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According to another version, accredited in the diplomatic world, Metternich is supposed to have said : 'Quel évènement!' and Talleyrand to have answered: Non, ce n'est qu'une nouvelle.' Talleyrand's reputed. sagacity must have deserted him.

Again, the strangeness, or even absurdity, of an article of popular faith, is no ground for contemptuously rejecting it. What need you study for new subjects?' says the citizen to the speaker of the prologue in Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle. 'Why could you not be contented, as well as others, with the Legend of Whittington, or the Story of Queen Eleanor, or with the rearing of London Bridge upon woolsacks? Why not indeed, when a learned antiquary, besides putting in a good word for Eleanor and the woolsacks, maintains, plausibly and pleasantly, the authenticity of the legend of Whittington and most especially the part relating to the cat?!

Amongst the least defensible of Mr. Buckle's paradoxes is his argument, that historical evidence has been impaired by writing and printing, and that unaided tradition is the safest channel for truth. He deduces this startling conclusion from equally strange premises; 1, the degradation of the bards or minstrels, the professional guardians and repositories of legendary lore,

The Model Merchant of the Middle Ages, exemplified in the Story of Whittington and his Cat: being an Attempt to rescue that interesting Story from the Region of Fable, and to place it in its proper position in the legitimate History of the Country. By the Rev. Samuel Lysons, M.A., Rector of Rodmarton, Gloucestershire, &c., &c. London and Gloucester, 1860.

by depriving them of their occupation; 2, the permanent form given to floating error when embalmed in a book. But this is tantamount to assuming that a story is cleared of falsehood by being handed down orally from age to age, as the purification of Thames water is promoted by length of pipe; and Scott states, that the degradation of the bards had begun whilst they were still in high request. This is his justification for making the bard of Lorn falsify the adventure of the Brooch of Lorn to glorify his master; thereby incurring the dignified rebuke of Bruce:

'Well hast thou framed, old man, thy strains
To praise the hand that pays thy pains;
Yet something might thy song have told
Of Lorn's three vassals, true and bold,
Who rent their lord from Bruce's hold.
I've heard the Bruce's cloak and clasp
Was clench'd within their dying grasp.

Enough of this, and, minstrel, hold
As minstrel-hire this chain of gold,
For future lays a fair excuse

To speak more nobly of the Bruce.'

One of Bubb Doddington's maxims was: When you have made a good impression, go away.' To all who dislike the illusion-destroying process, we should say, 'When you have got a good impression, go away: but keep it for your own private delectation, and beware of generalising on it till it has undergone the ordeal of inquiry.' After all, the greatest sacrifice imposed upon us by critics and commentators like M. Fournier, is the occasional abandonment of an agreeable error, amply

compensated by the habits of accuracy and impartiality which they enforce, without which there can be neither hope of improvement for the future nor confidence in the past. They have rather enhanced than depreciated the common stock of recorded or traditional wit, genius, virtue, and heroism; and if the course of treatment to which the reader is subjected sometimes resembles the sudden application of a shower-bath, his moral and intellectual system is similarly braced and invigorated by the shock.

VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES:

ENGLISH,

SCOTCH, IRISH, AND CONTINENTAL NOBILITY.

(FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW FOR APRIL, 1860.)

Vicissitudes of Families and other Essays. By Sir BERNARD BURKE, Ulster King of Arms, author of the 'Peerage.' Third edition. London, 1859.

ALTHOUGH the primary moral inculcated by this book may be familiar enough, the incidental trains of thought and inquiry suggested by it are by no means equally trite, and we incline to rank them amongst the most curious and important it is well possible to pursue. When we read of the rise and fall of illustrious houses, of the elevation and extinction of historic names, of the different sources and varying fortunes of nobility, we are insensibly led on to speculate on the political, social, and moral uses of the institution, on the nature and tendency of blood and race, on the genuine meaning and philosophy of what is called birth, and on the comparative force of the distinction in the leading communities that have more or less adopted it. Is its influence increasing or on the wane? Is it a blessing or a curse to humanity? Should it be encouraged in

old countries or discredited in new? Is it essential to constitutional monarchy? Is it incompatible with republican freedom? What have inherited honours and ancient lineage done for civilisation, for science and learning, for politeness and the fine arts? Or, admitting what can hardly be denied, that privileged classes have been eminently useful in certain stages of progress, has their vocation, like that of the monastic orders in the dark ages, passed away, become a dead letter, or grown absolutely mischievous, since the discovery of representative assemblies and a free press? When, again, is or has been the pride of ancestry carried furthest, and where does it rest on the most solid foundation as regards either purity of lineage, public services, or popular esteem?

Looking at the number of family histories recently printed,' we feel we are no longer called upon to de

1 One of the most remarkable, a handsome quarto of 400 pages, is entitled Stemmata Botevilliana: Memorials of the Families of de Boteville, Thynne, and Botfield. By Beriah Botfield. London, 1860. In this work the founder of the noble family of Thynne is stated to be John de Boteville, or de Botefelet, who, temp. Edward IV., became popularly known successively as 'of the Inn,' 'th' Inn,' 'Thynn.' Another valuable contribution to this class of literature is: A History of the Family of Fortescue, in all its branches. By Thomas (Fortescue) Lord Clermont. Printed for Private Distribution: 1869.

Scotch family history has been enriched by The Stirlings of Keir, and their Family Papers. By William Fraser (not published) and The Montgomeries Earls of Eglinton, by the same learned and accurate writer.

The multiplication of family histories is not confined to the Old World. Pedigree-hunting has become quite a mania in the United States, where it would seem that the best English blood, as well as

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