NATURE 
481 
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1873 
=) FOREIGN ORDERS OF MERIT 
} 4 'N a recent number of NATURE (vol. viii. p. 292) we 
: intimated that honours had been conferred upon 
ie a large number of British men of science by the 
_ Emperor of Brazil and the King of Sweden. Some of 
the gentlemen to whom these Foreign Orders have been 
offered have, however, thought it right to refuse acceptance 
of them, mainly from loyalty to Her Majesty’s stringent 
regulations respecting Foreign Orders, as issued by the 
_ Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. A correspondent, 
_who has himself refused to accept the Foreign Orders 
alluded to in our note, has favoured us with a copy of 
these regulations, and as many people are ignorant of 
_ their nature, or are even unaware that any such regula- 
tions exist, we shall be doing a service by giving them 
' publicity in our columns. These “ Regulations respecting 
_ Foreign Orders” are dated Foreign Office, May 10, 1855, 
_and are as follows : — 
“1, No subject of Her Majesty shall accept a Foreign 
Order from the Sovereign of any foreign country, or wear 
the Insignia thereof, without having previously obtained 
Her Majesty’s permission to that effect, signified by a 
_ Warrant under her Royal Sign-Manual. 
“2. Such permission shall not be granted to any subject 
_ of Her Majesty, unless the Foreign Order shall have been 
conferred in consequence of active and distinguished ser- 
vice before the enemy, either at sea or in the field ; or 
unless he shall have been actually and entirely employed, 
beyond Her Majesty’s dominions, in the service of the 
Foreign Sovereign by whom the Order is conferred. 
“3, The intention of a Foreign Sovereign to confer 
upon a British subject the insignia of an Order must be 
notified to Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs, either through the British Minister accre- 
dited to the Court of such Foreign Sovereign, or through 
his Minister accredited at the Court of Her Majesty. 
“4. If the service for which it is proposed to confer 
the Order has been performed during war, the notifica- 
tion required by the preceding clause must be made not 
later than two years after the exchange of the ratifications 
of a Treaty of Peace. 
“ Tf the service has been performed in time of peace, the 
notification must be made within two years after the date 
of such service. 
“5. After such notification shall have been received, 
Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs shall, if the case comes within the conditions pre- 
scribed by the present regulations, and arises from naval 
or military services before the enemy, refer it to Her 
Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the War De- 
partment, previously to taking Her Majesty’s pleasure 
thereupon, in order to ascertain whether there be any 
objection to Her Majesty’s permission being granted. 
““A similar reference shall also be made to the Com- 
mander-in-Chief if the application relates to an officer in 
the Army, or to the Lords of the Admiralty if it relates to 
an officer in the Navy. 
“6, When Her Majesty’s principal Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs shall have taken the Queen’s pleasure on 
any such application, and shall have obtained Her 
Majesty’s permission for the person in whose favour it 
has been made to accept the Foreign Order, and wear the 
Insignia thereof, he shall signify the same to Her Ma- 
_jesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 
ment, in order that he may cause the warrant required by 
Clause 1 to he prepared for the Royal Sign-Manual, 
No. 206—VolL. vir 
“When such warrant shall have been signed by the 
Queen, a notification thereof shall be inserted in the 
Gazette, stating the service for which the Foreign Order 
has been conferred. J 
“7. The warrant signifying Her Majesty’s permission 
may, at the request and at the expense of the person who 
has obtained it, be registered in the College of Arms. 
“8. Every such warrant as aforesaid shall contain a 
clause providing that Her Majesty’s licence and permis- 
sion does not authorise the assumption of any style, 
appellation, rank, precedence, or privilege appertaining to 
a knight bachelor of Her Majesty’s realms. 
“9. When a British subject has received the Royal 
permission to accept a Foreign Order, he will at any 
future time be allowed to accept the decoration of a 
higher class of the same order, to which he may have 
become eligible by increase of rank in the Foreign Ser- 
vice, or in the service of his own country ; or any other 
distinctive mark of honour strictly consequent upon the 
acceptance of the original Order, and common to every: 
person upon whom such Order is conferred. 
“to, The preceding clause shall not be taken to apply 
to decorations of the Guelphic Order, which were bestowed 
on British subjects by Her Majesty’s predecessors King 
George IV. and King William IV., on whose heads the 
crowns of Great Britain and of Hanover were united, 
“Decorations so bestowed cannot properly be consi- 
dered as rewards granted by a Foreign Sovereign for 
services rendered according to the purport of Clause 2 of 
these Regulations. They must be rather considered as 
personal favours bestowed on British subjects by British 
Sovereigns, and as having no reference to services ren- 
dered to the Foreign Crown of Hanover.” 
Having given these Regulations, we may be permitted, 
perhaps, to make some remarks upon them. It will be 
seen that so far as scientific men, as such, are concerned, 
they are positively interdicted from accepting Orders © 
offered to them by a foreign sovereign except in the 
improbable case of their doing scientific work for such a 
sovereign. On the face of them it is evident that they 
are the product of a time when it was thought that such 
rewards gained otherwise than on the field of battle might 
be open to suspicion. We can well understand that there 
may be reasons why diplomatists, projectors, and the like 
are better without such Orders, but these reasons do not 
apply to men of culture, whom a king might delight to 
honour for work done for mankind at large. 
It is clear, therefore, either that the triumphs of Science 
and her followers were little known or were unappreciated 
when these Orders were issued, or that such possible reci- 
pients were purposely excluded. But are not the triumphs 
achieved by scientific men over the multitudinous forces 
of nature of infinitely more importance to humanity, and 
far more conducive to the highest glory of any country, 
than the greatest military triumphs that soldiers have ever 
achieved? Indeed, to what is it supposed that the dire 
art of war itself has reached its present state of compara- 
tive perfection, if not to the advantage which has been 
taken of the discoveries of Science? And does not the 
military superiority of one nation over another depend 
almost entirely on the thoroughness with which scientific 
theories have been applied to army organisation and the 
matériel of war ? 
It seems to us unjust and cruel that men of science, 
to whose labours it is mainly owing that our country and 
the world generally are mounting rapidly higher and 
higher in the scale of civilisation, should be practically 
debarred from accepting the few honours that come in 
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