use of Vipont found it
convenient to rend itself into two grand divisions,--the peer's branch
and the commoner's. The House of Commons had become so important that it
was necessary for the House of Vipont to be represented there by a great
commoner. Thus arose the family of Carr Vipont. That division, owing
to a marriage settlement favouring a younger son by the heiress of the
Carrs, carried off a good slice from the estate of the earldom: _uno
averso, non deficit alter_; the earldom mourned, but replaced the loss
by two wealthy wedlocks of its own; and had long since seen cause to
rejoice that its power in the Upper Chamber was strengthened by such aid
in the Lower. For, thanks to its parliamentary influence, and the aid
of the great commoner, in the reign of George III. the House of Vipont
became a Marquess. From that time to the present day, the House of
Vipont has gone on prospering and progressive. It was to the aristocracy
what the "Times" newspaper is to the press. The same quick sympathy
with public feeling, the same unity of tone and purpose, the same
adaptability, and something of the same lofty tone of superiority to the
petty interests of party. It may be conceded that the House of Vipont
was less brilliant than the "Times" newspaper, but eloquence and wit,
necessary to the duration of a newspaper, were not necessary to that of
the House of Vipont. Had they been so, it would have had them.

The head of the House of Vipont rarely condescended to take office. With
a rent-roll loosely estimated at about L170,000 a year, it is beneath
a man to take from the public a paltry five or six thousand a year, and
undergo all the undignified abuse of popular assemblies, and "a ribald
press." But it was a matter of course that the House of Vipont should
be represented in any Cabinet that a constitutional monarch could be
advised to form. Since the time of Walpole, a Vipont was always in the
service of his country, except in those rare instances when the country
was infamously misgoverned. The cadets of the House, or the senior
member of the great commoner's branch of it, sacrificed their ease to
fulfil that duty. The Montfort marquesses in general were contented
with situations of honour in the household, as of Lord Steward, Lord
Chamberlain, or Master of the Horse, etc.,--not onerous dignities; and
even these they only deigned to accept on those special occasions when
danger threatened the star of Brunswick, and the sense