Note 214 — Chapter XXVIII · THE NEW DEPARTURE.

The offer, it is odd to notice, was almost an unprecedented mark of Royal favour. The elevation of Mr. Disraeli to an earldom was effected in the middle, not at the end of his service as Premier, and in the moment of his triumph, not of his defeat. It is, however, worth noting that at the end of his first Administration Mr. Disraeli accepted a viscountess’s coronet for his wife. Lord John Russell was not Premier in 1859 when he became Earl Russell; in fact, his acceptance of the Foreign Office under Palmerston was supposed finally to put him in the background. Grenville, Liverpool, Wellington, Goderich, Grey, Melbourne, Derby, and Aberdeen were all Peers before they became Premiers. When Addington’s Ministry resigned early in the century, the Premier, it is true, became Lord Sidmouth. Yet it was not an earldom but only a viscountcy—a rank often conferred on ex-Ministers who have not been Premiers—that was given to him. Pitt was not actually First Lord of the Treasury—though no doubt he was the moving spirit in the Cabinet—when he became Earl of Chatham. In fact, for the Queen’s offer there was no precedent later than 1742, when Walpole—the Minister to whom her House owe their crown—was created Earl of Orford when he resigned.