Page:Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Titles of Courtesy.djvu/74

 TITLES, ORDERS, AND DEGREES OF PRECEDENCE AND DIGNITY. called "the first gentleman in Europe." But if the true gentleman stand at 8O exalted an elevation, the assumption of the word has become so common as to have marred its meaning. One not improbable derivation of the word gentleman is, that towards the decline of the Roman empire there were two companies of particularly distinguished soldiers, mostly of good families : one of these was called Gentiles, the other Scutarii ; and it has been suggested that the titles gentleman and esquire may have been derived from this. Again, it is surmised that gentleman means descent from gentle lineage, to which Selden adds, that it is necessary he should follow file example of that lineage. Attorneys-at-law, and persons in sundry other positions, are personally entitled to the addendum of " gentleman " to their names an honour however, which, a satirical author observes, "few care to stickle for, or to see 'gent.' written at the end of their names." In good truth, the words " esquire " and " gentleman " have become so hackneyed, that though in their intrinsic acceptation, they are highly honourable, and the title of " gentleman " is one which the most exalted in rank aspire to deserve, their ordinary use conveys no significancy. An " esquire" or "gentleman," as popularly written, is literally a nominis umbra the shadow of a name. Yet the following direct definition of the relations of gentle- men as between each other is not without interest : " The chief of the family takes place of any gentleman of the family, and though generally it be believed that gentlemen have no precedency one from another, yet reason and discretion allow that a gentleman of three generations should cede to a gentleman of ten, if there be not a very great disparity between their fortunes, and for the same reason that a gentleman of three generations claims precedency from any ordinary landed man who has newly acquired his lands." PRIVILEGES OF THE GENTRY. In bygone times, the lower nobility and gentry possessed privileges, as against their inferiors, which would now be regarded as monstrous, and have of course fallen into disuse. A few examples will suffice : " In equal crimes, a gentleman shall be punishable with more favour than the churl." " In giving evidence, the testimony of a gentleman is more authentic than a clown's." " In the election of magistrates and officers by vote, the suffrage of a gentleman should take place of an ignoble person." Many other instances may be cited, but being ineffective, they have disappeared before tlie progress of civil freedom, under which, substantially, " every man L equal before the law." CITIZENS AND BURGESSES. Camden tells us that these "are such as in their own city perform any public function, or fill any particular office, or by election have a room in our High Court of Parliament." But this description must now be considerably enlarged, and prac- tically the name is applied to all freemen and electors. Citizens and burgesses enjoy valuable privileges and immunities, guaranteed to them under constitutional safeguards, and rules of precedency which, being mostly of a local character, need not be particularised in this work.