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placed above what is low, sordid, and meanly ambitions, has a far greater likelihood of possessing elevated ideas, and pu and independent souls."

Afte. all then that has been stated, let us no longer her that those persons denominated Gentlemen in the full and proper meaning of the word, are not to take precedence of every man whose profession alone has raised him to the appellation. That many hundreds of men belonging to the learned, the naval, and the military professions may be gentlemen born, I cannot deny; but as a standing rule none surely can be better than to class the gentlemen who are designated as entitled to bear arms,immediately after the different descriptions of Esquires, and just before the Bar and Church. The Heralds should undoubtedly make an arrangement of the following description of persons, viz. Serjeants at Law, King's Counsel, Deans, Prebendaries, Rectors, Vicars and Curates, Heads of Colleges, and all persons who have received any academic degree, Physicians, Members of Parlia

ment, &c.

As for Blackstone, highly as I look up to him as a legal authority, I nevertheless cannot suffer myself to be led out of the path of reason and propriety by his statement, or that of any other person, however great

their name.

The word Citizen, Vol. LXXX. p. 585, when used in tables of precedence, does not, I believe, mean those who reside in the city, but representatives in parliament for cities, just as Burgess means one for a borough. Yours, &c. A CONSTANT READER.

Mr. URBAN,

July 12.

your Vol. LXXX. p. 535, I find

Mr. URBAN,

15

Park-street, Bristol,

July 5. N your Vol. LXXIX. p. by reference to Tailleur's Chronicles plement, I stated that I had found 1204, Supof Normandy, and Dugdale's Baronage, that the antient family of Mears, (who produced the earliest Speaker rived their descent from the house of the House of Commons ever had) deMountmorency in France, but it appears that this statement has given offence to M. M. M. of Kilkenny, (see Vol. LXXX. p. 580), who wishes to make it appear that I have spoken erroneously, and is desirous that I should admit his authority in the place of the well-known and standard authorities above mentioned; but this I am by no means disposed to do; and I wish to set your Correspondent right he has precipitately fallen. as to some misconceptions into which

Mears is descended from the Mount I do not state that the family of Morreses now existing in Ireland; but I carry their extraction much further back, viz. from the stock of the French house of Mountmorency.

Your Correspondent asserts, that and two others, are the only descendLords Mountmorres and Frankfort, consider any one so egregiously creants of Mountmorency; but can he dulous as to admit that this once spreading house, a house which flourished so many centuries in France, ances, had not a single remaining coland which formed such extensive allilateral; but that all the lines suddenly failed, except a single one, the representative of which is stated to be the ancestor of Lord Mountmorres? I scruple not to declare that I could not credit such an extraordinary cir cumstance, even if the illustrious Mountmorencies themselves were to

It stated that Doctors of Divinity, rise and declare it. He might as well

Law, Physick, and Musick, have precedence of Esquires. That Doctors in general take place of Esquires 19 well known, but as to Doctors of Musick in particular, as all Musters of Arts have precedence of those Doctors, will it not follow that if Doctors of Musick precede Esquires, Masters ht also to take place of De to real Esquires, not cts who have chosen themselves by that

of

t!

OXONIENSIS.

assert, that the noble families of
Grosvenor, Seymour, Cavendish, Clif-
an hundred others, are all now cen
ford, Moore, Egerton, Neville, and
tered in a single representative.

without fear of controversion, that
It is well known, and can be stated
there were many lines of the French
stock from which several families
proceeded, and whose names bear a
close analogy of soun, and which fa-
milies seated themselves, after being
long severed from the patriarchal stem,
in this and the sister kingdom, ante-
,cedent,

agree to lay aside the lash of persecution, and extinguish the flames of discord, real "knowledge may cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." This kind of knowledge, I can aver from intimate observation, has begun to make a sensible progress among the Jews. Their antipathies to Christians are rapidly wearing away. As they condemn none for their faith, nor wish to make any converts: they only require of their fellow-subjects that they will suffer them to enjoy in quietness that liberty of conscience which the Government and the Church of England so liberally allows to all. The Sermons of Dr.Hirschell, it is well known, are frequently very pointed on the duties of universal Toleration. Many of the wealthy among them subscribe to our Charitable Foundations, and in return several Christian names appear among the list of the Benefactors to the new Jewish Hospital in Mile-end-road; though they neither have nor require the least interference in management or education of the Jewish children there. These Christians have no connexion whatever with the London Society, or the Missionaries who preach in the Jews' Chapel near Spitalfields.

