Our Behaviour/Part 2/Chapter 2

WE have no titles in this country, or rather we have so many, and they are so indiscriminately worn, that they are wellnigh worthless. We have, at least, no orders of nobility; nevertheless, as our citizens are constantly visiting foreign countries, it is well to understand something of titles and ranks and their contingent orders of precedence.

In England, as is well known, the king and queen are placed at the apex of the social structure. The mode by which they are addressed is in the form "Your Majesty."

The prince of Wales, the heir-apparent to the throne, stands second in dignity. The other children are all known during their minority as princes and princesses. The eldest princess is called the crown princess. Upon their majority the younger son's have the title of duke bestowed upon them and the daughters retain that of princesses, adding to that the title of their husbands. They are all designated as "Their Royal Highnesses."

A duke who inherits the title from his father stands one grade below a royal duke. The wife of a duke is known as a duchess. They are both addressed as "Your Grace." The eldest son is a marquis until he inherits the higher title of his father. His wife is a marchioness. The younger sons are lords by courtesy, and the daughters are distinguished by having "Lady" prefixed to their Christian names.

Earls and barons are both spoken of as lords and their wives as ladies, though the latter are by right respectively countesses and baronesses. The daughters of the former are "ladies," the younger sons of both "honorables." The earl occupies the higher position of the two in the peerage.

These complete the list of nobility, unless we include bishops, who are lords in right of their ecclesiastical office, but whose title is not hereditary.

All these are entitled to seats in the upper house of Parliament.

Baronets, who are known as "Sir," and whose wives, in common with those of a higher order, receive the title of lady, are only commoners of a higher degree, though there are families who have borne their title for many successive generations who would not exchange it for a recently created peerage.

​A clergyman, by right of his calling, stands on an equality with all commoners, a bishop with all peers.

The title of esquire, which is brought into such general use in this country that it has come to mean nothing whatever save an empty compliment, has special significance in England. The following in that country have a legal right to the title:

The sons of peers, whether known in common conversation as lords or honorables.

The eldest sons of peers' sons, and their eldest sons in perpetual succession.

All the sons of baronets.

The esquires of the Knights of the Bath.

Lords of manors, chiefs of clans and other tenants of the crown in capite are esquires by prescription.

Esquires created to that rank by patent, and their eldest sons in perpetual succession.

Esquires by office, such as justices of the peace while on the roll, mayors of towns during mayoralty and sheriffs of counties (who retain the title for life).

Members of the House of Commons.

Barristers-at-law.

Bachelors of divinity, law and physic.

All who, in commissions signed by the sovereign, are ever styled esquires retain that designation for life.

Emperors and empresses rank higher than kings. The sons and daughters of the emperor of Austria are called archdukes and archduchesses, the names being handed down from the time when the ruler of that country claimed himself no higher title than that of archduke. The emperor of Russia is known as the czar, the name being identical with the Roman cæsar and the German kaiser. The heir-apparent to the Russian throne is the czarowitch.

Titles in continental Europe are so common and so frequently unsustained by landed and moneyed interests that they have not that significance which they hold in England. A count may be a penniless scamp, depending upon the gambling-table for a precarious subsistence, and looking out for the chance of making a wealthy marriage. It is sorrowful and humiliating to know that there are many American girls who are willing to forego the right of being republican queens and to sell themselves and their fortunes to a foreign adventurer for the privilege of being known as countesses or baronesses.

A German baron may be a good, substantial, unpretending man, something after the manner of an American farmer. A German prince or duke, since the absorption of the smaller principalities of Germany by Prussia, may have nothing left him but a barren title and a meagre rent-roll. The Italian ​prince is even of less account than the German one, since his rent-roll is too frequently lacking altogether, and his only inheritance may be a grand but decayed palace, without means sufficient to keep it in repair or furnish it properly.

Yet not all foreign titles are worthless and unmeaning, nor are all those bearing them swindlers or adventurers. There is only one rule to guide a stranger in these matters: let him look to the individual direct and judge of his character impartially, without allowing himself to be dazzled by the glitter of a fine-sounding title and a long-descended coat-of-arms. If the title is found to become him, so much the better.