and too unjust, who shall not cherish and encourage it with Praise and Worship, as the ancient Policy of England did and doth, in constituting Corporations, and adorning the Companies with Banners and Armes, and especial Members thereof with Notes of Nobility. And as it is an Honour, so it is a Degree, or Order of good regular Subjects: Out of whose (as it were) Noviceships or Colleges, Citizens are supplied from time to time. We call them Colleges, according to the old Roman Law Phrase, or Fellowships of Men. For so indeed they are, comprehended within several Corporations, or Bodies of Free Persons, intended to be consociated together for Commerce, according to Conscience and Justice, and named Companies. So that Apprentices, according to the Esteem of our Commonwealth, when first they come to be Apprentices, first begin to be Somebody, who before were young Men without any Vocation in the World. And so by other Ascents or Steps, come to be Freemen of London, or Citizens: thence to be of their Companies Liveries, Governors of Companies, as Wardens and Masters; and Governors in the City, as Common Council Men, Aldermens Deputies, Sheriffs, and Aldermen; and lastly, the principal Governors, or Heads of the City, that is, Lord Maiors: And some also have been advanced from being Citizens to be Counsellors of Estate to the Prince.

So that the very being a Citizen is an Honour: and anciently they were called Barons. Mathew Paris observes, how the Citizens were honoured with that Title in his Time, which was about 1253, and the reason why: Quos propter Civitatis Dignitatem, & Civium antiquam Libertatem, BARONES consuevimus appellare: i.e. Whom we have accustomed to call BARONS, by reason of the City's Dignity, and the ancient Liberty of the Citizens. This Term is found in this City's ancient Charters. So in that of Henry I. whose Favours are granted to the Church, the Barons, and the Citizens: (Ecclesiæ, & Barones & Cives habeant & teneant, bene & in pace, Socas suas cum omnibus Consuetudinibus) including therein (as it seems) the three Ranks that make up the City, viz. the Churchmen, the Barons, that is, the Aldermen, and the rest of the Freemen of the City. But it must be known, that this Term is not peculiar to the Citizens of London, but was common to other Cities and eminent Places; as to York, and Chester, and Warwick; as Dr. Brady observes. The Word is French; for so the Citizens of Orleans and Bourges were termed BARONES.

It is further evident, that Apprenticeship doth not deprive of Gentry; for no Man loseth his Right to bear Armes, or to write Gentleman, unless he be attainted in Law for such a Cause; the Conviction whereof doth immediately procure Corruption in Blood. Which in this Case no Man yet hath dreamt of. The Apprentice hath no more lost his Title and Right to Gentry, than he hath done to any Goods, Chattels, Lands, Royalties, or any thing else, which if he had never been any Apprentice, either had, might or ought to have come unto him. The Rights of Blood are more inherent than the Rights of Fortune, according to the Law Rule, Jura Sanguinum nullo jure civili dirimi possunt: i.e. The Law of Bloods cannot be destroyed by any civil Right. That Gentry is a Right of Blood, may appear by this, that no Man can truly alienate the same, or vest another in it, tho' legally he may in case of Adoption, which is but a humane Invention, in Imitation of Nature; and in the Truth of the thing, no Alienation at all; but a Fiction, or an Acceptation in Law, as if it were such. Gentry is a Quality of Blood, as Virtue and Learning are of the Mind.

This is the Sum of what that learned Herald argued in Confutation of that Opinion, that Apprenticeship extinguisheth Gentry. And he sent this his Discourse to the Gentleman who desired his Judgment herein. Whence, no question, he received full Satisfaction. And the Herald took the more pains in confuting this false Conceit, that it was a thing unbeseeming a Gentleman to be an Apprentice to a Citizen or Burgess; because it had filled England with more Vices, and sacrificed more serviceable Bodies to odious Ends, and more Souls to sinful Lives, than perhaps any one other uncivil Opinion whatsoever. For they who held it better to rob by Land or Sea than to beg or labour, did daily see and feel, that out of Apprentices rose such as set upon them, standing out for Lives as Malefactors; when they, a Shame and Sorrow to their Kindred, underwent a Fortune too unworthy.

About ten or twelve Years after, this useful Discourse was made public, and printed under the Title of the City's Advocate, with the Approbation of Sir William Segar, Garter, at the End of the Book. Whose Words I shall insert, to signify the Judgment of the Heralds, who are the proper Judges in Matters of this Nature, and Garter the Principal of them: "I have viewed this Book, and perused the Contents of it, and find nothing dissonant to Reason, or contrary to Honour or Armes."
Will. Segar, Garter.

And something more largely in the beginning of the Book, the same Garter thus gives his Opinion of the Author and his Work, "That seeing he only lay upon the defensive and affirmative against Assailers and Deniers, with due Submission for the judicial part to the proper Court of Honour, the illustrious High Marhsals of England by Commission, he saw no Cause why his learned Work might not receive the Glory of the public Light, and that most renowned City the Benefit of Honours Increase, for the Encouragement of enriching Industry."

The Author dedicated his Book to the Senate and City, 11 Cal. Novemb. 1628. And in his Dedication he tells them, "That in this one Act of his, [he means the Argument of his Book] he did not only seem to be Patron and Defender of Birthrights, and of the Rights of Fortune, but the Champion also of civil Arts, and of flourishing Industry among them, the Sinew and Life itself of Commonweals. And that tho' the Schools and Camp were most proper for Honour and Armes, yet the ancient Wisdom of our Sages did ever leave the Gates of Honour open to City Arts, and to the Mysteries of honest Gain, as fundamental in Commonweals, and susceptive of external Splendor, according to the most laudable Example of rising Rome under her first Dictators and Consuls."

The Apprentices of London are so considerable a Body, that they have sometimes made themselves formidable by Insurrections and Mutinies in the City, getting some Thousands of them together, and pulling down Houses, breaking open the Gates of Newgate, and other Prisons, and setting the Prisoners free. And this upon Occasion sometimes of Foreigners, who have followed their Trades in the City, to the supposed Damage of native Freemen, or when some of their Brotherhood have been unjustly, as they have pretended, cast into Prison and punished. But they have been commonly assisted, and often egged on and headed by Apprentices of the Dreggs of the Vulgar, Fellows void of worthy Blood, and worthy Breeding; yea, perhaps not Apprentices at all, but forlorn Companions, ma-