825 
KNIGHTHOOD. 
The difcourfe being ended, the grand chancellor called 
out the great officers of the Legion, who, approaching the 
throne, took individually the prefcribed oath. This being 
done, the emperor put on his hat, and, addreffing himfelf 
to the commanders, officers, and legionaries, pronounced 
with animation and energy the following words : 
“ Commanders, Officers, Legionaries, Citizens, and Sol¬ 
diers ; You fwear, upon your honour, to devote yourfelf 
to the fervice of the empire; to the confervation of its 
territory in its integrity ; to the defence of the emperor, 
of the laws of the republic, and of the demefnes confe- 
crated by the conftitution. To fight againft and counter¬ 
act, by all means which juftice, reafon, and the laws, au- 
thorife, every enterprife which might tend to re-eltablifli 
the feudal fyftem; in one word, you fwear to concur, with 
all your might, in the maintenance of liberty and equality , 
which are the principal bafes of our conftitutions.” 
[It might be a talk of a puzzling nature to reconcile 
the arbitrary mode of government then adopted, and now 
eftablifhed, in France, with the laft expreflions of this oath ; 
but we leave it ta time and providence to fhow how 
they are, and how long they may be, compatible with 
each other.] 
Then the emperor exclaimed louder ft ill : “ You fwear 
to all this ?” And all the members of the Legion, hand¬ 
ing, the right hand uplifted, exclaimed unanimoully and 
limultaneoufiy, “ I fwear it.” Loud acclamations of “ Long 
live the emperor 1” followed from all parts ; and made upon 
the mind of the fpedtators an impreffion which time has 
not yet effaced. 
It is almoft impoffible to deferibe the fort of fenfation 
which this lolemnity excited. The monuments and proofs 
of French valour and glory ; the flags and ftandards wreft- 
ed from the hands of the enemies of the republic, and fuf- 
pended from the roof of the nave, waving in awful ma- 
jefty over the heads of the brave warriors who took them ; 
ranks ofold foldiers, mixed with young legionaries, uniting 
at once, in one point of view, the glory of the republic 
and her hopes; the religious appearance of the altar; the 
lolemnity of the minilters of religion officiating in their 
richeft veftments ; the prefence of the extraordinary man 
who had fllenced the homicide clamours of a blood-thirfty 
revolution, had re-opened the temple of peace, and was 
the efficient caufe of all that pafled at the moment;—all 
was calculated to exalt moft powerfully the imagination 
of the beholders, and to make them conceive ftrong hopes 
of duration for an eftablilhment formed under fuch for¬ 
tunate aufpices. 
High mafs being over, the badges and decorations of 
the Legion of Honour were depoiited at the foot of the 
throne in gold bafins. The mailer of the ceremonies took 
up the great and fmall eagles, and prefented them to his 
imperial highnefs prince Louis, who attached them to 
the garment of his majefty ; Bonaparte himfelf then dif- 
tributed the badges to every one of the commanders, offi¬ 
cers, and legionaries, who all came, one after another, to 
receive, at the foot of the throne, this decoration from the 
hands of the emperor. 
The folemnity was terminated by a Te Deum, which, as 
well as the mufic of the mafs, was compofed by the Direc¬ 
tor of the imperial chapel. 
At three o’clock, his imperial majefty left the chapel, 
with the fame retinue and in the fame order as he came. 
A difeharge of artillery announced the return of the em¬ 
peror to the Tuileries. At night the palace and garden 
were lighted, as were feveral public edifices in Paris. At 
nine a concert began upon the great Terrace, and at ten 
the fire-works took place on the Pont-neuf. 
