Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together

established custom; for which catalogue of honour, edit. 1610. fee (among others) Camden's and Chamberlayne's present state Britannia, tit. ordines. Milles's of England. b. 3. ch. 3.

TABLE OF PRECEDENCE.

* The king's children and grand- + Speaker of the house of comchildren.

*

Durham.

Winchester.

mons.

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 fome curule office. It is indeed a matter somewhat unfettled, what conftitutes 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 7: 1. The eldest fons of knights, and their eldest fons, in perpetual fucceffion 8: 2. The eldest fons of younger fons of peers, and their eldest fons in like perpetual succession: both which species of esquires fir Henry Spelman entitles armigeri natalitii?. Esquires created by the king's letters patent, or other investiture; and their eldest sons. 4. Esquires by virtue of their offices; as justices of the peace, and others who bear any offices of trust under the crown. To these may be added the esquires of knights of the bath, each of whom conftitutes three at his installation: and all foreign, nay, Irish peers; for not only these, but the eldest fons of peers of Great Britain, though frequently titular lords, are only esquires in the law, and must be so named in all legal proceedings. As for gentlemen, says fir Thomas Smith 1, they be made good cheap in this kingdom: for whofoever studieth the laws of the realm, who ftudieth in the universities, who professeth the liberal sciences, and (to be short) who can live idly, and without manual labour, and will bear the port, charge, and

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bear among men, during the lives of their fathers,

3 Init. 30. 2 Inst. 667. Commonw. of Eng. b. I.

countenance of a gentleman, he shall be called mafter, and shall be taken for a gentleman. A yeoman is he that hath free land of forty shillings by the year; who was anciently thereby qualified to ferve on juries, vote for knights of the shire, and do any other act, where the law requires one that is probus et legalis homo.

The rest of the commonalty are tradefmen, artificers, and labourers; who, (as well as all others) must in pursuance of the statute I Hen. V. c. 5. be stiled by the name and addition of their estate, degree, or mystery, and the place to which they belong, or where they have been conversant, in all original writs of actions personal, appeals, and indictments, upon which process of outlawry may be awarded; in order, as it should feem, to prevent any clandeftine or mistaken outlawry, by reducing to a specific certainty the person who is the object of it's process.

СНАРТЕER THE THIRTEENTH.

OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME

STATES.

THE military ftate includes the whole of the

soldiery; or, such 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 distinct order of the profeffion of arms. In absolute monarchies this is necessary for the safety of the prince, and arises from the main principle of their conftitution, which is that of governing by fear': but in free ftates the profeffion of a foldier, taken singly and merely as a profeffion, is justly an object of jealousy. 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 soldier, 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 perfons.

In the time of our Saxon ancestors, as appears from Edward the confessor'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 such 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

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vifum fuerit, ad honorem corona et utilitatem regni." And because of this great power they were elected by the people in their full assembly, or folkmote, in the same manner as sheriffs were elected: following ftill that old fundamental maxim of the Saxon conftitution, that where any officer was intrusted with fuch power, as if abused might tend to the oppression of the people, that power was delegated to him by the Vote of the people themselves. So too, among the ancient 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 so only can be consistently understood that passage of Tacitus 3, reges ex nobi

litate, 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 Cæfar 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 4. This large share of power, thus conferred by the people, though intended to preserve the liberty of the subject, was perhaps unreasonably detrimental to the

I c. de heretochiis.

2 " Ifti vero viri eliguntur per " commune confilium, pro com"muni util.tate regni, per pro"vincias et patrias univerfas, et " per fingulos comicatus, in pleno "folkmote, ficut et vicecomites " provinciarum et comitatuum eligi "debent." LL. Edw. Confeff. VOL. I.

ibid. See also Bede, eccl. hist. 1. 5. c. 10.

3 De Morib. Germ. 7.

4 " Quum bellum civitas aut " illatum defendit aut infert, ma"giftratus qui ei bello præfint ae"liguntur." De bell. Gali. I 6. c. 22.

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