But, notwithstanding this persistent duration and this universal applicability, it cannot be pretended that titles have been of much practical utility to their proprietors. From the Egyptian Menes that we were alluding to just now, who was lamentably eaten by a hippopotamus, down to those six Deys of Algiers who were successively elected and assassinated in the same afternoon by a sensitive

we should be forced to write. Some of the world may invent hereafter in slight allusion to the latter is, however, their stead. inevitable in talking about the former, even if it only be to call attention to the erroneous disposition into which so many of us have fallen, since this century began, of looking upon a title as a privilege granted by a sovereign, far more than as one of the essential attributes of the sovereign himself. If the monarch had no titles, it would be difficult to conceive his bestowal of them on his subjects; it was because he wore golden spurs himself population sixty years ago, there have that, in those strange days of chivalry, been innumerable and most varied eviany knight could confer his own grade dences of the now undoubted axiom that upon a deserving squire; and, though "the post of safety is a private station." the right of noblesse to ennoble has van- And if titles have not saved the lives of ished with the times of lance and shield, their possessors in those disagreeable the principle that honour only can grant moments through which sovereigns, like honour, that rank alone can bestow rank, common people, have sometimes had to has remained in force, and finds its ap- pass, it does not seem to be very clear plication in the universal rule that the that they have been more successful in sovereign is the exclusive fountain of dis- rendering their owners joyful or contenttinction. Chivalry, with its communistic ed. The King of Yvetot is the only montheory of equality in merit (as merit was arch in history whose happiness appears understood in those days), shared the to have been incontestable; and it will power with the monarch for a time, but be admitted, without discussion, that his he has seized it back again; and what position, especially as described by BéBlackstone said of England is true of all ranger, was exceptionai, and cannot be other countries now, "The Constitution quoted as an argument. And yet the intrusts the Sovereign with the sole pow- vanity of the throne has always so vioer of conferring dignities and honours, lently tempted human nature, that some in confidence that he will bestow them of the best heads that men have owned upon none but such as deserve them." have been carried away by the desire of Generally, in these days at least, he does sitting in ermine, with a crown and scepdistribute them reasonably; and it will tre. "Etre Bonaparte, et se faire Sire! be owned, even by democrats, that no- il aspire à descendre! mais non, il croit bility (which is implied by titles) is an in-monter en s'égalant aux rois: il aime stitution which fits in skilfully with hu- mieux un titre qu'un nom." What can man weaknesses and instincts, and per- be added to such a phrase as this? What haps even with social necessities. It has words can paint with clearer truth the generally been independent of forms of folly of the pride of reigning? government; it exists in every monarchy Kings persist, however; they continue (except Norway) and in most republics; to distribute titles amongst their subit preceded and it outlived barbaric jects, and to confer titles upon themtimes; honour, which, in its moral sense, selves. The former constitute one of was but an invention of the middle ages, the most vigorous manifestations of local came long after it; and, though nations and individual pride; the latter present now profess to base their motives on jus- an aggressive form of the vanity of natice and on duty instead of honour, we tions. And yet, however alike the two may presume that titles will live down classes of appellations may appear in these theories in their turn, and will get this respect, there is an enormous difon just as well with the new springs of ference in their origin and in their appliaction which the future Radical chieftains cation. No one can deny the validity of

nations may refuse it without his having reason to complain."

it. Let us hope that they are less well informed than we are, and that they sleep at night in peace under the soothing influence of the conviction that their various denominations honestly belong to them.

