The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-03-09 00:00:00

PRESENTATION of the ORDER of the
GARTER to the KING of ITALY.

The King of Italy was on Saturday presented with
the Order of the Garter by the Duke of Abercorn, as
chief of the English mission sent to Rome for that
special purpose. Two battalions of infantry, with
their colours and a band of music, were drawn up in
the square fronting the Palace, and the band played
"God save the Queen."

The noble Duke, in handing to his Majesty the in-
signia of the Order, gave expression to the feelings of
most sincere frien,iship entertained by the Queen )f
England towards King Humbert, and intimated the
desire of her Majesty to take advantage of the first
moment after his accession to the Throne to afford
public evidence of her desire to unite more closely the
friendly relations which have so happily and so long
subsisted between the two Royal Houses and the two
nations.

King Humbert in reply, said :—" The high mission
which the Queen, my good sister and exalted friend,
has confided to you, as well as the sentiments which
you have expressed in her name, are for me, for my
Queen, and for my family a source of just pride and
heartfelt emotion. The bonds of mutual friendship
and confidence which attach me to your gracious
Sovereign and unite our respective States possess the
most solid foundation in the traditions of our Houses
and the history of our peoples, whose mutual sym-
pathies have never for a single moment been checked.
The Queen does justice to my feelings in calling to
remembrance my revered father. Be to her Majesty
the interpreter of my acknowledgments and of the
good wishes which I entertain towards her person, as
well as for the happiness of her family and the
prosperity of her people. Tell her Majesty, also,
how peculiarly grateful to me has been the choice of her
Envoy, and of the personages composing the Mission.
The Duke of Abercorn afterwards delivered letters
from Queen Victoria to the King and Queen of Italy.

In noticing the above ceremony, The Times, in a
leader, thus comments on the foundation and history
of the 'Order of the Garter" : .

The Palace of the Quirinal was the scene on Saturday of a
ceremonial which in an age less democratic, less cynical, and
less sober-suited than our own would have fixed the ad-
miring attention of Europe. King Humbert of Italy was
invested with the Order of the Garter by a distinguished
mission bearing the special mandate of the Queen. Of this
the principal members were the Duke of Abercorn, one of
the two Senior Knights Companions of the Order, and Sir
Albert Woods, Garter King of Arms, Ever since the dis-
tinctions of chivalry began to be employed for purposes of
compliment it has been usual for Sovereign Princes to ex-
change their stars and ribands, and a Prince on ascending
the throne would hardly feel that he had been cordially
admitted into the circle of Royalty if he did net
receive some such favours without delay. But the
Garter has never been cheapened as some foreign orders
have been, and it still remains one of those prizes to which
not every King may confidently aspire. The Royal House
of Italy is not wanting in chivalric and traditional pride,
less consistent, perhaps, with the prevailing spirit of Italian
nationality and democracy than with the history of the
warlike Dukes of Savoy. It is vain for the Ministers of the
King of Italy to proclaim him by the style and title of Hum
bert L, thus breaking, as they hope, the continuity of the
family annals. The spectacle presented at • the Quirinal
when the Garter was being bestowed on the young Sove-
reign was sufficient to recall to his mind the early alliances
of the English and Savoyard Houses. Nor did King Humbert
himself—surrounded as he was by the knighthood of the two
principal orders of his kingdom, that of the Annunziata
and that of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, both founded
several centuries ago by his ducal ancestors—affect to dis-
guise his feelings. In his reply to the Duke of Abercorn's
address he said, 'The bonds of mutual friendship and con-
fidence which attach me to your gracious Sovereign and
unite our respective States possess the most solid founda-
tions in the traditions of cur Houses and the history of our
peoples, whose mutual sympathies has never for a single
moment been checked" In this declaration a certain pride
of birth mingles with a sense of national dignity. The occa-
sion was calculated to awaken such feelings even if the
malignity alike of clerical and dernocratc slanderers had
not flung pointless sarcasms at the parvenu kingdom of
Italy.
When Edward 111, founded the Order of the Garter he
probably had no intention of making it a vehicle for inter-
national compliments He was preparing for the most
critical struggle with France, and he wished to strengthen
the loyalty of the flower of his nobles and soldiers by the
simple and inexpensive bondage of a chivalrous pact. But
it is remarkable that even in the next reign the admission of
foreign Princes began; a Duke of Guelderland and a Duke of
Bavaria became companions of the Order. The Lancastrian
Princes, with a doubtful title and a keen political instinct,
carried the process much further. In Henry V.'s reign the
Emperor Sigismiand, he forsworn persecutor of John Huss,
was personally installed at Windsor, and a Duke of Holland,
a King of Portugal, a King of Denmark, and a Duke of
Burgundy were all elected Knights But these illustrious
strangers took their place on an equality with their com-
panions in the order and only as vacancies occurred. Down
to very modern times the original numbers of the order
remained unchanged. The Sovereign and twenty-five Com-
panions composed the whole body. Yet from time to time
foreign Princes were chosen, most of them allies of the
reigning Kings. Charles the Bold of Burgundy was a Knight
of the Garter, and so was the Emperor Charles V. The
latter, indeed, was personally installed at Windsor, as his
predecessor, Sigismund, had been, in Henry VlL's reign.
His brother, Ferdinand of Austria, and his rival,
Francis I. of France, were among Henry VIII.'s foreign
Knights. It was in the reign of Mary that King
Humbert's famous ancestor, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke'
of Savoy, the ablest of the Imperial Generals,
was honoured with the Garter. Thenceforward for many
years the order included the greatest potentates of Europe,
and under Elizabeth a succession of French Kings and
German Emperors, not to speak of lesser Princes, were
invested with its insignia. Frederick, "the Winter King,"
Maurice of Nassau, the great Gustavus Adolphus, bring
down the annals of the Garter to the Civil War. For some
time afterwards there was an apparent decline in the repute
of the order or of its donors. Louis XIV. probably would
have disdained to accept it of Charles 11. or James 11.
William 111, only bestowed it upon the newly.promoted.K.Leg
of Prussia, and it was noticed as remarkable that Queen
Anne offered it to none of the allied Sovereigns, and
did not even confer it on Prince Eugene. In the
reigns of the first Georges there were only a few
German Princelings to keep company with the Eng-
lish Knights. But a sweeping change was at hand.
In 1788 George 111. decided to relax the statutes
of the order so as to admit, beyond the original
number of Knights, any of his own sons. Subsequently
it was decided that any of the lineal descendants of George
11. might be so admitted, and, finally, the whole progeny
of George I. wore brought within the scope of this measure.
In 1813 the Prince Regent extended the dispensing powers
still further; he nominated the Emperor Alexander for
election without waiting for a vacancy, and in the follow-
ing year he nominated Louis XVIII., the Emperor of
Austria, and the King of Prussia in the same way. He
next dispensed altogether in these latter cases with the
formality of election, as also in those of the Kings of Spain,
of the Netherlands, of Denmark, and of Portugal. Lord
Liverpool and Lord Castlereagh were in the same way
admitted as extra Knights, and the system or dispensation
was thus carried further than ever it had been before, or,
we may add, has been since.