If these Strictures meet your approbation, I may offer some farther con siderations upon the present condition of the Jewish people in this Metropolis, and upon some peculiar circumstances under which they have recently been placed.

Yours, &c. W. HAMILTON REID.

Mr. URBAN,

PRECED

July 6. RECEDENCE is a point indeed on which "Doctors disagree," and on which they will always disagree till express regulations are made to adjust this long dubious matter. The ideas of your Correspondents who say that Naval and Military Officers, Doctors of Law, Physic, and Divinity, should take precedence of Gentlemen, are not to be regarded, because we see that such ideas proceed from persons of no good extraction, who are always anxious that those who have sprung, like mushrooms, from the lowest stations into the appearance of gentlemen, should take precedence of those whose birth entitles them strictly to that appellation. How should we like to see a map, perhaps the son of a tailor, a stonemason, or

a lodging-house keeper, merely because he had attained a high commission in the army or navy, rank before a man whose forefathers had been independently seated for many generations on an hereditary estate, and which forefathers may perhaps have partaken of the blood of the noblest families? And how would the Heralds, who pay such great regard to antiquity, lustre, and gentility of descent, tolerate such an act? Would they not thrust the upstart back to his proper sphere, and place the descendant of an antient and honourable house before him?

Persons of good or even middling birth ought undoubtedly to take precedence of all others, let them be what they may, unless honoured with a title; because their good birth is not an acquirement of their own, but is a gift engrafted on their blood. No wealth, no learning, can make a man a gentleman who is not born so. Wealth and learning are the ornaments, not the constituents, of a gen tleman. Fortuna non mutat genus. The words of Cicero might weil be parodied and here applied: he says, poeta nascitur, orator fit, and this I would alter to generosus nascitur, dives vel doctus fit: and again, nothing can deprive a man born a gentleman of his gentility; no pecuniary losses or sufferings, no apparent degradation from his station. I readily grant that a man, however low his station, after he has acquired a fortune, received a liberal education, and associated with the enlightened, may be the stock from which future gentlemen may in the course of time spring, because his descendants, by dint of education, by separation from the pursuits of their founder, and by living for some generations on an hereditary property, grow gradually into, and finally be come gentlemen: but this is a work of long time, for quo,semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu; this opinion is supported by a writer who has combined literature with the pleas ing and elegant study of heraldry, and whose effusious often grace your pages. He says, "The corrupted heart, the interested sentiments, the debased, however acute, understanding of a low man grown great, are too apt to throw a tincture over his family for at least a century, whereas that race whom hereditary affluence has long

placed

placed above what is low, sordid, and meanly ambitions, has a far greater likelihood of possessing elevated ideas, and pu and independent souls."

Afte. all then that has been stated, let us no longer he r that those persons denominated Gentlemen in the full and proper meaning of the word, are not to take precedence of every man whose profession alone has raised him to the appellation. That many hundreds of men belonging to the learned, the naval, and the military professions may be gentlemen born, I cannot deny; but as a standing rule none surely can be better than to class the gentlemen who are designated as entitled to bear arms,immediately after the different descriptions of Esquires, and just before the Bar and Church. The Heralds should undoubtedly make an arrangement of the following description of persons, viz. Serjeants at Law, King's Counsel, Deans, Prebendaries, Rectors, Vicars and Curates, Heads of Colleges, and all persons who have received any academic degree, Physicians, Members of Parliamcnt, &c.

As for Blackstone, highly as I look up to him as a legal authority, I nevertheless cannot suffer myself to be led out of the path of reason and propriety by his statement, or that of any other person, however great

their name.

The word Citizen, Vol. LXXX. p. 535, when used in tables of precedence, does not, I believe, mean those who reside in the city, but representatives in parliament for cities, just as Eurgess means one for a borough.

Yours, &c. A CONSTANT READER.

Mr. URBAN,

July 12.

IN Your Vol. LXXX. P.535, 1nd it stated that Doctors of Divinity, Law, Physick, and Musick, have precedence of Esquires. That Doctors in general take place of Esquires 19 well known, but as to Doctors of Musick in particular, as all Musters of Arts have precedence of those Doctors, will it not follow that if Doctors of Musick precede Esquires, Masters of Arts ought also to take place of them? I allude to real Esquires, not to those upstarts who have chosen to distinguish themselves by that title.

Yours, &c.

OXONIENSIS.

