ON wearing orders.] MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS.

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The Ribband on such occasions is to be worn over the coat, but not to be soworn in plain or undress uniform.”

The Badge or Cross is worn either to the Collar, or to the Ribband.

The Star is worn either in full dress or in undress; but whenever it maybe proper to wear Decorations in the morning, His late Majesty King Williamthe Fourth, considered that only the Ribband and Badge should be worn, andnot the Star. When the Star of more than one Order is worn, that of thesuperior British Order is to be placed uppermost; and the Star of any Class ofone of Her Majesty’s Orders, ought to be placed above the Star of a ForeignOrder, be its rank, or the degree of the Order, what it may.

The Badge of the Third Class of Orders ought to be worn from between thesecond and third button hole of the Coat, and not affixed to the left breast;and the same remark applies to the Medals of Captains of the Navy, and tothe Medals and Crosses of Field Officers of the Army.

Medals and Crosses can properly be worn with Uniform only, thoughthere is no sufficient reason for the rule; and the Ribband belonging to themought never to be worn alone.

If Decorations were more generally worn, and it were enjoined that theRibband should always be placed at the button-hole of undress Uniforms, itmight be convenient for the Knights of the First and Second Classes of Ordersto be permitted to wear the Ribband or Insignia of the Third Class (with somepeculiar distinction on the Ribband), at the button-hole, when they did notwear the proper Ensigns of their rank, as was done at the Duke of Wellington’ssuggestion in the case of Medals . 5

No impropriety can be greater than for an individual to wear a Decorationwhich was not conferred upon him by his own Sovereign, or which he had notobtained the Royal permission to accept, with the exception, of course, of theInsignia of Corporate Bodies; and it is equally improper to wear a Medal orother Decoration in the presence of the Sovereign, which was given by anyPublic Society Company, or private individual.

Though Orders are not worn so frequently as they ought, there are never-theless certain occasions when it is held to be indecorous not to appear in

5 Vide The History of Medals, p. 33.

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