424

HEREDITARY GENIUS.

THE JUDGES OF ENGLAND BETWEEN 16G0 AND 18G5.

JBY FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S.

T h e Judges of England, since the res­ reader will probably think they are toration of the monarchy in 1660, form rather too abstractedly expressed, and a group peculiarly well adapted to afford will find difficulty in understanding a general outline of the extent and limi­ them at first sight, but, as he reads on, tations of heredity in respect to genius. that difficulty will disappear. The Judgeship is a guarantee of their (A) If we divide men of exceptionally having been gifted with an exceptional high ability into two groups, one of share of ability; they are sufficiently which consists of those that are extra­ numerous and prolific to form an ade­ ordinarily able, then this group ought quate basis for statistical inductions, to contain the larger percentage of able and they are the subjects of numerous kinsmen. excellent biographical .treatises. (B) If we analyse the families of men I propose in these pages to touch of high ability, we 'ought to find the briefly on a few of the results that I number of able kinsmen in those fami­ have obtained by inquiring into their lies to be enormously larger than it relationships. These are powerfully would have been according to the ordi­ corroborative of the views I first ex­ nary law of chances, on the supposition pressed, a few years ago, in this Maga­ that ability was irrespective of descent. zine (June and August 1865), in two (C) The peculiar type of ability ought articles upon hereditary talent and cha­ to be largely transmitted. racter, and they lend far greater preci­ (D) The percentage of able kinsmen sion to the determinations of hereditary should be greatest among those who are influences than those at which I then nearest to the most eminent member of aimed. I hope very shortly to publish the family, and it should diminish in a volume of a somewhat elaborate and each successive grade of remoteness. extensive inquiry, in which I shall treat (E) The appearance of the man of not only of judges, but also of the most highest ability in a family should not illustrious statesmen, commanders, men be an abrupt and isolated phenomenon, of literature and science, poets, painters, but his ability should be built up, so musicians, divines, and scholars. In to speak, by degrees, in his ancestry; the meantime, I publish these pages and conversely, it should disperse itself as first-fruits in the hope they may by degrees in his descendants. servo the purpose of familiarizing readers I shall now proceed to show that the with the sort of arguments upon which results obtained from an analysis of the I rely, and the tendency of the con­ families of the Judges, affirm the whole clusions to which those arguments irre­ of these propositions in the most un­ sistibly lead. qualified manner. If genius be hereditary in the same Before producing my facts, let mo way that physical strength or feature is say a few words in confirmation of what hereditary, at least five conditions will I began by asserting, that the office of necessarily be found to exist. I ‘ will judge is a sufficient guarantee that its state them, and will distinguish them possessor is exceptionally gifted in a by the letters A B C D and E, for very high degree. No doubt there aro the convenience of after reference. The some hindrances, external to those of /

