royal charters. But the style was afterwards restricted to their
mayors, jurats, and (prior to 1831) members of the House of Commons elected
by the Cinque Ports, two for each port. Their right to the title is
recognized in many old statutes, but in 1606 the use of the term in a
message from the Lower House drew forth a protest from the peers, that
"they would never acknowledge any man that sitteth in the Lower House to
the right or title of a baron of parliament" (_Lords' Journals_). It was
the ancient privilege of these "barons" to bear a canopy over the sovereign
at his or her coronation and retain it as their perquisite. They petitioned
as "barons of the Cinque Ports" to attend the coronation of Edward VII.,
and a deputation was allowed to do so.

_Baron and Feme_, in English law, is a phrase used for husband and wife, in
relation to each other, who are accounted as one person. Hence, by the old
law of evidence, the one party was excluded from giving evidence for or
against the other in civil questions, and a relic of this is still
preserved in the criminal law.

_Baron and Feme_, in heraldry, is the term used when the coats-of-arms of a
man and his wife are borne per pale in the same escutcheon, the man's being
always on the dexter side, and the woman's on the sinister. But in this
case the woman is supposed not to be an heiress, for then her coat must be
borne by the husband on an escutcheon of pretence. (See HERALDRY.)

The foreign title of baron is occasionally borne by English subjects, but
confers no precedence in the United Kingdom. It may be Russian, _e.g._
Baron Dimsdale (1762); German, _e.g._ Baron Stockmar, Baron Halkett
(Hanoverian); Austrian, _e.g._ Baron Rothschild (1822), Baron de Worms;
Italian, _e.g._ Baron Heath; French, _e.g._ Baron de Teissier;
French-Canadian, _e.g._ Baron de Longueil (1700); Dutch, _e.g._ Baron
Mackay (Lord Reay).

(J. H. R.)

_The Foreign Title._--On the continent of Europe the title baron, though
the same in its origin, has come, owing to a variety of causes, to imply a
rank and status very different from its connotation in the United Kingdom,
and again varies considerably in different countries. Originally _baro_
meant no more than "man," and is so used in the Salic and other "barbarian"
laws; _e.g._ _Si quis mortaudit barum vel feminam_, &c. (_Lex Aleman._ tit.
76). In this way, too, it was long preserved in the sense of "husband," as
in the Assize of Jerusalem (MSS. ca