Such are the conftitutions and ceremonies of an order 
which rofe, unexpectedly, upon the finoking ruins of the 
revolution, and out of a ground which feemed to have 
ihrunk from all forts of diftinitions and outlide parade ; 
in a nation who had vowed vengeance againft nobility, 
and now' adopts chivalrous inftitutions j a nation who 
Vol. XI. No. 798. 
had fworn hatred to royalty, and is governed by an empe¬ 
ror; a nation who for the (pace of ten years afforded to 
the world an example of that dreadful confufion which 
often follows upon a revolution, however evident the evils 
it is intended to correft; in fine, a great but unhappy-na¬ 
tion forced to feek for reft in the very bofom of thofe who 
had torn her own; and now ardently longing for the 
bleffings of peace, which file has not tailed for more than 
twenty years. 
CXXXV. The Order, of the Fish, in the Mogul 
empire. Having taken the greateft trouble to complete 
the article of Knighthood with the utmolt accuracy, and 
in a manner not to omit any thing worthy the atten¬ 
tion and curiofity of our intelligent readers, we find our- 
felves under the neceffity of mentioning here a fort of or¬ 
der which the Mogul emperor Shah Allum inftituted to 
reward the bravery of our heroes in thofe remote parts of 
Alia. We confels that this inftitution is not calculated 
to affimilate itfelf to the ancient European orders of chi¬ 
valry ; but it was intended as a recomper.fe for military 
valour, and an honourable diftinction bellowed upon thole 
who had given, or might give, affiftance to the emperor 
againft his enemies. Therefore, a notice of it mult find a 
place here, and will, we trull, be acceptable to our readers. 
This fpecial mark of diftinction was offered by his ma¬ 
jefty Shah Allum to the right honourable the late general 
lord Lake, when in Hindooltan, and feveral others ; and 
we have been favoured with the deferiptions and exact 
drawings of the inlignia, which are afligned to be borne 
before the perlbns which the emperor has ordered to be 
diftinguilhed by fome particular honours. As an Omrali, 
lord Lake, for inliance, had the Ullum borne before him ; 
for here the badges, if we may call them fo, are not worn 
by, but folemnly carried before, the perfon who enjoys the 
honours of a certain rank, according to the pompous rules 
of Afiatic eoftume. 
The Ullum is always carried upon an elephant, as a fpecial 
fign of refpeft paid to this kind of feeptre; and feems to re- 
prelent the long-venerated plant, the Lotus, which, perhaps 
on account of its fecundity, or fome other reafons unknown 
to us, has been, from time immemorial, worfliipped alle¬ 
gorically by the Hindoos, (who tranfmitted their religious 
tenets to the Egyptians,) as a facred emblem of gene¬ 
ration. 
Another enfign, carried before other dignitaries of the 
empire, is the Goog ; which is partly fimilaf to bulbous 
feeds, and thereby alludes to the fertility of the land, and 
has perhaps fome other mylterious meanings which the 
Bramins have not yet chofen to impart to us. 
The Punja reprefents a hand, and may be explained as 
an emblem of induftry, by which the fertility of the earth 
is fo confiderably increafed, under the direction of reafon, 
which man has exclufively received from the Creator. No 
animal inltindt ever attempted to cultivate the ground in 
order to produce food ; man alone, by induftry, has func¬ 
tioned his right to the poffeffion of the earth, to the ex- 
clufion of all the reft of living creatures, for whom, as they 
were not made able to provide for themfelves, Providence, 
ever-wife, has prepared a ready and appropriate board upon 
the whole furface of the globe. 
The Main is the reprefentation of a fifti of an immenfe 
fize, borne, in public ceremonies, before the principal of¬ 
ficers of ftate. A very ancient tradition, among the learned 
in India, holds, as a faCt, that the fea iflued out of the 
fubterraneous chambers of the earth, and that the union 
of both, under the influence of the Supreme Being, was 
the caufe of whatever exifts and enjoys life. A moft in- 
terefting idea, upon which, were we to indulge our ima¬ 
gination, we might expatiate, for the inftruction and 
amufement of our readers, through feveral columns of our 
publication. “ The fiffi, which is made of copper,” fays 
our inftruCtor from India, “ is covered with green bro¬ 
cade.” It is clear that the green brocade means the ver¬ 
dant plains of the lands from under which the fifti, an 
10 A emblem 
