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HISTORY OF THE

[WILLIAM IV. AND ERNEST.

KING WILLIAM,

The First of Hanover, and Fourth of England, who was the Third Sovereignand Grand Master of the Order.

His Majesty’s Sovereignty was marked by the profusion with which theOrder was bestowed on His British Subjects, it having been, in fact, madethe reward both of Military and Civil services. Such an application of theOrder was assuredly foreign to the object for which it was established; andgreat as were the merits of many who received it, such a deviation from theoriginal design could scarcely fail to lessen its value in the Kingdom to whichit properly belonged. That King William’s motives were generous and purecannot, for a moment, be disputed; but such an extensive distribution of Honoursin this Country, altogether independent of the recommendation, or even know-ledge of the responsible Ministers of the Crown, was little in accordance withthe spirit or practice of the Constitution. It must, however, be observed, thatthe purposes to which the Order of the Guelphs was applied by King William,mainly arose from the regulations of the Order of the Bath having prevented itfrom being given to numerous Officers, although they had greatly signalizedthemselves; and from there not being an Order for Civil Merit in England.For an Officer to have displayed extraordinary valour, and to have beenineligible for the Order of the Bath, was, in itself, a recommendation for that ofthe Guelphs; and as the Knights Commanders were generally Knighted, itnot unfrequently happened that persons, whom the King’s Ministers thoughtit contrary to their duty to recommend for honorary Distinctions, did, in fact,thus receive more brilliant Decorations, and attain to higher British Honoursthan some of the oldest and most distinguished Officers in His Majesty’sService.

It was not, however, to the Navy and Army that these liberal distributionswere confined. The Great Officers of the Household, and others of the Nobility,and many personal friends or family connections of His Majesty, were madeKnights Grand Cross; and it should be remembered, to King William’s honour,that some men eminent in Science and Literature, were also admitted into the