the former, because they only take effect within the kingdom of the sovereign who concedes them; but the latter concern It was essential to begin by this definiother sovereigns and other nations, who tion of the law (so far at least as there may, if they think fit, dispute the titles is any law at all) which exists between which neighbouring rulers may assume. nations on this question of title-taking, And this right of approbation is all the for without it the position would have more indisputable because it is not limit- been difficult to follow out. But, with ed to mere honorific denominations. It this explanation before our eyes, we extends to a much larger field to the start from a clear ground; we see that, existence of foreign states as well; for as De Martens says, "if, in consequence every power reserves the right of recog- of the natural equality which exists benizing or of refusing to recognize another tween sovereign states, each of them can power, even though its material existence attribute to its chief such titles as it may may be so patent as to need no recogni- choose to confer upon him, other states tion- even though, as Napoleon said of have the right to recognize those titles, the French Republic when he was nego- or to refuse to recognize them, or to tiating at Campo Formio, "it no more recognize them only conditionally." And needs recognition than the sun requires really this precautionary reserve becomes to be recognized." If, then, this latter very comprehensible when we look into right is, as we all well know, and as the the history of sovereign titles, and discovauthors on International Law take care er that it brings out the former vanities of to tell us in imposing phrases, inherent royalty with an unsparingness of precision to every independent government, it fol- which would probably humiliate the living lows that the refusal to recognize the members of the profession if they knew of titles which a foreign sovereign may attribute to himself is but a subsidiary consequence of it but a result of the higher right to disavow the sovereignty itself in virtue of which the titles have been assumed. In principle, as Phillimore observes, "it is unquestionably competent Now we can open out the books and to every sovereign to take any title of dig- apply ourselves to the study of the first nity or authority which it may please him principle of the science of royal appelto adopt or the nation to confer upon lations, which is, of course, to divide him; "and yet, as Vattel puts it, "as it them solemnly into classes. These would be absurd in a little prince to take classes are, Titles of Dignity, which inthe name of king, and have himself clude all the designations expressive of called Majesty, foreign nations may re- the monarchical position; Titles of Posject this fancy, and will thereby conform session, which refer to territories and to sound reason and to their duty." And dominions; Titles of Relationship, of in another place he goes on to say, as Religion, and of Courtesy. And even a nation may confer upon her conductor this list, sufficient as it is, is not quite whatever degree of authority and what- complete; for, subsidiarily, there are ever rights she may think proper, she is equally at liberty in regard to the name, the title, and the honours with which she may choose to decorate him. . . . But foreign nations are not bound to give way to the will of a sovereign who as- Titles of dignity are easy to compresumes a new title, or of a people who hend; they are made up exclusively of call their chief by what name they please. words which indicate a function; they apIf this title has in it nothing unreason- ply to any sort of titled situation, providable or contrary to custom, it is alto-ed it be effective, and not simply honorgether in harmony with the mutual duties ary; they are composed especially of the which bind nations together to grant to formulas by which each country habitually a sovereign or a conductor of a state the describes its head-of Emperor, King, same title that is given to him by his and the various other epithets assumed people. But, if this title is contrary to by the chiefs of states. And yet, simple custom, if it implies attributes which do as this first category of royal substantives not belong to him who affects it, foreign | appears to be, it includes so many various

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titles of incognito, and also the special personal or descriptive surnames which have been borne by so many chieftains from Scipio the African down to the present Red Prince of Prussia.

designations of sovereignty that it would whole history of central Europe for four be difficult to compose an absolutely com- centuries. But Elector has not enjoyed plete enumeration of all the shapes of the vitality of King; the seven great rulership that the world has known. Pope Electorates that were created by the has stood first so long that we may put it Golden Bull in 1356, "the seven lamps first once more, though it was not until of the Holy Roman Empire - which, to the fifth century that it became the par- quote Voltaire once more, "was neither ticular attribute of the Bishop of Rome, holy nor Roman" - have now dwindled who, so far, had been called Summus down to one little shadow of their former Pontifex it appears to have been attrib- name. The Prince Bishops of Mayence, uted to him by the Concile of Toledo in Trêves, and Cologne, the Bavarian Duke, the year 400. Emperor and King are the Chiefs of Saxony, the Palatinate, and both older, especially the latter; but Em- Brandenburg, are represented now, alas, peror naturally heads the catalogue of by the Elector of Hesse Cassel! This is pride, for no other title has stood so high a fall indeed. That the emperor-makers in history, no other sound brings back to of the middle ages should (except the us as that one does the memory of Rome, bishops) have ended by becoming kings of Charlemagne, of Napoleon. And yet themselves, was natural enough in the this very title disappeared in Western times through which they passed; that Europe in 476, and remained unknown these great chieftains who had held hefrom that time until the new conqueror reditarily between them the charges of revived it on Christmas-day 8oo. It ex- Arch-Chancellors of Germany, the Gauls, isted meanwhile in Constantinople, it is and Italy of Grand Steward, Grand true; but that is no argument in the case, Equerry, Arch-Marshal, Arch-Chamberfor the schismatic Eastern Emperor lain, and Arch-Treasurer of the Empire never counted in the Catholic world. And then we get to King, the universal King, which has lasted from all time without even a change beyond that of literal translation from one language to another; the rank that has been so long-lived that the Radicals must sometimes ask themselves with perplexity how they are to succeed in finally suppressing so tough an institution, and must wish for more years like 1870, which proved again the truth of Voltaire's saying that "offensive wars make kings, defensive wars make rebublics." It has indeed been immense-ereign title under Louis XII. in France, ly and persistently employed. Its originator can scarcely have suspected, when he set the first example of it, that he was establishing the most durable of human grades, and that, after him, the earth would behold more kings than the stars we see on a frosty night. (Lest the exactness of this comparison should be disputed, let it at once be observed that, in our latitude, only 4200 stars are visible to the naked eye, and that there have been vastly more kings than that.) Hierarchically the next place belongs to Grand Duke, a designation which was first conceived at Moscow, but which was acclimatized in southern Europe in 1569, when Pius V. bestowed it on Cosmo de Medicis. | But though Tuscany was the first land to own it, Germany only has preserved it, the seven Grand Duchies still extant being all beyond the Rhine. Then appears Elector, a name full of memories of pride and strife, a name which tells the

