THE TRAFFIC IN ORDERS.
ATELEGRAM from Vienna in Thursday's Times draws attention to the astounding traffic in Orders which has become part of the official and diplomatic life of the Continent. It appears that when the German Federal Princes visited Vienna to congratulate the Emperor Francis Joseph, no less than four hundred decorations were distributed by them. How many Austrian. Orders were given in exchange is not stated, but no doubt the number was very large. Probably the practice which prevails at International Congresses and Conferences was to some extent followed. At the close of such gatherings what can only be described as a Decoration Exchange is established, or perhaps a Clearing House for Orders would be a more appropriate description. The representative of this or that Empire or Kingdom lets the representative of a neighbouring Monarchy know that if he will be good enough to give two Crosses of the First Grade of the Golden Owl, three Crosses of the Second. Grade of the Order for the Meretricious, and four of the Third Grade of the Cast-Iron Throne, the proposer of the transaction will advise his master to make a suitable return with the Orders of the Blue Rock and of the Elephant and Castle. There is sometimes a little haggling as to the comparative values of the various decorations, and as to whether the Third Grade of the Imperial Butterfly is or is not equal to the First Grade of the Gilt Sabretasche, but ultimately the exchanges are com- fortably and amicably settled. Everybody is pleased, and everybody orders the new Ribbons and Crosses in different shapes and sizes, dress and undress, for all his uniforms and clothes. Occasionally, however, things are not so easily adjusted, and somebody gets an Order which he thinks below his merit. Readers of the great Lord Wellesley's " Life " may remember a letter addressed to William Pitt after he had made the Governor-General an Irish Marquis. The eloquent Proconsul was indignant that he had not received a step in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and used all the powers of his potent rhetoric in his protests to Pitt. " What am I do," he exclaims, " with this gilded potato ? There has been nothing Pinchbeck in my conduct. Why should. there be anything Pinchbeck in my reward?"
Again, an inferior Order is sometimes used as an engine of attack, and is bestowed on some one whom the giver of decorations desires to snub, or to put under a public humiliation. An example of this use of a decoration as a missile of offence seems to have taken place last week in Vienna. One of the four hundred decorations mentioned. above was bestowed upon Dr. Weiskirchner, the President of the Austrian Chamber of Deputies, and the executive head of the Vienna municipal administration. The Emperor William conferred upon him the Order of the Prussian Crown of the Third Class. Dr. Weiskirchner has returned the Order with the declaration that, " as the dis- tinction was conferred not upon him personally, but upon the occupant of the high offices he holds, he cannot recon- cile his respect for those offices with the acceptance of a decoration so insignificant as that of the third- class Order of the Prussian Crown." In other words, the missile let fly by the Emperor is picked up and hurled back. The Vienna correspondent of the Times states that the Order of the Prussian Crown is in itself a third-class, if not a fourth-class, Order. Further, the Third Class of a third-class or fourth-class Order would, he Worms us, " according to the calculations that govern the distribution of these trinkets, be adapted for a police official." It will perhaps be asked : What had Dr. Weiskirchner done to make the Emperor William desire to " cut him over" with a decoration ? The answer is to be found in Dr. Weiskirchner's attitude towards the indignant protests which were uttered in the Reichsrath last January against Prince Billow's Polish Expropriation Bill. The President of the Reichsrath not only tolerated the protests, but left little room for doubt that he sympa- thised with the Prussian Poles ,rather than with the Prussian Government. Hence the desire to " Prussian Crown" him, to use the form immortalised by our William IV.—It will be remembered. that the plain-spoken sailor Monarch felt all the contempt for the Royal Guelphio Order which was entertained by his British subjects. When the demerits of a certain tiresome, vulgar, and pushing person were being discussed at the Royal dinner-table at Windsor, the King is said to have struck in with the remark : " Ah ! but I paid him out. I Guelphed ' him !" " Quite right, your Majesty; he richly deserved it," was the comment of a courtier.—No doubt the Emperor William and his official advisers thought Dr. Weiskirchner richly deserved the Order of the Prussian Crown of the Third Class !
When one contemplates an instance of this kind, and still more when one watches the ignoble struggle for even the smaller decorations which too often affects diplomatic and official circles abroad, one cannot help feeling how wise and salutary was the rule which absolutely forbade any British public servant, whether in diplomacy, or in the Army, Navy, or Civil Servic.s., to accept and wear any foreign decoration whatever. It used to be our boast that this rule was only relaxed in cases where, as in the Crimea, our officers were brought into special relations with our allies, or, again, where a British subject was in the service of some foreign Power,—as, for example, when Gordon took service, first under the Emperor of China, and then under the Khedive. Unfortunately, of late years, though the rule is still supposed to hold good, a very great many exceptions have been made, and it might almost be said that we have reached a point where special leave to wear a foreign decoration is always given, with the result that a considerable number of our diplomatists can wear as many Orders as their foreign colleagues. The absence of Orders, which won for Castlereagh at Vienna Talleyrand's famous exclamation, " Ma foi ! c'est bien distingu4," has ceased to be the special mark of leading British public servants.
