The Order Of St. Michael And St. George.

THE ORDER OF ST . MICHAEL AND ST . GEORGE .

( From a Supplement to the London Gazette , June 29 . ) •C OLONIAL OFFICE , Downing-slreet , June 23 . The f _ neen having taken into her Royal consideration the statutes of the Most Distinguished Order of Siiint Michael' and Saint George , bearing date the

£ iSt day of January , 1851 , and made under the authority of the letters patent , passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ,-bearing date the 31 st day of December , 1850 , the operation of which statutes had theretofore been limited to natives of the then United States of Ionian

Islands , or of Malta , and to such other persons as should ' -be distinguished as therein mentioned , in connection with the said islands , or with -Malta , or with her Majesty ' s service in the Mediterranean , and boifig 1 desirous of making such alterations in the said statutes as will enable her Majesty to reward such

natural-born subjects of the Crown ot the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as may be persons of conspicuous merit , or may have rendered important services to the Crown within or in connection with any of her Majesty ' s colonial possessions , has been graciously pleased , in pursuance and in-exercise ofthe

power vested in her as Sovereign and Chief of the said-Most Distinguished Order , to repeal the aforesaid statutes . And her Majesty has been graciousl y pleased by certain statutes , bearing date the 4 th day of December , 1868 , to ordain that the said Order shall thenceforth

as theretofore be styled and designated in all acts , proceedings , and pleadings , as the Most Distinguished Order of St . Michael and St George ; and that it shall as theretofore consist of thc Sovereign , a Grand Master , and three several classes of Kni g hts of Grand Cross , Knig hts 'Commanders , and Companions .

And to ordain that her Majesty , her heirs , and successors , kings and queens regnant of this United Kingdom , are , and for over shall be sovereigns and chiefs of the said Order , and that a prince of the blood royal , being a descendant of his late Majesty-King George I ., or such other exalted personage as

her Majesty , her heirs , and successors may thereafter appoint , shall hold and enjoy the oflice of Grand Master of the Order , who shall be the First or Principal Kni g ht Grand Cross ofthe same , and that Field Marshal his Iloyal Highness George William Frederick Charles , Duke of Cambridge , K . G ., Commanding

in Chief the Forces , be Grand Alaster ofthe Order . And to ordain that the First Class or Knights Grand Cross shall not exceed twenty-five in number ; and that the Second Class or Kni ghts Commanders shall not exceed sixty in number ; and that the Third

Class or Companions shall not exceed one hundred in number , it being competent her Majesty , her heirs , and successors , to appoint any person actually holding the oflice of governor in any of her Majesty ' s colonial possessions to be an extra member of either the first or the second classes until a vacancy therein should occur .

And to ordain that the persons to be admitted into the Order shall be such natural-born subjects of the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great ' Britain and Ireland as may have held or should thereafter hold hi gh and confidential offices within any of her Majesty's colonial possessions , or such other

natrralhorn subjects of the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great ' Britain and Ireland as may have held or should thereafter hold hi gh and confidential offices , or may render extraordinary and important services to her Mnjusty , as Sovereign of the United Kingdoni

of Great Britain anil Ireland , in relation to any of her Majesty ' s colonial possessions , or who may become eminently distinguished therein by their talents , merits , virtues , loyalty , or services , or who then were or thereafter mi _ ht be appointed officers of the Order .

Her Majesty- has also been pleased to ordain that it should be lawful for her Majesty , her heirs and successors , by virtue of the powers to her and them reserved in and by the aforesaid letters patent , to increase the numbers of any of the said elapses , and to assign a place in any such class to any person whom her Majesty mi ght think fit to admit into the same .

And to ordain that the following officers should bo appointed to the Order : _ A secretary and registrar , a king of arms , and „ fficers of arms attendant ou the Order , of such number , and resident iu such nlaces .

as ner Majesty Irom tnn . to time might think fit to appoint : together with other matters set forth in the said statutes . Her Majesty has further been graciously pleased , in pursuance of the statutes aforesaid , to make the following appointments to the said Order

lo bo an Ordinary Member of the First Class or ,. ' £ '"" 9 ' ' ' Craa of the said Order : _ fw ! "' ?! " •, I , 0 l , 0 l " -hle Viscount Monck , late Oovernor General of the Dominion of Canada , ami UapUun General and Governor in Chief of the Island oi Prince Edward .