_
It has now become usual to admit by dispensation any
number of Extra Knights the Soversign may please to select
for honour, but those chosen are usually either reigning
Princes or near connections of the Royal House. William
PT. 's brother-in-law and the Queen's brother, the Prince of
Leiningen, thus became Knights, and Prince Christian is a
later instance. It was remarked as extraordinary that at
the time of the Congress of Vienna the Order of the Garter
Included two Emperors and six Kings, but it has now so
fully developed the system of dispensations that it can boast
of four Emperors—of Russia, Austria, Germany, and Brazil
—and six Kings—of Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium,
Greece, and Hanover—besides the Shah of Persia, among its
members. In addition to the members of the Royal
family, among whom we may reckon the Crown Prince of
Germany and his son Prince William and the Grand Duke of
of Hesse-Darmstadt, there are four reigning German Dukes
among the Extra Companions. In all, therefore, the Extra
Companions are almost equal in numbers to the ordinary
Knights. When the number fixed by Edward 111. was broken
in upon more than a century ago, it was never supposed that
innovation would be carried on far, but the process is a
natural one. Care must only be taken not to make the Garter
cheap, for such distinctions have now little other value than
their rarity. The King of Italy had an indefeasiisle claim to
the honour which his father held and prized, but the
policy of flinging Garters to any inconsiderable-Princelings
or to semi-barbarous potentates may be questioned. The
dispensing power has practically abolished the ceremonies
of election and installation, but investitures, especially
when the recipient of the order is a Sovereign, are still, it
will be seen, occasions of magnificent display. barter
King of Arms is, perhaps, the most magnificent personage
that this generation has a chance of seeing, and it is his
high privilege to convey the Garter and the George
to Companions elected in their absence. If Garter, with
his surcoat and croon and his heraldic following, fails
to impress the imagination of all beholders, we can only
lament that the age of chivalry is past. Indeed, we can
hardly doubt this when we read the very cool and sensible
remarks which the Duke of Abercorn addressed to King
Humbert. If we compare them with the recorded speeches
on similar occasions of earlier Envoys, we shall find that the
Duke omitted all that it has been customary to say about
the greatness and nobility of the order and the high favour
which was shown by the Sovereign in bestowing it upon the
fortunate recipient. What we do find are words of frank
sympathy with Italy, of sincere admiration for the character
of Victor Emmanuel, and of cordial good-wishes for the pros-
perity of King Humbert's Government.