New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-09-20
TOPICS IN LONDON.

ORDER OF THE BArH-APPROVAL ALMOST UNI
vERsAL-A FEW CRIncIsNIs-TuEm SOURCES
AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT LIBERALISM AND
now IT is REPRE- sENTED.
FROM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF TUE TRIBUNE.
LONDON, Sept. 2.-It is announced that the
Speaker of the House of Commons has been made a
G. c. Il. To the official and very stately for
inua, her Majesty has been gracIously pleased TO
confer the dignity of the Civil Grand Cross of the
Most Honorable Order of the Bath the Right
Honorable the Speaker of the House of Commons.
There is a general agreement of opinion that Mr..
Brand deserves all the honors that be bestowed
on him. But as everything in these days is criti-
clsed, this G. G. b. is criticised on two grounds ::
first, that it is not good enough 10 give the SpeaRer
and not an adequate reward recognition of has
official services; and second that reward ought
20 he given n Speaker Willie he is Speaker. The
answer to the first complaint is that there is moth
ing better to give except Pecrage and Peerage
would, of course put end TO Mr.. Brands Speaker
ship, which nobody wishes. Mr.. Brand moreover,
Is brother ana heir presumptive TO Lord Dacre,
past seventy and is hKey in the order of nature to
up to the Lords before the House of Commons is
ready to part with hun. There is the Garter The
highest OF all orders of kuighth0oI. but the Garter
Is the order which Lord Melbourne commended as
the Que thing worth having because the conditions
/ of It's beStowal included no id nonsense about
merit Besides which. or because of which, al
custom has grown up that none but persons of
rank should receive the Garter and rank for this
purpose means sovereigns, princes, and nobles and
among mobiles none, as the list now stands. below
an Earl The custom may, for aught know. be-
now statute of the Order. The Thistle which is
next to the Garter in precedence, is order for
Scotch MOBILES and there is need 30 say by what
nationally the Order of ST. Patrick is monopolized
4 SO we come to the Bath, which stands fourth and
OF the three classes of that order the Grand Cross
rs highest. AS Mr.. Brand was q Privv Councillor
before, there Is absolutely other mark of titular
Tor artihclai distinction within the Sovereign gift
more brilliant than this. And it is not nor can it,
become common. Thc.mIlitary G.. {. b., DIVISION
by itself to which civilian can aspire is limited
to fifty the civil to twenty-five; so that if rarity
\ be token of value the civil G. q. B. is tie most
precious thing To be had In the way of decoration
! among ali existing honors. 1t has been awarded
most frequently of late to Ambassadors and to-
! lingo Nlceroys Both Lord Lytton and Sir BatteI
trerc have it. When Lord Beaconsleld's Ministry
went out of office, and gave themselves the best
things then going, Sir Stafford Northcote Mr.
] Cross and Lord John Manners chose G. c. BIS ;:
which was thought odd mover could make out
whether the digrty of Cabine; Minister was
thought to suffer by this catching at collars. or
whether the dignity of the Order was deterorated
by the bcsiowal of II three Ministerial mediocre
Ties. Everybody recollects how Lord l}eaconsteld
/ long ago offered it to hr. Carlyle Any bedizenInC
of Mr. Carlyle with titles and ribbons was in those
days thought homogeneous Since the appearance of
sundry passages in those unhappy "Reminiscences"
it would seem less In Mr. Brand ease the tiUe
and the glitter 60 well enough IA the station he
fills. They match with the wig ana mace
Whether the democratic majesty of First Com
mouer OF England might not he enhanced by the
absence of such paraphernalia il a question that
must be postponed till democratic simplicity is more
IN fashion.
The second criticism is more serious or is meant
to he moie serious and comes from m extremely
serious journal, he Daity Aecs The Liberalism of
that excellent paper passes somrtlmes INTO the
acutcr form of Ralica,Isn, and it's Radicalsm is
occasionally almost ascctic. Radicaisul H. perhaps
the Of Liberalism but what il the cream
turns sour? There is note of retfulncss in this
! article the Speaker. The point of 1t is that If
!, this compliment were TO pass into precedent some
I future party leader might corrupt some future
Speaker. or might reward him for a partially by
which side OF the House had been favored
The Daily Necs appears not to be that the
precedent created so long ago S}2 when the
. same honor conferred by the Government of the
day on the then Speaker, Mr. Manners sutton
4 There is nothing on record to show that he was
q dcmoralizrd by 1t, Any distinction conferred on
y he Speaker in day. told, is in fact a
distinction conferred by the Prime Minister Of the
time. Snch things are continually said, but they
q proposed by the Primo Minister To the Sovereign.
and by her acUuicsccd in. But sometimes they are
not acquicsred in. The Queen has definite opinions
y and strong prcudiccs and will strong enough to
make her Opinions and prcudces felt merely in
the distribution of ribbons but in the composition
4 If Ministries and tho formation of Governments
4 The of this article must know it perfectly
q well He must know that before such danger rs
b he imagines cond become n reality there would
\ have Lc something very like COLLISION between
"A the Crown aud the First Minister of the Crown.
hut to admit this to refer 10 the known facts of
4 the case. would upset his only of complaint
n and he prudcntly omits it, An uneasy suspicious
I, ness of this sort not the temper which makes
"a Kadicalism palaable.
u No insinuation, are assured, will be made bv
any opponent, however narrow or bitter either
sl against Mr. Gladstone against the Speaker
81 formal disclaimer of this is seldom adequate to
control the influence Of article which is 4 tissue
L of innuendoes. But apart from TINT | will venture
to predict that something moro than lnsinuations
will be made. The lTlsh howl will be heard Mr.
"a iirand, by act of irmnesS and good sense and
courage winch will make hs name long remen.
N hered, crushed, on the morning of the I'd of last
February, Irish conspiracy which for forty -one
n hours had strangied legislation in the House OF
81 Commons. You remember the yells Of hatlled
n malignity which greeted him then. You will bo
TO hear them again, aud to be told that this
J the price for which he bartered the privileges of
"a Parliament. The immense majority of the House
sustained him. lie was appauded throughout the
n country by majority not less overwhelming. But
H then, rs now, he was criticized and by the same
IA journal in which then was heard more than Zone
y echo of Irish oatcrcsof course in the veile form
n of anxiety for ancient forms of the House and ten
for he 10Th of thn