BROUN'S BARONETAGE.

Tars work is, in its way, a great curiosity. It is the result and record of certain proceedings on the part of a fraction of the Baronets, which for ignorant folly and self-sufficient audacity are almost unequalled in the annals of impudence and humbug. Everybody knows that the degree of " Baronet" was instituted by King JAMES the First, in 1611; that the Order was afterwards extended to Ireland ; and by CHARLES the First to Scotland, under the title of " Baronets of Nova Scotia "; and that the design originated in the cupidity of King JAMES, the new dignity being in fact sold for a fixed price to gentlemen of respectable families. The founder defined the rank and privileges of the Order in the most careful manner by three several decrees, and would seem to have determined that no pretence should be given for future claims to any additional distinctions. With the exception of asking for "a Badge," in imitation of the grant to the Baronets of Nova Scotia, the Baronets have been properly content with their rights and station, until Mr. Baorav, the author of this "Baronetage," and the eldest son of a gentleman claiming to be a Baronet of Nova Scotia, took it into his fertile imagination that Baronets were entitled to various additional honours titles, and distinctions—such as the appellation of" the Honourable," a Collar of S. S., a Badge, Robes, a Coronet, and Supporters to their arms. We believe he has also claimed for them a white hat and plume of feathers, (not a cap and bells) a dark- green dress, a belt, a scarf, a pennon, the thumb-ring, and gilt spurs! This, to persons conversant with the subject, appeared a clear case of monomania : but he succeeded in so far converting divers members of the Order to his opinions as to induce them to form a "Committee for Privileges," of which he was appointed "Honorary Secretary." Since that time, this Committee and its Secretary have besieged the Crown in all possible ways for a concession of those preposterous and unfounded claims. It scarcely need be said, that every Minister—Lord MELBOURNE and Lord JOBE RUSSELL, Sir ROBERT PEEL and Sir JAMES GRAHAM—after a full inquiry into the validity of these demands, has given an absolute negative to them. it would fill an entire Spectator to print Mr. Baoures rhodomontades ; but even had we time or space to do so, it would only be a work of supererogation, the subject having been investigated and the claims shown to be as ridiculous as unfounded, three year ago, in The Atheneum. Finding that the Crown was determined not to concede their pretensions, Mr. %our; and his disciples had no alternative but to abandon their attempt, or to beard the Queen and the Executive, by taking all the honours, titles, and distinctions, to which they laid claim. Incredible as it may seem, the Committee solemnly resolved upon the latter course ; and, more incredible still, the advisers of the Crown have done nothing to vindicate its authority. This book presents us with engravings of the coronet, mantle, sup- porters, collar and badge, so adopted ; and records the title which some of the Baronets have ventured to use. Mr. Baomv shall himself state the latest proceedings on the subject.

"The Committee having beard the exposition made by the Honourable Secre- tary, and deliberated upon the same, unanimously passed a series of resolu- lotions, to the effect, that the Arms of the applying Baronets should be registered in the books of the Order, with the exterior heraldic ornaments above ename- rated ; that the precedent should exemplify the mode whereby in future to charge exteriorly the arms of all other applying Baronets of the several crea- tions ; and that from this rule the Arms of such-applying Baronets should form exceptions as have either heretofore carried supporters, or who represent

families that did bear such ornaments.' It was also resolved, that the Ulster Badge should be worn by the Ulster Baronets, as a distinction of their rank, with a Sanguine Riband; and that, from respect to the Crown, a deputation should wait on the Prime Minister, to place in his hands a written representa- tion of the past proceedings, and the conclusions arrived at, in order that the Queen might be made officially cognizant of them ; and to express, at the same

time, the wish of the Order that her Majesty might be graciously pleaset to honour the proceedings with her favour and protection. " Pursuant to this resolution, a deputation waited on the Prime Mini , at his official residence in Downing Street, on the lath of December last, d placed a representation from the Committee for Privileges in his hands, tog they with an address, expressing the satisfaction of the Committee that the conclusions had been arrived at under the administration of a statesman who had pledged himself and his colleagues on entering office ' to act as men de- termined to maintain on their ancient foundations the institutions of the Monarchy ;' and expressing the confident hope of the Committee that an Order, created for the highest state purposes, and conferred by successive Monarchs, for services deemed worthy of a perpetual mark of family distinction, might freely use and enjoy every right and privilege incidental to it by the chartered engagements of its Royal founder.