Hereditary Genius. 425

nature, against a man getting on at son of a barber. Others were sons of the bar and rising to a judgeship. The clergymen of scanty means. Others attorneys may not give him briefs when have begun life in alien professions, yet, he is a young barrister; and, even if he notwithstanding their false start, have becomes a successful barrister, his poli­ easily gained lost ground in after life. tical party may be out of office for a Lord Erskine was first in the navy and long period at a time when he was then in the army before he became a otherwise ripe for advancement. I can­ barrister. Lord Chelmsford was origi­ not, however, believe that either of nally a midshipman. Now a large these are serious obstacles in the long number of men with antecedents as un­ run. Sterling ability is sure to make favourable to success as these, and yet itself felt and to lead to practice; while successful men, are always to he found as to politics, the changes of party are at the bar, and therefore I say the bar­ sufficiently frequent to give a fair chance risters are themselves a selected body; to almost every generation. For every and the fact of every Judge having been man who is a Judge there may possibly taken from the foremost rank of 3,000 be two other lawyers of the same of them, is proof that his exceptional standing, equally fitted for the post, ability is of an enormously higher order but it is hard to believe there can be a than if the, 3,000 barristers had been larger number. conscripts, drawn by lot from the general The Judges hold the foremost places mass of their countrymen. in a vast body of legal men. The In speaking of English Judges, I have Census speaks of upwards of 3,000 bar­ adopted the well-known “ Lives of the risters, advocates, and special pleaders; Judges,” by Poss, as my guide. It was and it must be recollected that these published in 1865, so I have adopted do not consist of 3,000 men taken at that date as the limit of my inquiries. hap-hazard, but a large part of them I have considered those only as falling are already selected, -and it is from under the definition of Judges whom he these, by a second process of selection, includes as such. They are the Judges that the Judges are mainly derived. of the Courts of Chancery and Common When I say that a large part of the Law, and the Master of the Rolls, barristers are selected men, I speak of but not the Judges of the Admiralty those among them who are of humble nor of the Court of Canterbuiy. By the parentage but have brilliant natural latter limitation I lose the advantage of gifts, who attracted notice as boys, or, counting Lord Stowell, brother of the it may be, even as children, and were Lord Chancellor Eldon, the remarkable therefore sent to a good school. There family of the Lushingtons, that of SirR. they won exhibitions and fitted them­ Phillimore, and some others. Through selves for college, where they supported the limitation as regards time, I lose, themselves by obtaining scholarships. by ending with the year 1865, the Then came fellowships, and so they recently-created Judges, such as Judge ultimately found their way to the bar. Selwyn, brother of the Bishop of Lich­ Many of these have risen to the Bench. field, and also of the Professor of Thus there have been 30 Lord Chan­ Divinity at Cambridge'. By beginning cellors within the period included in at the Restoration, which I took for my my inquiries. Of these, Lord Hard- commencement, because there was fre­ wicke was the son of a small attorney quent jobbery in the days of earlier at Dover, in narrow circumstances; history that would have led to untrust­ Lord Eldon (whose brother was the worthy results, I lose a Lord Keeper (of great Admiralty Judge, Lord Stowell) the same rank as a Lord Chancellor), was son of a “ coal fitterLord Truro and his still greater son, also a Lord was son of a sheriff’s officer; and Lord Chancellor, namely, the two Bacons. , I St. Leonards (like Lord Tenterden, the state these facts to show that I have not Chief Justice of Common Pleas) was picked out a period that seemed most 426 Hereditary Genius. favourable to my argument, but one ful inquiries, gave a still larger falling that was the most suitable to bring out off of the run of ability in the female the truth as to hereditary genius, and line. Notwithstanding these allowances, which at the same time was most con­ there is a residue that points to a law venient for me to handle. that judicial ability passes somewhat There are 286 Judges within the more through the male lino than through limits of my inquiry. Of these, I find that of the female. no less than 133, or nearly one-half, to I will now. proceed to the conditions. have one or more kinsmen of little or As regards A, there is no doubt that no less eminence than themselves. The the Lord Chancellors are far superior proof-sheets of my forthcoming volume in average ability to the rest of the lie before me, in which these relation­ Judges. They are the very first class ships are described at length, and are as lawyers, of high rank as politicians, methodically arranged. For want of and we may safely say that all Eng­ space, I am unable to do more than land does not afford, on the average, half give a few samples of them here, and to a dozen men of the same age as the L ord. request the reader to take the rest upon Chancellors with greater ability than trust. they have. As I have already remarked, It will be well, before speaking