date

[clx. 300] 1822 July 8 Constitut
[clx. 300]

1822 July 8

Constitut. Code Rationale

Note (a)

Securities

Factitous honor

? Evils produced by it

(a)In England the title of Prince has never been borne by any individual who has not been a member of the Royal Family: when under this title the member of another nation is presented to his notice, this idea of blood relation to Monarchy /Royalty/ the highest order in the state naturally presents itself: it is only by particular information that he learns by how great and various distances the rank of the bearer of this title is separated from that of royalty and sovereignty in other States: how in France for example the throng of Princes is /are/ confounded with that /those/ of Counts, Viscounts and Barons: how abundant they are in various parts of Italy: how in Russia while the title is borne by some of the most opulent as well as antient families it is borne by others whose place is in almost the lowest rank in this scale of opulence. The advantage of being thus confounded in mens conceptions with the Members of Sovereign families seems of late to have recommended it in Germany as well as France. Hence it is that in the course of the Revolution undergone by France Bonapartes Generals received some of them indeed the title of Dukes, but others the title of Princes; and Talleyrand though a member of one of the oldest and as such most honored families of the Noblesse of France saw an advantage in accepting in form the title of Prince. In Germany, this title has been borne by several of the little sovereigns [...?] feudatory Monarchs with which the constitution of that confederacy still continues even in its present altered state.
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  • Title: [[clx. 301] 1822 July 8 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 301]

    1822 July 8

    Constitut. Code Rationale

    Note

    Factitious honor

    ?. Evils

    In the Prussian Monarchy, made up of shreds and patches, torn at different times from their various possessors - in the Prussian Monarchy till t'other day there was nothing above a Count. Of late the Monarchy being enlarged and consolidated the treasury of honor has been enriched there by /with/ an order of Princes

    In Poland before the partition /delaceration[?]/ a fear of the most opulent families that is to say the greatest Landholders, though it is believed without any formal creation used to bear in other languages the title of Princes and continue to do so since

    In Russia, in which the manufacture of factitious honour has within this country been carried on with the greatest degree of elaboration, there are Barons and above them Counts but nothing higher: the Princes having been such not by creation, but some how or other, it is not generally known how it remains for the genius of the present or some future Aristocrat to import from England all along with its other products the titles of Duke and Marquis, to set above those of Count and Baron.

    In reality this question about rank is by no means so frivolous as it may appear to be: for by all these elevations it will be seen how the people are tormented and depressed.

    In the several countries in which a title originally conferred by the Monarch has been assumed by men on whom it has not either on their own persons or on the persons of their ancestors been conferred, an instance may be seen of a sort of superfoetation of depravity, a fraud made to grow out of a fraud: the Monarch by /by the conspiracy by which/ this false certificate of meritorious service has been produced the Monarch and those /the individuals/ thus honored by him have swindled the public at large out of a certain quantity of respect not really due, imposing thus upon the public at large: and the usurpers of it have on their parts imposed upon the public at large and the Monarch both, by pretending to have received from him what in truth he never gave.
  • Title: [[clx. 288] 1822 July 18 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 288]

    1822 July 18

    Constitut Code Rationale

    Factitious honor exclud

    ?.4. Evils produced by it

    On this occasion, the batch /brood/ of Kings babied /hatched/ by Bonaparte and received /reared/ by the Holy Alliance can not fail to present themselves. The rationale of the operation is sufficiently manifest. By the old brood nothing has been lost in the account of honor and dignity: profit to an unlimited amount has been made in the account of money. In dignity no loss the great old Monarchs are not confounded with the little new ones: the distance is sufficiently wide to preserve them from from misfortune in this shape: on the contrary a contrtast is visible: and by this contrast they are raised

    For the support of the Holy Alliance a /By the power and for the support of the dignity a/ tax, and that a perpetual one has been imposed on Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Belgium, Saxony, and Hanover a tax which though of the indirect kind is not the less burthensome.

    Such is the immediate effect. On the other hand /But/ in the train of it comes another: all these are added to the number of the nations to whom the appellative King will be an object of abhorrence.

    The Emperors of Germany and Russia continue /are now/ Emperors because they were so before. For the name of the empire Austria is substituted to Germany, because in Austria the Emperor was as he is a despot /despotic Sovereign/ whereas in Germany taken collectively he was but a titular one. The King of England would not be Emperor because the forms of a concurrence by Parliament would have been necessary and the delusion by which he is kept in his place of King might have been shaken by the discussion produced by the word Emperor. They would not make the King of France, nor did he wish to be made Emperor, because that would have been copying the example of the Usurper whose Emperorship was the result not wholly of force and intimidation but in some measure of corruption and delusion, and in addition to force had the consent of no inconsiderable portion of the people for the cause of it.
  • Title: [[clx. 250] 1822 July 4 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 250]

    1822 July 4

    Constitut. Code

    Securities for I. Moral Aptitude

    Factitious dignity excluded

    ?.2. Expository matter

    ?.2. Expository matter.

    ??.1 Its general nature and principal modifications

    /By/ Factitious honor is /understand/ honor which at the hands of the public at large is /tokens of respect are/ procured or endeavoured to be procured in favor of a particular individual at the hands of the public at large, by means of some token or tokens, giving an intimation to them to that effect by the functionary by whom the honor is said to be conferred. On this occasion a word in some sort synonymous to /for the most part interconvertible with/ honor is dignity. (a)

    For the giving /conveying/ of this intimation signs of various sorts are in use. One sort of sign is of the purely visible sort: of this sort are ensigns of honor: another sort being verbal are as such at once audible as well as visible. Of this sort are the signs called titles of honor

    Titles may be and are unaccompanied with ensigns: ensigns scarcely can exist without correspondent titles.

    Howsoever designated they may stand singly, or in a climax of any length /be seen standing in some cases singly, in others in a climax of various lengths/ - a climax of /as occupy/ any number of degrees rising one above another in a scale.

    A factitous honor is seen sometimes in conjunction with a lot of power being conferred at the same time /received constantly/ with it, as in the case of a Member of the English House of Lords: sometimes without power as in the case of a Spanish Grandee: sometimes without power but with privilege, as in the case of the titled Noblesse of France: sometimes without power or privilege and /as/ in most Christian Nations in the case of the Orders of Knighthood that are designated by ensigns worn about the person: and in the simple Knighthood of England distinguished by an appellative but without any ensign worn about the person: when conferred with power in some cases elevation in the climax of honor carries with it elevation in the climax of power - as in the case of Bishopricks and Archbishopricks in the English House of Lords: in some cases the honors rise in a climax the power remaining unvaried, as in the case of the Lay Lords in the English House of Lords: the power being annext in an entire to the lowest degree in the climax of honor termed a Barony, while above that rise other degrees in a climax, namely a Viscountcy, an Earldom, a Marquesate and a Dukedom.

    Note (a)

    But /The idea conveyed/ by the word honor is however that of a fictitious entity extraneous to the individual in question; the idea conveyed by the word dignity, a fictitious entity, a quality, the seat of which is within him.