A Duke. Marquis. Earl. Viscount. A DUKE is, at prefent, created by Patent; his Mantle is guarded with four Guards; his Title is Grace; his Coronet hath only Leaves without Pearls. Out of the King's Prefence he may wear a Cloth of State hanging within half a Yard of the Ground; fo may his Dutchefs, and her Train born up by a Baronefs. No Earl is to wash in the Prefence of a Duke without his Permiffion. A MARQUIS is created by Patent; his Mantle is double Ermin, three Doublings and an half; his Title is Moft Noble; his Coronet hath Pearls and Strawberry-Leaves interchangeably fet around of equal Height. His Cloth of State may reach within a Yard of the Ground, which he must not wear in the Prefence of the King or a Duke. His Marchionefs hath her Train born by a Knight's Wife out of the Prefence of her Superiors. No Viscount is to wash with a Marquis but at his Pleasure. AN EARL is created by Patent; his Mantle hath three Doublings of Ermin; his Title is Right Honourable; his Coronet hath Pearls rais'd upon Points, and Leaves low between. He may have a Cloth of State without Pendants, but only Fringe. His Countess may have her Train born by an Esquire's Wife out of the Presence of her Superiors, elfe by a Gentleman. A VISCOUNT was first created in England in the 18th of Henry VI. in the Perfon of John Beaumont. He is made by Patent; his Title is Right Honourable; his Mantle hath two Doublings and a half of plain white Fur; his Coronet hath only Pearls fet close to the Chaplet. He may have a Cover of Essay held under his Cup when he drinks. His Viscountess may have her Gown born up by a Woman in Prefence of her Inferiors, but elfe by a Man. A BARON A BARON is made fometimes by Writ, Baron. but ufually by Patent; his Title is Right Honourable; he hath two Doublings on his Mantle, and fix Pearls on his Coronet upon the Circle. He may have the Cover of his Cup held underneath while he drinks; and a Baronefs may have her Gown born up by a Man in the Prefence of a Viscountess. BESIDES the common Titles here mention'd, Their High each of thofe Degrees have more illuftrious Ti- Titles. tles as follow. A DUKE, Moft High Puiffant and Noble Prince. WE come now to the Lower Nobility, who are The Common call'd the Commons of England, and confift of of England. three Degrees, Baronets, Knights, and Efquires. A BARONET is next in Honour to a Ba- A Baronet. ron, and is the lowest Degree of Honour that is hereditary; they and their eldest Sons at full Age may claim Knighthood. He has Precedence of all Knights, except thofe of the Garter, Bannerets, and those who are Privy-Counsellors. They take place of each other according to the Date of their Patent. The Title is Sir, and their Wives are Ladies. A KNIGHT is, according to his Original, a Knight. military Man, a Soldier, or Man of War; but now the Honour of Knighthood is conferr'd for fome perfonal Merit or Defert, and therefore dies with the Perfon, and defcends not to his Sons. There are many Orders of Knighthood, but in England the chief and moft honourable is that of the Order of St. George, call'd Knights of the Garter; Efquires. The Gentry of Garter; next to which are the Knights Bannerets, of which there are now none in England. Knights of the Bath are next in Honour; and then Knights Batchelors, which Degree is now given to GownMen, as Lawyers and Physicians; and fometimes to Artists, as it was to that excellent Mathematician Sir Ifaac Newton. ESQUIRES make the next Degree of the Lower Nobility, fo call'd of the French Word Efcuiers, Shield-Bearers, because they were wont to bear before the Prince, &c. in War a Shield, Lance, or other Weapon, and therefore they are call'd in Latin Armigeri, i. e. Bearers of Arms. Of this Title are (1.) All the Eldest Sons of Vifcounts and Barons, alfo all their Younger Sons. (2.) All the Sons of Earls, Marquifes, and Dukes; and no more by the Common Law. (3.) Efquires of the King's Body, among the Officers at Court. (4.) Efquires created by the King by putting about their Neck a Collar of SS's, and giving them a Pair of Silver Spurs. (5.) Divers in fuperior Office for King or State, as Serjeants of Royal Offices, Justices of Peace, Mayors, Counsellors at Law, Batchelors of Divinity, Law or Phyfic, are all reputed Efquires, or of equal Degree, though none of them really are fo. THE GENTRY of England are the lowest Degree among the Lower Nobility: Thefe are the Descendents of antient Families who have been always free, and never ow'd Obedience to any Man but their Prince, and who have always born a Coat of Arms; fo that properly none are Gentlemen but fuch as are born fo: But in England the King being the Fountain of all Honour, he can make a Gentleman by Charter, or by bestowing on him fome bonourable Employment. Merchandize or Trade does not destroy Gentility. Of 591 Of JURISPRUDENCE. J EURISPRUDENCE is, ac- Jurifprudence cording to its Etymology, the Know- defined. Its Etymology. ledge of what is Juft and Right; being derived of the two Latin Words, Jus, Right; and Pru-. dentia, Skill or Knowledge. It is therefore by fome defined, The Art of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice. By others, The Knowledge of the Laws, Rights, Customs, Statutes, &c. neceffary for the doing of Juftice. Equity. RIGHT (Jus) differs from Law (Lex,) (1.) Right, how it As it is a Genus or general Kind, Law a Species differs from only. (2.) Again Right has refpect to the Na- Law and ture of Things, as well unwritten as written, but Law has refpect only to the written Rules and Precepts of Right and Juftice. Right and Equity alfo differ. Right is the Whole of what is required or may be claimed; Equity is that which abates. fo much of strict Right, as Reafon, Goodness, and circumftantial Exigencies feem to demand. Commutative tive. Right is the Rule of Justice, which is the Vir- Jufice,what. tue of giving to every one his Due. Justice, as Is twofold, it is concern'd in Commerce or Government, is re- and Diftribufpectively diftinguifhed into Commutative and Distributive. Commutative Justice wholly regards the Prices and Value of Things, and obferves only the fimple or arithmetical Proportion of Commutation. But Distributive Justice, as exercifed in Governing, is that which appoints Rewards and Punishments; and regards the Proportion call'd Kinds of Law. The Law of call'd Geometrical; that is, As the Heinoufnefs of one Crime is to the Heinousness of any other, fo is the Degree of Punishment affigned for the former to that Degree thereof which is (or fhould be) affigned for the latter. But where can we find this Proportion of Juftice obferved in our English Difpenfation, where the fame Punishment is decreed for Theft and Murder, for Murder fimply or any how compounded? Acts, certainly, widely differing in the Degree of their criminal Nature! LAW, as it confifts of the written Dictates of Right Reafon, or the Rules and Precepts fit for the due Ordering and Government of buman Society, is generally distinguished into the following three general Kinds. (1.) The Law of Nature. (2.) The Law of Nations; and (3.) The Civil (ufually call'd the Common) Law. These are the Grand Rules of Action, of which in their Order. THE LAW of NATURE is that universal Principle implanted in the original Conftitution of all fenfible Beings, whereby they are directed to perform all those Acts which are agreeable to their respective particular Natures, and tend to their Well-being in general. This Principle is, in Mankind, call'd Natural Reafon; but in Brutes and other Animals it is call'd Natural Inftinet. From hence refult all Natural Affections, and the Acts of Procreation, Education, Confervation, and Defence of Life, in ourselves and our Young. By this Natural Right, every Animal, however defpicable it may appear to us, has an equal Claim to live, and enjoy its Being unhurt, during the natural Period of its Life. And therefore it does not only fhew an inconfiderate, cruel and savage Temper in Men, when they causelessly put poor Creatures to Pain, Mifery, or Death, or for |