of there have been 30 Lord Chancellors the five conditions, to say a few words among the 286 Judges. How many on the comparative influence of the of them have had eminent kinsmen? male and female lines in conveying Is it a little short of one-half, as I ability. I cannot make any compari­ find to be the case with the Judges son between persons in the first degree generally ? No : the proportion is con­ of kinship, as fathers against mothers, siderably greater. At the lowest esti­ sons against daughters, or brothers mate, 23 of them have had kinsmen against sisters, because they are of dif­ of exceptionally high ability. I shall ferent sexes; but I can compare the have occasion to publish all these facts effects of male and female descent in of detail in my forthcoming book; it the second and more remote degrees. must suffice here that I should men­ I t is easy to collate the maternal and tion a few of the most remarkable of paternal grandfathers, the grandsons by them. They are: 1. Earl Bathurst and the sons and by the daughters, the his daughter’s son, the famous Judge, nephews by the brother or by the sis­ Sir E. Buller; 2. Earl Camden and his ter, the uncles by the fathers’ or the father, Chief Justice Pratt; 3. Earl Cla­ mothers’ side. I have done this and give rendon and the remarkable family of the result, with the proviso that the Hyde, in which were 2 uncles and 1 numbers are few, and therefore too great cousin, all English Judges, besides 1 reliance must not be placed on them. I Welsh Judge, and many other men ^find the paternal grandfathers and the of distinction; 4. Earl Cowper, his grandsons by the sons’ line to be ex­ brother the Judge, and his great- actly equal in number to the maternal nephew the poet; 5. Earl Eldon and ’ grandfathers, and to the grandsons Lord Stowell; 6. Lord Erskine, his by the daughters’ line, but it is not eminent legal brother and son the the same with the rest. There is a Judge; 7. Earl Nottingham and the great preponderance of nephews and most remarkable family of Finch; 8, uncles by the male line over those by 9, 10. Earl Hardwicke and liis son, the female line; indeed, there are three also a Lord Chancellor, who died sud­ times as many of them. I am inclined denly, and that son’s great-uncle, Lord to ascribe this partly to the accident Somers, also a Lord Chancellor; 11. of two large families, and partly to the Lord Herbert, his son a Judge, his fact that it is not easy to ferret out all cousins Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the relations by the female side. My George the poet and divine; 12. Lord earlier calculations, based upon less care­ King and his uncle John Locke the Hereditary Genius. 427 philosopher; 13. The infamous hut sequence of figures: 38 cases of two most able Lord Jeffery had a cousin just eminent men in one family, 40 cases like him, namely, Sir J. Trevor, Mas­ of three, 5 of four or five, and 6 ter of the Kolls; 14. Lord Guildford cases of six or more; and to compare is member of a family that I simply it with what we should have found despair of doing justice to. It is linked if the occurrence of ability had been with connexions of such marvellous a fortuitous event, wholly unconnected ability, judicial and statesmanlike, as to with the breed. Suppose, for the sake deserve a small volume to describe it. of an easy round number, we say I t contains 30 first-class men in near that it is 10 to 1 against a man of kinship, including Montagus, Sidneys, judge-like ability being bom in any one Herberts, Dudleys, and others; 15. family. The real odds are far greater Lord Truro had able legal brothers, one than that; but we will bst the figures of them being an English Judge. I will stand as 10 to 1, merely for the sake of here mention, though I do not propose illustration. On tills supposition there to count, Lord Lyttleton, Lord Keeper would be found only 1 family in 100 of Charles L, on account of his most that contained 2 eminent men, 1 in remarkable family, some of whom fall 1,000 that contained 3, and one in within my limits. His father was Chief 1,000,000 that contained 6. It is there­ Justice of North "Wales, who married fore evident beyond the possibility of a lady the daughter of Sir J. Walter, doubt, that ability is not distributed at the Chief Justice of South Wales, and hap-hazard, but that it clings' to certain also sister of an English Judge. She families. bore him Lord Keeper Lyttleton, also We now proceed to the proposition Sir Timothy, a J udge. Lord Ly ttleton’s C. If genius be hereditary, as I assert daughter’s son (she married a cousin) it is, the characteristics that mark a was the Sir T. Lyttleton, the Speaker Judge ought tobe frequently transmitted of the House of Commons. to his descendants. The majority of There is, therefore, abundant reason Judges belong to a strongly marked to conclude that the kinsmen of Lord type. They are not men who are car­ Chancellors are far richer in natural ried away by sentiment, who love gifts than those of the other Judges. seclusion and dreams, but they are pro­ Next, as regards the test B, I find minent members of a very different that the 133 English Judges who have class, one that Englishmen are especially eminent legal relations may-be grouped prone to honour for at least the six into 95 families; and that the 95 families lawful days of the week, I mean that may be divided into the following they are vigorous, shrewd, practical, classes: —The first consists of 38 families