With respect to the translation of foreign titles, the historian Freeman made a curious statement which is quoted in one of the American Q.P. indexes. Freeman wrote:
"No man was ever so clear [as Macaulay] from the vice of thrusting in foreign words into an English sentence. One sees this in such small matters as the accurate way in which he uses foreign titles. He speaks, for instance, of the 'Duke of Maine,' the 'Count of Avaux,' while in other writers one sees the vulgarism of the Court Circular, 'Duke de Maine,' 'Duc de Maine,'—perhaps 'Duc of Maine.'"
Duke de Maine and Duc of Maine may be vulgar, they are certainly incorrect; but I fail to see how it can be vulgar to call a man by his right name—"Duc de Maine." I do not venture to censure Macaulay, but for lesser men it is certainly a great mistake to translate the names of foreigners, in spite of Freeman's expression of his strong opinion.
6. Proper names with the prefix St., as St. Albans, St. John, to be arranged in the alphabet as if written in full—Saint. When the word Saint represents a ceremonial title, as in the case of St. Alban, St. Giles, and St. Augustine, these names are to be arranged under the letters A and G respectively; but the places St. Albans, St. Giles's, and St. Augustine's will be found under the prefix Saint. The prefixes M' and Mc to be arranged as if written in full—Mac.
This rule is very frequently neglected, more particularly in respect to the neglect of the difference between Saint Alban the man and St. Albans the place.
7. Peers to be arranged under their titles, by which alone in most cases they are known, and not under their family names, except in such a case as Horace Walpole, who is almost unknown by his title of Earl of Orford, which came to him late in life. Bishops, deans, etc., to be always under their family names.
About this rule there is great difference of opinion. The British Museum practice is to catalogue peers under their surnames, and the same plan has been adopted in the Dictionary of National Biography. It is rather difficult to understand how this practice has come into being. There are difficulties on both sides; but the great majority of peers are, I believe, known solely by their titles, and when these noblemen are entered under their family names cross references are required because very few persons know the family names of peers. The Library Association and Bodleian rules adopt the common-sense plan of entering noblemen under their titles, and Mr. Cutter gives some excellent reasons for doing this, although he cannot make up his mind to run counter to a supposed well-established rule. Mr. Cutter writes:
"Stanhope Philip Dormer, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.... This is the British Museum rule and Mr. Jewett's. Mr. Perkins prefers entry under titles for British noblemen also, in which I should agree with him if the opposite practice were not so well established. The reasons for entry under the title are that British noblemen are always spoken of, always sign by their titles only, and seldom put the family name upon the title-pages of their books, so that ninety-nine in a hundred readers must look under the title first. The reasons against it are that the founders of noble families are often as well known—sometimes even better—by their family name as by their titles (as Charles Jenkinson, afterwards Lord Liverpool; Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford); that the same man bears different titles in different parts of his life (thus P. Stanhope published his History of England from the Peace of Utrecht as Lord Mahon, and his Reign of Queen Anne as Earl Stanhope); that it separates members of the same family (Lord Chancellor Eldon would be under Eldon, and his father and all his brothers and sisters under the family name, Scott), [Mr. Cutter forgot that Lord Eldon's elder brother William was also a peer—Lord Stowell] and brings together members of different families (thus the earldom of Bath has been held by members of the families of Chandé, Bourchier, Granville and Pulteney, and the family name of the present Marquis of Bath is Thynne), which last argument would be more to the point in planning a family history."
The advocates of the practice of arranging peers under their family names make much of the difficulties attendant on such changes of name as Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban's, Benjamin Disraeli (afterwards Earl of Beaconsfield), Sir John Lubbock (now Lord Avebury), and Richard Monckton Milnes (afterwards Lord Houghton). These, doubtless, are difficulties, but I believe that they amount in all to very few as compared with the cases on the other side.