as applied to the titles of noblemen, signifies honour and authority. Dignity may be divided into superior and inferior; as the titles of duke, marquis, earl, baron, &c., which are the highest of dignities, and those of baronet, knight, serjeant-at-law, &c., which are the lowest. Nobility only can give so high a name of dignity as to supply the want of a surname in legal proceedings; and as the omission of a name of dignity may be pleaded in abatement of a writ, so it may also be where a peer who has more than one name of dignity is not named by the most noble. No temporal dignity of any foreign nation can give a man a higher title in this country than that of esquire.

the human character, the opposite of meanness.