Not the least merit of the work is the careful reference to authorities. One passage in the preface to the Baronage contains a striking truth: "As the historical discourse will afford at a distance some, though but dim, prospect of the magnificence and grandeur wherein the most ancient and noble families of England did heretofore live, so will it briefly manifest how short, uncertain, and transient earthly greatness is; for of no less than two hundred and seventy in number, touching which this first volume doth take notice, there will hardly be found above eight which do to this day continue; and of those not any whose estates, compared with what their ancestors enjoyed, are not a little diminished; nor of that number, I mean two hundred and seventy, above twenty-four who are by any younger male branch descended from them, for aught I can discover." BARONET, an English name of dignity, which in its etymology imports a Little Baron. But we must not confound it with the Lesser Baron of the middle ages [BARON], with which the rank of baronet has nothing in common; nor again with the banneret of those ages [BANNERET]; though it does appear that in some printed books, and even in the contemporary manuscripts, the state and dignity of a banneret is sometimes called the state and dignity of a baronet, by a mere error, as Selden promptly asserts (Titles of Honour,' p. 354), of the scribe. | take his seat in any assembly in which he might not before have been seated. What he did acquire we can best collect from the terms of the patent which the king granted to all who accepted the honour, to them and the heirs male of their bodies for ever:-1. Precedence in all commissions, writs, companies, &c., before all knights, including knights of the Bath and bannerets, except such knights bannerets as were made in the field, the king being present; 2. Precedence for the wives of the baronet to follow the precedence granted to the husband; 3. Precedence to the daughters and younger sons of the baronet before the daughters and younger sons of any other person of whom the baronet himself took precedence; 4. The style and addition of Baronet to be written at the end of his name, with the prefix of Sir; 5. The wife of the baronet to be styled Lady, Madam, or Dame. It was stipulated on the part of the king, that the number of baronets should never exceed two hundred; and that, when the number was diminished by the natural process of extinction of families, there should be no new creations to supply the places of those extinct, but that the number should go on decreasing. Further, the king bound himself not to create any new order which should lie between the baron and the baronet. Another distinction was soon after granted to them. A question arose respecting precedency between the newlycreated baronets and the younger sons of viscounts and barons, which the king dis The origin of this rank and order of persons is quite independent of any pre-posed of by his own authority, in favour vious rank or order of English society. It originated with King James I., who, being in want of money for the benefit of the province of Ulster in Ireland, hit upon the expedient of creating this new dignity, and required of all who received it the contribution of a sum of money, as much as would support thirty infantry for three years, which was estimated at 10951., to be expended in settling and improving the province of Ulster. The principle of this new dignity was to give rank, precedence, and title without privilege. He who was made a baronet still remained a commoner. He acquired no new exemption or right to of the latter; and in the same instrument in which he declared the royal pleasure in this point, he directed that the baronets might bear, either on a canton or in an escutcheon on their shield of arms, the arms of Ulster, which, symbolical it seems of the lawless character of the inhabitants of that province, as is set forth in the preamble of the baronet's patent, was a bloody hand, or, in the language of heraldry, a hand gules in a field argent. And further, the king "to ampliate his favour, this dignity being of his Majesty's own creation, and the work of his hands," did grant that every baronet, when he had attained the age of twenty one years, might claim from the king the honour of knighthood; that in armies they should have place near about the royal standard; and lastly, that in their funeral pomp they should have two assistants of the body, a principal mourner, and four assistants to him, being a mean betwixt a baron and a knight. Such was the original institution of the order. To carry the king's intentions into effect, and especially to secure the payment of the money, commissioners were appointed to receive proffers for admission into the order. The instructions given to them throw further light on the original constitution of this body. They were to treat with none but such as were men of quality, state of living and good reputation worthy of the same, and they were to be descended of at least a grandfather by the father's side that bore arms; they were to be also persons possessed of a clear yearly revenue of 1000l.; and to avoid the envy and slander, as if they were men who had purchased the honour, the commissioners were to require an oath of them that they had not directly