"HE WOULD BE A GENTLEMAN."

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4513, 7 September 1875, Page 3

"HE WOULD BE A GENTLEMAN."

Mr. Gladstone, or whoever is the author of the remarkable article on the Court of Queen Victoria in the last number of the. Contemporary, refers to the patent, fact" that in England wealth is now "diffused through a circle so much extended, and so fast extending, that to be wealthy does not of itself satisfy," adding that " the keenness of the unsatisfied desire, aspiring selfishly not to superiority, but rather to the marks of superiority, seeks them above all in the shape of what is termed social distinction." A ludicrous instance, says Iron, of this foolish ambition occurred the other day at Brentford, : where a clerk named Roote, convicted of swearing in the streets—the penalty for which, under an Act of George 11., is Is. per oath for a day laborer, common soldier, or common sailor ; 2s. for every other person under the degree of a gentleman ; and ss. for all of or above that degree—claimed to be a gentleman, and insisted on paying the highest penalty. By consenting to this self-appraisement the magistrates acted illegally, for Roote's position is that of a menial servant. It is not generally known that the rank and precedence of every Englishman who possesses either are strictly defined by law. A reference to any table of precedence among men and women, or to a list of persons present at a levee, will show the order of this arrangement, from the Princes of the Blood Royal down to the officers of the army and navy, who occupy the lowest step of legal rank, coming after doctors, masters of arts, barristers, and other small deer. The officers and all above them in rank are, of course, gentlemen. But, as an ancient legal authority has observed, "We make gentlemen good cheap in England," and by courtesy of law, several other sorts of men, such as attorneys, surgeons, authors, and other professional people, whose employment is not servile, together with persons living on their means and "bearing the port, charge and countenance" of gentlemen, may write " gent." after their names, without invalidating any le<"al document in which it may appear. Still the line.must be drawn somewhere, and it is drawn at tradesmen. Clerics rank with artisans, even Civil Service Clerks, it has been decided in the superior courts, are not entitled to the affix. At all events, Mr. ; Roote, or Shoots, as he is called by another reporter, may be assured that profane swearing, even with a maximum fine, is neither the mark nor the qualification of a gentleman, and that an occasion of shame can never become the source of honor. ,