Dignities and titles, like other things, are of course estimated by their rarity. "If all men were noble, where would be the noblesse of nobility?" In no country has so much prudence been displayed in regard to the multiplication of titles as in England. On the continent, as every one is aware, there is such a profusion of titled persons that, excepting those of the highest orders, they are very little respected on the score of honour. Titles are so cheap that persons of very indifferent reputation not unfrequently obtain them; and hence the Spanish proverb: "Formerly rogues were hung on crosses, but now crosses are hung upon rogues!" A German potentate once requested to be informed what station an English esquire occupied in the ladder of precedence, and was answered, that he stood somewhat higher than a French count, and somewhat lower than a German prince! There was certainly more truth than courtesy in the reply. Much has been written on the orders of precedence. I am neither disposed nor qualified to handle so delicate a subject; but the following table, showing how the various grades were formerly recognized by their _hawks_, is so curious that I do not hesitate to introduce it: "An _eagle_, a _bawter_ (vulture), a _melown_; these belong unto an _emperor_. A _gerfalcon_, a _tercell_ of gerfalcon are due to a _king_. There is a _falcon_ gentle and a _tercell_ gentle; and these be for a _prince_. There is a _falcon_ of the _rock_; and that is for a _duke_. There is a _falcon_ peregrine; and that is for an _earl_. Also there is a _bastard_; and that hawk is for a _baron_. There is a _sacre_ and a _sacret_; and these ben for a _knight_. There is a _lanare_ and a _laurell_; and these belong to a _squire_. There is a _merlyon_; and that hawk is for a _lady_. There is an _hoby_; and that is for a _young man_. There is a _goshawk_; and that hawk is for a _yeoman_. There is a _tercell_; and that is for a _poor man_. There is a _spave-hawk_; she is an hawk for a _priest_. There is a _muskyte_; and he is for an _holy-water clerk_." To this list the 'Jewel for Gentre' adds, "A _kesterel_ for a _knave_ or _servant_."[241] Occupying a kind of intermediate rank between the peerage and the commons stands the order of Baronets. These, though really commoners, participate with peers the honour of transmitting their title to their male descendants. James I, the founder of this order, pledged himself to limit its number to two hundred, but successive sovereigns, possessing the same right to enlarge as he had to establish it, have more than quadrupled the holders of this dignity.