matter is pleaded in abatement, and found for the person who pleads it, the writ shall abate.

"It seems agreed, that the word mystery includes all lawful arts, trades, and occupations; and that if one under the degree of a gentleman, have divers of such arts, trades, or occupations, he may be named by any of them.

"The additions of this kind which are said to be clearly good, are those of husbandman, merchant, broker, tailor, point-maker, smith, miller, carpenter, cook, brewer, baker, butcher, parish-clerk, mercer, fishmonger, dyer, schoolmaster, scrivener, and such like.

"The additions of this kind which are said to be clearly insufficient, are those of maintainer, extortioner, thief, vagabond, heretic, common informer, and such like.'

According to the whole view of the subject in this article in Bacon, a Gentleman would seem to be he who, as defendant in pleadings or indictments, has only the addition of estate or degree after his name, not the addition of any art, trade, or occupation.

and

To these extracts, we may add the following dicta of Sir Edward Coke :

"He that is destrained ought to be a gentleman of name and blood, claro loco natus. Of ancient time, those that held by Knight's service were regularly gentle. It was a badge of gentry. Yet now tempora mutantur, and many a yeoman, burgess, or tradesman, purchaseth lands holden by Knight's service, and yet ought not, for want of gentry, to be made a Knight. At this time the surest rule is, Nobiles sunt qui arma gentilicia antecessorum suorum proferre possunt. Therefore they are called scutiferi, armigeri.

"A Knight is by creation-a gentleman by descent; and yet I read of the creation of a gentleman. A Knight of France came into England, and challenged John Kingston, a good and strong man at arms, but no gentleman, as the record saieth, ad certa armorum puncta, etc. perficienda. Rex ipsum Johannem ad ordinem generosorum adoptavit, et armigerum constituit, et certa honoris insignia concessit."

The Lord Chief Justice continues. "And great discord and discontentment would arise within the realme, if yeomen and tradesmen were admitted to the dignity of Knighthood, to take the place and the precedency of the antient and noble gentry of the realme.

"It is resolved in our books, without contradiction, that a Knight bachelor is a dignity, and of the inferior degree of nobility. Britton styleth a Knight honorable, and in the record 9 Edw. I. Sir John Acton, Knight, hath the addition of nobilis; but gentlemen of name and of blood, had very rarely the addition of generosus or armiger, being sufficiently distinguished by their Knight's service from yeomen, who served by the plough. But it was enacted by the statute 1. Hen. V. that in every writ original of actions, personal appeals, and inditements, to the name of the defendants, addition be made of the state, or degree, or misterie; and hereupon addition was made of generosus or armiger.

"An unmarried gentlewoman is improperly styled spinster; she ought to be styled generosa."—2 Institutes 668.

In the fourth volume, the Lord Chief Justice quotes Cicero and Pliny, Nobilis est qui sui generis imagines proferre potest: and adds, that what

images were to the Romans, coats of arms are to us-Arma seu insignia gentilicia ex antiquo habuerunt locum imaginum: so now the best way of discussing of antiquity of gentry is per insignia.

With reference to the curious fact of the King creating a gentleman, Sir Edward Coke is correct, for in 2 par. Inst. fol. we read of John Kingston being made a Gentleman by King Richard II. It is singular

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that so learned a student as James I. should have been unaware of this. Yet thus it seems from the answer he is reported to have given to his Scotch nurse, who entreated him to make her son a gentleman. Madam," said the King "I can mak him a Lord, but I canna mak him a gentleman." Perhaps his erudite Majesty was wittingly ignorant. We now come to the opinions of heraldic authors, which are about as vaguely and loosely given as those of the lawyers.

Camden Clarencieux, a King of Arms, says :

"Nobiles vero nostri dividuntur in majores et minores. Nobiles minores sunt equites aurati, armigeri, et qui vulgo generosi, et gentlemen vocantur.—The lesser noblemen are the Knights, Esquires, and those whom we commonly call gentlemen."

SILVANUS MORGAN, in his Sphere of Gentry, published in 1661, divides them into native, dative, achieved, and created nobility.

