THE FOUR NEW PEERS.

Kumara Times, Issue 3047, 9 August 1886, Page 3

THE FOUR NEW PEERS.

The following brief notices, from the Chtistchnrch Press, of the career of the four gentlemen who have just been raised to the Peerage will doubtless be read with interest:— Sir Thomas Brassey, K.C.8., was born in 1836, was educated at Rugby and Uuiversity College, Oxford, where he graduated as M.A. in 1861. In the same year he married Miss Annie Allnutt, who, as Lady Brassey, has become known as the accomplished authoress of the " Voyage of the Sunbeam " and other books of travels. Sir Thomas Brassey was called to the bar in 1866, but has never devoted himself to the profession, his large fottuno having been made as a contractor. In 1865 he became M.P. for Devonport, and in 1868 was elected for Hastings. He waß a Lord of the Admiralty from 1880-4, and Secretary to the Admiralty in 1884-5. Sir Michael Arthur Bass was a member of the famous brewing firm at Burton-on-Trent. He was born in 1837, educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge (B A. 1860, M.A. 1863), and in 1869 married Harriet, daughter of the late Mr E. Thornewill. He was elected M.P. for Stafford in 1865, for East Staffordshire in 1868, and for the Burton .Division of Staffordshire in 1885. He was created a baronet by Mr Gladstone in 1882. The Right Hon. Sir Richard Assheton Cross was born at Red Scar, near Preston, on May 30th, 1823. He was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1846. In 1849 he was called to the bar, and for several years he went the Northern Circuit. In 1837 he was elected M.P. for Preston. At the general election of 1868 he came forward as a candidate for SouthWest Lancashire in opposition to Mr Gladstone. The contest was watched with extraordinary interest. Mv Cross was returned at the head of the poll, the voting being as follows :—For Mr Cross (C), 7729 ; for Mr Turner, (C), 7676; for Mr Gladstone (L.), 7415; for Mr Grenfell (L.), 6939. On the formation of Mr Disraeli's Government, in 1874, Mr Cross was appointed Home Secretary, which position he held in the Marquis of Salisbury's last Administration. The Right Hon. Frederick Arthur Stanley is the younger son of the 14th, and brother of the present Earl of Derby. He was born in London in 1841, and was educated at Eton. In 1858 he entered the Grenadier Guards, from which he retired in 1865, ■when he entered the House of Commons as member for Preston. He was a Lord of the Admiralty from August to December, 1868, and Financial Secretary for War, from February, 1874, to August, 1877, when he became Financial Secretary to the Treasury. On April 2nd, 1878, he was appointed Secretary of State for War in succession to Mr Hardy, now Lord Cranbrook. On the formation of Lord Salisbury's Ministry in 1885, he was appointed Secretary for the Colonies. Colonel Stanley is heir presumptive to the Earldom of Derby.