helpful men; glorying in the rough- containing each 2 persons of distinction, and-tumble of public life, tough in namely the Judge and 1 kinsman; the constitution and strong in digestion, second consists of 40 families, contain­ valuing what money brings, aiming at ing each 3 persons of eminence, namely, position and influence, and desiring to the Judge and 2 kinsmen; the third, of found families. The vigour of a Judge G, containing each 4 or 5 persons of is testified to by the fact that the eminence; the fourth, of 5, containing average ago of their appointment in each G or more. There are 4 more the present reign has been fifty-seven. families that I cannot rightly classify, The labour and responsibility of the for they run into others, and do not office seem enormous to lookers-on, form isolated groups, namely, the Norths yet these elderly men continue work­ and Montagus, Earl Somers from his ing with ease for many more years; connexion with the Yorke family, and their average age of death is seventy- the Hon. Heneage Legge from his. con­ five, and they commonly die in har­ nexion with that of Finch. I beg the ness. Now are those remarkable gifts reader to pay especial regard to this and peculiarities inherited by their 428 Hereditary Genius, sons 1 Do the JudgeB often have sons ’Willes, Sir John, Chief Just. C.P. (Geo.III.) who succeed in the same’ career, where Sir Edward, Just. K.B. (Geo. III.) success would have "been impossible if ’ Yorke, Philip, Ld. Chane, cr. E. Hardwlcke. they had not been gifted with the Hon. Charles, Ld. Chane. (Geo. III.) Special qualities of their fathers 1 The It will be observed that there are no best answer is a list of names. They less than ten families where both father will be of much interest to legal readers; and son are English Judges, and the others can glance them over, and go on same number of other families where to the results. either the father or the son is an English Judge, and the son or the father J udges of E ngland, and other high legal , is a high legal officer. There are five officers, between 1660 and 1865, who were, or are, in the relation of father and son. / pairs of J udges who are brothers (Atkyns, I mark those cases with an asterisk (*) Cowper, Lyttleton, Powis, and W.ynd- where the father and son are both of them ham), and seven other Judges who had English Judges. brothers in high legal offices. In short, *Atkyns, Sir Edward, B.E. (Chas. II.) out of the 286 Judges, more than one Sir Robert, Chief Just. C.P. ) q. „ in every nine of them have been either Sir Edward, B.E. (Jas. II.) f bons‘ father, son, or brother to another Judge, Atkyns, Sir Richard, Chief Just. N. Wales. and the other high legal relationships Sir Edward, B.E. (Chas. II.) have been even more numerous. There ’Bramston, Sir Francis, Chief K.B. (Chas. I.)1 Sir Francis, B.E. (Chas. II.) cannot, then, remain a doubt but that the peculiar type of ability that is neces­ Coleridge, Sir John, Just. Q.B. (Viet.) Sir John Duke, Solic.-Gen. sary to a Judge, is often transmitted by Dolben, Sir Wm. Just. K.B. (Will. III.) descent. Sir Gilbert, Just. C.P. Ireland; cr. Bart. As regards the test D, I have dis­ ’Erskine, T. cr. Lord Erskine, Lord Chan. tributed the eminent relatives of the Hon. Sir Thomas, Just. C.P. (Viet.) Judges according to their kinships to *Eyre, Sir Samuel, Just. K.B. (Will. III.) the most important member of each Sir Robert, Chief Just. C.P. (Geo. II.) family. This is usually the Judge him­ Finch, Heneage, L. Ch. cr. E. of Nottingham. self, but it is not invariably so, for the Heneage, Solic.-Gen. cr. Earl Aylesford. families include some of the most Finch, Sir Heneage, Recorder of London. considerable names in English history. Heneage, Lord Chan. cr. E. of Nottingham. There is John Churchill, the great Duke ’ Forster, Sir James, Just. C.P. (Chas. I.) of Marlborough; Lord Clive, the Gover­ Sir Robert, Chief Just. K.B. (Chas. II.) nor-General who saved India to our Gurney, Sir John, B.E. (Viet.) rule; S. T. Coleridge, the philosopher Rt. Hon. Russell Gurney, Recorder of London. and poet; H.Pielding, the novelist; J. ’ Herbert, Sir Edw. Lord Keeper (Chas. II.) Jervis, Earl of St. Vincent, the naval Sir Edward, Chief Just. K.B. (Jas. II.) hero; John Locke, the metaphysician; Hewitt, James, cr. Ld. Lifford, Just. K .B. and John Milton, the poet. The crude ^Joseph, Just. K.B. Ireland. percentages of the results are, that to Jervis,------, Chief Just, of Chester. Sir John, Chief Just. C.P. (Viet.) each 100 Judges there are the following number of kinsmen who have achieved Law, Edw. cr. Ld. Ellenborough, Chief K.B. Chas. Ewan, M.P. Recorder of London. equal distinction:—2 great-great-grand­ fathers, 0 great-grandfathers, 12 grand­ ’Pratt, Sir John, Chief Just. K.B. (Geo. II.) Earl Camden, Ld. Chane. (Geo. III.) fathers, 3 great-uncles, 21 fathers, 15' uncles, 4 great-uncles’ sons, 34 brothers, ’Raymond, Sir Thomas, Just. C.B. Robert, cr. Ld. Raymond, Chief K.B. (Geo. II.) 11 first-cousins, 26 sons, 13 nephews, 3 Romilly, Sir Samuel, Solic.-Gen. first-cousins’sons, 11 grandsons, 2 great- Cr. Lord Romilly, Master of Rolls (Viet.) nephew s, 1 great-grandson. In reckon­ ing the richness of each order of kinship 1 I count the fathers of the Judges of in ability, we must divide these figures Charles II. because the Judges of the present respectively by the number of indi­ reign are too young to have Judges for sons. viduals in each order. The 100 Judges i Hereditary Genius. 429

