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    THE ADMISSION TO THE BATH . It has been discovered that when a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath is admitted , he pays 1 G 4-Z . 13 s . 4 d . in fees to the officers of the Order—to the Dean , for his benediction ; to the gentleman usher , for his introduction ; to the messenger , for his assistance ; to the Bath King of Arms , for being Bath King of Arms , and also a separate sum for furnishing " the book of the statutes ; " and to the Secretary , for being Secretary , and for furnishing "

    notice of election . " When an officer baa performed some great achievements for the service of his country , the country , through the Sovereign , expresses it gratitude by conferring upon him a new title ; and the grateful but commercial country at the same time sends in its " little bill" for the expenses of the gratitude . The little bill is conceived with all the art of the innkeeper , only the waiters of the hotel will envy the vails taken by the waiters of the country . It has been known that individuals have declined the Order because they could not pay the fines . In other

    words , they could not afford to accept the acknowledgments of their grateful country . We have heard , indeed , of individuals receiving the honour , and declining to pay the bill , on Paul Pry ' a principle , that vaila are " optional ; " and the story is , that the refusal was held to be good . Sometimes the fees are voluntarily remitted by royal command . Of course you will suppose in the case of persons who are poor , though heroes ,: not at all . The remission is made in favour of foreign Sovereigns , Our contemporary , the Times , who " takes up" this important subject , supposes that the remission is made for the purpose of saving the

    dignity of the country , in order that foreign , potentates may not know bur custom of , presenting a little bill of charges for the state gratitude ; but we doubt the reason . We suspect that it lies in the strong sympathy which prevails in high quarters for Sovereigns ; a class who never have enough money in their pockets ; and they will resort to any shifts to get or save cash . We only remember to have heard of one who was ashamed to ask his people for money , and that was the scapegrace ChabIiES the Sj *" cond . But , scapegrace as he was , he had something human about him , and he had not only state feelings . More respectable Sovereigns never evince that kind of bashfulness ; but an Emperor , who will persecute the poorest of his subjects for his dues , will thankfully accept remission . p £ the fees which are paid by mere nobles . ' :. ' . ¦ The Times justly thinks . ' this ; price put upon , gratitude disgraceful , and seeing the necessity of some such institution as these orders of chivalry profess to be , it calls for " a fourth class of the Bath , or a new order which should date from the era of a great achievement and the reign of a respected Sovereign . " That is , the instituted Order of Chivalry being quite converted into antiquated lumber , and retained only as a humbug , the Times proposes to annex to the old ruin a new order of genuine chivalry—of real distinction . This is placing " the right man in the right place "—the true beneath the spurious ! But has not something of the kind been attempted ? There was a civil class of the'Bath , which was to be an " order of merit , " there were extensions of it . The difficulty , however , appears to have consisted , first , in breaking through routine so as to confer the distinction upon people whom the country regards as actually distinguished ; and seicondly , in giving any real value to the title . The plan has been rather to let this supplemental honorarium fall on the heads of those who were the hangers-on of grandees ; and some pushing Smith or Bbown , that could get himself into the managing body of som e favoured humanitarian or scientific " dodge r " enjoyed the privilege of letting other people put " C . B" after his name . Where is the substantial enjoyment ? One " John Smith " receives letters with " Esq . " after his name , and another " John Smith , Esq ., " receives letters with the further initials " C . B . " annexed , and there the distinction ends . Nobody calls him C . B . ; nobody says " Companion John , " " Bath Smith . " He is not even a common " , " and , really , he scarcely attaches more value to the literary augmentation , than he would to the " riband for which he sees great lords contend . It is strange that so inventive a country as the British cannot hit upon any well-designed plan of marking the national approbation of distinguished services . We have no provision in the cose of women , except giving them money . - There was a proposal lately to prove that the country is not unworthy of Florence Nightingale , by making her a Peeress . Now , a Peeress is no such " great shakes" after all ; and the gift of the title to Miss Nightingale would rather tend to redeem the character of a tarnished institution , than to elevate her . But it was thought too much . The giffcof a title to a woman not more woalthy than Fx-obbnok Nightingale , or not more immediately connected with high families , would bo a precedent for giving up privileges w »« g » -JJf " maters and those connected wth the government nre inclined to refuse ; and f ^ J ™ refuse . There was then n nroposa \ \ f ™ the lady into * o Orfg ^ J ^ ^ g U

