The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
• Book V.: Of Legislative and Executive Power
• Chap. I.: Introduction
• Chap. II.: Of Education, the Education of a Prince.
• Chap. III.: Private Life of a Prince.
• Chap. IV.: Of a Virtuous Despotism.
• Chap. V.: Of Courts and Ministers.
• Chap. VI.: Of Subjects.
• Chap. VII.: Of Elective Monarchy.
• Chap. VIII.: Of Limited Monarchy.
• Chap. IX.: Of a President With Regal Powers.
• Chap. X.: Of Hereditary Distinction.
• Chap. XI.: Moral Effects of Aristocracy.
• Chap. XII.: Of Titles.
• Chap. XIII.: Of the Aristocratical Character.
• Chap. XIV.: General Features of Democracy.
• Chap. XV.: Of Political Imposture.
• Chap. XVI.: Of the Causes of War.
• Chap. XVII.: Of the Object of War.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the Conduct of War.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Military Establishments and Treaties.
• Chap. XX.: Of Democracy As Connected With the Transactions of War.
• Chap. XXI.: Of the Composition of Government
• Chap. XXII.: Of the Future History of Political Societies
• Chap. XXIII.: Of National Assemblies
• Chap. XXIV.: Of the Dissolution of Government
• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
• Book VI.: Of Opinion Considered As a Subject of Political Institution.
• Chap. I: General Effects of the Political Superintendence of Opinion.
• Chap. II.: Of Religious Establishments
• Chap. III.: Of the Suppression of Erroneous Opinion In Religion and Government.
• Chap. IV.: Of Tests.
• Chap. V.: Of Oaths.
• Chap. VI.: Of Libels.
• Chap. VII.: Of Constitutions.
• Chap. VIII.: Of National Education.
• Chap. IX.: Of Pensions and Salaries.
• Chap. X.: Of the Modes of Deciding a Question On the Part of the Community.
• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
• Book VII.: Of Legislative and Executive Power
• Chap. I.: Limitations of the Doctrine of Punishment Which Result From the Principles of Morality.
• Chap. II.: General Disadvantages of Coercion.
• Chap. III.: Of the Purposes of Coercion.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Application of Coercion.
• Chap. V.: Of Coercion Considered As a Temporary Expedient.
• Chap. VI.: Scale of Coercion.
• Chap. VII.: Of Evidence.
• Chap. VIII.: Of Law.
• Chap. IX.: Of Pardons.
• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
• Book VIII.: Of Property.
• Chap. I.: Genuine System of Property Delineated.
• Chap. II.: Benefits Arising From the Genuine System of Property.
• Chap. III.: Of the Objection to This System From the Admirable Effects of Luxury.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Objection to This System From the Allurements of Sloth.
• Chap. V.: Of the Objection to This System From the Impossibility of Its Being Rendered Permanent.
• Chap. VI.: Of the Objection to This System From the Inflexibility of Its Restrictions.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Objection to This System From the Principle of Population.
• Chap. VIII.: Of the Means of Introducing the Genuine System of Property.
• Errata.
• Vol. I.
• Vol. II.
• Direction to the Binder.

CHAP. XII.

of titles.

book v. chap. xii. Their origin and history.The case of mere titles is so absurd that it would deserve to be treated only with ridicule, were it not for the serious mischiefs it imposes on mankind. The feudal system was a ferocious monster devouring wherever it came all that the friend of humanity regards with attachment and love. The system of titles appears under a different form. The monster is at length destroyed, and they who followed in his train, and fattened upon the carcasses of those he slew, have stuffed his skin, and by exhibiting it hope still to terrify mankind into patience and pusillanimity. The system of the Northern invaders, however odious, escaped the ridicule of the system of titles. When the feudal chieftains assumed a geographical appellation, it was from some place really subject to their authority; and there was no more absurdity in the style they assumed, than in our calling a man at present the governor of Tangiers or the governor of Gibraltar. The commander in chief or the sovereign did not then give an empty name; he conferred an earldom or a barony, a substantial tract of land, with houses and men, and producing a real revenue. He now grants nothing but the privilege of calling yourself Tom who were beforetime called Will; and, to add to the absurdity, your new appellation is borrowed from some place perhaps you never saw, or some country you never visited. The style however is the same; we are still earls and barons, governors of provinces and commanders of forts, and that with the same evident propriety as the elector of Hanover and arch treasurer of the empire styles himself king of France.

Their miserable absurdity Can there be any thing more ludicrous, than that the man, who was yesterday Mr. St. John, the most eloquent speaker of the British house of commons, the most penetrating thinker, the umpire of maddening parties, the restorer of peace to bleeding and exhausted Europe, should be to-day lord Bolingbroke? In what is he become greater and more venerable than he was? In the pretended favour of a stupid and besotted woman, who always hated him, as she uniformly hated talents and virtue, though for her own interest she was obliged to endure him.

The friends of a man upon whom a title has recently been conferred, must either be wholly blinded by the partiality of friendship not to feel the ridicule of his situation, or completely debased by the parasitical spirit of dependence not to betray their feelings. Every time they essay to speak, they are in danger of book v. chap. xii. blundering upon the inglorious appellations of Mr. and Sir* . Every time their tongue faulters with unconfirmed practice, the question rushes upon them with irresistible force, “What change has my old friend undergone; in what is he wiser or better, happier or more honourable?” The first week of a new title is a perpetual war of the feelings in every spectator, the genuine dictates of common sense against the arbitrary institutions of society. To make the farce more perfect these titles are subject to perpetual fluctuations, and the man who is to-day earl of Kensington, will to-morrow resign with unblushing effrontery all appearance of character and honour to be called marquis of Kew. History labours under the Gothic and unintelligible burden; no mortal patience can connect the different stories of him who is to-day lord Kimbolton, and to-morrow earl of Manchester; to-day earl of Mulgrave, and to-morrow marquis of Normanby and duke of Buckinghamshire.

Truth the only adequate reward of merit. The absurdity of these titles strikes us the more, because they are usually the reward of intrigue and corruption. But, were it otherwise, still they would be unworthy of the adherents of reason and justice. When we speak of Mr. St. John, as of the man, who by his eloquence swayed contending parties, who withdrew the conquering sword from suffering France, and gave forty years of peace and calm pursuit of the arts of lifebook v. chap. xii. and wisdom to mankind, we speak of something eminently great. Can any title express these merits? Is not truth the consecrated and single vehicle of justice? Is not the plain and simple truth worth all the cunning substitutions in the world? Could an oaken garland or a gilded coronet have added one atom to his real greatness? Garlands and coronets may be bestowed on the unworthy and prostituted to the intriguing. Till mankind be satisfied with the naked statement of what they really perceive, till they confess virtue to be then most illustrious when she most disdains the aid of ornament, they will never arrive at that manly justice of sentiment, at which they are destined one day to arrive. By this scheme of naked truth, virtue will be every day a gainer; every succeeding observer will more fully do her justice, while vice, deprived of that varnish with which she delighted to gloss her actions, of that gaudy exhibition which may be made alike by every pretender, will speedily sink into unheeded contempt.

[*]In reality these appellations are little less absurd than those by which they are superseded.