The Order Of St. Michael And St. George.

To be Ordinary Members ofthe Second Class , or Knig hts Commanders of the said Order : — Francis Hicks , Esq ., C . B ., late Governor _ and Commander in Chief of the colony of British Guiana . 'James' Walker , Esq ., C . B ., Governor and Commander in Chief of the Bahama Islands .

Major-General Charles Hastings Doyle , Leutenant Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia , in the Dominion of Canada . To be Ordinary Members of the Third Class , or Companions of the said Order : — Charles Cowper , Esq ., lato Chief Minister of the

Government of New South Wales . William Charles Gibson , Esq ., late Colonial Secretary of thc island of Ceylon . Felix Bedingfeld , Esq ., late Colonial Secretary for the island of Mauritius . John Bayley Darvall , Esq ., late Attorney General of the colony of New South Wales .

John Sealey , Esq ., Attorney General of the island of Barbadocs . John Lucie Smith , Esq ., Attorney General of the colony of British Guiana . Thomas Skinner , Esq ., late Civil Engineer and Commissioner of Roads for the island of Ceylon . Theophilus Shepstone , Esq ., Secretary for Native Affairs in the colony of Natal .

COLONIAL O FFICE , Downing-street , June 25 . The Queen having taken into her Royal consideration the expediency of providing for the admission into the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George of such naturalised foreign persons as her Majesty , her heirs and successors , shall think fit

to appoint , has been graciously pleased by a supplementary statute , bearing date the 3 rd day of April , 1869 , in pursuance and in exercise of the authority vested in her as Sovereign of the said Order , to ordain that persons of whatever nation or country , who may have been dulv naturalised in the United Kingdom of

Great Britain and Ireland , or in any of her Majesty's colonics or dependencies , shall be competent tobeadmitted into the said Order , in like manner as if they had been natural-born subjects of the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .

Her Majesty has been further graciously pleased to appoint , to be an Ordinary-Member ofthe Third Class , or Companions of the said Order : — Ferdinand Mueller , Esq ., M . D ., government botanist for the colony of Victoria .

COLONIAL OFFICE , Downing-street , June 30 . The Queen has been graciously pleased to make the following oppointments to the most distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George : — To be Ordinary Members of the First Class , or Knights Grand Cross of the said Order : —

Die Right Honourable Earl of Derby , K . G ., somo time one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State having the department of War und Colonies . The Right Honourable Earl Grey , K . G ., some time one of her Majesty ' s principal Secretaries of State having the department of War and Colonies .

The Ri g ht Honourable Earl Russell , K . G ., some time one ot her Majesty ' s principal Secretaries of State having the department of War and Colonies . The Queen has also been graciously pleased to give orders for the following appointments to the said Order : —

lo be Ordinary Members of the Second Class of Knights Commanders : — Paul Edmund dc Strzelccki , Esq ., C . B . The Right Honourable Baron Lyttelton , some time Under Secretary of State for War and Colonics . The Right 'Ion . Frederick Peel , some time Under

Secretary of State for War and Colonies . The Right Hon . Charles Bowyer Adderley , late Under Secretary of State far the Colonics . Sir Frederic Rogers , Bart , Under Secretary of State for the Colonies . Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson , Knight ,

Governor and Commander in Chief of thc Island oi Ceylon . Alexander Tillock Gait , Esq ., late Minister foi Finance in the Dominion of Canada . Henry Taylor , Esq ., of the Colonial Department .

Thomas Frederick Elliot , Esq ., late Assistant Under Secretary of State for the Colonies . To be an Ordinary Member of the Third Class , or Companions of the said Order : — George Macleay , of New South Wales , Esq .

The British Druids And Persian Magi.

THE BRITISH DRUIDS AND PERSIAN MAGI .

