Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-12


republic will earn millions certifying titles
of nobility.
1t is an extraordinary move for repub-
lic rich and gay, but perhaps with the
germs of unrepublcan surprises in it. The
text is the fifteenth article of the finance
law of 1907 commonly called the budget:
Art 15-And no title of nobility shall be
attributed (in actes de retat civil like birth
certificates and marriage licenses) unless the
parties can produce ministerial decree
personally investing them.'
1t means that the ancient French nobility
must step up to the cashiers office of the
French republican this case the keeper OF
| the seals. l. e., the minister OF 5ustice-and
pay down sum not yet precisely deter
mined but calculated in the budget project
at an average of one-third the chancellerie-
dues of the former monarchies and empires:
| 81 coo for a duke, $500 for a marquis, 800
| for cOmte $3.50 for vicomte and 500 for
| a baron.
Otherwise their "papers"-blrths, deaths.
marriages, etc.-will know them to be plain
| citizens, without handle to their name.
All right, but side by side with the old
| familiesDthemselves badly damaged by pie
beian money marriages, extinctions and
| transfers of titles-there has grown up an
immense mass Of bogus French nobility
| AS the republic disclaims any quality to
| trace aristocratic family trees. the bogus
| will be able to step up beside the real, pre-
| sent it's prima -facie proofs, pay down its
cash-the one thing needful to the budget
and receive a certificate Of its nobility from
! the republic!
From the old aristocratic point Of view
this will be adding insult to an injury Of
| long date. What the situation has been
under the republic-with not even Hozier's
! "Armorial' completed-may be judged from
| a recent lawsuit. =
Fifteen years ago a gentleman came to a
| suburb of Marseille from no one knew
| just where, but as he purchased fine prop
| erty, responded richly to courtesies and
| lived in dignity, the landed proprietors came
| to accept him as the Comte de R of
| Brittany widower with a little daughter
| come south for his health.
| Years passed. The girl grew up in the
society around her and accepted, among
| many suitors, the young Baron G.. He
was on the point of marrying her when her
| father suddenly died bankrupt.
| OF course, the young Baron C refused
| to marry her without her money. On the
| other hand, he had his honor TO keep bright
| So he went into court to have the marriage
contract he had signed set decently aside.
| His plea astonished every one. His law
| yer proved that the girls father was not Of
a noble family, had amassed his fortune as
| a Rouen manufacturer, and had taken his
| title from a small property purchased in
| Brittany.
| sutton go, but listened to her lawyers prom
| Use of retaliation. True enough at the next
| hearing they proved that the Baron C..
| himself had no right to a title-his grand
|
| with the decision Of the judges came the
third surprise for average Frenchmen. Both
| the Comte de r. and the barons. grand
| father had right to adorn themselves with
titles Any Frenchman may be baron,
comte, vicomte, duke, marquis on condition
| not to take the title of a family still ex-
| listing.
A Democratic King.
| The practice-and the jurisprudence
dates from the days back in 1880, when
I -
a democratic revolution" aiming at the
| encroa chments of the higher privileged
| aristocrats, decreed not the extinction of
aristocratic titles, but their free use by
| any one who cared to assume them.
Had not this law let the bars down in the
| early days there would not now be 10000
| families in all France enjoying the I'M
| doubted right to titles. The great Napoleon
| had created quantities of princes, dukes,
| counts, barons; but he did not let them
usurp old family names; and to show that
! his basis was personal merit, he connected
titles with civil and military grades-a col
onel was a baron, a senator a count By
their nature all these titles-except those
| with entailed estates attached to them
| should have become extinct on the death Of
| their holders.
On the other hand, much of the ancient
nobility had been wiped out by poverty
| and exile. OF the gigantic sum OF $500. CO.,
900 set apart by the restoration to aid it
in purchasing back Its estates, the greater
great families. The petite noblesse'' was
| being left quite unsatisfied when Louis
| Philippe came in with revolution and de-
| mocracy, suppressed what remained of
the s2J0OOOOO0 credit and decreed the 60
ias-you-please principle.
OF course, 1t was supposed that such a
breaking down of barriers would throw con-
| tempt on titles; instead, 1t only emphasized
the love of Frenchmen for a noble name.
Those who had yearned in vain under en-
pre and restoration saw their chance. Ex-
| tinct Napoleonic titles were revived by
\ families. They, at least, had an appear
| ance of legality. But. purchasers of old
chateauK adopted their names without cere-
| mony. Names of villages and towns were
assumed. And in less than eighteen years
the noble families of France had increased
| from 10000 to 100000.
Napoleon III dared not strike immed tely
at so important a faction this self-made
nobility; yet he tried to Introduce little
order into the registers, where oblging
officials had recorded all sorts of fanciful
names and "de's possessed only in mag
nation.
| He even issued circular and a scandal
lied titles came near overthrowing his en-
pire.
| How the merry game continues at the
| present hour, / have documentary PROOF.
| have spoken of the HoZier "Armorial.'
This famous family of judges of arms OF
the kings of France occupied itself for
| centuries in collecting MSS. and publishing
| what was to be a complete directory OF
French nobility. One hundred and fifty MS
| volumes of the first Pierre d'Hozier are
in the national library. Another dHozier
was employed by Louis XVIII to draw up
| exhaustive lists of what remained of the
old nobility after the revolution and Ma