THE MOST NOBLE ORDER

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 52, 29 August 1925, Page 16

THE MOST NOBLE ORDER

CONFEERING-THE QABTER ON

POLITICIANS,

THo announcement-some time ago that a Garter iiad- been bestowed on the Earl of Oxford, and Asquith was made in a ■form that ■. neither Burke nor Debrett! would approvi, "declares, the " Daily Chronicle.'i'lvv-lteae. supreme authorities on tho nicp!6S:;pf:kOigntly ritual .would havo it that? the-ex<Premier- had..been '■elected a- Knight' of Garter," for. in 'theory that "is .what is supposed to happen whenever there is a vacancy in the Order. A'''Chapter, consisting of tho Sovereign «id'aix.;knights,- is appointed to meet, and; the new companion is elected. The might-elect, if at. hand, appears, and.'.is ihvKMted. .:.If absent, the 1 Garter andiSSftrge: (the; ornament pend- ! out from tho collar) aT6 sent to him by Garter King-at-Arms. The star and the collar and the robes he must supply "himself. .Jut in, practice it is the Sovereign, possibly on the advice of his I'rimo Minister, who makes the selec- i Throughout-the ages—for it has now been in existence for nearly six centur-ies—tfie-Most-Noblo Order..of tho Garter lias EaiTno puer among the institution of ■ honour in the world. By tradition it is bestowed upon-the moßt powerful nobles in the realm, and this ha 3 led to a curious '-diversity in the charactei- of the Chapter, which is well displayed in its i present composition. Among the twenty-1 five elect are seven dukes to whom the Tiarter is almost in tho nature of an hereditary honour. There, are seldom less than seven, and.when the Duke of Jutland died "recently the vacancy was filled'by tho Duke of Northumberland, a comparatively'young, man, who succeed- 1' cd his father, .also a K.G., seven years !i"-o. The Stanleys woro the Order cen- , times ago when they were Knights of the Shir.e,,.jsO r",there .is nothing 'extraordinary iK:;the; Earl of Derby, the_ 17th of his,line, being a member even if his own merits had. not. earned tho distinction. ''. ";,,.;.,!,. .....

There" piS" now no great soldier among <ho Knights/ The last" was Lord Kitchener, '.but/ the' names of Marlborough and iWeHifigton 1; recall former wars. Thres ex-Premiers enjoy the honour. • "Lord *Rosebery7is the doyen of tho Knignts '.' Companion, having been •" elected ".as long ago as 1892. Tha Karl of Balfour became,a K.G. in 1922, find novr Lord Oxford has joined the illustrious ranks. Viscount Grey is tho : only member of the Order upon whom i t was bestowed when he sat in the Houss of Commons. That, in fact, is a very rare distinction in modern 1 times, . though Sir Bobert Walpole shared it in the, eighteenth century, and LordPalmoraton in the last.