have 200 grandfathers; therefore, the are fairly justified, from these data, in percentage of ability among the grand­ concluding that each Judge is father, fathers is as 12, the crude percentage on an average, to not less than one son given above, divided by 2. W hat are who lives to an age at which he might the number of relatives in each order of have distinguished himself, if he had kinship? I cannot here enter into the the ability to do so. question of fertility in connexion with I also find the (adult) families to con­ the highest kinds of ability, neither can sist on an average of not less than 2^ I go into details about the Judges sons and 2 | daughters each; conse­ separately, but am obliged by want of quently each Judge has an average of 1 \ space to oonfine my remarks to general brothers and 2 | sisters. averages. I find that 23 of the Judges From these data it is perfectly easy are reported to have had “ large fami­ to reckon the number of kinsmen in lies,” say consisting of four adult sons in each order. Thus' the nephews con­ each; 11 are simply described as having sist of the brothers’ sons and the sisters’ “ issue,” say at the rate of 1 | sons sons, and are, therefore, 1 |+ S2J= 4 » each; and that the number of sons of in number. I need not trouble the reader other Judges are specified as amqunting with more of these, suffice it to say I between them to 186 ; forming thus far have divided the total numbers of emi­ a total of 294. In addition, there are nent kinsmen to 100 Judges by the nine reported marriages in which no number of kinsmen in each degree, and allusion is made to children, and there obtain the following most instructive are 31Judges in respect to whom nothing table, which shows the distribution of is said about matriage at all. I think wo ability according to kinship :—

