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* * Before we leave this . subject we must heartily

con- gratulate Sir Austen Chamberlain on his Garter. He thoroughly deserves it and the public regards his honour with evident. approval. So many Garters, relatively to the small number of the Order, have been bestowed recently for signal services rendered to the nation that the day is coming when Melbourne's remark about the Garter having " no damned merit " may cause surprise. Sir Edward Grey received the Garter after the Agadir crisis of 1912. Lord Balfour, like Sir Edward Grey, received it while he was still a commoner.. Before these two no commoner, we think, had received it since Sir Robert Walpole. The idea of " Garter families " is gradually dying out, and with it, as we have said, the significance of Melbourne's complacent gibe.

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