The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-02-24
THE ENGLISH PEERAGE.
A Difficult Thing for Americans to
Master Its Nomenclature.

have married into the English peer
age have done so in blissful uncon-
seriousness of the difficulties involved
in mastering the mere nomenclature
pertaining to their new position. Ii
/ they could foresee the labor required
to escape fundamental blunders in the
modes of addressing members oil the
English nobility they might look twice
before they leaped. So innumerable
and irrational are the anomalies in
the forms of speech employed in con-
versation and correspondence that
only those accustomed TO them from
childhood can avoid perplexity and
confusion. A few examples will suffice
to illustrate the i~ntricacies oil social
terminology in England. Thus,
the Prince OF wales Is al.
dressed as ''Your Royal Highness;"
but this phrase is only used In
the third person, as:-"Does your
ROYAL Highness believer" Ifyou wish
TO address him directly in the voca-
tive. Won must say Sir He is, curl
ously enough, the only person in the
kingdom Co whom the word ''Sir,"
without any qualifying term, can be
CluDAONG Gu as III
speaking to a baronet-Sir John
Brown-vou must say Sir john
and never, under any circumstances,
address him as ''Sir Brown. 1t is
very common, by the way, in Amer
lea, to imagine that a baronet is a
nobleman, and to speak of him as a
lord. OF course, he is neither, being
simply a commoner; but the mistake
is natural, seeing that his wife IS
always spoken of as Lady Brown.
If. however, a baronet should marry
the daughter of a duke, a marquis or
an earl. she would insert her Christian
name in her title, and be called Lady
Mary Brown" II a baronets wife.
on the other hand, were the daughter
of a ~viscount or baron, she would be
the Honorable Lady Brown" 1t is
a singular fact, that while the daugh-
tiers of an earl have the title Lady"
before their Christian name and sur
name, as Lady Constance Herbert, "
and are formally styled in addition,
Right Honorable yet an earl's
Younger sons are not called Lord, y
and are only entitled to be styled
Honorable"
Another inconsistency is the fol-
lowing:-The eldest o of a duke, a
marquis or an earl takes by courtesy
his fathers second title, but even If
a ~viscount have a second title, his
eldest son does not take it. In Eng
land the the eldest sons OF viscounts
and barons are simply, like their
younger brothers, the Honorable So
and-So, as the Hon. John Brown. In
Scotland there is a still nor puZZling
custom, the eldest sol of a baron
being called the Master of So-and-
So.n Thus the son OF Baron Ravens
wood would be the Master of Ravens
wood. Again, in speaking of a duke
formally, he should be addressed as
"Your Grace but the familiar form
is Duke" On the other hand, a
marquis is never addressed, even in
formally, as Marquis" but as MY
Lord or Your Lordship.n In speak
ing to a bishop formally you say MY
Lord or Your Lordship," but in
formally you may say simply
Bishop 1t is a rule in the case of
dukes, marquises and earls that when
the title is taken from the name of
a place the word ''of'' precedes the
maine of the place in the titles full
designation, as the Duke of Man
chester
Where, on the contrary, the title is
taken from the family name, the word
'.of'' is omitted, as the Marquis
| Townsend the Earl Stanhope.n
Strangely enough, the word ''of'
never occurs in the titles of viscounts
and barons, even though the title
may be taken from the name of a
place.
To the above rule there are few ex-
captions in the case of earls. Thus
we must say Earl Granville" though
the title is taken from the name of a
place; and again we must speak OF
the Earl of Ashburnham," though
his family name is Ashburnham. Such
incongruities confront us at every
turn, and the American who deems it
worth while to master the intricacies
of English OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
will find no end. in wandering mazes
lost. "-NeW York Ledger.
IT.. - EnN1