Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life

by Daniel Joseph Kirwan

And now for the social status and influence of the Romanists in England.

There are, in the first place, 33 Catholic peers, 48 Catholic baronets, and 36 Catholic members of Parliament. There are lords and lords, and one lord differeth from another in glory as one star differeth from another. It is unquestionably true that the Roman Catholic peers and baronets are the representatives of the oldest, most noble, and most influential families in the kingdom. The reigns of Edward VI, Elizabeth, James I, and William and Mary, were marked by the extinction of the greater part of the Roman Catholic houses. The nobles, who clung to the ancient faith, were slain by the axe of the executioner, driven into exile, or beggared by the confiscation of their estates, which passed into the hands of the comparatively mushroom aristocracy that sprang up upon the ruins of these illustrious families. But a few of the old nobility contrived to escape the fate of the majority.

There are in the United Kingdom 27 dukes, 32 marquises, 194 earls, 55 viscounts, and 220 barons—in all, 528 noblemen. But as I have ascertained by dint of patiently reading through Burke's peerage, 228 of these are the holders of titles which are the "creations" of the present century; 163 date back only to the eighteenth century; 89 to the seventeenth century; 17 to the sixteenth century; 20 to the fifteenth century; 3 to the fourteenth century; 4 to the thirteenth century; and 1 to the twelfth century. This last is Baron Kingsale, whose title dates from 1181, and who is the twenty-ninth of his name.

The most ancient dukedom is that of the Duke of Norfolk, created in 1483. The Norfolks, throughout all their history, remained faithful to the Roman Catholic church. The present Duke is the fifteenth of the name, and is "Earl Marshal, Premier Duke, and Earl of England." Of the three nobles whose creation dates back to the fourteenth century, two are Roman Catholics; of the twenty who date from the fifteenth century, six are of that religion; and of the seventeen who date from the sixteenth century, three are of the old faith. Out of the four hundred and eighty whose titles are less than 270 years old, only twenty-two are Catholics. And of the forty-eight Roman Catholic baronets, about half of the number are the descendants of gentlemen to whom this hereditary rank was given in the early part of the seventeenth century.

The ancient Roman Catholic hierarchy in England ended in 1584, with the death of Thomas Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, who died in prison in that year. The hierarchy was not restored until Sept. 9, 1850, when the present Pope erected it by establishing all England as the "Province of Westminster," embracing thirteen dioceses, and presided over by an Archbishop. During this interval of 266 years, the Roman Catholic Clergy in England were at first under the direction of an Archpriest.

In Scotland the hierarchy has not yet been restored. It ended with the death of the last Archbishop of Glasgow, who died in exile at Paris in 1603. Since then the Catholic Church in Scotland has been under the charge of Vicars-apostolic.

A SKETCH OF "LOTHAIR."

The greatest conquest made by the Roman Catholic clergy, of late years, is that of the young Marquis of Bute, the original of Mr. Disraeli's "Lothair," in his social and politico-religious novel of that name. This young and noble lord was born on the 12th of September, 1847, and is now in his twenty-third year. His father, the second Marquis of Bute, married Lady Maria North, eldest daughter and co-heir of George Augustus, third Earl of Guilford. This estimable lady died childless, in 1841, and the old Marquis married again in 1845, Lady Sophia-Frederica-Christina Hastings, second daughter of the first Marquis of Hastings. The young Marquis was unfortunate in losing his mother when he was in his twelfth year. Lord Bute has been a great traveler for a man of his age, and being an only child he has had the best of tutors that Europe could afford.