bear any office of trust under the crown. To these the writer in the 3rd edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1797) added Irish peers and the eldest sons of British peers, who, though they bear courtesy titles, have in law only the right to be styled esquires. Officers of the king’s courts, and of the royal household, counsellors at law and justices of the peace he described as esquires only “by reputation”; and justices of the peace have the title only as long as they are in commission; while certain heads of great landed families are styled “esquires” by prescription. “But the meaner ranks of people,” he adds indignantly, “who know no better, do often basely prostitute this title; and, to the great confusion of all rank and precedence, every man who makes a decent appearance, far from thinking himself in any way ridiculed by finding the superscription of his letters thus decorated, is fully gratified by such an address.”
It is clear, however, that the title of esquire was very loosely used at a much earlier date. On this point Selden is somewhat scornfully explicit. “To whomsoever, either by blood, place in the State or other eminency, we conceive some higher attribute should be given, than that sole Title of Gentleman, knowing yet that he hath no other honorary title legally fixed upon him, we usually style him an Esquire, in such passages as require legally that his degree or state be mentioned; as especially in Indictments and Actions whereupon he may be outlawed. Those of other nations who are Barons or great Lords in their own Countries, and no knights, are in legal proceedings stiled with us, Esquires only. Some of our greatest Heralds have their divisions of Esquires applied to this day. I leave them as I see them, where they may easily be found.” Coke, too, says that every one is entitled to be termed esquire who has the legal right to call himself a gentleman (2. Institutes, 688).
At the present time the following classes are recognized as esquires on occasions of ceremony or for legal purposes:—(1) All sons of peers and lords of parliament during their fathers’ lives, and the younger sons of such peers, &c., after their fathers’ deaths; the eldest sons of peers’ younger sons, and their eldest sons for ever. (2) Noblemen of all other nations. (3) The eldest sons of baronets and knights. (4) Persons bearing arms and the title of esquire by letters patent. (5) Esquires of the Bath and their eldest sons. (6) Barristers-at-law. (7) Justices of the peace and mayors while in commission or office. (8) The holders of any superior office under the crown. (9) Persons styled esquires by the sovereign in their patents, commissions or appointments.[1] (10) Attorneys in colonies where the functions of counsel and attorney are united (in England solicitors are “gentlemen,” not “esquires”).
In practice, however, the title of esquire, now to all intents and purposes meaningless, is given to any one who “can bear the port, charge and countenance of a gentleman.” The word has followed the same course as that of “gentleman” (q.v.), and for very similar reasons. It is still not customary in Great Britain to address e.g. a well-to-do person engaged in trade as esquire at his shop; it would be offensive not to do so at his private residence. In America, on the other hand, the use of the word “esquire” is practically obsolete, “Mr” (“Mister” or “Master,” at one time the title special to a “gentleman”) being the general form of address.
See Selden, Titles of Honor (1672); Camden, Britannia (ed. London, 1594); Coke, Institutes; Enc. of the Laws of England, s. “Esquire”; Du Cange, Glossarium (ed. 1886), s. “Scutarius,” “Scutifer” and “Armiger”; New English Dictionary, s. “Esquire.” (W. A. P.)
ESQUIROL, JEAN ÉTIENNE DOMINIQUE (1772–1840),
French alienist, was born at Toulouse on the 3rd of February
1772. In 1794 he became a pupil of the military hospital of
Narbonne, and subsequently studied in Paris at the Salpêtrière
under P. Pinel, whose assistant he became. In 1811 he was
chosen physician to the Salpêtrière, and in 1817 he began a
course of lectures on the treatment of the insane, in which he
made such revelations of the abuses existing in the lunatic
asylums of France that the government appointed a commission
to inquire into the subject. Esquirol in this and other ways
greatly assisted Pinel’s efforts for the introduction of humaner
methods. The asylums of Rouen, Nantes and Montpellier were
built in accordance with his plans. In 1823 he became inspector-general
of the university of Paris for the faculties of medicine,
and in 1826 chief physician of the asylum at Charenton. He
died at Paris on the 13th of December 1840. Besides contributing
to the Dictionnaire des sciences médicales and the Encyclopédie
des gens du monde, Esquirol wrote Des maladies mentales, considérées
sous les rapports médical, hygiénique, et médico-légal (2
vols., Paris, 1838).
