Note 55 — MEMOIRS OF THE Baron de Pollnitz. Vol. III. (continued 6)

That our Reader may the better understand this, it must be observ'd that the Custom of France and that of England are, in this respect, very different: For tho' in England a Baron is as much a Peer as a Duke, yet in France none but the Dukes, and not all of them, are honor'd with the Dignity of Peers: But these modern Peers are very different from the ancient Peers of France, who were six Spiritual and six Temporal, viz. three Dukes and three Earls or Counts of each State. The former are still in Being, namely, the Duke Archbishop of Rheims, the Duke and Bishop of Laon, the Duke and Bishop of Langres, the Count Bishop of Beauvais, the Count Bishop of Chalons, and the Count Bishop of Noyon; but the Temporal, who were Sovereign Princes, have been extinct a long time.