On the 25th May, 1847, there appeared in the Gazette letters patent under the great seal reconstituting the Order of the Bath. It was announced that it should consist of two divisions, the Military and the Civil; each division comprising three classes. This memorable document was accompanied by certain regulations as to the number of each class of the knights, followed by a new set of thirty-seven statutes, which it declares “_shall henceforth be inviolably observed and kept within_ _the said Order_.” But throughout these “_inviolable_” statutes, _scientific_ merit is not even mentioned as a qualification. In the Civil branch of the Order the qualification for the first class is prescribed by the eighth statute, and the tenth and twelfth statutes distinctly refer to the same. The only qualification to be found in the statutes applicable to either of the three civil classes, is when, referring to the first class of the order, it is stated that— “No persons shall be nominated thereto, or to either of the other two civil divisions of this Order, who shall not _by their personal services to our crown_, or _by the performance of public duties_, have merited our royal favour.” The first of these two qualifications includes the services in the household of the Sovereign. Now although it may be agreeable, and may even be thought desirable, that the head of the State should have means of occasionally conferring distinction upon those of its subjects in personal attendance upon it, who have undertaken and accomplished duties beyond the immediate sphere of those for which they are paid in money and by position, yet such claims are personal, not national claims. The lord-in-waiting who has been the agreeable cicerone of some foreign prince, may well be contented with the diamond ring, the costly _tabatière_, or the flattering miniature, eclipsed only by the brilliants surrounding it, which recall to his memory those hours of idleness. If the prince be also a sovereign, he may add to these gratifications, that of conferring a ribbon as a further return for the _empressement_ with which the polished official has fulfilled the duties of his office. Under such circumstances he will easily acquire permission to wear that distinction in his own country: a permission which would be refused by government to the author of the most splendid scientific discovery which might shed a lustre over the age in which he lives. If such decorations are desirable for such services, let them be confined to one or to all of the four other orders: but let one national order at least be consecrated to real merit. The only other class who are qualified by the Statutes for the honours of the Bath, are “those who by the performance of public duties have merited our favour.” This may indeed include every person who holds office, but it is clear that the intention was to exclude everybody not already receiving pay from the public.