Mr. URBAN,

IN

Park-street, Bristol,

July 5. N your Vol. LXXIX. p. 1204, Supplement, I stated that I had found by reference to Tailleur's Chronicles of Normandy, and Dugdale's Baron, age, that the antient family of Mears, (who produced the earliest Speaker the House of Commons ever had) derived their descent from the house of Mountmorency in France, but it appears that this statement has given offence to M. M. M. of Kilkenny, (see Vol. LXXX. p. 530), who wishes to make it appear that I have spoken erroneously, and is desirous that I should admit his authority in the place of the well-known and standard authorities above mentioned; but this I am by no means disposed to do; and I wish to set your Correspondent right as to some misconceptions into which he has precipitately fallen.

I do not state that the family of Mears is descended from the Mount Morreses now existing in Ireland; but I carry their extraction much further back, viz. from the stock of the French house of Mountmorency.

Your Correspondent asserts, that Lords Mountmorres and Frankfort, and two others, are the only descendants of Mountmorency; but can he consider any one so egregiously credulous as to admit that this once spreading house, a house which flourished so many centuries in France, and which formed such extensive alliances, had not a single remaining collateral; but that all the lines suddenly failed, except a single oue, the representative of which is stated to be the ancestor of Lord Mountmorres? I scruple not to declare that I could not credit such an extraordinary cir cumstance, even if the illustrious

Mountmorencies themselves were to rise and declare it. He might as well assert, that the noble families of Grosvenor, Seymour, Cavendish, Clifford, Moore, Egerton, Neville, and an hundred others, are all now centered in a single representative.

It is well known, and can be stated without fear of controversion, that there were many lines of the French stock from which several families proceeded, and whose names bear a close analogy of soun, and which families seated themselves, after being long severed from the patriarchal stem, in this and the sister kingdom, ante.cedent,

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agree to lay aside the lash of persecution, and extinguish the flames of discord, real "knowledge may cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." This kind of knowledge, I can aver from intimate observation, has begun to make a sensible progress among the Jews. Their antipathies to Christians are rapidly wearing away. As they condemn none for their faith, nor wish to make any converts: they only require of their fellow-subjects that they will suffer them to enjoy in quietness that liberty of conscience which the Government and the Church of England so liberally allows to all. The Sermons of Dr.Hirschell, it is well known, are frequently very pointed on the duties of universal Toleration. Many of the wealthy among them subscribe to our Charitable Foundations, and in return several Christian names appear among the list of the Benefactors to the new Jewish Hospital in Mile-end-road; though they neither have nor require the least in terference in management or education of the Jewish children there. These Christians have no connexion whatever with the London Society, or the Missionaries who preach in the Jews' Chapel near Spitalfields.

If these Strictures meet your approbation, I may offer some farther con siderations upon the present condition of the Jewish people in this MetropoJis, and upon some peculiar circumstances under which they have recently been placed.

Yours, &c. W. HAMILTON REID.

Mr. URBAN,

PRE

July 6. RECEDENCE is a point indeed on which "Doctors disagree," and on which they will always disagree till express regulations are made to adjust this long dubious matter. The ideas of your Correspondents who say that Naval and Military Officers, Doctors of Law, Physic, and Divinity, should take precedence of Gentlemen, are not to be regarded, because we see that such ideas proceed from persons of no good extraction, who are always anxious that those who have sprung, like mushrooms, from the lowest stations into the appearance of gentlemen, should take precedence of those whose birth entitles them strictly to that appellation. How How should we like to see a map, perhaps the son of a tailor, a stonemason, or

a lodging-house keeper, merely because he had attained a high commission in the army or navy, rank before a man whose forefathers had been independently seated for many generations on an hereditary estate, and which forefathers may perhaps have partaken of the blood of the noblest families? And how would the Heralds, who pay such great regard to antiquity, lustre, and gentility of descent, tolerate such an act? Would they not thrust the upstart back to his proper sphere, and place the descendaut of an antient and honourable house before him?

