[f. CONSUL + -SHIP.]
The office of consul, the term of this office: a. of a Roman consul.
1541. Paynell, Catiline, xii. 17. This rumour … dydde greatly hyndre Catiline in requeste of the Consulshyppe.
1581. Savile, Tacitus’ Agricola (1622), 188. And after his Consulship [he] solemnized the marriage.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. ii. 2. How many stand for Consulships?
a. 1794. Gibbon, Autobiog. (1799), 69. The vanity of Tully was doubly interested in the Greek memoirs of his own consulship.
1869. Seeley, Lect. & Ess., i. 5. In his [Cæsar’s] consulship,… he had not appeared as the champion of the provincials, but of quite a different class…—the populace of Rome.
fig. 1656. Cowley, Misc., xi. To Bp. Lincoln, 24. The Consulship of Wit and Eloquence.
b. of a modern commercial consul.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 85. The English Consulship of Chios is in his disposing.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2135/8. His Majesty … has been Graciously pleased to bestow upon him the Consulship of Rotterdam.
1883. Century Mag., XXVI. 275/2. I shall … strike for … some small consulship perhaps.
fig. 1668. E. Kemp, Reasons for Use Ch. Prayers in Publick, 7. She cannot trust to the skill and arts of any private Priest to transact by way of agency or consulship for her.
† c. of a consul of Venice. Obs.
1677. Govt. Venice, 103. These two Consulships are … conferred upon two of the most indigent of the Nobility, because they are Places of great Profit, and little Expence.
