much as we lament the interference with that Order at all, we regret still more the manner in which it was done; for it is chiefly by the ignorance displayed on the occasion, that it has been brought into disrepute. It is now useless to inquire, whether the King's gracious and most laudable views would not have been far more advantageously accomplished, if his Majesty had instituted a new Order of Merit; or whether, when he thus evinced his anxiety to reward valour, the fact that the sword has not alone advanced Great Britain in the scale of nations was not equally worthy of his royal attention. In a country avowedly not a military one, individuals who have preeminently distinguished themselves in science, in literature, and in the arts, and who, in every other kingdom, receive similar marks of distinction, might have been thought entitled to some share of those honours which have been so lavishly bestowed upon military men.

Leaving these subjects for comment, we proceed to describe the change which the beneficent intentions of his Majesty produced in the Order of the Bath.

The Supplement to the London Gazette of the 3rd of January, 1815, contained the following notification.

"WHITEHALL, January 2, 1815.-Whereas his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, is desirous of commemorating the auspicious termination of the long and arduous contests in which this empire has been engaged, and of marking in an especial manner his gracious sense of the valour, perseverance, and devotion, manifested by the officers of his Majesty's forces by sea and land:-And whereas his Royal Highness has thought it fit, by virtue of the Royal Prerogative, and of the powers reserved to the Sovereign in the statutes of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, to advance the splendour and extend the limits of the said Order, to the end that those officers, who have had the opportunities of signalizing themselves by eminent services during the late war, may share in the honours of the said Order, and that their names may be delivered down to remote posterity, accompanied by the marks of distinction which they have so nobly earned.

"The Prince Regent, therefore, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, hath been graciously pleased to ordain as follows:

"1st. The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath shall from this time forward be composed of Three Classes, differing in their ranks and degrees of dignity.

"2nd. The First Class of the said Order shall consist of Knights Grand Crosses; which designation shall be substituted henceforward for that of Knights Companions; and from the date hereof the present Knights Companions and Extra Knights of the said Order shall, in all acts, proceedings, and pleadings, be styled Knights Grand Crosses of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath.

"3rd. The number of the Knights Grand Crosses shall not, at any time, or upon any account whatever, exceed seventy-two; whereof there may be a number not exceeding twelve so nominated and appointed, in consideration of eminent services rendered to the State by British subjects in civil and diplomatic employments.

"4th. The said Knights Grand Crosses shall be subject to the same rules and ordinances, and have, hold, and enjoy, all and singular the rights, privileges, immunities, and advantages, which the Knights Companions of the said Order have hitherto held and enjoyed, by virtue of the statutes, excepting as far as may be altered or affected by the present decree.

"5th. It shall be lawful for all the present Knights Grand Crosses, from and after the date hereof, to wear, upon the left side of their upper vestment, the star or ensign of the said Order, although such Knight Grand Cross may not have been installed; and henceforward the said star or ensign shall be worn by each and every Knight Grand Cross, immediately after his being so nominated and appointed, provided that it shall not be lawful for any Knight Grand Cross to wear the collar of the said Order, until he shall have been formally installed, according to the statutes, or unless a dispensation has been granted for the non-observance of the ceremonial of installation.

"6th. In order to distinguish more particularly those officers of his Majesty's forces, by sea and land, upon whom the first class of the said Order hath already been, or may hereafter be, conferred in consideration of especial military services, such officers shall henceforth bear upon the ensign or star, and likewise upon the badge of the Order, the addition of a wreath of laurel encircling the motto, and issuing from an escrol inscribed Ich Dien.'

"This distinction being of a military nature, it is not to be borne by the Knights of the first class, upon whom the Order shall have been, or may hereafter be, conferred for civil services.

7th. The dignity of a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath shall henceforth upon no account be conferred upon any officer in his Majesty's service, who shall not have attained the rank of Major-General in the army, or Rear-Admiral in the navy, except as to the Twelve Knights Grand Crosses, who may be nominated and appointed for civil services.

"8th. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, is pleased to declare and constitute those, whose names are undermentioned, to be the Knights Grand Crosses, composing the first class of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath. [Here follow their names.]

"9th. And his Royal Highness the Prince Regent is further pleased to ordain and declare, that the Princes of the Blood Royal holding commissions as general officers in his Majesty's army, or as flag officers in the royal navy, now and hereafter may be nominated and appointed Knights Grand Crosses of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, and shall not be included in the number to which the first class of the Order is limited by the third article of the present instrument.

"10th. By virtue of the ordinance contained in the foregoing

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article, his Royal Highness the Prince Regent is pleased to declare the following Princes of the Blood Royal to be Knights Grand Crosses of the Order of the Bath. [Here follow their names.]

"11th. The second class of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath shall be composed of Knights Commanders, who shall have and enjoy in all future solemnities and proceedings, place and precedence before all Knights Bachelors of the United Kingdom, and shall enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges, and immunities enjoyed by the said Knights Bachelors.

12th. Upon the first institution of the Knights Commanders, the number shall not exceed one hundred and eighty, exclusive of foreign officers holding British commissions, of whom a number, not exceeding ten, may be admitted into the second class as honorary Knights Commanders. But in the event of actions of signal distinction, or of future wars, the number may be increased by the appointment of officers who shall be eligible according to the regulations and restrictions now established.

"13th. No person shall be eligible as a Knight Commander of the Bath, who does not actually hold, at the time of his nomination, a commission in his Majesty's army or navy; such commission_not being below the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, or of Post Captain in the navy.

