the corporation has, with extraordinary temerity, been virtually taken from it. The Council has, it seems, usurped the power of preventing the Fellows from seeing the accounts; and though the statutes provide that it cannot pay more than 50%. without the sanction of the whole body, yet, sums very much beyond that amount have been paid. This conduct merits severe censure; and whoever sanctioned such disbursements has acted illegally, and treated the Society with disrespect. The proper, and, indeed, in the present state of the system, only opportunity, for commenting on the subject of the funds, is when the Auditors make their annual report: and it remains to be proved whether that report will be again "received" in silence.

Not only, however, have the bye-laws been disregarded, but even the charter itself has been violated by a unanimous recommendation of the Council of last year, which affords another proof of the woeful ignorance of the officers of the corporation of its constitution, and of the tractable tempers of the gentlemen whom they selected for that situation. Although the Society possesses a President and four Deputies, it was found that neither of them could or would attend. Instead of the Council forwarding a remonstrance to those gentlemen, they adopted a measure which, whilst it allowed them to retain the titles of V. P. S. A., without occasioning them the overwhelming labour of sitting, with a cocked hat on their heads, for about twenty-two minutes, once in five weeks, it gratified the Treasurer's ambition of presiding over the Society. This most sagacious Council unanimously proposed a bye-law, giving authority to the Treasurer and Director to fill the Chair at the election and admission of new members. The proposed statute was submitted on the last night of one session, and balloted for on the first of the ensuing, when it was passed of course. Treasurer has accordingly performed the duties of the President or his deputy, upon several occasions, and has admitted six, and presided at the election of eight, gentlemen. Thus far all was well. The President or Vice-Presidents came only when it suited their convenience; Mr. Amyot was but too happy to preside over "the learned body," and we concede that he executed the important functions with all becoming solemnity and decorum. A few weeks since, however, the Solons of the Society were not a little astonished at having their attention called to the following words of their charter,

The

"And we do further give and grant, that it is our royal will and pleasure, that all persons which shall, within two months next ensuing the date of these our letters patent, be nominated and chosen by the said President and Council, or any eleven, or more of them (of which we will the said President, or his Deputy, always to be one) and in all times after by the said President, Council, and Fellows of the said Society, or any twelve, or more of them (of which we will the said Pre

sident, or his Deputy, always to be one), shall be received and admitted into the said Society of Antiquaries, as Fellows of the same," P. 4.. accompanied by what appeared news to them,-the intimation that, as no corporation can make a bye-law in contradiction of the express words of its charter, all proceedings under the byelaw alluded to were void; and consequently that neither of the persons elected under the presidency of the Treasurer, or admitted by him, were "Fellows of the Society." It is scarcely credible that twenty-one men capable of writing their names should have committed the egregious folly of recommending a bye-law without having first perused the charter creating the institution. The Council of the Society of Antiquaries of London for 1826-7, have, however, to their immortal honour, thus stultified themselves; and a more convincing proof of the ill effects of allowing the officers to dictate to the body who shall form the Council cannot be wished. If, as we assert, and we challenge them to contradict us, the officers have in the last year, and in many preceding years, violated the bye-laws by making disbursements on their own responsibility, which those bye-laws positively say shall not be made without the sanction of the whole body; and if, as we have shown, they have caused the charter itself to be infringed upon, are they proper persons to fill the situations they occupy? or can they be trusted with the selection of the individuals to whose care its affairs are so exclusively committed, that they possess and have exercised the power of preventing a Fellow from knowing in what way the funds are expended, what are the objects the Council has in view, or from seeing the papers which have been read? For many years the Society has been conducted" in peace," or, in other words,risum teneatis amici-Mr. Nicholas Carlisle has been suffered to be the absolute dictator!!! It is that "learned gentleman" who has been permitted to nominate its Councils, and who in the performance of that task has lately offered an unprecedented insult to a member, simply because he dared, on one occasion, to express the opinion that the statutes required a revision. We are, as we have always been, most anxious to avoid personal remarks on any one connected with the Society, though we have not hesitated to comment on their conduct in their public capacities: but, in the name of common sense and common decency, we call upon the members at large, as men of talent, as gentlemen, nay, as Englishmen, to rescue their Society from so degrading a thraldom, as that Mr. Carlisle, Mr. Ellis, Mr. Amyot, or Mr. any body else, should have the power to say who shall and who shall not be placed on its Council. We can inform the Fellows, that the officers treat the idea of an opposition to their dictation on the 23rd of April with scorn and ridicule; and that they confidently suppose they have not the spirit to free themselves from their bondage. It therefore behoves

every Member who values the independence of the institution to teach them a different lesson; and to convince them, that they have been suffered too long to possess the uncontrolled direction of its affairs.

