ORDER OF SAINT PATRICK.

75

Clje <£ranti piaster.

As it was intended that all the proceedings of the Order should take place inIreland, then a separate Kingdom, it was necessary that many of the functionsof the Sovereign should, on account of His absence, be performed by HisMajesty’s Representative. With that object, the Royal Founder appointed aGrand Master of the new Fraternity, and annexed the Office to that ofLord Lieutenant, or Lord Deputy, or Lords Justices of Ireland; for whichpurpose the Warrant of February 1783 contained the following clause: “ Ofwhich Order We ourselves, Our Heirs, and Successors, shall perpetually beSovereigns, and of which Our Lord Lieutenant General and General Governorof Ireland, or Our Lord Deputy, or Deputies of Our said Kingdom, or OurLords Justices or other Chief Governor or Governors of Our said Kingdom forthe time being, shall officiate as Grand Masters.” 1 The second Article ofthe Statutes declares, “ that whenever the said Sovereign cannot, by reasonof his absence without the said Realm of Ireland, hold the Chapters, or do, orperform such things as by the Statutes shall appertain to Him to do, touchingthe said Most Illustrious Order, His Lord Lieutenant General and GeneralGovernor of this His Realm, or His Lord Deputy, or Lords Justices for thetime being shall be, and are hereby declared Grand Masters of the said MostIllustrious Order, and shall do all things and enjoy all privileges, rights, andprerogatives, and do all manner of things touching the said Most IllustriousOrder, in as ample a manner as We ourselves could have done as Sovereignof the said Most Illustrious Order, if We ourselves had been present withinthe said Realm.” 2

The authority of the Grand Master in Ireland would thus seem co-equalwith that of the Sovereign himself, and to extend even to the nomination ofKnights Companions, were it not controlled by the fourth Article of theStatutes, by which the power of holding Chapters is thus reserved; “ the

1 Vide p. 7, antea.

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2 Art. II. p. 9, antea.