TITLES AND ORDERS.
WEEEN Lord Palmerston expressed a doubt whether the House of Commons is the best tribunal for determining the relative merit of officers selected for honour by the Crown, he might have given a much larger expression to the doubt. The House of Commons can dispense its own honours and rewards: leading Members can make "honourable mention " ; the House can vote its thanks, and it can, with_ the 'concurrence of the other branches of the Legislature, give substantial prizes : but the kind of honour that is conferred in titles, decorations, and chivalrous distinctions could by no possibility come with- in the jurisdiction of the House. Lord Palmerston is right in saying that honours and decorations would then become the subject of personal canvass. They would. indeed eventually be decreed by those Parliamentary agents who now held so much of the destinies of the country in their hands. Wouldany man who has performed active service like to trace his knighthood or his star to that great first source at the back of Parliament ? The House of Commons might bring under its jthisdiction the College of Heralds and the insignia that that College can administer ; but the College and the insignia wonld,be extinguished in the transfer. The House of -Commons cannot, indeed, even ro,eddle in such affairs without damage ; the distinctions even-lose some of their real vitality in being made the subject of accountability by Ministers. It is one of those eases in which statesmen may advise the Crown, but in which the very nature of the reward is tarnished if it passes through too many hands between the Sove- reign and the recipient. The duty of giving rewards for distinction in the name of the State can by none be so perfectly executed as by the chief alone. Whatever aid the Sovereign may seek from the advice of experienced councillors, still the final appreciation should be found in the Sovereign's own breast; the gift ought to be the spontaneous act of the Sovereign. Instead of seeking to drag a larger share of jurisdiction to the House of Commons, any genuine reform would go in. the opposite direction, towards re- storing a more absolute and irresponsible control in the Ctown. By that means, the orders of chivy would regain something of their ordinary character. The -Knights, whether Grand' Cross, Commander, or Companion, would become .again the companions of the Sovereign, rather than of partyleaders ; and even the hum- blest of the chivalrous orders would acquire a social rank by -the companionship. No man cares to be "made a knight" in the common way ; any Whitbread scorns to be made "such a thing"; but some persons do find a value in the right to put after their name the two letters " C.B."
Is there a man at the present day who would not prize some very common ornament given to him by the Queen of her own free will, with the express wish that he should wear it on his breast, as a sign to all the world of her approval? We all know that the *earer would be the envy of men wearing a star and riband conferred in the ordinary way. Yet, properly considered, the star and riband should be the spontaneous gifts of the Sove- reign, conveying a personal as well as a state approval just in the manner that we have supposed. The trinket thus given would carry with it the very spirit of chivalrous companionship, which has been lost by the so-called chivalrous orders in proportion as they have been made the subject of routine and official interven- tion.
"What's in. a name ?" Why, everything ; especially when the name is accompanied or not accompanied by acts that signify its meaning. When the Emperor Napoleon calls the ring of Sar- dinia "King of Piedmont," at the same time that he points to the elevation which that intelligent monarch has regained for his country, we feel that there is political prothotion in the ac- knowledgment of an important title for the native Sovereign of Northern Italy. The very same probability would solve some of the minor diffi- culties in debated points of the military service. The position of Surgeons, for example, is unsatisfactory in the Army as well as
the Navy ; and no representation that the Assistant-Surgeon of a certain grade is "to rank with a Captain," or that the pay of the Surgeons in the Crimea has been increased, can remove the dis- tinction which is caused by certain contrasts in the official posi- tion of the combatant and non-combatant officers. The simple fact that a man is not called "Captain" makes all the difference. There is no distinction in name between Surgeons or Assistant- Surgeoes of the Army and the Surgeons or Assistant-Surgeons of the ordinary profession on shore—between the men attending their patients in a country village and a man bearing her Ma- jesty's commission. All the difference in the world would be e at once if the Assistant-Surgeon were simply called "Lieu- tenant-Surgeon," the full Surgeon "Captain-Surgeon," and their superior officer "Major-Surgeon." Or, better still, the Medical Officers-might be formed into a separate corps, like the Sappers and Miners or the Engineers, with the proper ranks of Lieutenant, Captain, and Major in the Corps. The "Medical Officer" of a company or regiment could be easily designated by that phrase, where the family name of Lieutenant Doe or Major Roe hap- pened to be unknown. The difference would be increased if these titles were habitually given to the gentlemen entitled to them ; and the point of rank would be still more dis- tinctly acknowledged if the Surgeon had an explicit right, under certain circumstances, to take his position as a combatant, how- ever the tenour of his instructions might bind him to his proper duties on ordinary occasions. This almost verbal advance from the present practice, would go far to remove the distinctions that irritate the surgeon without conveying any compliment whatever to the combatant officer.
In all these eases, the master principle seems to be, that the position of the man, whether it is to be extraordinary, as in the case of a chivalrous distinction, or customary, as in the ease of a Surgeon-Captain, should be positively and explicitly recognized by the Sovereign. Let that appear on the face of the instrument conveying the title, and there would be no question about the social position of the bearer or the value which would be attached to the rank.
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