or indirectly given any sum of money for the attaining the degree and pre-eminence, except that which was necessary for the maintenance of the appointed number of soldiers. The earliest patents bear date on May 22, 1611, on which day Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Redgrave, in Suffolk, knight, was admitted the first of the new order; and with him seventeen other knights and gentlemen of the first quality beneath the peerage. On the 29th of June following, fifty-four other patents were tested, and four more in September. The doubt respecting the precedence, and certain scruples which arose respecting this exercise of the royal prerogative, seemed to have occasioned a relaxation in the issue of patents, for no more were issued till the 25th of November, 1612, when fifteen other gentlemen were introduced into the order, making in the whole ninety-one. At this number they remained for some years; and it was not till 1622, a little before the death of King James, that the number of two hundred was completed. In its more essential points, this order has undergone no modifications since its establishment. But the following alterations have taken place:-1. There has been no adherence to the number two hundred, which by the original compact was to be the limit of the number of patents issued. Even the founder himself did not adhere to this part of the contract, for at his death two hundred and five patents had been issued. The excuse was that several of the baronets had been advanced to higher dignities, and that thus vacancies were created, which the king was at liberty to fill. But his successor, King Charles I., issued patents at his pleasure; and the number issued before his death amounted to four hundred and fifty-eight. Later kings have not thought themselves bound by this clause of the original compact; and the number of members of this order is now understood to have no other limit than the will of the king. 2. In the time of King Charles II. the custom was to remit the payment of the money for the support of the soldiers; and a warrant for this remission is now always understood to accompany the grant of a patent of baronetcy. 3. The rule of requiring proof of coat-armour for three descents has in numerous instances not been insisted on. But with these variations the order has remained unchanged. Various works have been published containing accounts of the families of England who belong to this order. The first of these was published in 1720, entitled 'The Baronetage of England,' the author of which was Arthur Collins, whose similar work on the Peerage of England' is held in high estimation. It was his intention to give an account of all the families who had ever possessed this distinction, whether then existing or extinct. Two volumes were published, containing the first 152 families; but the work was not continued. In 1727 appeared another Baronetage,' in three volumes, containing valuable accounts of the families of all baronets then existing. A third Baronetage,' usually called Wotton's, appeared in 1741, in five large volumes, 8vo. This is indisputably the most carefully compiled, the fullest, and the best work of the kind. Another appeared in 1775, in three volumes, 8vo.; and about the beginning of the present | may be formed. But in England it is said century appeared Mr. Betham's account of the families of the then existing baronets, in five volumes, 4to. that the term barrister arose from the arrangement of the halls of the different Inns of Court, which, for several cenAs King James I. established the order turies, have composed in England a kind of English baronets for the encourage- of university for the education of advoment of the planting and settling the pro- cates. [INNS OF COURT.] The benchers vince of Ulster, so he designed to esta- and readers, being the superiors of each blish an order of baronets in Scotland for house, occupied on public occasions of the encouragement of the planting and assembly the upper end of the hall, which settling of Nova Scotia. He died how- was raised on a dais, and separated from ever before any proceedings had been the rest of the building by a bar. The taken. His successor adopted the scheme, next in degree were the utter barristers, and in 1625 granted certain tracts of who, after they had attained a certain land in Nova Scotia to various persons, standing, were called from the body of and with them the rank, style, and title of the hall to the bar (i. e. to the first place baronets of that province, with prece- outside the bar), for the purpose of taking dency analogous to the precedency given a principal part in the mootings or exto the baronets of England. Some addi-ercises of the house; and hence they protional privileges were given them; as that the eldest son of a baronet of Nova Scotia, during the lifetime of his father, might claim the honour of knighthood; and that the baronet might wear a ribbon and medal, with badge and insignia of the order. The addition to the coatarmour of the baronet was the arms of the province of Nova Scotia. It was proposed that the number should be limited to 150. The first was Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstown. There were frequent creations of this dignity till the union with Scotland in 1707, when the creations