The Queen has given the Order of the Garter to
the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Abercorn, the heads of the Liberal Unionists in England and the Tory Unionists in Ireland. As the late Duke of Devonshire vacated a Garter, —which was certain sooner or later to be given to his son,— there is perhaps no necessarily political significance in the former honour. But the Duke of Abercorn's investiture so soon after presiding over the Ulster demonstration, cer- tainly suggests that that service attracted the favour of the Crown, though not more emphatically so than other party services rendered by outgoing Ministers. The Queen will probably confer similar marks of favour on Mr. Gladstone's most distinguished lieutenants in Ireland and England, when he retires. The Throne asserts its impartiality, not by refusing honours to all great partisans, but by conferring them on all in turn. Viscount Cross, the Secretary for India, already G.C.B., is to be a G.C.S.I. also ; and Sir Richard Herbert, the late Permanent Under-Secretary for the Colonies, is made a G.C.B. These decorations are not only memorials of service, but presages of change.
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