"The term gentleman," says Robson, in his History of Heraldry, "originally comprehended all above the rank of yeoman; whereby even noblemen are properly called gentlemen. All who were entitled to coat armour, or whose ancestors had been freemen, were included in the word gentleman. But it was more particularly applied to the lowest rank of these; because, not having any title of honour, for want of a specifie term it was necessary to employ the general one, to distinguish them from the ignoble or plebeian. In times when the different ranks were more carefully distinguished, there were several shades of gentility. The first and most honourable were those who could boast of four generations of gentlemen, both in the paternal and maternal line: they were gentlemen by blood. If they could not prove this, but the contrary was not known within the memory of man, then they were gentlemen by prescription. It was also in the power of the King to raise any ignoble person to the rank of gentleman, by letters patent, conferring on him the right to bear coat armour; when this was done without any achievement either in war or peace, the person thus ennobled was insultingly called a gentleman of paper and wax. All orders of the King's household, not in a menial capacity, were considered raised to the rank of gentlemen. All orders of ecclesiastical preferment constituted a claim to gentility; and also any degree taken in the liberal sciences. In feudal times gentility might be acquired by the purchase of a seignory which had in any way lapsed to the King, and the new purchaser became entitled to bear the arms of the last possessor. There was yet another in which gentility was sometimes obtained, and that was by adoption; as when a person, who was not of gentility, was adopted by one that was, and, as he succeeded to his property and name, was admitted as his offspring, and allowed to bear arms."

That correct and graceful, but rather haughty heraldic writer, Sir James Lawrence, the author of a well-known clever work, On the Nobility of the British Gentry, thus discusses the subject of the term "gentle

man :-"

"The books to form an opinion of the dignity of an old English Gentleman are the county histories; and these seldom come into the hands of foreigners. His baronial castle, or his not less sumptuous mansion of a more modern date, is there depicted. A stately avenue conducts to his residence, and a coach and six, escorted by a troop of outriders, the usual appendage of his quality, is seen driving into his gates; and when at length his numerous tenantry have accompanied the heraldic pomp of his funeral to the neighbouring cathedral, the next print represents him there sleeping in dull cold marble, but blazoned with all the escutcheons of his house. Such are the halls that embellish Whitaker's History of Richmond; such, in Nash's History of Worcestershire, are the monuments of the Sheldons, of the Vernons, and the Talbots, whose numerous quarterings would not have disparaged an elector of Mayence or a prince bishop of Wurtzbourg.

"The late King of Wirtemburg used to say, that he could form no idea of an English Gentleman, till he had visited several at their family seats, and seen their manner of living in the country. And it is remarkable that the author who at presents seems to take the most pleasure in doing justice to the character of an English Squire, is an American-Washington Irving.

"In Johnston's Dictionary, it is true, a Gentleman is said to be one of good extraction, but not noble;' and in so saying, he rendered the English Gentry considerable injury, as his work is translated into foreign languages, and this unintentionally; for he was a conscientious man, and though no Gentleman himself, he bore no envy towards his superiors. He was a friend of all aristocratical institutions; but however profound an etymologist, he was neither herald nor antiquary, and he committed the modern blunder of confounding nobility with peerage; and on points of honor, Lord Verulam, Selden, Cambden, etc., and the statutes of the Garter, are better authorities.

"In Bailey's Dictionary, of the edition of 1707, we find a Gentleman, one who received his nobility from his ancestors, and not from the gift of any prince or state.'

"And in the second volume of Bailey's Dictionary, printed 1728, (I specify the edition, because in later editions variations may be discovered, and these variations shew the progressive degradation of the British Gentry), we find, a Gentleman is, properly, according to the ancient notion, one of perfect blood, who hath four descents* of gentility, both by his father and his mother.'

6

"In choosing of magistrates, the vote of a Gentleman was preferred before that of an ignoble person.

"It was a punishable crime to take down the coat armour of a Gentleman, or to offer violation to the ensign of any noble person deceased.

"The reasons why those that are students in the inns of court are esteemed Gentlemen, is because anciently none but the sons of Gentlemen were admitted into them.

"But the students of law, grooms of his Majesty's palace, and sons of peasants, made priests, and canons, though they are styled Gentle

Four descents of gentility are in Germany called sixteen quarters, or parents; one descent requires two-two descents four-three descents eight-four descents sixteen great-great-grand parents, and which qualify a Gentleman to be chosen a princebishop, or Knight of the Teutonic order.

man, yet they have no right to coat-armour.

If a man be a Gentleman

by office only, and loses his office, then he loses his gentility, "Gentry-the lowest degree of nobleness-such as are descended of ancient families, and have always borne a coat of arms.'

"This dictionary represented to foreigners the gentry of England in an honorable light; and being used at schools, inspired our youths with a respect for their own families. This dictionary pronounces nobility to be acquired; gentility never. This also was an axiom in France. The acquirer there of letters patent is styled an ennobli; his son a noble: but it is undecided among French heralds, whether his grandson, or his greatgreat-grandson, be the first Gentleman in the family; some heralds requiring only three, others five generations of noblesse to make a Gentleman.

