( *«8 ) K

tiny hath been taken, and prefented to the Sovereign heperufeth it himfelf, or the Chancellor , or fome other Officerof the Order that gathered it, reads it over to him; after- -5jfwards -the Sovereign refolves forthwith, upon fome one or y cmore of the Knights, contained in the Scrutiny j and rl?then pubiickly declareth the Name of him, or thpp, he W*does Elect ; and by the bare Adt of his Pronunciation, they *Commence Eledted Knights; except now and then theSovereign is pleafed to give his Reafons, why the Knightis Eledled by him.

But though tins Adi of Election be folely in the Save, iiiHf®reign, yet the Confent of the Knight s-Companions is fre- :ifc ^quently recorded in the Annals, and fometimes mentioned jsfi 4 ’ 1 :in the Commijjions of Legations to Foreign Princes ; net thatthe Angle Adi of Election is, in truth, the Adi of the whole jl ® 1Chapter, or is made invalid, without the joynt Confent <#S->of the Knights-Companions, prefent at the Eledlion ; burtheir Confent fo exprelfed, is to be taken as an honorary, -jjovertRefpedl given them by the Regiller, intimating rather anApplaufe, or Commendation of their Sovereigns Choice, hias being in their Opinions Juft and Right, according to ; ,tutlthe Merit of the Eledted, than a material Circumftance, felittending to the Ratification of the Eledlion made by the jaM*Sovereign, as if defective without it. / s /aid,

'elite i

§. i 5 . Among other Duties incumbent on the Tfegifler, droa'oand exprelfed in the Statutes of the Order, this is one:

That the Regifter'j Office is to fet down, and record for a ,j !(mMemorial, the EleEUons (or Scrutinies,) and Names of the ^ ^Knights Elected : But in fucceeding Times a Scruple 'j^j^arofe, if this was not needlefs, when the Scrutiny fhouldbe taken, yet no Election made ; to clear up which doubt,in a Chapter held in 5 Elizabeth, on Szf George’s-Day, itsrecorded as the Sovereign's,Will and Pleafure, that thence-forward it (hould be Enadled, and received as the San- .dlion of a Law, within this Order ; That if any N cmi- > : bj ■

nations were taken from the Knights-Companions, the fame ^

fhould be entered into the Annals’, though there were no Ele- V, .ction made of any Perfon into the Order at that Time: ^

Which we prefume was fo Decreed, out of great defe- 1^

rence to thofe Princes and noble Perfonages, who, in de- ^(tending Times, (hould, by the glory of their Exploits, ^appear but worthy of a bare Nomination into fo refplen-

dent ,