A hundred years ago
Lord Beaconsfield has been made a K.G., and has obtained the remaining Garter for his faithful colleague, Lord Salisbury. The Prime Minister received investure as Knight of the Order in a private audience at Osborne, without any parade or ostentation, and it is understood that he prefers to remain Earl of Beaconsfield, instead of taking any higher title of nobility. The Garter itself associates him with some fifty of the most distinguished personages in Europe, nearly half of them being royal, and the other half, British nobles of the highest rank. As Lord Beaconsfield has done much more than most of them, and has, in the opinion of the Queen, served materially the interests of the Empire, it is reasonable enough that he should be admitted into this highly distinguished Order. But whether what he has done be really a service or a severe blow to the Throne he serves, no sign of Royal approval, of course, can determine. In the world where illusion is stripped away, a good many Orders of distinguished merit will be read with a minus sign before them, and stamp not only the practical blunders of favourites, but the grand misplacements of favour.
Spectator, 27 July 1878
Previous page
