, and state, of the colonies, 

 &c., of the sovereigns, and royal families of Europe, &c." In fact, of every 

 thing that a man who wants to know any thing about public appoint- 

 ments in the British empire and its connexions might look for in a dozen 

 other volumes, and look for in vain. We wish that Mr. Burke had an- 

 nexed the salaries of our officials, and of our sinecurisls too ! but the 

 work, as it stands, is excellent, and must be as popular as it is un- 

 doubtedly useful, clever, and well-informed. 



