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ranked next after barons: and that precedence was confirmed to him by order of king James I, in the tenth year of his reign'. But, in order to intitle himself to this rank, he must have been created by the king in person, in the field, under the royal banners, in time of open warm. Else he ranks after baronets; who are the next order: which title is a dignity of inheritance, created by letters patent, and usually defcendible to the issue male. It was first instituted by king James the first, A. D. 1611. in order to raise a competent fum for the reduction of the province of Ulster in Ireland; for which reason all baronets have the arms of Ulfter fuperadded to their family coat. Next follow knights of the bath; an order instituted by king Henry IV, and revived by king George the first. They are so called from the ceremony of bathing, the night before their creation. The last of these inferior nobility are knights bachelors; the most antient, though the lowest, order of knighthood amongst us: for we have an instance of king Alfred's conferring this order on his fon Athelfran. The custom of the antient Germans was to give their young men a shield and a lance in the great council: this was equivalent to the toga virilis of the Romans: before this they were not permitted to bear arms, but were accounted as part of the father's houshold; after it, as part of the public. Hence some derive the usage of knighting, which has prevailed all over the western world, fince it's reduction by colonies from those northern heroes. Knights are called in Latin equites aurati; aurati, from the gilt spurs they wore; and equites, because they always served on horfeback: for it is obfervable, that almost all nations call their knights by some appellation derived from an horse. They are alfo called in our law milites, because they formed a part, or indeed the whole of the royal army, in virtue of their feodal tenures; one condition of which was, that every one who held a knights fee (which in Henry the second's time amounted to 20 l. per annum) was obliged to be knighted, and attend the

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king in his wars, or fine for his non-compliance. The exertion of this prerogative, as an expedient to raise money in the reign of Charles the first, gave great offence; though warranted by law, and the recent example of queen Elizabeth: but it was, at the restoration, together with all other military branches of the feodal law, abolished; and this kind of knighthood has, fince that time, fallen into great disregard.

THESE, fir Edward Coke says', are all the names of dignity in this kingdom, esquires and gentlemen being only names of worship. But before these last the heralds rank all colonels, ferjeants at law, and doctors in the three learned professions.

ESQUIRES and gentlemen are confounded together by fir Edward Coke, who observes, that every esquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat armour, the grant of which adds gentility to a man's family : in like manner as civil nobility, among the Romans, was founded in the jus imaginum, or having the image of one ancestor at least, who had borne some curule office. It is indeed a matter fomewhat unfettled, what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real esquire: for it is not an estate, however large, that confers this rank upon it's owner. Camden, who was himself a herald, diftinguishes them the most accurately; and he reckons up four forts of them: 1. The eldest fons of knights, and their eldeft fons, in perpetual succession". 2. The younger fons of peers, and their eldest fons, in like perpetual succession: both which species of esquires fir H. Spelman entitles armigeri natalitii". 3. Esquires created by the king's letters patent, or other investiture; and their eldest fons. 4. Esquires by virtue of their offices; as justices of the peace, and others who bear any office of trust under the crown. To these may be added the esquires of knights of the bath, each of whom constitutes three at his installation; and all foreign,

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nay,

nay, Irish peers; and the eldest fons of peers of Great Britain, who, though generally titular lords, are only esquires in the law, and must so be named in all legal proceedings *. As for gentlemen, says fir Thomas Smith, they be made good cheap in this kingdom: for whosoever studieth the laws of the realm, who studieth in the universities, who professeth liberal sciences, and (to be short) who can live idly, and without manual labour, and will bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, he shall be called master, and shall be taken for a gentleman. A yeoman is he that hath free land of forty shillings by the year; who is thereby qualified to serve on juries, vote for knights of the shire, and do any other act, where the law requires one that is probus et legalis homo2.

THE rest of the commonalty are tradesmen, artificers, and labourers; who (as well as all others) must in pursuance of the statute 1 Hen. V. c. 5. be stiled by the name and addition of their estate, degree, or mystery, in all actions and other legal proceedings.

X

3 Inst. 30. 2 Inst. 667.

✓ Commonw. of Eng. book 1. c. 20.

2

2 Inst. 668.

OF

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTн.

THE MILITARY AND MARITIME

STATE S.

L

HE military state includes the whole of the foldiery; or, fuch persons as are peculiarly appointed among the rest of

the people, for the fafeguard and defence of the realm.

In a land of liberty it is extremely dangerous to make a diftinct order of the profession of arms. In abfolute monarchies this is neceffary for the fafety of the prince, and arifes from the main principle of their conftitution, which is that of governing by fear: but in free states the profeffion of a foldier, taken fingly and merely as a profeffion, is justly an object of jealoufy. In these no man should take up arms, but with a view to defend his country and it's laws: he puts not off the citizen when he enters the camp, but it is because he is a citizen, and would wish to continue so, that he makes himself for a while a foldier. The laws therefore and conftitution of these kingdoms know no such state as that of a perpetual standing foldier, bred up to no other profeffion than that of war: and it was not till the reign of Henry VII, that the kings of England had fo much as a guard about their perfons.

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In the time of our Saxon ancestors, as appears from Edward the confeffor's laws, the military force of this kingdom was in the hands of the dukes or heretochs, who were conftituted through every province and county in the kingdom; being taken out of the principal nobility, and fuch as were most remarkable for being "fapientes, fideles, et animofi." Their duty was to lead and regulate the English armies, with a very unlimited power; “prout eis vifum fuerit, ad honorem coronae et utilitatem regni." And because of this great power they were elected by the people in their full assembly, or folkmote, in the fame manner as sheriffs were elected: following still that old fundamental maxim of the Saxon conftitution, that where any officer was entrusted with fuch power, as if abused might tend to the oppreffion of the people, that power was delegated to him by the vote of the people themselves. So too, among the antient Germans, the ancestors of our Saxon forefathers, they had their dukes, as well as kings, with an independent power over the military, as the kings had over the civil state. The dukes were elective, the kings hereditary : for fo only can be confiftently understood that paffage of Tacitus,

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reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute fumunt ;" in conftituting their kings, the family, or blood royal, was regarded, in chusing their dukes or leaders, warlike merit: just as Caefar relates of their ancestors in his time, that whenever they went to war, by way either of attack or defence, they elected leaders to command them. This large share of power, thus conferred by the people, though intended to preferve the liberty of the subject, was perhaps unreasonably detrimental to the prerogative of the crown: and accordingly we find a very ill use made of it by Edric duke of Mercia, in the reign of king Edmond Ironfide; who, by his office of duke or heretoch, was entitled to a large command in

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