issued an ordinance authorizing each successive grand master to retain and wear the star, riband, and badge of the Order, after he had ceased to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Thus, though the head and chief of the order was not a member of it during any lord lieutenancy, but that of Earl Talbot, yet by a verbal grant from William IV. and an express authority from her majesty, all who have held the office of lord lieutenant are entitled to the distinctive honours which are worn by the veritable members of the body.

No one except a peer has ever received the Order of St. Patrick, though its nominal qualifications have only required "a gentleman of blood and a knight without reproach."

The statutes direct that all vacancies should be filled by an election at a chapter," or assembly of the existing knights, but the sovereign occasionally has conferred the order by his own nomination.

The full and ceremonious title of the fraternity is "The most illustrious Order of St. Patrick."

The Grand Master has nearly equal powers with the sovereign, but he cannot summon a chapter, appoint an officer, or issue a warrant of dispensation.

The Prelate was first appointed by warrant on the 11th March, 1783, though not originally contemplated as an officer of the Order. His duty consists in attending chapters, and administering the oath to the knights elect at investitures; and he receives neither salary nor fees.

The Chancellor is entrusted with the custody of the seal of the Order, takes the suffrages at elections, and reclaims the collars, &c., of deceased knights.

By the ordinance of the 8th July, 1809, he was entitled to one hundred pounds on delivering the latter to the grand master, but this grant was rescinded in 1833.

The Registrar is in some measure the deputy of the chancellor, and in his absence performs his duties. He likewise keeps a register of all the transactions of the order, and receives a fee of twenty-five pounds upon the investiture, and a similar sum upon the installation of every knight.

The Secretary conducts the correspondence, and attends the chapter and other ceremonials. He receives similar fees to those of the registrar.

The Genealogist is entrusted with the certificates and pedigrees of the knights, and his fees are of the same amount as those of the secretary and registrar.

The Usher, named "the black rod," keeps the door of the chapter room, and conducts the knights elect to the sovereign or grand master. His fees are twenty pounds at the investiture, and a similar sum at the installation of each knight. He is the only gentleman usher of Ireland.

The King of arms of this Order is the Ulster king of arms of all Ireland. He attends all chapters and other ceremonials of the Order, signs the certificates of the knights' pedigrees, and superintends the preparation of their banners and achievements. He retains in his custody the collars and badges of deceased knights, and his fees are the same as those of the registrar, secretary, and genealogist.

The esquires are three in number for each knight. The sixteenth statute ordains, that every knight should appoint three gentlemen of blood without

reproach to be his esquires of the body, and to attend him at installations. No esquires have been appointed since 1833, in consequence of installations having been dispensed with at the election of each new knight.

The knights of the Order of St. Patrick are not only entitled to certain rank and precedence among themselves, but enjoy privileges over all who are not members of the Order, for an account of which the reader is referred to the article "PRECEDENCE."

A description of the collars, badges, and stars, with the peculiar dress appropriated to each knight and officer, will be found in the article "Costume," while the ceremonies of installation and investiture are considered in general articles under their respective heads, in that division of the work which is appropriated to " CEREMONIES."

ORDER OF THE BATH.

"Where Britain's foremost names are found,
In peace belov'd, in war renown'd."

TICKELL

On the 25th of May, 1725, letters patent were issued under the great seal, "not only to re-establish and support the Order of the Bath in its former lustre and dignity, but to erect the same into a regular military order." The practice of creating knights with various ceremonies, of which bathing was one, is undoubtedly a custom of considerable antiquity. The last occasion upon which Knights of the Bath

were made, according to the ancient forms, was at the coronation of Charles II.; while the first instance on record, since the Conquest, of the creation of a knight with the ceremony of bathing, is stated to have been that of Geoffrey, son of Fulk, Earl of Anjou, who, being contracted in marriage to the daughter of Henry I., was knighted at Rouen by his future father-in-law. The recent history of this Order, however, is at once more interesting and more clearly defined than the details of all those ceremonies and rites by which the creation of its members was formerly distinguished.

The patent of creation vested the sovereignty of the order in the Crown, while its constituent members were limited to one Great Master and thirty-six Companions. The officers were to be a dean, registrar, a king-of-arms, a genealogist, a secretary, an usher, and a messenger.

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The statutes declared that no one should be eligible as a companion of the Order who was not a gentleman of blood, bearing coat-arms, and void of all reproach; that, in creating all future knights of the Garter, a degree of preference should be given to all who were members of the order of the Bath (a practice not subsequently followed); that such companions-elect of the Order of the Bath as may be prevented from undergoing a personal installation,

Whoever has not been convicted of heresy against the Articles of the Christian religion, has not been attainted of high treason, or has been pardoned for that crime, or whoever has not fled (out of cowardice) from a battle-field, is considered to be "void of reproach."

might perform that ceremony by proxy, and that this deputy or proxy should be a knight.

In 1727, a statute was issued ordaining, that in case of foreign invasion or rebellion, each companion. should be bound to maintain four men-at-arms, for forty-two days in each year, for service, within Great Britain; but this has never been enforced.

In 1812, a royal warrant was published authorizing the appointment of extra knights, while the constituent number remained the same as originally stated in the letters patent. Although a few extra knights had been from time to time appointed previous to the publication of the warrant, yet the necessity which arose of more extensively rewarding distinguished military services occasioned the issue of this statute, under which eleven extra knights were nominated. Subsequently many military and naval commanders were added to this class; but the year 1815 was that in which the present constitution of the order was definitively fixed. The enlargement which it then underwent was the natural consequence of the termination of a great war, when an opportunity arose of rewarding the distinguished services, on land and sea, by which that struggle was brought to so triumphant a conclusion. On the 2nd of January, therefore, a royal warrant was issued, by which the Order was divided into three classes. The first class, comprising all the existing knights, was denominated, KNIGHTS GRAND CROSS, and was subdivided into two portions, one military and one civil. The military division was to consist of officers in the army and navy who were not below the rank of major-general or rear-admiral. The