On Tuesday an impressive ceremony took place in Henry VIL's
Chapel in Westminster Abbey, when the Order of the Bath was reinaugurated by the King. The ceremony belongs to the series which was begun when King Edward VII. set apart a chapel in St. Paul's Cathedral for the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The Orders of the Garter and of the Thistle subsequently had their proper ceremonies revived. Londoners were greatly interested by the spectacle of the unfamiliar robes of the Order of the Bath, and had some difficulty in recognizing even the most famous G.C.B.'s. The Prayer-books used for the rite were the same that were used in 1761. The Knights, headed by the Duke of Connaught as Great Master of the Order, took the oath. The wording of the oath is noble :-
"I will honour God above all things ; I will be stedfast in the faith of Christ; I will love the King, my sovereign Lord, and Him and his Right defend to my power ; I will defend Maidens, Widows, and Orphans in their Rights, and will suffer no Extortion as far as I may prevent it ; and of as great Honour be this Order unto me as ever it was to any of my Progenitors, or others. Se help me God."
No man who repeats such words can fail to be affected by them unless he is utterly without imagination. The oath, it is worth noting, is thoroughly English in character. It is religious, it is chivalrous, and it is loyal, but without any touch of "servile Jure Divino Royalism." There is love for the King, but no grovelling passive obedience.
