SAINT MICHAEL AND SAINT GEORGE.

83

Cfje |3>eal.

The Letters Patent state, that “ to the end that the Statutes of the Order maybe legally established without delay, We do hereby direct and command, thata Seal be immediately engraven, having thereon two Escutcheons, that on thedexter side bearing a representation of Saint Michael trampling upon Satan,and that on the sinister side bearing a representation of Saint George on horse-back and in armour, with his spear, encountering a Dragon; and that over thesaid Escutcheons be the Motto, Auspicium melioris iEvi, and that thewhole be within this circumscription, Sigillum Ordinis Sancti Michaeliset Sancti Georgii ; and Our Royal will and pleasure is, that the said Sealshall hereafter be the Seal of the said Order, and that the Statutes to beobserved within the same shall be established by, and with the said Seal, whichStatutes so to be given by Us, Our Heirs and Successors, to which the saidSeal shall be affixed, shall be of the same validity as if the same and everyarticle of them had been verbatim recited in these Our Letters Patent, andpassed under the Great Seal of Our said United Kingdom of Great Britain andIreland.” 1

A Seal was accordingly engraved on silver, containing two oval Escutcheons,with the charges, motto, and circumscription above mentioned. Nothing wassaid in the original Statutes of 1818, about the custody of the Seal; anduntil the death of Sir Thomas Maitland, the first Grand Master, in 1824, itappears to have been kept by him. In June 1825, the Lord High Commissionerwas directed to return the Great Seal of the Order to the Secretary of State forthe Colonial Department, by whom it was retained until 1832, although theStatutes of 1826 had directed that the Secretary of the Order should “ keepthe Official Seal.” 2 On the appointment of a Chancellor, in August 1832,that Officer was enjoined by the Statutes, to keep the Seal; and it was accord-ingly delivered to him.

The' Letters Patent and Statutes provide, that the Statutes and all other

1 Vide p. 8, antea.

2 Vide p. 34, antea.