Letter: Reform of the honours system is a mixed blessing

Sir: Concerns about the honours system - by recipients as well as onlookers - are not new. On the day of John Major's announcement of proposed changes to the system, a letter of 1865 was deposited in Hampshire County Council's record office.

Francis Thornhill Baring, MP for Portsmouth for 39 years, was writing to his daughter Mary to tell her that he had been offered, and had reluctantly accepted, a peerage. He had to choose a title, and thought of suggesting Lord Micheldever Station 'as something new and democratic'. Unhappily tradition prevailed, and he fixed on an older division of Micheldever to become the first Lord Northbrook.

Yours faithfully,

ROSEMARY DUNHILL

County Archivist

Hampshire County Council

Winchester,

Hampshire

5 March