The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1908-12-23
ssThe Marks Of a Gentleman"

The discourse of Rev. DR.. Swift, Sun
day evening, on this topic, has drawn
attention to the conundrum.-"What Is
a Gentleman? which has 30 long
agitated those who are given to con-
structing definitions out of distractions;
and some points in relation to it may be
found of interest.
In France and England, the word had
for centuries a fixed meaning. 1t was
applied to well-defned class, and in
its use the line between the "well-born"
and the "base-born, ,"-terms denoting
merely condition in life, and not per-
sonal qualities, was carefully drawn.
In England, after the Norman conquest,
the original French gentilhOmme was in
time Anglicised into gentleman" but
with no change in its meaning, or its
application only to persons of superior
birth. So long as French continued to
be the language of the upper classes, a
knowledge of this tongue was deemed
necessary qualification and hence arose
a sarcastic saying-''Jack would be
gentleman, but he can speak no French"
The title had its place in law, as in
legal proceedings each party was desig-
mated with the addition of his estate or
degree. An amusing instance of this,
under the old rules of pleading, is thus
reported in one of the law books:
1he plaintiff declared with the addition
of gentleman the defendant pleaded in
abatement that the plaintiff was no
gentleman Ito this the plaintiff demurred,
and this was held ill 4; for, said the court,
since it admits the truth of the allega-
ton, it amounts to confession that the
plaintiff is no gentleman. He should
have replied that he is gentleman.
The degree OF gentleman, however,
was not high one. In the tables of
precedence, given by Blackstone, sixty
six degrees are enumerated. That of
gentleman is the sixty-second, and it is
preceded by those of esquire, doctor,
and serjeant-at-law, and followed only
by those OF yeoman, tradesman, artificer,
and laborer. Sir Thomas Smith, in his
Commonwealth of England" written
in the 10Th century, says that 'Gentle
men be those whom their blood and
race doth make noble and known"
though no connection with atitled fami-
ly seemed to be thought necessary. His
opinion of the degree, however, does
not appear to have been very high, for
he further says:
Ordinarily the king doth only make
knights and create baronS, or higher de-
gree: as for gentlemen, they be made
good cheap in this kingdom ; for whose
ever studieth the laws ofthe realm, who
studiAth in the universities, who pro-
fesseth the liberal sciences, and Ito be
short who can live idly, and without
manual labor, and will bear the port,
charge and countenance of a gentleman,
he shall be called master, for that is the
title which men give to esquires and
other gentlemen, and shall be taken for
a gentleman"
Besides those of strictly this degree,
all others of higher degree were also
gentlemen it being held that the greater
included the less.
In brief, a gentleman was one belong
ing to we'll defined social class, and
not one possessing certain personal quail
tiles and habits. So little place had
character in the prevailing standard,
that George ", when Prince of Wales,
though his morals and habits were de-
testable, was accounted "The First Gen
tleman of Europe" The well known
dictum of Lord Kenyon, Chief Justice
of the Kings Bench in the latter part of
the 18th century, that "a gentleman,
sir, is man whose father was a gentle
man." only embodied generally recog-
niZed fact.
Under the criminal law, a gentleman
had certain privileges. In France, cap
ital punishment could be inflicted on
gentleman only by beheading with the
sword, while those of lower degree were
hanged. In England the headsman's
AK was substituted for the sword, as the
privilege of the nobility, though ex-
amples were rare except in cases of at
tainder. In England, also, a gentle
man could not be whipped at the carts
tail, "a penalty frequently inflicted on
the baser herd.
Illustrations of the established view
on this subject are frequent in French
and English. literature.
In one of the elder Dumas's novels of
the Regency, gentleman is described
as standing in a public place in Paris,
closely observing those who passed, and
thus, in substance, accostng one of
them Pardon me, sir, but permit me
to ask if you are a gentleman" Il am,
sir" was the reply. The first speaker
then explained that he was a stranger
in the city, and having received a chal-
lenge was looking for IA second. Dueling
was a practice confined to gentlemen,
and only a gentleman could act as a
gentleman's second. Hence the inquiry
implied nothing offensive, as such a
question would in this country, at the