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    Circulation ^ concerning a treaty between the Cabinets ? rof St . Petersburg and London which guarantees 4 rom attack the American settlements of Russia . We have not the aniallest faith in the existence of such aeon-^ ei » tipn , 'tJSiyhieh would seem to justify the iftafSt J ^ inuations of the party of suspicion . ^ ertSitol ^ r ^ e are no advocates of violence ngsdtj ^ t ^^ xig viVlagea . But Sitka is fortified to a considerable extent , and on the island of Kodiob the Russian citadel mounts upwards <> £ arliuttdred cannon . If such places , therefore , are not reduced , magnanimity has little to do with , the neglect . Ifc maybe that the Allied admirals have sufficient motives for their reserve but it is impossible to disprove the necessity of watching those stations , and of dismantling , if practicable , the works at Amoor . In Canada a strong party has risen , which advocates the conquest of the Russian possessions iii America . The exponents of this idea propose to raise a colonial force to act as an auxiliary of the fleet , and to annex the territory , from New Archangel to the country of the Esquimaux , to the Government of Canada . In addition to the pure colonists thex'e are numbers of half-breeds , of adventurous character — the Red River hunters among them — who would enlist , without reckoning the Indians , though in Brazil an Indian corps of 6000 men has been regularly trained and armed . We suspect that the Americans would regard with great jealousy any such project ; They also have their ulterior views upon Russian America ; , but the first difficulty in the path of these ambitious Canadians is the policy of the Allied Powers . From the first it has been declared by < 3 reat Britain and France that for no purposes of aggrandisement have they undertaken the Russian war . Their ; course of action has been determined by the resolution to uphold European rights and laws , and not by schemes of territorial ^ acquisition . Moreover , were it even clear ? that f to- extort from Russia an equivalent for the sacrifices imposed on England by this ^ struggle , her North American colonies were forfeited , what would be the share of France ? . Remote as these considerations are , they arise whenever we look distinctly to the issue of the present conflict . It is another thing to insist that , while the conflict lasts , every . effort of violence that involves no disproportionate loss should be applied to the 1 coercion of Russia . It will , therefore , be a disappointment and a blunder if the naval campaign in the Pacific be adjourned without establishing the Allied fleets at the mouth of the Amobr . : There is a strict propriety in thus connecting the circumstances of the Chinese .-and Turkish Empires . Both are decaying . . la both the military ruling class , separated by a thousand differences from the mass of cthe population , have excited its hatred . From ifeoth has Russia , acting upon their fears in the . midst of their dissensions , obtained grants of territory and political privileges ; for , -though the fact be not widely known , it is , certain that the border races of Tartary live under the mixed influence of the Russian / protectorate and of the Mantchu rule—the -Russian protectorate signifying , of course , an alternate process of oppi'cssion and cajolery . Tlie , indefinite extension of this process must lead , by the logic of events , to the subjection , i > $ Northern China . : 0 ? he-i acquisitions of Russia in Tartary are raJbeeacty , equal in extent to the wholo of lJEurkejr ! m " Europe , added 'to Italy and Spain . ^ Th « y stretch in a broad curvilinear" belt , from ;' tb , 0 Northern end of the Caspian Sea , to the cborderd of China , and comprise a prodigious : variety- of Boils and populations . No sooner

    does this shifting frontier touch the confines of a petty independent state , than it passes onwards , blotting out of the desert sovereignty as easily as M . Coq , when he desired to impose on the King op Mobocco , blotted out France and Spain on the map , and added them to the territories of Belgium . But these vast spaces are of little value unless with outlets to the several oceans , llussia has advanced in actual possessions a thousand miles towards Teheran , but the land-locked Caspian is of little value compared with her ulterior objects in that direction — Bassora on the Persian Gulf . A course exactly identical has been pursued at the north-eastern angle of the Chinese Empire , where the Amoor was envied as the parallel of the Euphrates . If it be doubted that these mighty schemes exist , the proof is given in the undertakings already attempted . Timkottski years ago , and Letchine more recently , have described the incessant war kept up along the Tartar and Russian frontiers . Siberia having but one water-way to the East—the Amoor—Russia pushed along the borders of that stream , through the territories of insignificant tribes , until she reached the boundary—formerly impassable—of the Chinese Empire . If events have any meaning , her further purpose is to secure a local influence on that coast , which will radiate over those neighbouring regions where , while the soil is prolific and the position favourable , the governments are falling to decay . Russia , like Austria , is composed of fragments , torn from weak hands — such hands as rule in all quarters of the East , except those under the British or Dutch dominion . It will suffice , however , if our plain-sailing admirals—while the war continues—will visit the Russian settlements on the Amoor , on the Aleutian Isles , and at Sitka , and take possession of all armed places belonging to llussia in the North Pacific .

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    SE ** EHiii 5 & 2 ^ 8 SS 3 T g E LEA DEB ; 91 S

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1855, page 913, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2107/page/13/