Let every Fellow ask himself whether the Society, in its present state, effects any practical good? Whether its meetings, or its publications, are worthy of such an institution? or whether they have not been the subject of ridicule from the time of Horace Walpole to the present? They have seen that it has been daily growing worse; and that, if the present officers are allowed to nominate a Council as supine as themselves, no hope of improvement can be entertained.

In conclusion; we exhort each Fellow to exert himself in the formation of an independent and zealous Council; and when he affixes his name to the balloting list, we entreat him to reflect that, by adopting the recommendation of the officers, he will evince his approbation of the present state of the Society, of the manner in which its charter and bye-laws have been disregarded, of the frivolous objects upon which its funds are employed, and of the inanity and worthlessness of its proceedings; whilst, by selecting a Council according to his own judgment, he will have the honour of affording his assistance to the efforts which will be made to render the Society worthy of a place among the literary institutions of Europe.

The Members should moreover bear in mind, that the eyes of the public are upon them-that the existing state of the Society has been lamented or ridiculed in half the Journals of the dayand that there is not one of the officers themselves so inflexibly obstinate, or impenetrably dull, excepting perhaps Mr. Nicholas Carlisle, as not to be convinced of the necessity of improvement, though they are so completely held in trammels by the Secretaries that they cannot act according to their own inclinations. Will the Fellows, then, bow beneath the yoke which its servants have imposed, and which they still intend them to wear? or will they not rescue themselves and the Society from the degraded condition to which it has heen reduced? The humblest Mechanics' Institute in the kingdom effects more good, is governed in a more liberal and independent manner, and is more respected, than that which might be rendered the first literary society in England.

ADVERSARIA.

ORDER OF THE BATH.-Among the numerous letters which have been addressed to us, applauding the exposure which appeared in our last number, of the system of receiving fees from the Members of this Order, without fulfilling the objects for which they were demanded, the following letter signed "A Sufferer" merits particular notice:

"Your very able and forcible observations upon the Order of the Bath, and admirable exposure of the system carried on with respect to Officers upon whom the Order has been conferred, merit the thanks of the whole body, and it is to be hoped that Government will see the stipulations, for which so much money was paid, fulfilled.

"You will be rendering further service by keeping your eyes upon this proceeding; and should you have further occasion to notice the subject, perhaps you will inform the public whether those fees continue to be demanded for Statutes, &c. (not a copy of which, though paid for, can be procured,) from the Officers lately promoted into this Order for service in the East Indies and at Navarino.

"Perhaps you could suggest some laudable object towards which the fees paid by deceased Officers might be appropriated, the purposes for which they were paid not having been accomplished."

We assure our correspondent, that we will not fail to comply with his request, of watching the proceedings on the subject; and can inform him, in reply to his question, that one, at least, of the officers who received the third Class of the Bath, for Navarino, has paid his fees; and we have cause to believe, that some of those who were similarly rewarded for their recent services in India have likewise done so. Perhaps the fees paid by deceased Members of the Order could not be better appropriated than by printing a limited impression of those memorials of their services with which, in pursuance of the regulations, they furnished the proper officers, and by giving the surplus to some charitable institution connected with the naval or military service. It may be satisfactory to our correspondent and his fellow "Sufferers" to learn, that we know, from authority, that attention is awakened in the highest quarters to the conduct of which they so justly complain.

