The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-09-23
DuN and EnldOrmcu.
Fireman, In Longman's Magazine


Titles. a. now in use. fall naturally into
three classes. FIRST, there are what we
NAV call descriptive titles, titles which in
Themselves and by the ordinary Use OF Ian
guage tell YOU something about the man.
They directly mark his rank or office; as
rank grew out OF office. they all ut tirst
simDlv expressed office. But titles OF Of
fee have come so largely to he given to
men who do not actually discharge the Of
flee that the notion Of Office has in many
cases passed out Of sight altogether. In
other cases it still keeps its force. The
Duke no longer necessarily commands
armies. The Earl no longer neces-
sarily governs a shire. The Marques no
longer necessarily guards a frontier. In
deed. a. regards the Duke and the Mar
guess. we may say that their titles in their
later use, as expressing degrees IN the
peerage, never had any practical meaning
in England. DuX was in old times a COM
mon Latin translation Of the English Eal-
dorman or EOr. and, at later time, we
had practical MarquesseS in the Lords
marchers. But the titles OF Duke and
Marques, ~ now used, came in ready
made from the Continent, III the four
teenth century, as mere honorary titles,
devised TO express rank higher than
that OF the English Earl. But they had
been practical titles. expressing real office.
in other countries at earlier times. The
Earl himself had, by the time dukes and
marquesses came in, become an officer rs
nominal a. themselves; but the fact that
he had once been real officer could hardly
have been forgotten. The official earld0m,
or some traces Of ii, lived on long, and died
out slowly. The knight, again, Rider,
Cheyaler, Miles, has largely fallen away
from his duty Of fighting his lords battles
Oh horseback. But his original business
is not SO utterly forgotten as that
Of his supcriorS in rank. The
mere fact that some kinds OF knight
hood are looked on in some eases
as little out Of place IL proof
enough that the older notion Of knighthood
lives on at least as a survival. Titles OF
hereditary peerage, one may say, have long
worked themselves out Of all official, and
therefore out OF all professional, character.
Only VI late there has been something like
the revival OF kind OF professional peer
age in the persons OF the law-lords. We
have now some members Of the House OF
Lords whose position is not exactly the
same either aS the purely official peeilge OF
the Bishop or a. the purely hereditary
peerage of the temporal lord. But this
modern change hardly affects the class.
The titles Of the temporal peer have
become mere titles 81 honor. They are
official only so far as peerage is in itself
hereditary Office; they are not official III
the sense IN which the titles OF an ancient
Duke who commanded the army, or an an-
cient Marques who guarded Il frontier,
were official. But, though mere titles OF
honor. they are not bare titles; they are
still descriptive; they still tell you some
thing about their bearers; they at least tell
you the rank which they bear. They
therefore do what plain " Mr.. whose
bearer may be either a small tradesman or
the heir presumptiye TO IA dukedom.does
not do. In short, while PLAIN ME- Is a
mere title, mere shift to avoid the simple
Use OF the personal name, Duke" though
title. is not a mere title, for it makes
known fact.