Percentage of Distinguished Men in the several Orders of Kinship to the J udges of England.

1 great-grandfathers and above.

21 grandfathers. 1 great uncles.

8 fathers. 11 uncles. 0 great uncles’sons and below. I______r.

J udges. 8 brothers. 1 first cousins. 91 sons. 14 nephews. 0 first cousins’ sons and below. 21 grandsons. 0 grandnephews and below.

0 great-grandsons and below. I use 0 to express a number considerably less than 1 per cent, and therefore too insignificant to regard. Thus, out of every hundred persons, who are brothers of Judges, eight have been equally eminent m en; and so on for the rest. The table shows in the most unmis- kinship, the percentage is about eight; takeable manner, the enormous odds in the second about two; and in the that a near kinsman has over one that third less than half. is remote, in the chance of inheriting The table also fulfils the test E by ability. Speaking roughly, the per­ testifying to another fact, in which centages are quartered at each successive people do not commonly believe. It remove, whether by s descent or col- shows that ability does not suddenly lateially. Thus in the first degree of start into existence and disappear with 430 Hereditary Genius.

equal abruptness, but rather that it rises is to the 9£ as entered in my table, show­ in a gradual and exceedingly regular ing the general truth of both estimates. curve out of the ordinary level of Of these 22 I count the following trip­ family life. There is a regular increase lets. The Atkyns family as two. It of ability in the, generations that pre­ is. true that the grandfather was only cede its culmination and~as regular a Chief Justice of North Wales, and not decrease in those that succeed t it. In an English Judge, but the vigour of the the first case the marriages have been blood is proved by the line of not only consentient to its production, in the his son and two grandsons being English latter they have been incapable of pre­ Judges, but also by the grandson of one serving it. After three successive dilu­ of them, through the female line, being tions of the blood, the descendants of an English Judge also. Another line is the Judges appear incapable of rising that of the Pratts, viz. the Chief Justice to eminence. These results are not and his son, the Lord Chancellor, Earl surprising when compared with the far Camden, and his grandson, the son of greater length of kinship through the Earl, created the Marquis Camden ; which features or diseases may be the latter was Chancellor of the Uni­ transmitted. Ability must be based versity of Cambridge, and a man of note on a triple footing, every leg of which in many ways. Another case is in the has to be firmly planted. In order that Yorke line, for the son of the Lord a man should inherit ability in the con­ Chancellor, the Earl of Hardwicke, was crete, he must inherit three qualities Charles Yorke, himself a Lord Chan­ that are separate and independent of one cellor. His sons were able m en: one another. He must inherit capacity, and became First Lord o£ the Admiralty* zeal, and vigour; for unless these three, another was Bishop of Ely, a third was or at the very least two of them, are a military j officer of distinction and combined, he cannot hope to make a created Baron Dover, a fourth was an figure in the world. The probability, admiral of distinction. I will not count against inheriting a combination of all these, but will reckon them as three qualities not correlated together, is ne­ favourable instances. The total, thus cessarily far greater than it is against far, is six ’; to which might be added inheriting any one of them. in fairness something from that most There is a marked difference between remarkable Montagu family and its the percentage of ability in the grand­ connexions, of which several Judges, sons of the Judge when his sons (the both before and after the accession of fathers of those grandsons) have been Charles T., were members. However, I eminent than when they have not. Let wish to be well within bounds, and there­ us suppose that the son of a Judge wishes fore will claim only six successes out of to marry: what expectation has he that the 22 cases (1 son to each Judge, as c his own sons will become eminent men, before), or 1 in 4. Even under these supporters of his family, and not a limitations it is only 4 to 1, on the burden to it, in their after life ? average, against each child of an In the case where the son of the judge eminent son of a Judge becoming a dis­ is himself eminent, I find, out of the tinguished man. 226 Judges previous to the present Now for the second category, where reign 22 whose sons have been distin­ the son is not eminent, but the grand­ guished men. I do not count instances son is. There are only seven of these in the present reign, because the grand­ cases to the (226 — 22 or) 204 Judges sons of these Judges are for the most that remain, and two or three of them part too young to have achieved dis­ are not a very high order. They are the tinction. 22 out of 226 gives 10 in third Earl Shaftesbury, author of the 100 as the percentage of the Judges “ Characteristics;” Cowper, the poet; that have had distinguished sons. The Lord Lechmero, the Attorney-General; reader will remark how near this result Sir Wm. Mansfield, Commandcr-in-Chief • Hereditary Genius. 431 in India; Sir Eardloy Willmot, who bo justified on two distinct grounds. filled various offices with credit and was On the one hand, the future peer is created a baronet; and Lord Wyndham, reared in a home full of family tradi­ Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Fielding, tions, that form his disposition. On the the novelist, was grandson of Judge other hand, he is presumed to inherit the Gould, by the female line. Hence it is ability of the founder of the family. The 204 to 7, or 30 to 1, against the non- former is a real justification for the law eminent son of a Judge having an of primogeniture, as applied to titles and eminent child. possessions; the latter, as we see from The figures in these two categories the table, is not. A man who has no are clearly too few to justify us in rely­ able ancestor nearer in blood to him than ing implicitly on them, except so far as a great-grandparent, is inappreciably to show that the probability of a Judge better off in the chance of being himself having an eminent grandson is largely gifted with ability than if he had been increased if his sons are also eminent. taken out of the general mass -of men. Also it is clear that the sons or daughters An old peerage is a valueless title to of distinguished men who are themselves natural gifts, except so far as it may gifted with decidedly high ability, as have been furbished up by a succession tested at the university or elsewhere, of wise intermarriages. When, however, cannot do better than marry early in life. as is often the case, the direct line has If they have a large family, the odds become extinct and the title has passed are in their favour that one at least of to a distant relative, who had not been their children will be eminently success­ reared in the family traditions, the senti­ ful in life, and will be a subject of pride ment that is attached to its possession is to them and a help to the rest. utterly unreasonable. I cannot think of Let us for a moment consider the any claim to respect, put forward in bearing of the facts just obtained, on modem days, that is so entirely an im­ the theory of an aristocracy where able posture as that made by a peer, on the men earn titles, and transmit them by ground of descent, who has not been descent through the line of their eldest nobly educated, and who has no < emi­ male representatives. The practice may nent kinsman within three degrees.'