the bath. orders. bachelors. baronets have the arms of Ulster superadded to their family coat. Next follow knights of the bath; an order instituted by Knights of king Henry IV. and revived by king George the first. They [ 404 ] are so called from the ceremony of bathing, the night before their creation. A new order of knighthood, the Guelphic or Other Hanoverian order, was instituted by king William the Fourth. It has however received no accession since it was originally created, and it is not intended I believe to perpetuate it. There is also the Scotch order of the Thistle, and the Irish order of St. Patrick. The last of these inferior nobility are knights Knights bachelors; the most ancient, though the lowest, order of knighthood amongst us: for we have an instance P of king Alfred's conferring this order on his son Athelstan. The custom of the ancient 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 household: after it, as part of the community.9 Hence some derive the usage of knighting, which has prevailed all over the western world, since its 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 horseback; for it is observable," says Blackstone, that almost all nations call their knights by some appellation derived from an horse.s They are also called in our law milites, because they formed a part of the royal army, in virtue of their feudal tenures : one condition of which was, that every one who held a knight's fee immediately under the crown (which in Edward the second's time t amounted to 20l. 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 first, gave great offence: though warranted by law, and the recent P Will. Malmsb. lib. 2 Tac. de Morib. Germ. 13. • However, the word knight is derived from the Saxon word cnih signifying puer, servus, or attendant 2 Seld. Tit. Hon. c. 5, s. 33. Turn. Stat. de milit. 1 Edw. II. example of queen Elizabeth: but it was by the statute 16 Car. I. c. 20, abolished; and this kind of knighthood has, since that time, fallen into great disregard. These, sir 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 [405] colonels, serjeants at law, and doctors in the three learned Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together by sir [ 406 ] Edward Coke, who observes, that every esquire is a gentle- Esquires. man, 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 somewhat unsettled, what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real esquire: for it is not an estate, however large, that confers this rank upon its owner. Camden, who was himself a herald, distinguishes them the most accurately; and he reckons up four sorts of them: 1. The eldest sons of knights, and their eldest sons, in perpetual succession: 2. The eldest sons of younger sons of peers, and their eldest sons, in like perpetual succession: both which species of esquires sir Henry Spelman entitles armigeri netalitii. 3. 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 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 peers:a for not only these, but the eldest sons of peers of Great Britain, though frequently titular lords, are only esquires in the law, and must be so named in Gentlemen. all legal proceedings. As for gentlemen, says sir 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 the 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 was anciently 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.d Yeoman. Tradesmen, artificers, ers. The rest of the commonalty are tradesmen, artificers, and labour and labourers; who, (as well as all others) must in pursuance of the statute 1 Hen. V. c. 5, be styled 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 seem, to prevent any clandestine or mistaken outlawry, by reducing to a specific certainty the person who is the object of its process. a Blackstone mentioned Irish peers as ranking only with foreign peers, but this was altered on the union, see ante, p. 98. b 3 Inst. 30. 2 Inst. 667. C Commonw. of Eng. b. 1, c. 20. d 2 Inst. 668. CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH. OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME STATES. THE military state includes the whole of the soldiery; or, [ 408 ] such persons as are peculiarly appointed among the rest of The military the people for the safeguard and defence of the realm. state. tending the arms in a In a land of liberty it is extremely dangerous to make a Dangers atdistinct order of the profession of arms. In absolute mo- possesson of narchies this is necessary for the safety of the prince, and free state. arises from the main principle of their constitution, which is that of governing by fear; but in free states the profession of a soldier, taken singly and merely as a profession, is justly an object of jealousy. In these no man should take up arms, but with a view to defend his country and its 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 soldier. The laws therefore and constitution of these kingdoms know no such state as that of a perpetual standing soldier, bred up to no other profession 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. a of the army In the time of our Saxon ancestors, as appears from Ed- [ 409 ] ward the confessor's laws, the military force of this kingdom The history was in the hands of the dukes or heretochs, who were con- in England. stituted through every province and county in the kingdom; being taken out of the principal nobility, and such as were most remarkable for being "sapientes, fideles, et animosi." ° C. de heretochiis. |