" Together with the representation, the Deputation placed in Sir Robert Peel's hands a copy of the Ilollande Correspondence in 1627, relative to a badge, the address made by Mr. Crawford on the chartered rights and privileges of the Order, and the Baronetsges for 1841 and 1842. " The report of the Committee to the General Anniversary Meeting of the Order, on the 4th of Tune last, contained the following clause—' The exposi- tion of the grounds upon which all Baronets are privileged to bear supporters and other heraldic ornaments, will form part of the third volume of the Ba- ronetage, edited by the Honorary Secretary, and which is published to record the transactions of the Order '; and referring to it, and to the representation, your Committe consider it unnecessary to dwell further upon this subject than to repeat their unanimous conviction that the facts, evidence, and arguments which these documents contain, justified the Committee, on their assembling for business on the 12th February, to resolve and declare= That the Com- mitee, having evinced their respect and duty to her Majesty by making the Crown formally acquainted with the conclusions arrived at, it is now compe- tent for all such Baronets as appreciate the grants of the Royal founder of the Order, and comply with the regulations laid down by the Committee, freely and fully to act upon the said conclusions."

The report was then adopted, and " unanimous and most ap- proving thanks" voted "to the acting Members of the Com- mittee, who during the course of the last year have so faithfully and honourably upheld the interests of the Order, and uncom- promisingly discharged the duties confided in them by their brother Baronets.'

This exquisite foolery would not have been complete without a "vote of the cordial and unanimous thanks of this general meeting to Sir RICHARD %atm, the Honorary Secretary and Registrar of the Order, for the manner in which he has discharged his onerous official duties, and for the eminent services which he has rendered to the Baronetage." Thus, the Committee first assumed distinctions which the Crown only could bestow, and then condescended to make the Queen "officially cognizant of them," benignly adding the expression of their "wish" that she would "honour the proceedings with her favour and protection" : which is very like stealing a man's purse, then making him "cognizant" of the fact, and politely " wishing " him to approve of the robbery. But the modesty of "the Com- mittee" and of its honorary Secretary was not confined even to this proceeding. King JAMES the First, in his patents to the English Baronets, promised, on behalf of himself and his succes- sors to confer Knighthood upon the eldest son of every Baronet of succes- sors, who might apply for it after he became of age. But

though King JAMES made no such stipulation in favour of the sons of Baronets of Nova Scotia, or Scotland, yet Mr. Baouti, as the eldest son of a Scottish Baronet, asserted his claim to Knighthood under the grant alluded to ; which the Crown, of course, refused. Happily for his vanity, he was the subject of far higher powers than a King or Queen, namely, his redoubtable "Baronets Com- mittee for Privileges." Having laid his grievance before them, he forthwith became, in spite of the Crown and its Ministers, "Sir RICHARD BROUN"—as appears from the following statement, taken, we presume' from the "Records of the Order." "Sir Richard Broun, eldest son of the Baronet of Colstoan, and Honorary Secretary of the Committee of the Baronetage for Privileges, who—having applied for Knighthood in 1836, under the letters-patent of the 14th Jac, I., and the Lord Chamberlain, after a series of references, having declined to pre- sent him to the Sovereign for inauguration—asserted his right to the dignity in consequence of the following resolution, which was passed unanimously at the General Anniversary Meeting of the Order, on the 4th of June 1842, we.— " That the Prime Minister having approved of the course pursued by the Lord Chamberlain in the case of Mr. Brouu's application for Knighthood, which course the Committee for Privileges, after mature deliberation, have found and declared to be in direct contravention of the constitution of the Baronetage, a statute law of the realm of Scotland, the articles of Union, the obligations of the coronation-oath, and the unbroken precedents of two hun- dred and thirty years, this General Meeting do require of Mr. Broun, in whose person the natitial rights of the eldest sons of the whole Baronets in the United Kingdom have been violated, that he will, in virtue of his being a Knight de jure, as the eldest son of a member of the Order of ancient creation, vindicate this fundamental and inalienable privilege of the eldest sons of Ba- ronets, by henceforth using, taking, and enjoying the ancient chivalrous dig- nity of a Knight (Eques Auratus)' with the immunities and precedencies thereunto belonging; and that the Committee for Privileges do record the same in the journals of the Order, that the precedent may rule, in future, the cases of all such eldest sons of Baronets as may hereafter apply for Knight- hood under the letters patent of the 10th and 14th Jac. I., and experience a similar arbitrary and illegal course of procedure on the part of the responsible officers of the Crown."

