great scholar. The best edition is a folio of about 1,000 pages. Selden vindicates the right of a king of England to the title of emperor.

“And never yet was title did not move;
And never eke a mind, that TITLE did not love."

TITLES OF SOVEREIGNS.

As an addenda to the preceding article, the following one, from the same pen, will be found of interest:

In countries where despotism exists in all its force, and is gratified in all its caprices, either the intoxication of power has occasioned sovereigns to assume the most solemn and the most fantastic titles, or the royal duties and functions were considered of so high and extensive a nature that the people expressed their notion of the pure monarchical state by the most energetic descriptions of oriental fancy.

The chiefs of the Natchez are regarded by their people as the children of the sun, and they bear the name of their father.

The titles which some chiefs assume are not always honourable in themselves; it is sufficient if the people respect them. The King of Quiterva calls himself the great lion ; and for this reason lions are there so much respected that they are not allowed to kill them but at certain royal huntings.

The King of Monomotapa is surrounded by musicians and poets, who adulate him by such refined flatteries as lord of the sun and moon ; great magician; and great thief!

The Asiatics have bestowed what to us appear as ridiculous titles of honour on their princes. The King of Arracan assumes the following ones "Emperor of Arracan, possessor of the white elephant, and the two ear-rings, and in virtue of this possession legitimate heir of Pegu and Brama; lord of the twelve provinces of Bengal, and the twelve kings who place their heads under his feet."

His Majesty of Ava is called God: when he writes to a foreign Sovereign he calls himself the King of Kings, whom all others should obey, as he is the cause of the preservation of all animals, the regulator of the seasons, the absolute master of the ebb and flow of the sea, brother to the sun, and king of the four-and-twenty umbrellas! These umbrellas are always carried before him as a mark of his dignity.

The titles of the kings of Achem are singular, though voluminous. The most striking ones are sovereign of the universe, whose body is luminous as the sun ; whom God created to be as accomplished as the moon at her plenitude; whose eye glitters like the northern star; a king as spiritual as a ball is

round; who, when he rises, shades all his people; from under whose feet a sweet odour is wafted, &c., &c.

Dr. Davy, in his recent history of Ceylon, has added to this collection the authentic titles of the Kandyan sovereign. He too is called Dewo (God). In a deed of gift he proclaims his extraordinary attributes. “The protector of religion, whose fame is infinite, and of surpassing excellence, exceeding the moon, the unexpanded jessamine buds, the stars, &c.; whose feet are as fragrant to the noses of other kings as flowers to bees; our most noble patron and god by custom,” &c.

After a long enumeration of the countries possessed by the King of Persia, they give him some poetical distinctions : the branch of honour; the mirror of virtue; and the rose of delight.

TITLES AND DIGNITIES. Opinions upon all things are continually changing, but on nothing do they vary so greatly as upon titles and dignities. Who has not seen a Consul appointed to reside in a fishing town? Who has not given a shilling to a marquis, a sixpence to a knight! A Roman senator was beneath the level of an English gentleman; yet not only a Roman senator, but a Roman citizen, held himself superior to foreign kings!

Surely it might well be permitted our Richard to assume a rank far above any potentate of his age. If almanacs and German court calendars are to decide on the right of dignities to their titles, the Emperors of Morocco, of Austria, and of Mexico, should precede the kings of England and France ; but learned men have thought otherwise. Rank, which pretends to fix the value of every one, is the most arbitrary of all things.

THE KING OR QUEEN.

The title of king or queen, given to the sovereign of these realms, is expressive of his or her being the head of the State. The Hebrew word Rosch is considered as the root of all the present titles, denoting kingly or sovereign power-namely, the Punic Resch, the Scythian Reix, the Latin Rex, the Spanish Rey, and the French Roi. The present English appellative, king or queen, is, however, derived from the Saxon word koning, or cuning, from can, intimating power, or ken, knowledge. And it is past dispute, that all the German nations styled their ancient monarchs according to their different dialects, Konig, Kuning, Koning, King.

PRINCE OF WALES.

The eldest son of the King or Queen of Great Britain has an hereditary right to the title of Prince of

Wales. This title was first given by Edward I. to his son Edward, afterwards Edward II., to reconcile the Welsh to his conquest of that country. The Prince was born at Caernarvon, from which circumstance he also took the name of Edward of. Caernarvon.

DUKE.

The title and degree of a duke is of more ancient standing in other countries than in Great Britain, for at the time of the Conquest the king himself was Duke of Normandy; which, perhaps, was the reason that neither he nor his successors for several ages thought fit to raise a subject to so high a dignity. About a year before, Edward III. assumed the title of King of France, in order to inflame the military ardour; and to gratify the ambition of his earls and barons he introduced a new order of nobility by creating his eldest son Edward, Duke of Cornwall.

This was done with great solemnity in full Parliament, at Westminster, upon the 17th of March, 1337, by girding a sword upon the young Prince, and giving him a patent, containing a grant of the name, title, and dignity of a duke, and of several large estates, in order to enable him to support his dignity. The title is derived from the French Duc.