ENGLISH ARIsToCRACY.


 he foundation Of great families may, perhaps, be deemed an inquiry more curious than instructive. Haliam says: that almost all the richest of the English aristoeracy derived their vast possessions from the spells of the Re- formation. ii'iilis is not precisely the case; but is partly true. It is we'll known to have been the case with the houses of Cavendsh and Russell. The latter Burke, in his most indignant let ter, provoked by most ill-timed and cruel sarcasm, had made known to all the world, in terms of burning and in. imitable eloquenee. The widow of Sir William Cavandsh, Elizabeth Hardwiek, who afterwards married Gee. Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury d. massed the greater part of the Cayen- dish wealth. Sheset up three sons--- Henry Cavendish, William, created Earl of Devonshire and Sir Chas. Ga yendlsh, the father of William, Duke ofNewcastle--all with immense estates. It was not that these estates were al- ways gifts from the Crown; but they were cheap purchases the circulating capital being probably in no degree e. qual o=the vast territories which were brought to market. But the Devon shire rental an enormous accession by the Burlington property, made in Ire- land in the reign of James I. by the great Earl of Cork and by the remnants of the Clifford property in Yorkshire. The foundation of the Fitzwilliam es- tates was, perhaps, by advantageous uTeiiiases oi Aibbey lands in the time Of Henry VIII. but a great increase was made by acquisition in Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and, last y, by the Wentworth property, through the present Earl's mother. The Lans- dale wealth has mainly sprung, We pre- surne, from the coal mines on the an- eient estates of that ancient family. Bueelengh has been an accumulation from heiTesses, including here in Eng- land almost the whole possessions of the Dukes of Montague. The Cover es- tates have also mainly come by msr- riage, beginning with the Leuesoas; but the grand augmentation was the canal property of the late Duke of Rridgewa- ter; to which are now to be added the Southerland estates ofthe present Mar ehioness-a principality in themselves. The Grosvenor riches came nlainiyFby an heiresss who brought in. marriage the London building land, about two generations back. The Spencer es- tates are the accumulation of old Sa- rah, Duchess of; Marlborough, added to the paternal Sunderland property. The Northumberland estates are main- y the old feadal property of the Per- cys. The Ruthland estates are chiefly the baronial territory of the ancient house of de Roos; the Portland are dc. rived from that branch of the Caycn- dishes wilo were Dukes oi f HNcw,asstti.eS N ,asstt.e and those of the existing ducal family of Newcastle come from the IIolIesscs. 1.-The Hertlord were chiefly acquired by old Secretary Conway, whose cFarae- ter makes a figure i'll the early part of Clarendon's History. It will hence ap- pear that MT. Hallam's assertion ought to be much qualified. The Marquis of Winchester, however, and Lord Penn broke, were great shares of Abbey lands, as is noticed by Naunton.n

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