Persons of good or even middling birth ought undoubtedly to take precedence of all others, let them be what they may, unless honoured with a title; because their good birth is not an acquirement of their own, but is a gift engrafted on their blood. No wealth, no learning, can make a man a gentleman who is not born so. Wealth and learning are the ornaments, not the constituents, of a gen tleman. Fortuna non mutat genus. The words of Cicero might well be parodied and here applied: he says, poeta nascitur, orator fit, and this I would alter to generosus nascitur, dives vel doctus fit: and again, nothing can deprive a man born a gentleman of his gentility; no pecuniary losses or sufferings, no apparent degradation from his station. I readily grant that a man, however low his station, after he has acquired a fortune, received a liberal education, and associated with the enlightened, may be the stock from which future gentlemen may in the course of time spring, because his descendants, by dint of education, by separation from the pursuits of their founder, and by living for some generations on an hereditary property, grow gradually into, and finally be come gentlemen: but this is a work of long time, for quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu; this opinion is supported by a writer who has combined literature with the pleas ing and elegant study of heraldry, and whose effusions often grace your pages. He says, "The corrupted heart, the interested sentiments, the debased, however acute, understanding of a low mau grown great, are too apt to throw a tincture over his family for at least a century, whereas that race whom hereditary affluence has long

placed

placed above what is low, sordid, and meanly ambitious, has a far greater likelihood of posessing elevated ideas, and pure and ind endent souls."

After all then that has been stated, let us no longer he r that those persons denominated Gentlemen in the full and proper meaning of the word, are not to take precedence of every man whose profession alone has raised him to the appellation. That many hundreds of men belonging to the learned, the naval, and the military professions may be gentlemen born, I cannot deny; but as a standing rule none surely can be better than to class the gentlemen who are designated as entitled to bear arms,immediately after the different descriptions of Esquires, and just before the Bar and Church. The Heralds should undoubtedly make an arrangement of the following description of persons, viz. Serjeants at Law, King's Counsel, Deans, Prebendaries, Rectors, Vicars and Curates, Heads of Colleges, and all persons who have received any academic degree, Physicians, Members of Parliament, &c.

As for Blackstone, highly as I look up to him as a legal authority, I nevertheless cannot suffer myself to be led out of the path of reason and propriety by his statement, or that of any other person, however great

their name.

The word Citizen, Vol. LXXX. p. 535, when used in tables of precedence, does not, I believe, mean those who reside in the city, but representatives in parliament for cities, just as Burgess means one for a borough.

Yours, &c. A CONSTANT READER.

Mr. URBAN,

July 12.

N your Vol. LXXX. p. 535, I find it stated that Doctors of Divinity, Law, Physick, and Musick, have precedence of Esquires. That Doctors in general take place of Esquires 19 well known, but as to Doctors of Musick in particular, as all Musters of Arts have precedence of those Doctors, will it not follow that if Doctors of Musick precede Esquires, Masters of Arts ought also to take place of them? I allude to real Esquires, not to those upstarts who have chosen to distinguish themselves by that title.

Yours, &c.

OXONIENSIS.

Mr. URBAN,

IN

Park-street, Bristol,

July 5. N your Vol. LXXIX. p. 1204, Sup plement, I stated that I had found by reference to Tailleur's Chronicles of Normandy, and Dugdale's Baron, age, that the antient family of Mears, (who produced the earliest Speaker the House of Commons ever had) derived their descent from the house of Mountmorency in France, but it appears that this statement has given offence to M. M. M. of Kilkenny, (see Vol. LXXX. p. 530), who wishes to make it appear that I have spoken erroneously, and is desirous that I should admit his authority in the place of the well-known and standard authorities above mentioned; but this I am by no means disposed to do; and wish to set your Correspondent right as to some misconceptions into which he has precipitately fallen.

I do not state that the family of Mears is descended from the Mount Morreses now existing in Ireland; but I carry their extraction much further back, viz. from the stock of the French house of Mountmorency.

Your Correspondent asserts, that Lords Mountmorres and Frankfort, and two others, are the only descendants of Mountmorency; but can he consider any one so egregiously credulous as to admit that this once spreading house, a house which flourished so many centuries in France, and which formed such extensive alliances, had not a single remaining collateral; but that all the lines suddenly failed, except a single oue, the representative of which is stated to be the ancestor of Lord Mountmorres? I scruple not to declare that I could not credit such an extraordinary circumstance, even if the illustrious Mountmorencies themselves were to rise and declare it. He might as well assert, that the noble families of Grosvenor, Seymour, Cavendish, Clifford, Moore, Egerton, Neville, and an hundred others, are all now centered in a single representative.

It is well known, and can be stated without fear of controversion, that there were many lines of the French stock from which several families proceeded, and whose names bear a close analogy of soun, and which families seated themselves, after being long severed from the patriarchal stem, in this and the sister kingdom, antecedent,

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