(>9S 



mitril property in the soil, were not admitted to this 

 privilege. To the two ranks of nobility above men- 

 tioned, three others were afterwards added. Edward 

 III., in tlie brilliant pcricx! of his conquests, created 

 his eldest son duke of Cornwall (i:>37), and established 

 for his younger sons the ducal dignities of Clarence 

 and Lancaster (1362). Richard if not onl> created 

 his nudes dukes of York and (iloucrslrr, but l>cstowed 

 on his favourite, Robert de Vere, the title of duke of 

 Ireland. Since that time, the ducal title has remained 

 the highest title of nobility. The duke of Lancaster 

 w.is the only one who really possessed a duchy, the 

 county of Lancaster having been bestowed on John 

 of Gaunt, Edward's fourth son, with the royalties 

 thereto belonging. Although the duchy was reunited 

 to the crown in 1461, this county is still a county pal- 

 atine. After this period, the ducal title was held by 

 many families ; but in the wars of York and Lancas- 

 ter, mid by the numerous condemnations for high 

 treason, most of them became extinct. There are 

 now only two dukes, whose titles date from a period 

 antecedent to the reign of Charles II. the duke of 

 Norfolk (from I48.'i), and the duke of Somerset (from 

 154t>). Charles II. bestowed the title on his natural 

 sons. Since the accession of George III., it lias been 

 bestowed only on the royal princes, and on the duke 

 of Wellington, the duke of Buckingham, and the duke 

 of Sutherland. The latter are the only persons who 

 have received this honour since 1766. The title of 

 marquis was introduced in the time of Richard II. It 

 is the next in rank to the ducal dignity. Next in de- 

 gree arc the rarls (q. v.), the oldest of all these titles. 

 The title of viscount was introduced during the reign 

 of Henry VI. The name of baron was introduced by 

 William the conqueror, and forms a rank of nobility 

 lower than the counts. (See Baron). There are, 

 besides, official barons, as barons of the exchequer, 

 barons of the cinque ports, &c., who are not peers, 

 have no seat in the upper house, and whose title is not 

 hereditary. Each individual of the higher nobility is 

 called lord, and is a peer of the realm. The title of 

 lord is also attached to the dignity of mayor of Lon- 

 don, but only during the term of office. The arch- 

 bishops and bishops of the church of England have 

 also the privileges of the higher nobility, of which 

 the chief is a seat in the house of peers ; but this dig- 

 nity is only in virtue of their ecclesiastical offices. 

 The Scottish and Irish peers sit in the house only by 

 deputation ; the former electing sixteen, and the latter 

 twenty-eight of their number for this purpose. The 

 titles of nobility, mentioned above, are inherited by 

 the eldest son, who, during the life of the father, 

 bears by courtesy his second title ; if the father has 

 none (as in the case of a baron), the son is styled lord. 

 The other privileges of the higher nobility are incon- 

 siderable. In 1813, they amounted to 564 families 

 (including the six archbishops and the forty-two 

 bishops), and the total revenue of the temporal nobi- 

 li'y was reckoned, by Colquhoun, at 5,000,000; 

 that of the spiritual lords, at 240,000. 



The gentry may be said to include the rich but 

 untitled landed proprietors, and, in general, all to 

 whom wealth, office, or talents, united with good man- 

 ners, secure respect. The title of esquire (ecuyer, 

 scuti/er, armiger) belongs to all civil officers, from the 

 justice of peace upwards, to doctors and barristers. 

 The eldest sons of knights, and the younger sons of 

 peers, inherit it. All foreign nobles, even the Irish 

 peers, are only reckou-d among the esquires in Eng- 

 land. The next degree is that of knights (q. v.), 

 among which are the baronets (q. v.) : this dignity 

 was created by James I., in 1611, and descends to 

 the eldest son. In order to raise money, he granted , 

 to 100 persons the right of bearing the arms of Ulster, 

 and prefixing the title sir to their names, in consider- I 



hlUTAlN. 



ation of the payment of 1000 each. There are no 

 privileges annexed to the baronetcy, but the title is 

 considered as an honour, and is frequently bestowed 

 on distinguished civil and military officers, and on 

 scientific and literary men of eminence. The number 

 is now 851. Colquhoun estimated the whole number 

 of knights and esquires at 11,000, that of gentU -men 

 who live on their incomes at 35,000. The difference 

 between this- lower nobility and the commonaliy is so 

 slight, that Blackstone includes them under the same 

 head. The commonalty, taken in its narrowest 

 sense, is composed of yeomen (all freeholders of forty 

 shillings a year income) and tradesmen, artificers, and 

 labourers. The contrast between want'and affluence 

 is nowhere so striking as in England. Three-sevenths 

 of the population have merely enough to supply their 

 necessities. One-third is assisted by the parishes. 

 In the reign of Charles II., all military tenures were, 

 changed into free and common socage ; and all feu- 

 dal dues and services, with the exception of frankul- 

 moigne, and the honorary services of grand sergeantry, 

 were abolished. But even the villeins, from whom 

 the modern copyholders have sprung, were treated as 

 freemen, except in regard to the obligation to render 

 certain services. This appears from the three kinds 

 of courts formerly held in the manors, and which by 

 law may still be held there. The court baron at 

 common law baron's court, or freeholder's court 

 was composed of the freeholders, who determined 

 civil controversies arising within the manor. The 

 customary court appertained entirely to the copy- 

 holders, and the lord or his steward was the judge. 

 These courts were held every three or four weeks, 

 originally in the lord's hall. In cases of criminal 

 jurisdiction, all persons commorant within the pre- 

 cinct, freeholders and copyholders, were required to 

 attend the court-leet (in Anglo Saxon, folk-Tight), 

 which was held, in name of the king, under the pre- 

 sidency of the lord's steward. Charges of treason or 

 felony he referred to the king's court. Offences of a 

 lighter character were tried by a jury whom he ap- 

 pointed, and conformably to whose verdict he gave 

 judgment. 



ISritish Constitution. We cannot agree with the 

 often repeated assertion of Montesquieu, that the 

 British constitution owes its energy to the strict sepa- 

 ration of the three powers the executive, the judicial, 

 and the legislative. For parliament exercises an im- 

 portant part of the judicial and executive powers ; 

 the latter chiefly in the house of commons, which 

 keeps up a perpetual oversight on the administration, 

 and performs a great many executive acts by private 

 bills (for the constructing of roads, bridges, canals, 

 &c., granting divorces, &c.) ; the former by the house 

 of lords, which is the supreme judicial tribunal of the 

 empire : the king, in the privy council or in his cabi- 

 net, exercises legislative and judicial powers : the 

 three superior courts have a power similar to that ot 

 the Roman pretors, as their decisions have, in a de- 

 gree, the force of laws : and, in general, the three 

 departments run into each other, so that neither ot 

 them has an entirely separate and independent organ. 

 Not less erroneous is the representation of the kii.g 

 and the two houses of parliament as a mixture of aris- 

 tocracy, monarchy, and democracy. The parliament 

 is, even in its reformed state, aristocratic, with the 

 occasional exception of a few members, whom parti- 

 cular circumstances connect with the cause of the 

 people. The lower house is, on the whole, merely 

 an assembly of the wealthy, and the upper house is 

 the same in another form, and with the addition of 

 the aristocratical element of birth. But the rights of 

 the people, and the sovereignty of the laws, on which 

 civil freedom depends, are secured by rtther institu- 

 tions, the permanence of which is guaranteed by two 