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'Formerly, while all persons of coat-armour were styled noblemen, all Gentlemen were styled persons of quality.

"A peer is only a person of rank, unless he be a Gentleman; but every Gentleman is a person of quality, for, in the opinion of a herald, quality and gentility are synonymous.

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Lord Verulam says (page 119): "At the same time there repaired unto Perkin, divers Englishmen of quality, Sir George Nevile, Sir John Taylor, and about one hundred more."

"(Page 122.) "Upon All-hallowes day, the King's second son Henry was created Duke of York; and as well the Duke as divers other noblemen, Knights, Bachelors, and Gentlemen of quality, were made Knights of the Bath."

"Fuller's Church History, anno 1546. The last person of quality who suffered martyrdom in this King's reign, was Anne Ascough, alias Kyme. She was worshipfully extracted; the daughter of Sir William Ascough of Kelsy in Lincolnshire, of the age of twenty-five.'

"The gentry of Yorkshire thus begin a petition to Charles the First, 1643:

"Those members of parliament lately employed to attend your Majesty from both houses, being all of them Gentlemen of quality and estate in this county.'

"During the civil war was published, a catalogue of all Lords, Knights, Commanders, and persons of quality slain, or executed by law martial to March 25, 1647.

"Proclamation against duelling, Whitehall, 9th March, 1679:

"Whereas it has become too frequent, especially among persons of quality, to avenge their private quarrels by duel.''

To give any further extracts from other legal or heraldic writers becomes unnecessary, as what they say is generally, in words or effect, a repetition of the foregoing statements.

From all these various opinions, though, as we remark, somewhat carelessly given, we think we are justified in drawing the conclusion, that those who really are entitled to be called gentlemen may be divided into the following classes :

1. THE GENTLEMAN BY BIRTH, OR GENTLEMAN BORN, about which there is little difficulty, since he is allowed to be one who is of gentle extraction; that is, the issue of any nobleman, baronet, knight, or other gentleman entitled to arms. He that has four

descents of gentility, both by his father and mother, is, it will be remarked, termed the "Gentleman of perfect blood."

2. THE GENTLEMAN BY CREATION; that is, he who is so made by regal authority; and we take all persons ennobled, or styled gentlemen. in royal patents, to belong to this class: moreover, those who receive grants of arms from the Crown, and perhaps (though we doubt it) those who receive grants of arms from the Heralds' College.

3. THE GENTLEMAN BY STATIon and ReputaTION; that is, one who comlines with enough of independence to live unoccupied and respectably, sufficient education, conduct, and manners, to permit him to associate with persons of what is usually and easily understood by the designation of refined society.

4. CLERGYMEN, who are gentlemen from the sacredness of their office. The degrees at the Universities, would, it seems, also confer gentility.

5. THE GENTLEMAN BY OCCUPATION, whom, from a mature consideration of the above-cited authorities, and, indeed, from a consideration also of the whole subject, we would define to be one whose employment is not only honest, but honourable. The following passage from the celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution, by Edmund Burke, may serve to illustrate this proposition :"The Chancellor of France," remarks that profound and sagacious writer, "at the opening of the States, said in a tone of oratorical flourish, that all occupations were honourable. If he meant only that no honest employment was disgraceful, he would not have gone beyond the truth; but in asserting that anything is honourable, we imply some distinction in its favour. The occupation of a hairdresser, or of a working tallow-chandler, cannot be a matter of honour to any person, to say nothing of a number of more servile employments. Such descriptions of men ought not to suffer oppression from the state, but the state suffers oppression if such as they, either individually or collectively, are permitted to rule. In this you think you are combating prejudice, but you are at war with nature." The distinction of which Edmund Burke speaks, and which we hold necessary to make an employment honourable as well as honest, consists evidently in its being requisite, for the performance of the duties of such employment, that there should be a certain degree of superior station, mind, and education. Thus is the magistrate or the lawyer a Gentleman, while the constable is not so. This it is that distinguishes, as Gentlemen, the officer from the common soldier; the merchant from the tradesman; the painter from the petty artist or decorator; the sculptor from the stonemason; the practitioner in medicine from the vendor of drugs or the barber who may bleed or draw teeth; the author from the copyist or scrivener; and so on. The definition we thus lay down may at first appear vague and dubious, but the more it will be considered the more will it be found to solve the question of who is a gentleman by occupation. It does, too, perfectly coincide with the view of the lawyers, for none of these honourable occupations are included under their term "mystery," which embraces the class below that of a