KNIGHTHOOD OF THE ELDEST SONS OF BARONETS.-The dignity of Baronet was established by Letters Patent, dated 22nd of May, in the ninth year of the reign of King James, 1611; and, by other Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the 28th of May, in the tenth year of his reign, 1612, making a certain ordinance, establishment, and final decree upon a controversy of precedence between the younger sons of Viscounts and Barons and the Baronets, and touching other points, also concerning as well Bannerets as the said Baronets; whereby the King was pleased, amongst other things, to knight the then Baronets that were no Knights; and did, by the same presents, of his mere motion and favour, promise and grant for himself, his heirs, and successors, that such Baronets, and the heirs male of their bodies as thereafter, should be no Knights, when they should attain and be of the age of one and twenty years, upon knowledge thereof given to the Lord Chamberlain of the Household, or ViceChamberlain for the time being, or, in their absence, to any other officer attending upon his Majesty's person, should be knighted by his Majesty, his heirs, and successors, as by the said several Letters Patent (amongst other things) did fully appear. His present Majesty, however, having deemed it expedient that the said promise to confer the honour of knighthood in future should be discontinued, has, by Letters Patent, bearing date the 19th day of December last, been pleased to revoke, determine, and make void the said promise and grant in the beforementioned Letters Patent contained, "with respect to all Letters Patent for the creation of Baronets to be made and granted after these presents; and that the said Letters Patent shall be made hereaf.er without such clause as hereinbefore mentioned; without preju

dice, nevertheless, to any Letters Patent heretofore granted, or to the rights and privileges now by law belonging to any Baronet and his heirs male."

In consequence of which revocation, the Patents granted to the thirteen gentlemen recently created' do not contain the clause referred to2.

IRISH PEERS PRIVILEGE FROM ARREST.-The question involving the freedom of Irish Peers from arrest has been recently decided by an act of the highest tribunal. In September last Lord Hawarden was arrested, after pleading his privilege to the Sheriff ineffectually.

Coates and Another, Assignees of Cox, a Bankrupt, against Viscount Hawarden. The Court of King's Bench, in Michaelmas term, granted a rule to show cause why the bail-bond should not be delivered up to be cancelled, and the costs attending the proceedings be paid by the plaintiffs. The rule was moved for, and obtained, on the affidavit of the defendant stating, that he was a Viscount of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland; that his right to vote in the election of representative Peers for Ireland had been allowed by the House of Lords, and exercised by the defendant, and that he was entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of an Irish Peer; that the defendant was arrested at his residence at Brighton on the 15th September, 1827, by an officer of the Sheriff of Sussex, and that he had been discharged from such arrest upon a representation of his privilege; that he immediately forwarded a strong remonstrance to the Sheriff; notwithstanding which, he had been again taken under the same process, on the 24th September, upon which occasion he had given a bail-bond, accompanied by a protest against the regularity of the proceedings. The Court, in granting the rule, said, that they entertained no doubt as to the defendant's privilege. The rule was subsequently made absolute, with costs; the defendant's counsel undertaking that no action should be brought.

On the meeting of Parliament Lord Hawarden made a complaint to

'See Retrospective Review, N. S. Vol. I. p. 524.

The following is the clause in question:" We will moreover, and do by these presents, of our more ample grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, for us, our heirs, and successors, covenant and grant to and with the said A. B. and his heirs male aforesaid, that we will, immediately after the date of these presents, create and make the said A. B. a knight; and that we, our heirs, and successors, will create and make the firstborn son or heir male apparent, begotten of the body of the said A. B. and of the bodies of his heirs male aforesaid, and every one of them, a knight, as soon as he shall attain the age of one and twenty years, although in the lifetime of his father or grandfather, upon notice given thereof to the Chamberlain or Vice-Chamberlain of the Household of us, our heirs, or successors for the time being, or in their absence to any other officer or minister of us, our heirs, or successors, attending the person of us, our heirs, or successors, to have, hold, and enjoy the same state, degree, dignity, style, title, place, and precedence, with all and singular the privileges, and other the premises before granted to the said A.B. and his said heirs male of his body lawfully begotten for ever."

3 It appeared also that the whole debt, except £4, had been received by Cox before his bankruptcy.

4 Manning and Ryland, Michaelmas Term, 1827. A curious letter from an Irish Peer, complaining to the Earl Marshal, in the reign of Charles the First, that he was under arrest for debt, will be found in a former page of the present Number.