Lord ROSEBERY has obtained a Committee for regulating the right
of voting at the election of Scotch Peers. It was indeed time that the House should take notice of some recent proceedings respecting Scotch titles, as the following facts will prove. A certain gentleman of the name of BANKES has persuaded himself, and endeavoured to per- suade the public, that one Mr. HUMPHREYS, a ci-decant schoolmaster, who has assumed the named of ALEXANDER, is legally Earl of Stirling, by virtue of a pedigree which is more than doubtful, and under a patent which is not enrolled. He has further asserted in divers pamphlets, that the said Earl of Stirling possesses the right to create Baronets of Nova Scotia ! and in return for having conferred the honours of an Earl- dom on his protege, the said Earl has, exercised his royal prerogative in favour of Mr. BANKES, who consequently styles himself" Sir Thomas Bankes, Baronet of Nova Scotia." It is even said that the Earl and his new-created Baronet profess to grant lands in Canada; but this, we suppose, is to be received as a report only. Those who may have any idea of settling in Canada, will do well to inspect their titles narrowly. Another soi-disant Scotch Peer is the Earl of Annandale and Haryilt; whose pretensions are merely ludicrous, but who nevertheless finds in- dividuals who believe that his claim is well founded, and advance money
to prosecute it! •
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