should have struggled higher still, was but a consequence of their nature which was human, though Electoral; but that the grand title of Elector, abandoned by the warrior-priests and warrior-princes who had borne it with savage pride for four hundred and fifty years, should be picked up, appropriated, and retained by the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, is one of those absurd incongruities of history which offend our reason and revolt our imagination. We get next to Duke, which ceased to be an independent sov

and

and disappeared in Germany (except in Nassau) at the commencement of the present century, with Palatine, Margrave, Burgrave, Rhingrave, Wildgrave, Altgrave. Landgrave alone, of all the old Teutonic titles, is still kept up by the rulers of Hesse Homburg; and it is as well that it should be preserved, for it is the most ancient of all the special German names. It was invented so long ago as 1130, by Louis, third Count of Thuringia, who adopted it in order to distinguish himself from the crowd of Counts around him. The idea was evidently admired by his colleagues; for Thierry, Count of Lower Alsace, appropriated the same denomination seven years afterwards, and Albert of Hapsburg, Count of Higher Alsace, followed the example in 1186. These were the three real Landgraves, the only ones that were recognized as original by the Empire; all the others were imitations. Margrave was a more

modern title; it was limited to the four | blood of the Prophets, such of his Minrulers of the Marches of Brandenburg, isters as are Emirs courteously abstain Meissen, Baden, and Moravia. We may from green in his presence, so as not to take Doge next, with its memories of remind him of his inferiority. Emir Genoa and Venice; and Protector, which has, however, been sometimes deviated Napoleon renewed from Cromwell when from its true meaning, and has been aphe formed the Confederation of the plied as a material title to people in Rhine. Stadtholder and Viceroy wake authority; for instance, Abd-el-Kader up very different recollections: one car- took it, though he was but a simple ries us to the chilly shores of Holland, Sheikh. the other to the bright skies of Naples, India, and Peru. Voivode, like Palatine, was also a Viceroy's title; but the former was Sclavonic, the latter German. Czar we will look at by itself, and Hospodar is almost the only remaining title which is worth mentioning; for we need not expatiate on the Bans of the Eastern Marches, though the name exists still in Croatia. Sultan must be counted as Asiatic, far it was first adopted by Bajazet; and with it comes the old name Caliph, which means "substitute," and was originally attributed to the successors of Mahomet; but the Caliphates of Bagdad, Fez, Grenada, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunis, have all become successively extinct, and their rights are concentrated in the Sultan of Turkey, who is now sole Caliph, and thereby Commander of the Faithful. Of Shahs there is but one, though there are three Khans (Khiva, Khokand, and Boukhara), two Imauns (Yeman and Muscat), two Regents (Tripoli and Tunis). Bey, or Beg, has now disappeared; but that it was once a higher name than Sultan is shown by the fact that it was preferred to the latter by Thogrul, founder of the dynasty of the Seleucides. Sheikh belongs particularly to the Governor of Madina, and is otherwise a mere village chieftain's name. Pasha is now replaced in Egypt by Khedive. And there we may end the list, though it is very far from being exhausted. It may, however, be as well to allude to Emir, and to add that, strictly, it is a description, not a title it is the name borne by the descendants of the Prophet, who are found in every class of Arab and Turkish society, particularly amongst the beggars. The peculiarity about their situation is, that to be an Emir because your father was one is considered to be very insufficient evidence of your right to claim the rank; to be so in virtue of your mother is infinitely more conclusive; but to be so on both sides, is altogether satisfactory. The one privilege of Emirs is, that they are the only people who can wear green turbans; and as the Sultan-although he is now Caliph - is not of the

This enumeration of the best known amongst the titles of dignity is, however, of but small interest. That certain names should exist in certain countries as designations of their leader, is a fact which we may regard as historical or geographical or linguistic, according to our fancies: the real essence of the matter is not there; it lies, from the point of view where we are placing ourselves here, in the degree of right which each sovereign has to bear and hold the title which he may select. The history of the assumption of new titles is a very large one: it includes a singular variety of extensions, augmentations, adaptations, and usurpations - so many, indeed, that they cannot all be counted. History is full of battles which have been fought for titles: and though we have grown so careless about them now that we allow monarchs to change their names pretty nearly as they please, the process was not so easy in former times. When Christina of Sweden had herself crowned King (not Queen) no serious objection was made, because the matter was regarded by the powers as local and exceptional; just as nobody said a word when Madame de Guébriant was appointed Ambassador of France, when the Countess of Pembroke served as Sheriff of Westmoreland, and when the Shah of Persia sent a feminine negotiator to make peace for him with the Grand Seigneur. But in cases of male nominations to new titles, governments used to be less courteous and more exacting. It is only of late years that they have grown indifferent, luckily for the five empires and the five kingdoms which have sprung up this century, and which have consequently been received with a bland politeness which showed that they provoked no emotion (with the one exception of the first Napoleon). The last two great king-makings, in 1806 and 1815, were effected by the masters of Europe, and therefore could provoke no hostility; but the isolated cases of Brazil, of Louis Philippe, of Napoleon III., of Italy and Mexico, were all of the very kind which used to cause bitter op

