None other can legally create a knight of the Bath." "And pray, Mr.Richard Bluewater, who made you a captain, a commander, a rear-admiral?
Do you believe me an impostor, because I wear this riband on authority no better than that of the house of Hanover?
Am I, or am I not, in your judgment, a vice-admiral of the red ?" "I make a great distinction, Oakes, between rank in the navy, and a mere personal dignity.

In the one case, you serve your country, and give quite as much as you receive; whereas, in the other, it is a grace to confer consideration on the person honoured, without such an equivalent as can find an apology for accepting a rank illegally conferred." "The devil take your distinctions, which would unsettle every thing, and render the service a Babel.

If I am a vice-admiral of the red, I am a knight of the Bath; and, if you are a rear-admiral of the white, you are also a knight of that honourable order.

All comes from the same source of authority, and the same fountain of honour." "I do not view it thus.

Our commissions are from the admiralty, which represents the country; but dignities come from the prince who happens to reign, let _his_ title be what it may." "Do you happen to think Richard III.