The Birthday Honours published on May 20th hardly call for
comment. Lord Salisbury does not distribute them eccentrically, but according to the regular custom, taking wealthy squires like Mr. E. Heneage and Colonel Malcolm of Poltalloch for his peerages, and giving baronetcies to Mr. R U. P. Fitzgerald, Mr. W. 0. Dalgleish, Mr. Lewis McIver, Mr. J. Verdin, and Mr. C. Cave, because they are wealthy men who have done services to the party. There is nothing unusual in the distribution of minor decorations, which are all given for work, unless it be the elevation of Mr. Max Muller to the Privy .Council for his scholarship, and the gift of Knighthoods to Mr. Fitch for his excellent work as Chief Inspector of Educa- tion, and to Mr. Lepage Renouf as an acknowledgment of his place among Egyptologists. The latter, we may parentheti- cally remark, is a Guernsey man, and therefore, like Mr. Chaplean of Quebec, who is also knighted, a born subject of the Queen. We note that the "Right Hon." is now given frequently as a mere distinction, and rather regret it, as a multiplication of Privy Councillors diminishes the value of a plane in the Ministry of the day. A good Minister is the most useful of all public servants, and in our day he is none too well paid.
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