The original denominations of the Muscovite sovereign were Autocrat (which was borrowed from the Greek Emperors), Great Lord, Grand Duke, and Czar. This last designation was an old one: it was first given to Duke Wladimir, who died in 1125, and some of his successors partially retained it; but, all the same, the Russian rulers continued to be called Grand Dukes till the sixteenth century. In 1547, Ivan II. was crowned as Czar of Moscow, and that title was retained until, after the conquest of Little Russia and Smolensk, they became Czars of All the Russias (Great, Little, New, Black, Red, White, and Southern Russias). During the next century they began to call themselves Imperator, in the Latin translations of the documents which they addressed to other powers. The Emperor of Germany, Leopold I., was, however, so offended by this assumption of a title which he considered to be his personal monopoly, that he wrote to Peter, in 1687, to declare that he would send back all letters containing this most reprehensibly presumptuous audacity. Peter, however, persisted; and in 1721, after his victory at Pultava over Charles XII., the title of Emperor of all the Russias was officially conferred upon him by the Russian Senate and the Holy Synod.

position in other days, and yet not a word about titles; it is therefore worth telling was said about them, other than "Cer-in some detail. tainly just as you please; we are all quite content." The same calm silence reigned when the empire of Germany shrivelled into Austria; when the chiefs of Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria put on royal crowns; when Baden and Hesse Darmstadt became Grand Duchies. No one raised a finger then, and it was considered to be quite natural that the Congress of Vienna should confirm those changes, should add Hanover to the list of thrones, and Mecklenburg to the Duchies, and should bestow the title of King of Poland on the Czar. But notwithstanding this generous liberality of disposition, the plenipotentiaries of Europe refused to grant the prayer of that insatiable Elector of Hesse Cassel, who, not content with the new Electorate that he had invented ten years before, came up again respectfully and said, "Please, gentlemen, do let me be a king too, like my neighbours." At Aix-la-Chapelle, in October 1818, they rejected his pitiful demand, and, at the same time, they once more proclaimed the right of every power to exercise supervision over the titles of the others. This is how they answered that lamentable Elector: "Les Cabinets déclarent que, attendu que la demande de S. A. R. l'Electeur de Hesse n'est justifiée par aucun motif suffisant, il n'y a rien qui puisse les engager à y satisfaire. Les Queen Anne of England immediately Cabinets prennent en même temps l'en-recognized the new appellation, and gagement de ne reconnaitre, à l'avenir, aucun changement ni dans les titres des souverains ni dans ceux des princes de leurs maisons, sans en être préalablement convenus entre eux."

called Peter by the name of Emperor, in a letter which she wrote to him that year, with her, excuses for an attack which had been made on the Russian envoy in London. Prussia also, of course, acquiesced This example shows that, after all, the in the change, for her own royalty was line really is drawn somewhere even now; too recent to allow her to make difficuland that, notwithstanding the degenerat- ties with others. Sweden followed in ed principles of our epoch, it is not yet 1723; Venice in 1726; Denmark in possible for everybody to create himself 1732; Turkey engaged in 1741 to give a king. But to obtain a clearer idea of the title of Empress to Elizabeth, who the trouble there was in former times to had just become Czarina; even the Emget leave to change a title, we must go peror of Germany recognized the Russian back to the establishment of the king- empire in 1744. Finally the Courts of dom of Prussia, and still more, to the as- France and Spain consented, in 1745, sumption of the style of Emperor by the to treat Elizabeth as Empress, on condiCzar of Russia. When Frederic III. tion of receiving a lettre réversale, stipuappointed himself king, he asked leave lating that the Imperial title should cause privately from the Emperor beforehand, no change in the ceremonial then exist(how little that Emperor knew what a ing between the two Courts. But when serpent he was warming in his bosom!) Peter III. succeeded to Elizabeth in and consequently got recognized without January 1762, France wrote to him simply much trouble by the other powers. But as Majesté Czarienne, and claimed anthe Russian story is far more compli- other reversale before she would call him cated: it is the best example we possess Emperor. A curious correspondence of the contentions which once existed took place between the Russian ambas