ceased. Baronets of Ireland were instituted by King James I. in 1620, for the same purpose with the baronets of England. The money was paid into the Irish Exchequer. The first person who received the dignity was either Sir Dominick Sarsfield, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, or Sir Francis Blundell, the Secretary of State. BARRISTER. The etymology of this word has been variously given by different authors, and it would be unprofitable to enumerate the fanciful derivations which have been assigned to it. In French the word barreau, which signifies a bar of wood or iron, is also used to signify "a place in the audience where the advocates plead, and which is closed to prevent the press of people." (Richelet, Diction.) From the word bar then it is obvious that such a term as barrister bably derived the name of utter or outer barristers. The other members of the Inn, consisting of students of the law under the degree of utter barristers, took their places nearer to the centre of the hall and farther from the bar, and from this manner of distribution appear to have been called inner barristers. The distinction between utter and inner barristers is at the present day wholly abolished, the former being called barristers generally, and the latter falling under the denomination of students. The degree of utter barrister, though it gave rank and precedence in the Inn of Court, and placed the individual in a class from which advocates were always taken, did not originally communicate any authority to plead in courts of justice. In the old reports of the proceedings of courts, the term is wholly unknown; serjeants and apprentices at law, who are supposed by Dugdale to be the same persons, being the only pleaders or advocates mentioned in the earlier year-books. serjeants are comprehended under the term It might be shown, by many instances, that apprentices. Thus in Plowden's Reports,' vol. i. p. 213, the great case of the Duchy of Lancaster is said to have been argued, among others, by "Carrel, apprentice, and Plowden, apprentice." This argument took place in the fourth year of the reign of Elizabeth; and it appears from the Chronica Juridicialia,' p. 165, that both Carrel and Plowden had been, before that time, created serjeants. The Latin designation of serjeant in legal documents is serviens ad legem. defendant. The points of law arising in this fictitious case were then argued by two utter barristers, after which the reader and the benchers closed the proceedings by declaring their opinions separately. These exercises appear to have lost much of their utility in the time of Lord Coke, who, in the First Institute,' p. 280 a, praises the ancient readings, but says that the modern performances were of no authority. Roger North says that Lord Keeper Guilford was one of the last persons who read in the Temple according to the ancient spirit of the institution. It is, however, beyond all doubt, that, as far back as we have any distinct memorials, all advocates must have passed through the mode of preparation adopted in the Inns of Court. In the time of Stow, however, who wrote in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, it is clear that utter barristers were entitled to act as advocates, as he expressly says that persons called to that degree are "so enabled to be common councellors, and to practice the law both in their chambers and at the barres." The exact course of legal education pursued at the Inns of Court before the Commonwealth is extremely uncertain, but it appears to have consisted almost entirely of the exercises called readings and mootings, which have been described by several old writers. The readings in the superior or larger houses were thus conducted: The benchers annually chose from their own body two readers, whose duty it was to read openly to the society in their public hall, at least twice in the year. On these occasions, which were observed with great solemnity, the reader selected some statute which he made the subject of formal examination and discussion. He first recited the doubts and questions which had arisen, or which might by possibility arise, upon the several clauses of the statute, and then briefly declared his own judgment upon them. The questions thus stated were then debated by the utter barristers present with the reader, after which the judges and serjeants, several of whom were usually present, pronounced their opinions separately upon the points which had been raised. Readings of this kind were often pub-ings of all the Inns of Court in this relished, and it is to this practice of the Inns of Court that we are indebted for some of the most profound juridical arguments in our language, such as Callis's reading on the Statute of Sewers, and Lord Bacon's on the Statute of Uses. The serjeants, who, before the allowance of utter barristers to plead in courts, appear to have been the only advocates, were called from the Inns of Court by the king's writ, which was only issued at the discretion of the crown, and generally as a matter of favour; and indeed this continues to be the case at the present day. In process of time it became convenient and necessary to enable utter barristers to practise; but some time after they began to act as advocates in the superior courts, the terms upon which they were called