In the general survey which has been taken of human sacrifices in this country we have found a melancholy resemblance in this detestable rite , between the inhabitants of various nations , who could not possibly have acquired it from their intercourse

with oue another . This common practice must be ( raced to a higher source ; tothe depravity aud weakness of human nature , degrading into the grossest degeneracy , an institution that probably in its primitive purity , was of divine appointment for

The British Druids And Persian Magi.

the redemption of mankind . In this and iu many other depraved customs , we may perceive a general conformity between the nations of the earth , sufficiently obvious to prove one common ori gin of all , but not sufficiently distinctive to enable " us to mark the various channels through which mankind

have passed . But amidst these general resemblances which idolatry uniformly exhibits , there are several peculiar characteristics whieh will lead us to associate our British progenitors with the ancient inhabitants of Persia . In the twenty-second

chapter of his Antiquities , Dr . Borlase has noticed with niuch precision , several prominent features of this coincidence , and the parallel which he has drawn is too striking to escape our observations . It was among the secret doctrines of the Druids , that the supreme Deity was too exalted to be

confined to temples made with hands . Hence their temples were round , were in general without a covering , and in their worship they formed circles , to intimate that God was to be found in every direction . In this they were resembled by the Persians , who tausrht that . the celestial expanse wits

tlieir Jupiter , whom they worshipped in the open air . The Druids taught , that God was too refined to be represented by any figure ; aud the Persians admitted no statues into their temples . Both the Cornish Druids and the Persian Magi , forbad the introduction of images into their temples . The

1 Muds selected hills and eminences tor the places of their worship , and the Magi worshipped their deities on the summits of mountains . The Druids viewed the serpent with much respect , and treated it with veneration , if they withheld from it divine honors ; and , as a symbol of the sun , the Persians

worshipped the serpent , which they considered as a representative of their god Mithras . The Druids paid divine honours to rocks , from a persuasion that they were inhabited by some divine intelligences ; and the Persians taught that their God Mithras was born of a rock . The Druids believed in the

transmigration of the soul : and the same doctrine was inculcated by the Persian Magi . In point of dignity , the Druids were equal to the British kings , and iu some respects even superior to them ; and the Magi stood in the highest order of the state , and were ranked with the monarchs of

Persia . The robes which adorned the Druids were white ; the holy sagus was of the same colour ; and so also was the sacrificial ball , as well as the oracular horse . In these particulars also the coincidence was preserved . The Persian Magus was decorated with white ; the Magi rode upon white horses ; the

royal robes were white , and the trappings of the horses preserved the resemblance . Ablutions and ritual purifications were as common to both as was the sacrificing of human victims to their gods . We have already noticed , that the Druids had their sacred fires , of which some vestiges still remain

in this country . The Persians also had tlieir holy Ihinie , to which they paid divine adoration , and festal fires which they lighted up at each return of the consecrated season . The uses of these fires were also strikingly similar . The Druids considered them as antidotes against the diseases of cattle ; and

the Persian extended this powerful virtue to the human bod y , placing their sick within its genial influence , in order that they might recover . The Druids compelled the inhabitants , at a certain season of the year , to extinguish all their fires , and to rekindle them from that sacred tire which thev alone

had a right to sell ; and with some trilling variations the same custom prevails in Persia even to the present day . In the art , of divination , both the Druids and the Magi were great proficients ; the principles and modes were nearly alike ; and in all probability

their success was much the same . The Druids divined from particular incidents , personal disappointment , and unexpected affiictions ; and iu these respects the Persians seem to have imitated their conduct , or to have set them an example . The Druids , as wc have already seen , had their fatal

stone , and the Persians had their artizoe , which was thought to point cut the most deserving candidate for tlie throne . The Druids approached the mistletoe , the varvairi , the samoliis , and the selago , with many awful sci uples ; and the Persian considered the mistletoe as a divine plant . With the Druids

it was deemed unlawful and profane to cut the mistletoe with anything besides a golden hook ; and the Persia ! 's had their ghez , or haulm , which they only presumed to cut with a consecrated knife . The Druids considered the mistletoe as a general antidote against poisons , and the selago as a charm

against all misfortunes ; and the Persians had their herbs , which they considered as jn-eservativesagainst the power of demons . Among the ancient Britons , no sacrifice could be offered and no religious rite performed , without

a Druid ; and among the Persians , it was criminal for any one to approach the altar or touch the victim , before the Magus had gone through the accustomed ceremonies . The Druids excluded the incorrigible from their sacrifices , aud considered it as the most