Page:Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Titles of Courtesy.djvu/45

 PREFACE. other successes of another branch are not referred to, while the real " Simon Pares " request that every reference to such subjects may be expunged ! The head of another family considers he is not properly described unless certain services are recorded services which his relatives deem too trivial for insertion ! Then waywardness has to be contended with, a weakness with which many. are afflicted. Thus gentlemen who a few years ago were proud to be described in a certain man- ner object after promotion to have their early successes recorded. Honor es mutant mores I To ensure reliable data neither expense nor trouble ' has been spared, and as 18-20ths of the information furnished has been corrected by the noblemen and peeresses, and ladies and gentlemen, referred to in the work, the contents may be accepted as reliable. In respect to baronets, however, some instances occur in which comparatively speculative particulars are published, inasmuch as no information can be procured respecting the gentlemen referred to. But these refer to creations that are to all intents and purposes temporarily obsolete, as each holder thereof, having inherited only a title, is living in obscurity, and to whom we cannot apply the motto, Avito viret honore. Such is the mutability of human affairs ! The unwarrantable assumption of baronetages by persons who have no claim thereto annually increases, and it appears to us to be a blot upon the escutcheon of English jurisprudence that any adventurer may, with the greatest impunity, dub himself with the much-coveted honour of " baronet." The obituary of 1875 includes the names of 20 peers, 15 peeresses, 26 baronets, and 34 knights. The number of each of the three first-mentioned classes was below the average, while the mortality among knights, though in excess of 1874, was not disproportionately heavy. In the same year four peerages (Aldborough, Charleville, Duffus, and Fitzwalter) and six baronetages (Dunbar, Culling-Eardley, Lyell, Macdonnell,