Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-07
Sir William Hull Takes Up Gage of
Battle. in a Move!
Crusade.
TO PRESERVE KNIGHTHooD
Impostors Believed to be Shattering
The Dignity of Various Eng
lish Orders.
Especial correspondence.)

London. Nov. 13.-In the old days
knights were crusaders who went forth
to do battle for fair ladies or to rescue
the holy sepulcher from the infidels.
The modern knight. in England at
least, Is usually successful business
man who has gained his honor by heavy
contributions to charities or TO the cam
paign fund of one of the political par
tics.
In Sir William Hull however, Eng
land has today q knight who combines
the qualities OF successful business
man and crusader. Sir William is the
head of one OF the largest firms of So
lic,tors in London, a solicitor. be IL
known, being & member of the lower
grade OF the profession of the law, and
In addition to attending TO his legal
business he is always engaged In some
crusade.
His most famous crusade is that to
maintain the dignity of the knighthood,
which he feared was becoming obscured
by the carelcssness of the public and
of the knights themselves, not to speak
of the conduct of persons calling them
selves knights who have no right to tho
title. Sir William came galla!tly to the
front and formed the Society of knights
Bachelor, of which he Is registrar, for
the purpose Of protecting the dignity of
the knights and exposing the impostors
A Knight Bachelor is common or
garden knight who does not belong to
one of the great orders of knighthood
like the Garter or the Bath, honors
which are generally reserved for great
noblemen OF successful soldiers. The
orders all have their official registers
so that an impostor claiming to be q
member of one of them would soon be
exposed, but there is no record of the
knights bachelor except the simple an
nouncement in the official gazette OH
the day after they have been dubbed
by the king. Sir William is agitating
for tho creation of an official register
which shall contain the name of every
one entitled to call himself a knight
HAS WRITTEN BOOKS.
on the history of knighthood, tracing 1t
back to the time of Charlemagne and
proving 1t to be the oldest dignity, aft
er royalty, in existence. The king has
accepted a copy of the books and has
expressed his thanks to Sir William for
his researches. Sir William also has
proved that for hundreds of years
knighthood was the only dignity con-
ferred for personal service to the SOW
ereign or to the state. In the old days
there were no hereditary titles of no.
bility and their first appearance in Eng
land was when the feudal and terri
torlal and purely military title of
baron became hereditary.
Sir Williams latest crusade is against
socialism, which he believes is menace
to society and the state, and like true
crusader, he is endeavoring to enlist the
support of women. He has offered
through the newspapers a series OF
scholarships to women who wish to
qualify as ant;-Socialist lecturers,
which will be sufficient to support them
during the period of study, and as a
leading member of the anti-Socialist
league he promises that there will be
plenty of work for them when they are
qualified. Women, he believes, are the
most effective propagandists. and he
declares that with an efficient army OF
women lecturers he will kill the Social
ist movement in England before many
years