_Precedence._--Will any of your correspondents assign the order of
precedence of officers in army or navy (having no decoration, knighthood,
or companionship of any order of knighthood), not as respects each other,
but as respects civilians? I apprehend that every commission is addressed
to the bearer, embodying a civil title, as _e.g._, "John Smith, Esquire,"
or as we see ensigns gazetted, "A. B., Gent." My impression therefore is,
that in a mixed company of civilians, &c., no officer is entitled to take
rank higher than the _civil_ title incorporated in his commission would
imply, apart from his grade in the service to which he belongs. On this
point I should be obliged by any notices which your correspondents may
supply; as also by a classification in order of precedence of the ranks
which I here set down alphabetically: barristers, doctors (in divinity,
law, medicine), esquires, queen's counsel, serjeants-at-law.
It may be objected that esquire, ecuyer, armiger, is originally a military
title, but by usage it has been appropriated to civilians.