That a proceeding on the part of many titled persons, in the name of the whole body, which is alike disrespectful to the Sove- reign, inconsistent with social and constitutional usages, and calculated to render honours ridiculous, should not have caused its authors to be visited with a public expression of the Royal dis- pleasure' is rather remarkable. A denouncement of these self-con- stituteddistributors of honours, in the London Gazette, accom- panied by a prohibition to all the parties concerned from appearing at Court, and suspending such among them as hold offices:or appointments, from all public employment, so long as they allow themselves to be made Mr. Mims's puppets, would probablire- store them to their senses. Mr. Baoun's manufactory of ho nours has

however, been employed in a more wholesale way. Besides classi- fying existing dignities in an original manner, it has produced an en- tirely new British Order of Knighthood. For he says—"The Orders ofKnighthood which exist in the British Monarchy are of three sorts : I. Knights Bannerets Royal ; II. Knights Bannerets of the second- ary creation ; III. Knights of the Bath ; IV. Knights ; V. Bachelors." —" Second, The Royal Orders of Knighthood : I. The Garter ;

II. The Thistle ; III. Saint Patrick ; IV. The Bath, instituted in 1725; and V. St. Michael and St. George." "THIRD, The Sixth or British Langue of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jeru- salem," "Revived in 1834 under powers derived from the Conti- nental Langues" ! ! ! Of which Sovereign Order, it appears from the modest account of the BEGUN family in p. 80, (where it is stated "that this very ancient and noble family claims descent from and bears the arms [which it certainly does not] of the ROYAL HOUSE Or FRANCE,") the Committee's Knight is "Knight Commander and Grand Secretary of the Langue of England."

In accordance with the "Grand Secretary" and "Honorary Secretary" and " Registrar's " peculiar ideas, every Baronet is called in this book " The Honourable" : they are all "Noble Baronets," their wives are "Noble Ladies," and all their families are "Noble" also.

As Baronetages are usually very imperfect compilations, we were desirous of ascertaining whether the Honorary Secretary's production was more free from errors than other books of the class. The following specimens show that his knowledge of the state of the families of the members is on a par with his informa- tion respecting their "rights" and "privileges."

P. 43. " The Honourable Sir Jacob Astley, Sixth Baronet, claims to be a coheir to the Baronies of Hastings of Gressinghall and Camois." —There is no such Barony as "Hastings of GressWghall ;" and Sir Jacob actually became Lord Hastings on the 15th May 1841, very nearly two years since.

P. 51. "The Honourable Sir Thomas Gage." "Heir presumptive

his uncle Robert Joseph Gage Rokewood."—The present Baronet's heir presumptive is, and has always been, his BROTHER Edward, now a Major in the Army. His uncle, Robert Joseph Rokewode, died in July 1838.

P. 54. "The Honourable and Reverend Sir Richard Thomas St.

Aubyn, succeeded his brother, Sir John, 1839."—There is no such person as the Reverend Sir Richard Thomas St. Aubyn, Baronet. The late Sir John St. Aubyn never bad a brother ; and the title became extinct on Sir John's death, in 1839.

To afford an idea of the style of the book, it is only necessary to quote the following dedication to the little Prince of Wales-

" To the Right Excellent High and Magnanimous Albert Edward, by the Grace of God, [3] Knight and Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Earl of Car- rick, Duke of Rotbsay, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Earl of Ches- ter, Duke of Saxony and Cornwall, and Eighteenth Prince of Wales, K.G. This work, which treats of the genealogies, privileges, and immunities of the Most Noble and Honourable the Baronets of the Realm is humbly inscribed "For the following reasons—

"Because his birth has, in the person of the most exalted subject in the British nation, revived the title, honour, and state in Scotland of Baron,—an heredi- tary dignity which has long been considered obsolete, although, in fact, it is only merged in the higher degrees of Baronet, Lord, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, and Duke.

"Because the Baron of Renfrew is, like the eldest sons of Baronets, V] a Knight by natitial heritage, [3] with right to be inaugurated on coming of age; which majority he is held and presumed by law to attain on the day of his baptism.

Because the motto of the Scottish branch of the Order, Fax Mentis Ho- nestae Gloria," was the favourite motto of Henry Prince of Wales, the eldest son of the Royal founder of the Baronetage; at whose funeral, on the 7th De- cember 1612, the banner of Carrick and the great standard of the Prince were each borne by Baronets [I] the canopy over the effigy being carried by six Ba- ronets, [31] and the bannerols about the body by ten Baronets. [I 3] "Because, when the Baron of Renfrew conies to the Kingly office of this great nation, the Baronets will justly expect of him, as the first gentleman of the realm, that he will uphold the position, rights, and privileges of an Order whose ancestors helped to lay the foundation of the Monarchy, and who have ever been foremost to evince their loyalty and devotion to that brilliant font of honour the British Throne."

As there are no known limits to human folly and vanity, it is not perhaps remarkable that one individual should be found to entertain and promulgate such views on behalf of the class to which he pretends to belong ; but that one hundred and ten gentlemen of rank, property, and education,—among whom are actually many officers of high standing in the Army and Navy, whose participation in these illegal proceedings deserves the visitation of the Admiralty and Horse Guards far more justly than a hasty expression or in- temperate toast,—that they should, under such guidance, form an association for the purpose of establishing those pretensions, and in pursuance of that object expose themselves to ridicule by out- raging common sense, and risk strong censure for insulting their Sovereign and acting in opposition to the constituted authorities, is certainly among the marvels of the age.