Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/578

LEFT NOBILITY 474 NOBLE ever has a shield of arms is a nobleman; and in every country of continental Eu- rope a grant of arms, or letters of no- bility, is conferred on all such a noble's descendants. In England, on the other hand, the words noble and nobility are restricted to the five ranks of the peer- age constituting the greater nobility, and to the head of the family, to whom alone the title belongs. Gentility, in its more strict sense, corresponds to the nobility of continental countries. The higher nobility, or nobility in the exclusive sense, of England consist of the five temporal ranks of the peerage — duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, who are members of the Upper House of Parliament. Archbishops and bishopa are lords temporal, but not peers. The dignity of the peerage is hereditary, but in early times was territorial, the dig- nity originally being attached to the pos- session of lands held directly from the crown in return for services to be per- formed to the sovereign. Later, peers were created by writ of summons to at- tend the king's council or parliament, but now the creation of a new peer is al- ways made by letters-patent from the crown. In order to the efficient carrying out of the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords there are now a limited number of life peers, styled Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. By the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, as amended 1887, it is enacted that every such lord, unless he is otherwise entitled to sit in the House of Lords, shall by virtue and ac- cording to the date of his appointment be entitled during his life to rank as a baron, and shall be entitled to a writ of summons to attend and to sit and vote in the House of Lords. But his dignity is not to descend to his heirs. A peerage is forfeited by attainder for high trea- son; attainder for felony forfeits a peer- age by writ, not by patent; on attainder, peerage cannot be restored by the crown, only by an act of Parliament. Ladies may be peeresses in their own right, either _ by creation or by inheritance. The wives of i)eers are also styled peer- esses. In France a limited body of the higher nobility, styled the peers, were in the enjoyment of privileges not possessed by the rest. The title of duke was subject to strict rule, but many titles of marquis and count, believed to be pure assumptions, were recognized by the courtesy of society. The head of a noble family often assumed at his own hand the title of marquis; and if an estate was purchased which had be- longed to a titled family the purchaser was in the habit of transferring to him- self the honors possessed by his pre- decessor — a practice to which Louis XV. put a stop. Immediately before the Revolution 80,000 families claimed nobil- ity, many of them of obscure station, and less than 3,000 of ancient lineage. Nobles and clergy together possessed two-thirds of the land. Practically, the estimation in which a member of the French nobility was held depended not so much on the degree of his title as on its antiquity, and the distinction of those who had borne it. The higher titles of nobility were not borne by all members of a family; each son assumed a title from one of the family estates — a custom productive of no small confu- sion. Unlike "roturier" lands, which divided among all the children equally, noble fiefs went to the eldest son. The Revolution overthrew all distinction of ranks. A new nobility was created by the Emperor Napoleon I. in 1808, with titles descending to the eldest son. The old nobility was again revived at the Restoration. The aristocracy of Venice had its origrin in commerce; and, though un- titled, they were among the most distin- guished class of nobles in Europe. On the other hand, in Florence, in the 14th century, under a constitution purely mercantile, nobility became a disqualifi- cation from holding any ofRce of the state. The nobility of Spain boasts of a spe- cial antiquity and purity of blood, a descent from warriors and conquerors alone. Hidalgo, in Spanish, is a term im- plying gentility or nobility; the hidalgo alone has in strictness a right to the title "Don," which has latterly been used by persons who have no proper claim to it about as extensively as "Esquire" in England. The higher nobility are styled grandees; the class of nobility below them are called Titulados. In the United States the National Con- stitution declares (Art. I., Sec. 9), "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State." Con- gress sparingly gives its consent for a person in the service of the govern- ment to accept a decoration or other mark of honor from another government. Private citizens are under no constitu- tional restrictions. NOBLE, EUGENE ALLEN, American educator; born in Brooklyn, N. Y., 1865; graduated from Wesleyan University,