sufficient deputy to be installed as their proxy. If they send not such proxy and send no sufficient excuse the election then to be void. If they send sufficient excuse then a further four months' time is granted, and if the proxy be not sent within those four months then the election to be wholly void. In the case of knights not foreigners installation was according to the 21st statute to take place ‘in all good diligence' after the reception of the Garter, and if it did not take place within 12 months thereafter, then the election was to be void.

But as it is not possible in the earlier centuries of the history of the Order to state the dates of installation systematically I have of necessity followed the dates as printed by Beltz. From the point where Beltz's lists cease I have adhered rigorously to the date of installation [or of the letters patent dispensing with installation]. In another matter I have ventured to vary from Beltz. He includes Edward III. among the original number of knights and numbers the original or founder knights 1-26 accordingly, I exclude the Sovereign from the number of knights and accordingly number the original or founder knights 1-25. There will therefore be found a difference of one unit all the way through between my enumeration and that of Beltz. With this exception I have preserved Beltz's order throughout because of the authority attaching to his book. But for this I should have been strongly tempted to alter the relative precedence or enumeration of two or three of the knights where important corrections of date have been made by later research (See numbers 258-9). The only remaining point to notice (and it is a most important one) is that from the early part of the 19th century all foreign members of the Order are regarded as supernumerary or extra; whereas previously they had been regarded as ordinary knights or constituent members within the limits of the original number of 25.

The recognition of foreign potentates as supernumerary knights seems to have been of gradual growth. In the case of Alexander I. of Russia in 1813 he was elected a supernumerary knight by special statute. This election 'formed a precedent for subsequent similar [supernumerary] nominations of foreign potentates who previously had been elected only when a vacancy occurred. . . . After this period the missions [for conferring investiture on foreign potentates] appear to have been conducted with greater ceremony and the

foreigners thus admitted into the order were for the first time reckoned as supernumerary knights.'

With regard to regulation of stalls, it is clear that up to the close of the 18th century the knights succeeded to their stalls according to seniority within the Order and without regard to their rank outside the Order. For instance, a knight, a subject of the Sovereign, might succeed to the Prince's stall. But when, from about the commencement of the 19th century, foreign royalties began to be looked upon as extra knights outside the original number of 25, it became necessary to revise the old customary regulation of the stalls. Accordingly a statute dealing with this subject and dated 1805, Feb. 2, was read and promulgated in a chapter of the Order on St. George's Day, 1805. This statute provided that the stalls of princes of the blood should be placed according to their rank nearest that of the Sovereign; that [foreign] emperors and kings should have their stalls next to those of the blood royal according to their elections and installations; [foreign] sovereigns and princes similarly immediately next to emperors and kings, "and that all other Knights Companions subjects and strangers not of the dignity abovementioned shall be installed in the lowest stalls so that they may be translated to the higher [as vacated by death] according to their seniority in the Order and the ancient practice of the same."

This statute had the effect of introducing the arrangement of the stalls which exists at the present day, viz., that of devoting the stalls to the east of the chapel (to the left of the Sovereign's stall) to the royalties, and those to the west of the chapel (the right-hand side of the Sovereign's stall) to the 25 Knights Companions.

The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of

the Thistle.

THE legendary antiquity generally ascribed by perfervid Scotsmen to the Order of the Thistle is unsupported by any historical evidence. The adoption of the Thistle as a royal badge does not appear to date much earlier than the reign of James III. of Scotland, and no collar, either of knighthood or even of the royal livery existed in Scotland before 1539 in the reign of James V. The mere fact that this king himself wore a collar composed partly of thistles and that such a collar with the cross or effigy of St. Andrew attached was placed round his achievement does not prove the existence of an Order composed of knights on whom the ensign had been bestowed by the sovereign. There is no evidence that any person received the ensign from the sovereign until the reign of James VII., or that any person prior to that date was styled a knight of the Order of St. Andrew or of the Thistle.

The warrant of James II. of date 1687, May 29, though it purports only the revival of the Order, should be regarded as having in reality instituted the Order as such. The patent which was prepared in pursuance of this warrant never passed the Great Seal, and the statutes which were annexed to it have only the authority of the king's signet. According to these statutes the Order was to consist of 12 knights with the sovereign. The Chapel of the Order was to be the Royal Chapel of Holyrood House.

On the 6th June of the same year King James nominated 8 knights, of whom 4 were invested at Windsor Castle on that day. The others being in Scotland, took the oath, were knighted and received the ensigns at Edinburgh shortly after. All the knights received letters of dispensation from instalment. The Order remained in abeyance during the reign of William and Mary, but was revived by queen Anne by letters patent under the great Seal of Scotland

dated 1703, Dec. 31. On the same day she also ordained the statutes of the Order which, with slight alterations, still obtain. The only material alteration in these statutes was that of 1827, May 8, when the number of knights was permanently increased from 12 to 16. By the statutes of queen Anne it was provided that before any one can be admitted into the Order of the Thistle he must be a knight bachelor. Strangely enough there is no provision in the statutes for the precedency of the knights, either collectively or individually.

The Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick.

THE Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick was instituted by king George III. by warrant dated 1783, Feb. 5. The statutes of the order were signed on the 28th Feb. and the first investiture held on the 11th March following. As originally constituted the order consisted of the Sovereign, the Grand Master (the Lord Lieutenant for the time being), and fifteen knights.

At the Coronation of George IV., 1821, July, six extra knights were nominated with the intention that they should be gradually absorbed into the ordinary knights in the ordinary way of succession. Similarly at the Coronation of William IV. in November, 1831, four extra knights were nominated.

The ceremonial of installation was abrogated by royal warrant of 1871, July 14. The ceremonial of investiture was formerly performed in the Cathedral Church at Dublin, and the old banners still hang there. Afterwards it was performed in St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle, or in the Council Chamber, Dublin Castle, or at Windsor, or even occasionally dispensed with.

On the 24th January, 1833, it was enacted that the number of knights should be fixed at 22, the five extraordinary knights then existing forming part of that number.

Since the royal warrant of 1833, Jan. 30, the installation of all knights in ordinary has been dispensed with.

In 1839 queen Victoria authorised each successive Grand Master to retain and wear the Star, Riband, and Badge of the order after he had ceased to be Chief Governor of Ireland.