The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

SERGEANT AT ARMS.

Is the Executive officer of the legislature--he attends the Speaker---serves all writs issued by that body--and when the attendance of absent members is required, is sent with the Mace to execute the requisition. We recollect, that some time since, when 16 members of the legislature of Pennsylvania, seceded therefrom, that an officer, styled Sergeant at Arms was sent with the Mace to require their attendance--and, with the assistance of some of the citizens, obliged a sufficient number to make a quorum to attend.

In England, the Sergeant at Arms, or Mace, is an officer to attend the person of the King, to arrest traitors, and such persons of quality as offend. and to attend the Lord High Steward when sitting in judgment on a traitor.
The number of these officers, is by statute limited to 30: There are now eight at court, who are created with great ceremony. They attend in the presence-chamber and receiving the King at the door, they carry the Maces before him, when he goes to chapel, or to the House of Lords. There are four other Sergeants at Arms--one of whom attends the Lord Chancellor; a second, the Lord Treasurer; a third the Speaker of the House of Commons; and a fourth, the Lord Mayor of London on solemn occasion.

Rhode-Island being a foreign State, a correspondent would query, whether the Sergeant at Arms lately appointed, ought not previous to his appointment, to have been naturalized.