proceedings (20). As for gentlemen, fays fir Thomas Smith, they be made good cheap in this kingdom: for whosoever ftudieth the laws of the realm, who ftudieth in the universi ties, who profeffeth the liberal sciences, and (to be fhort) who can live idly, and without manual labour, and will bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, he shall be called mafter, and fhall be taken for a gentleman (21). A yeoman is he that hath free land of forty fhillings by the year; who was antiently thereby qualified to serve on [ 407 ]juries, vote for knights of the fhire, and do any other act, where the law requires one that is probus et legalis bomo z.

I

THE reft of the commonalty are tradefmen, artificers, and labourers; who (as well as all others) muft in pursuance of the statute 1 Hen. V. c. 5. be stiled by the name and addition of their eftate, degree, or myftery, and the place to which they belong, or where they have been converfant, in all original writs of actions perfonal, appeals, and indictments, upon

(20) It is rather remarkable that the learned Judge fhould have forgotten to mention another clafs of efquires, viz. barrifters. Sir Henry Spelman is of opinion that their claim to this title is founded in ufurpation, for with fome fpleen he informs us, certè altero hinc fæculo nominatiffimus in patria jurifconfultus, ætate provelior, etiam munere gaudens publico et prædiis ampliffimis, generoft titulo bene fe babuit; fortè, quod togata genti magis tunc conveniret civilis illa appel. latio quam caftrenfis altera. Gloff. voc. Arm. But this length of enjoyment has established fuch a right to this distinction, that the court of common pleas refused to hear an affidavit read, because a barrister named in it was not called an efquire. 1 Will. 244.

man

(21) The eldeft fon has no prior claim to the degree of gentle; for it is the text of Littleton, that "every fon is as great a gentleman as the eldest." Sec. 210.

which procefs of outlawry may be awarded (22); in order, as it should seem, to prevent any clandeftine or mistaken outlawry, by reducing to a specific certainty the perfon who is the object of it's procefs (23).

(22) Informations in the nature of quo warranto, are not within the ftatute of additions. 1 Wilf. 244.

(23) Thefe are the ranks and degrees into which the people of England are divided, and which were created, and are preserved, for the reciprocal protection and fupport of each other.

excite difcontent, and to ftir up rebellion against all good order and peaceful government, a propofition has lately been induftriously propagated, viz. that all men are by nature equal. If this subject is confidered even for a moment, the very reverse will appear to be the truth, and that all men are by nature unequal. For though children come into the world equally helpless, yet in a few years, as foon as their bodies acquire vigour, and their minds and paffions are expanded and developed, we perceive an infinite difference in their natural powers, capacities, and propenfities; and this inequality is ftill further increased by the inftruction which they happen to receive.

Independent of any positive regulations, the unequal industry and virtues of men muft neceffarily create unequal rights. But it is faid that all men are equal because they have an equal right to juftice, or to the poffeffion of their rights. This is a felf-evident truth, which no one ever denied, and it amounts to nothing more than to the identical propofition, that all men have equal rights to their rights; for when different men have perfect and abfolute rights to unequal things, they are certainly equal with regard to the perfection of their rights, or the juftice that is due to their respective claims. This is the only fenfe in which equality can be applied to mankind. In the most perfect republic that can be conceived in theory, the propofition is falfe and mischievous; the farther and child, the mafter and fervant, the judge and prifoner, the general and common foldier, the representative and conftituent, must be eternally unequal, and have unequal rights.

And where every office is elective, the most virtuous and the best qualified to difcharge the duties of any office, have rights and claims fuperior to others.

One celebrated philofopher has endeavoured to prove the natural equality of mankind, by obferving, "that the weakest has "ftrength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machina

❝tions,

❝tions, or by confederacy with others, that are in the fame dan 86 ger with himfelf." Hobbes's Lev. c. xiii.

From fuch a doctrine, fupported by fuch reafons, we cannot be furprised at the confequences, when an attempt is made to reduce it to practice.

Subordination in every fociety is the bond of it's existence; the highest and the lowest individuals derive their stregth and fe curity from their mutual affiftance and dependence; as in the natural body, the eye cannot fay to the hand I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Milton was fo convinced of the neceffity of fubordination and degrees, that he makes Satan, Even when warring against heaven's King, addrefs his legions thus: If not equal all, yet free,

Equally free; for orders and degrees

B. 5. 1.790,

Jar not with liberty, but well confift. True liberty refults from making every higher degree acceffible to those who are in a lower, if virtue and talents are there found to deferve advancement.

In this happy country, the son of the lowest peasant may rise by his merit and abilities to the highest ftations in the church, law, army, navy, and in every department of the state. The doctrine, that all men are, or ought to be, equal, is little less contrary to nature, and deftructive of their happiness, than the invention of Procruftes, who attempted to make men equal by ftretching the limbs of fome, and lopping off those of others.

But the experiment has been tried, and the refult has hitherto been (an awful warning to the world) a rapid fucceffion of affaffinations, judicial murders, and profcriptions.

Ceterùm libertas et speciofa nomina prætexuntur; nec quifquam alienum fervitium et dominationem fibi concupivit, ut non eadem ifta vocabula ufurparet. Tac. Hift. iv. c. 73.

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.

OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME

STATES.

THE military ftate includes the whole of the foldiery; or, fuch perfons as are peculiarly appointed among the reft of the people for the fafeguard and defence of the realm.

In a land of liberty it is extremely dangerous to make a diftinct order of the profeffion of arms. In abfolute monarchies this is neceffary for the safety of the prince, and arises from the main principle of their conftitution, which is that of governing by fear: but in free ftates the profeffion of a foldier, taken fingly and merely as a profeffion, is justly an object of jealousy. In these no man should take up arms, but with a view to defend his country and it's laws: he puts not off the citizen when he enters the camp; but it is because he is a citizen, and would wish to continue fo, that he makes himself for a while a foldier. The laws therefore and conflitution of these kingdoms know no such state as that of a perpetual ftanding foldier, bred up to no other profeffion than that of war: and it was not till the reign of Henry VII, that the kings of England had fo much as a guard about their perfons.

61

IN the time of our Saxon ancestors, as appears from Edward the confeffor's laws, the military force of this kingdom was in the hands of the dukes or heretochs, who were conftituted through every province and county in the kingdom; being taken out of the principal nobility, and fuch as were most remarkable for being "fapientes, fideles, et animofi." Their duty was to lead and regulate the English armies, with 409] a very unlimited power; "prout eis vifum fuerit, ad honorem coronae et utilitatem regni." And because of this great power they were elected by the people in their full affembly, or folkmote, in the fame manner as fheriffs were elected: following ftill that old fundamental maxim of the Saxon confti. tution, that where any officer was intrufted with fuch power, as if abufed might tend to the oppreffion of the people, that power was delegated to him by the vote of the people themfelves. So too, among the antient Germans, the ancestors of our Saxon forefathers, they had their dukes, as well as kings, with an independent power over the military, as the kings had over the civil ftate. The dukes were elective, the kings hereditary: for fo only can be confiftently understood that paffage of Tacitus, "reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute "fumunt," in conftituting their kings, the family or blood royal was regarded; in chufing their dukes or leaders, warlike merit; juft as Cæfar relates of their ancestors in his time, that whenever they went to war, by way either of attack or defence, they elected leaders to command them. This large fhare of power, thus conferred by the people, though intended to preferve the liberty of the fubject, was perhaps unreasonably detrimental to the prerogative of the crown: and accordingly we find a very ill ufe made of it by Edric duke of Mercia, in the reign of king Edmund Ironfide; who, by his