14th. The Knights Commanders shall, from the publication of the present instrument, be entitled severally to assume the distinctive appellation of knighthood, and shall bear the badge and ensign assigned as the distinctions of the second class of the Order, on their being duly invested with the same; that is to say, each Knight Commander shall wear the appropriate badge or cognizance pendant by a red riband round the neck,-and for further honour and distinction he shall wear the appropriate star, embroidered on the left side of his upper vestment. There shall also be affixed in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, Westminster', escutcheons and banners of the arms of each Knight Commander, under which the name and title of such Knight Commander, with the date of his nomination, shall be inscribed. The Knights Commanders shall not be entitled to bear supporters, but they shall be permitted to encircle their arms with the red riband and badge, appropriate to the second class of the Order, of the Bath. And for the greater honour of this class, no officer of his Majesty's army or navy shall be nominated hereafter to the dignity of a Knight Grand Cross, who shall not have been appointed previously a Knight Commander of the said Most Honourable Order.

"15th. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, has been graciously pleased to appoint and nominate the undermentioned officers of his Majesty's naval and military forces to be Knights Commanders of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath. [Here follow their names.]

This is the first time we ever heard of Westminster being a Cathedral church : as no such place exists, perhaps those who have received the fees arising from the ordinance, may avail themselves of this admirable specimen of official accuracy, to prove the impossibility of complying with it.

"16th. The third class of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath shall be composed of officers holding commissions in his Majesty's service by sea or land, who shall be styled Companions of the said Order; they shall not be entitled to the appellation, style, precedence, or privileges of Knights Bachelors, but they shall take place and precedence of all Esquires of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

"17th. No officer shall be nominated a Companion of the said Most Honourable Order, unless he shall have received, or shall hereafter receive, a medal, or other badge of honour, or shall have been specially mentioned by name in despatches published in the London Gazette, as having distinguished himself by his valour and conduct in action against his Majesty's enemies, since the commencement of the war in 1803, or shall hereafter be named in despatches published in the London Gazette, as having distinguished himself.

"18th. The Companions of the said Order shall wear the badge assigned to the third class pendant by a narrow red riband to the button-hole.

"19th. And his Royal Highness the Prince Regent hath been pleased to ordain and enjoin, that the said Knights Commanders, and the said Companions, shall respectively be governed by the rules and regulations which his Royal Highness, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, hath been graciously pleased to make, ordain, and enjoin for them, and by such other rules and ordinances as may be from time to time made and ordained by his Majesty, his heirs, and successors, Kings of this realm.

"And his Royal Highness the Prince Regent hath been pleased to appoint, that Sir George Nayler, Knight, Genealogist and Blanc Coursier Herald of the Order of the Bath, and York Herald, shall be the Officer of Arms attendant upon the said Knights Commanders and Companions: and also to command, that the officers hereby appointed Knights Commanders, and those who shall hereafter be respectively nominated and constituted Knights Commanders or Companions, shall immediately after such nomination transmit to the said Sir George Nayler a statement of their respective military services, verified by their signatures, in order that the same may be by him recorded in books appropriated to the said Knights Commanders and Companions. "And his Royal Highness has also been pleased to approve, that Mr. William Woods be the Secretary appertaining to the said Knights Commanders and Companions.

"MEMORANDUM.-The names of the Companions of the said Most Honourable Military Order will be published in future Gazettes."

"in

The London Gazette of the 16th September, 1815, contained the nomination of the "Companions of the Order," dated Whitehall, 4th June, 1815," in conformity with the ordinance relating to the third class of the said Order as published in the London Gazette of the 2nd January, 1815;" and in the same Gazette was likewise the nomination of officers to be Companions of the said Order, upon the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, for their services in the battles fought on the 16th and 18th of

June last, dated Whitehall, 22nd June, 1815, among whom were about thirty who were included in the preceding list, and who are distinguished in the Gazette by an asterisk, as officers" upon whom the third class of the Bath has been conferred for former services."

Thus the Order became radically changed. The original Knights ceased to be "Knights Companions," and the "Čompanions" of the Order were not to be Knights of it. The Knights Grand Crosses were divided into two classes, who were to wear different insignia, and from the number of thirty-five they were augmented to seventy-two; the one class was distinguished as "Military Knights Grand Crosses," and the other as "Civil Knights Grand Crosses;" or, if the whole title be applied to each, "Military Knights Grand Crosses of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath," and "Civil Knights Grand Crosses of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath;" and which, in the one case, is a pleonasm, and in the other, a contradiction. Instead of three, the Order was, in fact, divided into four classes, since the two classes of Grand Crosses are entirely distinct; for they wear different stars, and different badges, and have a different title. But who could have expected that when the Order was so entirely altered the statutes should not have been changed, or at least so much of them as prescribe that all the warriors upon whom it was then conferred are to undergo the ridiculous ceremony of bathing, washing, combing, and other buffoonery? The Gazette, however, declares, that the said Knights Grand Crosses "shall be subject to the same rules and ordinances which the Knights Companions have hitherto held and enjoyed;" a specimen of English, which cannot be sufficiently admired. Each of these veterans is therefore ordered to have his beard shaven, and his hair cut; to be undressed to the tune of a march, and be immersed in soap and water to a waltz or country dance; to hear injunctions whispered in his ear "with a soft voice, to keep his body and mind pure and undefiled;" to allow water to be dropped upon his shoulders, and to watch a whole night in the garb of a mountebank! That the actual performance of these follies was never for a moment contemplated is well known; but we protest, in the name of common sense, against the retention of such nonsense in the statutes of the Order, since it must render the institution ridiculous, and entail some portion of that ridicule upon those who are admitted into it. Before taking leave of the Grand Crosses, we must repeat our objection to two members of the same Order wearing totally distinct ensigns; and in proof of the sentiments which some of the original Companions entertain of the alteration, we cite the fact of a gallant Viscount, who was appointed a Knight of the Bath before this revolution in the