That gallant gentleman, Captain Sword, whose good services we readily acknowledge, has hitherto monopolized all the honours which the sovereign has thought proper to distribute. We would fain see good Master Pen now take his fair share of them;[1] and the present moment, when Peace has just celebrated her Jubilee in the presence of admiring millions, is surely the fittest moment that could be selected for the establishment of some Order (call it of Victoria, or Civil Merit, or what you will) to honour those followers of the Arts of Peace to whose genius, learning, and skill the great event of the year 1851 owes its brilliant conception, its happy execution, its triumphant success. [Footnote 1: We are glad to find that the views we have here advocated, have the support of the leading journal of Europe. Vide _The Times_ of Wednesday last.] The reign of the Illustrious Lady who now fills with so much dignity the Throne of these Realms, has happily been pre-eminently distinguished (and long may it be so!) by all unexampled progress made in all the Arts of Peace. Her Majesty has been pre-eminently a Patron of all such Arts. How graceful then, on the part of Her Majesty, would be the immediate institution of an Order of Civil Merit! How gratifying to those accomplished and worthy men on whom Her Majesty might be pleased to confer it! Notes. DANIEL DEFOE AND THE "MERCATOR." Wilson, in his _Life of Defoe_, vol. iii. p. 334., gives an account from Tindal, Oldmixon, Boyer, and Chalmers, of the _Mercator_ and its antagonist, the _British Merchant_. He commences by observing that Defoe "had but little to do with this work" (the _Mercator_), and quotes Chalmers, who seems totally to mistake the passage in Defoe's _Appeal to Honour and Justice_, pp. 47-50., in which the _Mercator_ is mentioned, and to consider it as a denial on his part of having had any share in the work. Defoe's words are-- "What part I had in the _Mercator_ is well known, and would men answer with argument and not with personal abuse, I would at any time defend any part of the _Mercator_ which was of my writing. But to say the _Mercator_ is mine is false. I never was the author of it, nor had the property, printing, or profit of it. I had never any payment or reward for writing any part of it, nor had I the power of putting what I would into it, yet the whole clamour fell upon me."