The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-27 00:00:00

the seaegees have done quite rib,
hie calleortea and his
reatureratioa. The'

lemat""
rabourareari_vorihy of itsUr
ate fuel bat even the, AbA can
16.°01 r

and we are not quite
afford to dispense with doe* Ms all onassiona- • to
accept it, were it only keep that lese fortunate
brethren in countenance, and shield them from the
unfriendly remarks of_ the *meant and malicious.
But there are some service, which cannot be en-
tirely or at all recompensed in a pecuniary way;
services for which honorary rewards are the most
I appropriate. It is generally felt that since the first
projection of the Industrial Exhibition very valu-
able and meritorious services of this kind have been
rendered. Nay, the knighthood conferred on three
gentlemen, and offered to a fourth, and the C.B.
awarded to other two, shows that the councillors of
the Fountain of Honour concur in this opinion. It
must, however, be allowed by all, that the attempt
I made to satisfy public opinion in this matter has
placed in a very glarinzssl‘iiht the very inadequate
powers at present pox by the Crown for ex-'
pressing by honorary distinctions its sense of meri-
torious public services.
As for simple knighthood, it has notoriously come
Ito be a distinction which one half the world
strive to escape with quite as much pertinacity as
the other strive to acquire it. It is perhape,
at present, a thing simply indifferent ; the less fasti-
dious may have no reason to be ashamed of being
huddled up in one category with our numerous
knights by accident. But looking to the back
doors which have occasionally been opened for ad-
mission to the order, if order it can be called, and some
of the individuals who from time to time have con-
trived to sneak in at them, the time may probabl3 be
regarded as not far distant when no man who values
his position in society will submit to receive the
blow en the shoulder. The prefix " Sir "is in immi-
nent danger of sinking as low as it did in old'
Romanist times, when it was the common designation
of every mom-priest.
And bating knighthood. what has the Crown to
bestow ? The hereditary " Sir" can only be accepted
by wealthy men ; if indeed, considering now often it
has in former years been prostituted to serve
political intrigue, how many spurious Nova
Scotian titles are current despite of the Heralds
College, and how barren a title it is, it can be con-
sidered much better than the title of the knight
header. As for " orders" properly so called, Eng-
land has none accessible to gement merit. The order
of the Bath, though of late extended to civilians, is
still confined to those who can be said with strict
technical accuracy to have "served the crown."
Now in this country the civil bureaucracy has been
so imperfectly organised, that the great majority of
real and valuable public services must of necessity
be performed by those who neither do, nor could be
induced to belong to it. There never was such a
mockery on earth as the pretended extension of the
order of the Bath to civil merit, if it is to be confined
to officials. A gentleman pensioner, or an amateur
scavenger (dabbling in patent manure company jobs),
or a policeman may be eligible, hut the great masa of
the really distinguished public men of the country
have no chance.

And there is no other order to reward scientific or
literary merit, or inventors in the useful arts, or
great philanthropists, or distinguished statesmen not
in office. It was a poor subterfuge the conferring
' a foreign order (the (iuelphie) upon such, while our''
King chanced to lie also King of licNornu, and even
that is now impossible. There remains, to be sure,
the lonian Order of St. Mittiod. and St. GEORGE ;1
but when we have said that we have known it re-
fused by gentlemen who subsequently condescended
, to accept of simple knighthood, no more need be said
on the subject.
We are madly in want of a civil order of merit in
this country. And the want is a serious one. It is
in human nature to covet such distinctions ; and if
they are honourably and judiciously awarded—re-
served for real merit, and never vit hitch' from real
merit—they are among the most legitimate objects
of ambition. They may be (we do not think they
are) incompatible with republican plainness ; but
England is a monarchy. England is the most popu-
lar of monarchies, and yet it is the only one in mo-
dern times which wants such a graceful connecting
link between the throne and the people. With the
exception of the bureaucracy none but military men
are allowed to deck themselves even with the bor-
rowed feathers of foreign orders. In no country of
Europe has mere military fame been brought
so near its proper level as in England, yet
even the crown can only allow soldiers to
accept a foreign order. Any military adventurer who
has contrived to get the Tower and Sword of Portugal,
or the Lion of Persia, or the Grand Cordon of his
Imperial Majesty FAUSTIN 1., may by securing a
borough to sonic influential patron on the right side
, of politics, get leave to display it in the eyes of his
wondering countrymen, but a llnascilid. or a STE-
PIIENSON would lave no chance.

It was half hoped that the occasion offered by the
ryat international exhibition of industry would have
been seized upon to supply the desideratum. Nor is it
impossible even yet to turn the opportunity to account
though certainly the beet time for doing it in the
best way has been unaccountably allowed to poss.
We are not of those who would summarily pass sen-
tence on our existing orders of chivalry, from the
Garter itself down to the Poor Knights of Windsor,
as mere rubbish relics of the feudal ages. They
are appropriate adornments of that tempered state
which our popular monarchy has retained, just as
tour reformed church has. But they are inadequate
to the wants of society as now constituted among
us. Their chief value is as a link between us and
our great ancestors ; we need something which shall
be to this thinking, talking, industrial age what
these orders were to the bygone ages of mere
fighting and priestcraft, now luckily gone for ever.
Both court and country would find their account
of a new Civil Order of Merit. It would serve as an
incitement to men of talent to devote their tale; is to
the public service; it would still more intimately
identify the crown with all the great aspirations and
efforts of the nation in every held—industrial, intel-
lectual, and moral ; and, what is nut altogether
unworthy of consideration, it would render possible
an interchange of grants of foreign orders to dia-
-1 tingaished British subjects, with grants of the Eng-
lish order to distinguished foreigners, highly con-
idueive to the growing brotherhood of motion,.