ESQUIROS, HENRI FRANÇOIS ALPHONSE (1812–1876),
French writer, was born in Paris on the 23rd of May 1812. After
some minor publications he produced L’Évangile du peuple
(1840), an exposition of the life and character of Jesus as a
social reformer. This work was considered an offence against
religion and decency, and Esquiros was fined and imprisoned.
He was elected in 1850 as a social democrat to the Legislative
Assembly, but was exiled in 1851 for his opposition to the
Empire. Returning to France in 1869 he was again a member
of the Legislative Assembly, and in 1876 was elected to the senate.
He died at Versailles on the 12th of May 1876. He turned to
account his residence in England in L’Angleterre et la vie anglaise
(5 vols., 1859–1869). Among his numerous works on social
subjects may be noted:—Histoire des Montagnards (2 vols.,
1847); Paris, ou les sciences, les institutions et les mœurs au
XIXe siècle (2 vols., 1847); and Histoire des martyrs de la
liberté (1851).
ESS, JOHANN HEINRICH VAN (1772–1847), German Catholic
theologian, was born at Warburg, Westphalia, on the 15th of
February 1772. He was educated at the Dominican gymnasium
of his native town, and in 1790 entered, as a novice, the Benedictine
abbey of Marienmünster, in the bishopric of Paderborn.
His Benedictine name was Leander. He was priest at Schwalenberg
from 1799 to 1812, after which he became extraordinary
professor of theology and joint-director of the teachers’ seminary
at Marburg. In 1818 he received the doctorate of theology and
of canonical law. In 1807, in conjunction with his cousin Karl
van Ess, he had published a German translation of the New
Testament, and, as its circulation was discountenanced by his
superiors, he published in 1808 a defence of his views, entitled
Auszüge aus den heiligen Vätern und anderen Lehrern der katholischen
Kirche über das nothwendige und nützliche Bibellesen.
An improved edition of this tractate was published in 1816, under
the title Gedanken über Bibel und Bibellehre, and in the same year
appeared Was war die Bibel den ersten Christen? In 1822 he
published the first part of a German translation of the Old
Testament, which was completed in 1836. In 1822 he resigned
his offices at Marburg in order to devote his whole time to the
defence of his views regarding Bible reading by the people, and
to endeavour to promote the circulation of the scriptures. He
was associated first with the Catholic Bible Society of Regensburg,
and then with the British and Foreign Bible Society. He died
at Affolderbach in the Odenwald on the 13th of October 1847.
ESSAY, ESSAYIST (Fr. essai, Late Lat. exagium, a weighing
or balance; exigere, to examine; the term in general meaning
any trial or effort). As a form of literature, the essay is a composition
of moderate length, usually in prose, which deals in an
easy, cursory way with the external conditions of a subject, and,
in strictness, with that subject, only as it affects the writer.
Dr Johnson, himself an eminent essayist, defines an essay as
“an irregular, undigested piece”; the irregularity may perhaps
be admitted, but want of thought, that is to say lack of proper
mental digestion, is certainly not characteristic of a fine example.
It should, on the contrary, always be the brief and light result
of experience and profound meditation, while “undigested”
is the last epithet to be applied to the essays of Montaigne,
Addison or Lamb. Bacon said that the Epistles of Seneca were
“essays,” but this can hardly be allowed. Bacon himself goes
on to admit that “the word is late, though the thing is ancient.”
The word, in fact, was invented for this species of writing by
Montaigne, who merely meant that these were experiments in
- ↑ In practice this means every one receiving such a patent, commission or appointment.
