three keys of the altar of the manger of Bethlehem. 2. They have a right to guard those places, to repair, maintain, decorate, and light lamps there. 3. To celebrate the holy mass there, and to exercise the rights and ceremonies of their worship. 4. To take the lead over all other nations in their visitation of the pilgrimages of the Holy Places. 5. They have a right to visit the half of Mount Calvary, which does not belong to them, to celebrate mass on the aforesaid half, and to light lamps there. 6. The Frank monks have an exclusive right to exercise their worship in the lower part of the cavern of the great Church of Bethlehem. 7. To prevent other nations from lighting lamps there, to celebrate their offices, and to exercise their religious worship there. 8. To oppose the visit of other nations to the Holy Places possessed by them, Frank monks. 9. The actions at law brought against the Frank monks shall not be submitted to the authorities of the country, but referred to the Sublime Porte at Constantinople. 10. The Maugrebins are forbidden to offer any violence to the Frank monks at Aini g'arim under any pretext. 11. The Turkish customs-officers are forbidden to search the baggage of the monks or Catholic pilgrims which had been searched in the Levant, where they landed. 12. It is likewise forbidden to take or delay the clothes of the monks, or the ornaments of the Latin churches. 13. To compel the Frank monks to receive base coin. 14. To take money from them. 15. It is forbidden to demand the smallest fee from

the Frank monks for the privilege, of burying their dead. 16. To ill treat the monks who bring the usual tribute from Europe, in case they arrive too late. 17. To disturb in any manner the monks and pilgrims of the Holy Land in the course of their visitations or pilgrimages. 18. To disturb them at any time in the exercise of their religious worship, as long as that worship out-of-doors is not contrary to the Mussulman laws. 19. The Turkish authorities are forbidden to pay more than one visit each year to the Holy Sepulchre. 20. To compel the Frank monks to purchase damaged wheat. 21. The Latin Fathers possess an exclusive right to send members of their communities, or couriers, to Constantinople on business, without opposition."

THE LEGION OF HONOUR.

THE following is an account of the first proposition for a Legion of Honour :—

One Monday, in the February of 1802, the First Consul returned from his official labours to Malmaison, at six o'clock in the evening. The dinner was instantly served. After dinner the company divided itself into two sections. Madame Bonaparte remained

in the drawing-room with the ladies and two or three gentlemen. The First Consul repaired to the saloon, which Charles Percier had decorated with the trophies of war. Among the gentlemen who followed the First Consul were General Duroc; Monge, the chief inspector of the Polytechnic School, whose rigid republican principles made him a difficult man to deal with; M. Didelot, Councillor of State; M. Denon, recently appointed director of the Musèe; and M. Arnault, a man of letters, an ardent republican in his tragedies. To this gentleman the world is indebted for an account of the first conversation Napoleon ever had on his idea of a national decoration. Arrived in the saloon, the First Consul called his guests about him, and began to talk about the grand reception he had held the day before in the Tuileries. He remarked pointedly, that the assistants at the ceremony noticed with avidity the bright ribands and stars worn by the foreign representatives. Turning to Denon, he asked him whether he also had not noticed the sensation these ribands created? "I not only remarked it, but felt with the majority," replied the director of the Musée. "It must be owned that those broad, glowing ribands, those plates and enamelled crosses, contribute wonderfully to elevate the physical dignity of the man who wears them-in short, they dress the man."

"Exactly an artist's notion," Monge remarked drily. "These crosses, these plates, these cordons, are only tinsel the merest playthings."

"Playthings, if you like," said Napoleon; "but suppose the people like them? These crosses and cordons, ostensible signs of human greatness, strike the multitude, and command involuntary respect. Let us frankly go into the question. Men love distinctions generally-the French particularly. The French really hunger for them, and have always hungered for them. There is the cross of St. Louis, for example. Louis XIV. would never have been able to struggle against a European coalition, in the war of succession, if he had not dealt in the coinage of the cross of St. Louis. This powerful incitement gave birth to prodigies. Money was of no account when balanced against this distinction; there were many men who have preferred the decoration to heaps of gold." And the First Consul developed this idea, it was remarked, with extraordinary energy. "Well," said Monge coolly, we have only to reestablish the cross of St. Louis."

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This reply was bitter from the mouth of a man who formed part of the commission which drew up a report for the Convention, recommending the suppression of the cross of St. Louis. It may be remembered that the order was suppressed on the 15th of October 1793, a century after its creation. Napoleon received Monge's reply in silence, which he broke only to recommend an adjournment to join the ladies. Two months after this conversation was held, Napoleon had to preside at a privy council. He saw around him his fellow-consuls, Lucien, Regnaud de St. Jean

d'Angely, Berthier, and other political celebrities. He now brought forward his ideas respecting an order analogous to those which existed in foreign states, and advanced his reasons clearly and powerfully. Cambacerés gave him his cordial support, remarking that none of the ancient republics had proscribed distinctions. Regnaud de St. Jean d'Angely reminded the council that the American Government, recently emancipated, had created the Order of Cincinatus. This remark pleased Napoleon particularly, and silenced all opposition.

SPANISH COURT ETIQUETTE.

PHILIP III. was gravely seated by the fireside, the fire-maker had kindled so great a quantity of wood that the monarch was nearly suffocated with heat, but etiquette would not allow him to rise from his chair; the domestics could not presume to enter the apartment, for etiquette forbade them. At length the

Marquis de Potat appeared, and the king ordered him to damp the fire; but he excused himself, alleging that he was forbidden by etiquette to perform such a function, for which the Duc d'Usseda ought to be called upon, as it was his business. The duke was