ILLUSTRISSIME SIGNOR,—I have presented, with great pleasure, to the Holy Father the expressions of gratitude which your illustrissime lordship has given me in his letter of the 20th of January last, because our Holy Father had conferred upon you the Commandership of St. Sylvestre, which you acknowledged to be entirely due to the apostolic benevolence. His Holiness was raptured when he saw these expressions of veneration and love for his venerable person, and could not refrain from answering to them by words of gratitude, and by giving you, from the bottom of his heart, his apostolic benediction. Having thus accomplished the wishes which you expressed to me, I have the honour to be, your illustrissime lordship, Yours, Sec. GIACOMO ANTONELLI. The following particulars about the knighthood are found in the supplement of “Bouillet’s Dictionary,” page 42: ORDER OF THE GOLDEN SPUR. A Roman order founded by Paul III., in 1554, or by Pius IV. in 1559, has been established, according to some writers, by Constantinus, as far back as 312, to commemorate his victory over Maxencius, and approved since then by the Pope St. Sylvestre. Its object was to reward civil merit, admitting only noblemen; it could also be conferred on foreigners. Some princely families of Rome and a few high dignitaries could confer the order, which soon occasioned serious errors. Gregory XVI. reformed the order in 1841, and gave the name of St. Sylvestre, or the Reformed Golden Spur. The knights wore a golden cross with eight points, and white enamelled, showing the portrait of St. Sylvestre. It is worn with a ribbon striped red and black; between, the branches of the cross hangs a golden spur. Before the Reformation, when England was Catholic, and when the relations of that country with the court of Rome were uninterrupted, as soon as a chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench, was appointed, the writ of commandership of the order of St. Sylvestre was forwarded to him by the Pope, and he wore on his chain of office the letters S. S. Since England has become Protestant, the writ is not sent to that country; nevertheless, when a new chief justice is appointed, and when he orders at the court goldsmith the chain of office which he wears on his neck, he receives it still with the same initials S.S., as in olden times. This fact is warranted by photographs of Chief Justices Bovill and Campbell, which Judge Berthelot has in his possession, and which were given him by his friend, Judge Mackay. In a legal review, entitled _Albany Law Journal_ for 1874, in the issue of the 8th of August, we find an article headed, “Article on Campbell’s Lives of Chief Justices,” with the following comments: