advantage. Some one asked her whether this was not her practice. "Of course," answered Mrs. Trollope, "I draw from life—but I always pulp my acquaintance before serving them up. You would never recognize a pig in a sausage."
There was also at Pau a "Count" Russell, who had conferred the title on himself, and who wrote a pamphlet to explain to the French that an English Esquire was equivalent to a French Noble. He did not possess, I believe, an acre of land in England or Ireland; it is questionable whether he had any legal right to subscribe himself armiger, or armigero as did Robert Shallow, Esq. But, inasmuch as the King of Prussia crowns himself, why may not any Jack ennoble himself? He was a pompous little man who wore a plum-coloured coat and nankin waistcoat, and had his self-granted coronet on his visiting cards. The English at Pau fought rather shy of him, on account of his affectation, but he imposed on the French. His son inherited the title, and became famous as a climber in the Pyrenees. The Père Russell had managed to ingratiate himself with the best French families, who had heard that a Russell was Duke of Bedford, and supposed that the "Count" belonged to the same family.
The whole matter of noblesse had for many centuries before the Revolution been a matter of dispute. A distinction was drawn between a noble and a noble homme. The avocats claimed to be nobles, so also did the medical men, by virtue of their offices and functions. In the Cour des Aides in 1657, a statement was made that in the South of France the gentlemen had taken to call themselves Ecuyers, Squires, because the title of noble had become so common that it had lost all significance. On January 4, 1699, the Royal Council, after having appointed Commissioners to examine into the case of the assumption of nobility by the lawyers and medical men, passed a decree that such men had a right to be regarded as noble, but that the title was merely personal, and did not descend to their children, unless they were nobles by hereditary right.
Of late, since the Great Revolution, any man can assume whatever title he likes, Count or Marquess; few are content to call themselves Barons. A wine merchant, M. Pons of Bordeaux, buys a ruinous château, patches it up and figures as M. le Comte de Montdragon; or a well-to-do grocer