Though we feel obliged to express very great regret at the way in which leave is now given in regard to the wearing of foreign decorations, we can quite understand how the rule came to be gradually broken down. It is no doubt very difficult in particular cases to refuse leave to a British subject to accept a foreign decoration. What happens is something like this. There has been, perhaps, a certain amount of strain or friction between our Govern- ment and some foreign Government. With a view to allaying this friction, an excuse is found. for sending some distinguished soldier, sailor, or statesman to the foreign capital, where he receives the hospitality of the Sine. or Emperor. The foreign Monarch, wishing to be particularly civil, offers the distinguished Briton a high decoration. The distinguished Briton is no doubt as a rule anything but anxious for the Ribbon in question. At the same time, he is sincerely grateful for the kind thought, and, further, he is bound to be polite. He therefore expresses himself immensely gratified. at the kindness of his august host, but adds " with emotion " his very deep regret that he is not allowed to accept this gracious mark of Royal or Imperial favour,' a favour which has touched him to the heart and which he will never forget.' Upon this the King or Emperor in question, in an outburst of kindliness which is often perfectly genuine, for no foreigner will ever believe that anybody can really wish not to add to his collection of Crosses and Ribbons, declares that he will put that right by telegraphing for leave to the proper quarter. Accordingly a telegram is despatched, and then the King and the Foreign Office or the War Office have to consider at a moment's notice a choice of evils. Shall they make an exception to a sound rule, or shall they hurt the feelings of a friendly but sensitive Monarch by refusing his ardently worded request? Can one wonder if they lean to what Bacon calls " the benign extreme"? Again, the strict maintenance of the rule is no doubt rendered somewhat difficult by the fact that the King often desires, for thoroughly sound reasons, to give British Orders to foreign statesmen. To do this, however, is not always easy if the foreign statesmen know that in no circum- stances will our statesmen and diplomats receive their Orders. They feel themselves and their decorations slighted if no reciprocity is ever to take place.
But though we fully appreciate that the breaking of the rule has in the vast majority of cases not arisen from any snobbish desire for Ribbons to stick in their coats on tb. part of our diplomats and public servants, and though we also fully sympathise with the desire not to appear to wound the susceptibilities of Continental Monarchs and statesmen, or to put any obstacles in the way of the growth of those friendly relations between foreign Governments and our own which the King has done so much to foster by his tact, good feeling, and wise amiability, we cannot help thinking that in comparing the two evils, the greater is to be found in the general breakdown of the rule against accepting foreign decorations. If the making of exceptions goes on at the pace at which it is going, we shall very soon reach what we may call the "exchange and mart" position as regards decorations,—a position which, we feel sure, would be as heartily disliked by the King and his Cabinet as it will be detested by the general British public. In our opinion, then, the only satisfactory plan will be to revert to the old rigid rule. Of course, if this is done, it will be necessary, whenever there is danger of a foreign Sovereign offering a decoration to a distinguished Briton, first to ask the Sovereign in question not to propose any such mark of his personal favour and goodwill, since it has become necessary, in view of public opinion here—public opinion is a force understood by all Monarchs—to enforce the rule strictly. It could easily be pointed out in diplo- matic language that ours is a somewhat savage people who do not properly appreciate the elegances and amenities of life, and that it would be exceedingly painful to our Government to see expressions of public opinion here which might seem unfriendly, and show a want of appreciation of decorations rightly regarded with awe and veneration in the lands of their origin. In a word, that " insularity and brutal ignorance of foreign ways and customs" which is the commonplace of Continental criticism about this country might, in the hands of a skilful diplomatist, be used to excuse the maintenance of a general rule against the acceptance of Orders. The position once thoroughly established, the Continental Monarch, anxious to be specially civil to a distinguished Briton, would be able to say to him :—" I should like immensely to give you the Tusk of the White Elephant of the First Class, but I understand that your rule against Orders is now being enforced very strictly. I am very sorry, but at any rate I want you to know what, had your rules been more elastic, I should have done." After this, no expressions of gratitude and thanks on the part of the distinguished Briton, however deep and unguarded, would put him in any danger of being " crowned " or " eagled."
After all, the rule against foreign Orders is a perfectly sound and intelligible one. Orders and decorations are a form—a very honourable form—of livery. But a man wears his own master's livery, not the livery of his master's friends. We should all think it ridiculous if Brown were to confer on Smith's footmen the right of wearing red waistcoats when their proper colour was buff, or to confer on them the right of having crossed spoons and forks on their cuffs as a sign of their special dexterity in cleaning plate. Such merit can only really be tested in a man's own pantry and rewarded by himself. We are strongly in favour of handsome liveries for our public servants, and for the maintenance of appropriate and historic decorations to be conferred for public merit; but in our opinion they ought to be given only to those in the service of the State which confers them, and is able, therefore, to judge of the qualifications of the recipients.
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