Nor is the sting of the words we have quoted at all mitigated by the concluding portion of Lord Granville’s despatch, in which he proceeds “ at “ once to add that, under the very ex “ ceptional circumstances of the colony, “ I have felt at liberty to lay before <( Her Majesty my recommendation that “ the regulations which you have “ issued, aihd which, taken strictly, are “ at present void, may be confirmed." Her Majesty’s gracious desire that tie arrangements made by the Colonial Government may be considered as established from the date of the Order in Council might have been con veyed graciously, certainly without re marks that are not calculated to enhance the satisfaction with which the decoration will be accepted and worn by those to whom it has been, or may hereafter, be awarded. What, it will be asked, is the tenor of Sir George Bowen’s reply to Lord Granville? His Excel lency repeats the explanation he bad given when transmitting the Order in Council, in which he had said—“ It is “ of course known here that the Queen “ is tbe fountain of honour, and alone <( can institute orders of merit or other “ distinctions of Imperial value,’’ and he draws Lord Granville’s very particular attention to the following passage in the despatch—“ Personally “ I, would have preferred, that this u question should have been referred " home in the first instance.” This is all Very 1 well,' but it will hardly be believed that Sir George Bowen has deliberately, and with the object of appeasing the wrath of the British

Lion, done allin i|f|power to degrade Jilorotion finch he overstepped bis tip institute. “ The fUslinction, “is simply ft Vlocli': honour, instituted and “ awarded, as it has been V truly said, on a principle analo gous to \tbat on which (for “ example) the Royal Geographical “ Society, or the Humane Society, “ grant their medals.” But this is not all. 