to the bar, and allowed to plead, were prescribed by the Privy Council. Thus an order of council, regulating the proceed spect. dated Easter Term, 1574, and signed by Sir Nicholas Bacon as lord keeper, and several lords of council, directs that "none be called to the utter bar but by the ordinary council of the House (i.e. the Inn), in their general ordinary councils in term time; also, that none shall be utter barristers without having performed a certain number of mootings; also, that none shall be admitted to plead in any of the courts at Westminster, or to sign pleadings, unless he be a reader, bencher, or five years' utter barrister, and continuing that time in exercises of learning; also, that none shall plead before justices of assize unless allowed in the courts of Westminster, or allowed by the justices of assize." (See Dugdale's Origines Judiciales.) This appears to be the last instance of the immediate interference of the Privy Council with the arrangements of the Inns of Court respecting calls to the bar. In the reigns of James I. and Charles I., the judges and benchers of the several Inns conjointly made orders on this subject, and, since the Commonwealth, the authority to call persons to the degree of barristerat-law has been tacitly relinquished to the benchers of the different societies, and is now considered to be delegated to them from the judges of the superior courts. In conformity with this view of the subject, the practice has been, in the several cases of a rejection of applications to be called to the bar which have lately happened, to appeal to the judges, who either confirm or reverse the decision of the benchers. Previously to a general arrangement made by all the Inns of Court in 1762, the qualifications required for being called to the bar varied extremely, and no uniform rule was observed at the different houses. In the first year of the reign of James I. it was solemnly ordered by a regulation signed by Sir Edward Coke, Sir Francis Bacon, and other distinguished names, that no person should be admitted into any of the Inns of Court who was not a gentleman by descent. Other regulations were occasionally made, as to the length of standing required, and the number of persons to be called at each time, which were often inconsistent with each other. The greatest inconvenience, however, arose from the absence of uniformity in the practice of the different Inns, as to the qualifications which they respectively required. To remedy this evil, it was determined, in 1762, by the concurrence of all the Inns of Court, to adopt a common set of rules for their guidance in this respect; and at the present day, the general rule as to qualification in all the Inns of Court is, that a person, in order to entitle himself to be called to the bar, must be twenty-one years of age, have kept twelve terms, and have been for five years, at the least, a member of the society. If he be a Master or Bachelor of Arts of either of the English universities, or of Trinity College, Dublin, it is sufficient if he has kept twelve terms and has | been three years a member of the Inn by which he desires to be called to the bar. By an order made by the benchers of the Inner Temple, in Trinity Term, 1829, every person proposed for admission to that house must, previously to his admission, undergo an examination by two barristers appointed by the bench, who are required to certify whether the individual is proficient in "classical attainments and the general subjects of a liberal education." This regulation has not been adopted at any of the other three Inns of Court. The expense of being called to the bar amounts to between 801. and 901., exclusive of the three years' commons and the admission fees. In order to qualify a person for the bar in Ireland, it is necessary that he should have kept eight terms at one of the four Inns of Court in London, and nine terms at the King's Inn in Dublin. [ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF; COUNSEL; INNS OF COURT.] The following statement of the regulations now in force as to the admission of advocates in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts of Doctors' Commons, and in the provincial court of York, and the present number of advocates in these courts, is taken from a Parliamentary Return (No. 282, sess. 1844). According to the present rules, a candidate for admission as an advocate is required to deliver in to the office of the vicar-general of the province of Canterbury a certificate of his having taken the degree of Doctor of Laws, signed by the registrar of the university to which he belongs. A petition, praying that in consideration of such qualification the candidate may be admitted an advocate, is then presented to the archbishop, who issues his fiat for the admission of the applicant, directed to his vicar-general, who thereupon causes a rescript or commission to be prepared, addressed to the official principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury, empowering and requiring him to admit the candidate an advocate of that court. This commission contains a proviso that the person to be admitted shall not practise for one whole year from the date of his admission. The candidate is admitted on one of the regular sessions of the Arches Court; the rescript of the archbishop |