;

BOOK I. 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 Athelftan. 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 houfhold after it, as part of the community". Hence fome derive the ufage 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 fpurs they wore; and equites, because they always ferved on horseback: for it is obfervable, that almost all nations call their knights by some appellation derived from an horse, They are also called in our law milites, because they formed a part of the royal army, in virtue of their feodal tenures; one condition of which was, that every one who held a knight's fee immediately under the crown (which in Edward the fecond's time 9 amounted to 20 l. per annum) was obliged to be knighted, and attend the king in his wars, or fine for his noncompliance, The exertion of this prerogative, as an expedient to raise money in the reign of Charles the firft, gave great offence: though warranted by law, and the recent example of queen Elizabeth ; but it was by the statute 16 Car. I. c. 16. abolished; and this kind of knighthood has, fince that time, fallen into great disregard.

THESE, fir Edward Coke fays', are all the names of dignity in this kingdom, efquires and gentlemen being only names of worship. But before thefe laft the heralds rank all

n Will. Malmb. lib. 2.

Tac. de Morib. Germ. 13.
Camd. ibid. Co. Litt. 74.

9 Stat. de milit. 1 Edw. II.

• 2 Inft, 667.

colonels,

colonels, ferjeants at law, and doctors in the three learned profeffions.

* Lord chancellor or keeper, if a baron. Knights of the Garter.

* Lord prefident of the council. if barons. | Chancellor of the duchy.

ESQUIRES and gentlemen are confounded together by fir Edward Coke, who obferves, that every efquire 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 leaft, who had borne fome curule office. It is indeed a matter fomewhat unfettled, what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real efquire: 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 eldest fons, in perpetual fucceffion": 2. The eldest fons of younger fons of peers, and their eldest fons in like perpetual fucceffion: both which fpecies of efquires fir Henry Spelman entitles armigeri natalitii". 3. Efquires created by the king's letters patent, or other inveftiture; and their eldest fons. 4. Ef quires by virtue of their offices; as juftices of the peace, and others who bear any office of truft under the crown. To these may be added the efquires of knights of the bath, each of whom conftitutes three at his inftallation: and all foreign, nay, Irish peers; for not only thefe, but the eldeft fons of peers of Great Britain, though frequently titular lords, are only efquires in the law, and must be so named in all legal proceedings *. As for gentlemen, fays fir Thomas Smith, they be made good cheap in this kingdom: for whofoever ftudieth the laws of the realm, who studieth in the univerfi→ ties, who profeffeth the liberal fciences, and (to be short) who can live idly, and without manual labour, and will bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, he fhall be called master, and shall be taken for a gentleman. A yeoman is he that hath free land of forty fhillings by the year; who was antiently 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 homo.

I

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 eftate, degree, or mystery, and the place to which they belong, or where they have been conversant, în all original writs of actions perfonal, appeals, and indictments, upon which procefs of outlawry may be awarded; in order, as it should seem, to prevent any clandeftine or mistaken outlawry, by reducing to a specific certainty the person who is the ob ject of it's procefs.

2 Inft. 668.

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.

OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME

STATES.

THE

HE military ftate includes the whole of the foldiery; or, fuch perfons as are peculiarly appointed among the reft of the people for the fafeguard and defence of the realm.

In a land of liberty it is extremely dangerous to make a distinct order of the profeffion of arms. In abfolute monarchies this is neceffary for the fafety of the prince, and arises from the main principle of their constitution, 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 fo, that he makes himself for a while a foldier. The laws therefore and conftitution of these kingdoms know no fuch state as that of a perpetual ftanding 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 so much as a guard about their persons.

IN