XXVlii TITLES, ORDERS, AND DEGREES OF PRECEDENCE AND DIGNITY Of course this source of provision had a limit, and at a subsequent period the monarch was accustomed to assign pensions, not only to earls, but to other persons whom he ennobled, in the following proportions : Viscounts, a fee of 20 marks ; Earls, of 20 ; Marquesses, a fee of 40 marks, and Dulces of 40, out of iome particular part of the royal revenue. A creation fee to barons was not settled; but Charles I., when he created Mountjoy Blount Lord Mountjoy, of Thurodston, Derbyshire, assigned to him and his issue male a creation fee of 20 marks per annum. The earl's coronation robe is the same as a duke's or marquess's, except that he has only three guards of ermine and gold lace ; his cap is the same as theirs. It is uncertain when the coronets of dukes, marquesses, and earls were settled. Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranbourne, was the first of that degree who wore a coronet. An earl's coronet is a circle of gold bordered with ermine, heightened with eight pyramidical points, or rays, placed alternately with as many strawberry leaves ; a large pearl is placed on the top of each ray. His style is Right Honourable, and he is addressed by the king or queen as Our right trusty and entirely beloved cousin, and counsellor when of the Privy Council. VISCOUNT (Viscomes) was anciently the name of him who held the chief office under an earl. The latter being often at Court, the viscount waa his deputy to look after the affairs of the country. In the reign of Henry VI., 1439, the title became a degree of honour, and was made hereditary. The first viscount in England, created by patent, was John, Lord Beaumont, who waa by the above monarch created Viscount Beaumont, and he gave him precedence above all barons. His corona- tion robes are the same as an earl's, with the excep- tion that he has only two rows of plain white fur on viscoirirr. his parliamentary robe ; his cap is the same, and the golden circle of his coronet is surmounted by fourteen pearls. His style is Rigid Honourable, and he is addressed by the King or Queen as Our right trusty and well-beloved cousin. BISHOP. In our article upon Archbishops we have indicated much of the matter bearing upon ecclesiastical dignities generally, but it should be added that the archbishops and bishops of England are, with a few exceptions, also barons of the kingdom and of Parliament.* To these, says Camden," by right and custom it appertained to be, with the rest of the peers, personally present at all Parliament whatsoever, there to consult, to handle, to ordain, decree, and determine in regard of the baronies which they held of the king." The bishops take precedence of the temporal barons, and it would seem that at one time their degree of precedence went even higher, for " at the coronation of Charles II. it was expressly ordered,
- On the creation of the bishopric of Manchester, it being undesirable to increase the
number of spiritual peers in Parliament, it was ordained that the new bishop should have no seat until the occurrence of a vacancy, and that thenceforth each newly-appointed bishop should remain out of Parliament until death should remove one of the sitting pre-
