Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/157

 10 s. vii. FEB. 16, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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mellowed very considerably, and seems more in keeping with the sober aspect of the other portions of this famous old build- ing. The work thus brought to a successful issue was costly, but now, seen in its entirety, is a distinct gain from every point of view.

To the dormitory of Westminster School, as may be seen from Great College Street, there has been added an additional story, to be devoted to the purpose, at least in part, of an isolation ward in case of infectious illnesses, though I hope that it may not be needed for this purpose.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.

(To be concluded.}

PETITION or THE PRINCE OF MONACO. The following is a translation of the original inedited draft, in my possession, of a petition from the Prince of Monaco to the celebrated Carnot in 1794. The Prince and Princess were both imprisoned under the Terror. He survived ; she cut off her beautiful hair, refused to save her life by falsely pleading being enceinte, and died heroically.

Petition to the National Convention.

Citizens, An infirm old man, aged more than 70 years, finds himself shut up for five months past in a house of arrest, where his health deteriorates, 111 1 til he is in clanger of losing life ; this man, Citizens, who appeals now to your justice, and indeed the protection and assistance that the French Nation has so many times promised him, is Honore Camille Leonor Grimaldi, formerly Prince Sovereign of Monaco, an ancient ally of France, who has always manifested the most sincere and constant attachment for her, and who thought he had sufficiently proved^ it by the ' Memoir ' which lie addressed to the National Convention, 26 Fri- maire ; and to whom, finally, your Diplomatic Committee sent, in making, 11 Fri e, 1793, their Report upon the reunion that they had decreed of his country to the French Republic, and said that you would always give protection and a safeguard for all that could belong to him, in the character of a simple citizen.

To the Memoir addressed to the National Con- vention, 26 Frimaire, which was sent back to its Committee of Public Safety and Health, Honore Grimaldi adds now the writing here subjoined ; he proves that from any point of view, the former Prince of Monaco cannot be considered as a suspect to the French Nation, nor arrested as such, when above all he has not gone out of Paris since the Revolution, and that he always believed in it, in such a manner as to drive away any suspicion. He is constrained, Citizens, to add the reason, that if there is a country in the world where the liberty of Honore Grimaldi ought to have been more scrupu- lously respected than another, it is in France, where he has preferred to dwell with more confi- dence than he had for any place, counting on living there in peace and tranquillity, under the safeguard and protection that the French Nation has guaran- teed to him, and that your Diplomatic Committee

had passed and consolidated in the Report that they had made on it, 14 Fri., 1793.

Honore Grimaldi demands, Citizens, that the writing annexed to the Petition here drawn up should be joined to the Memorial which he sent back to the National Convention, 26 Frimaire, and which it has returned to the Committee of Public Safety and Health ; and he prays you, in the name of the humanity and justice with which you are animated, to charge these two Committees to make a prompt Report upon that u-hich concerns htm, the object of his appeal.

Honore Grimaldi ix rery *orry, prays you also, Citizens, to divert, for an inutant, the National Con cention from the important irork* which occupy it unceasingly, but if it will deiyn to observe that it is an old infirm man, an ally and dependent of the French Nation, who has not merited any reproach to make him apprehensive on his part, and who yet has been detained for nearly five months past, they irill^ not fail to find it very natural that he shouldf claim hi* liberty, and will take into consideration' the position in which he finds himself, and in re- ceiving favourably his appeal, the National Con- vention will prove to all Europe that it will be rather justice than force that it will consider in the appeals that other Allies may address to it.

At Paris, 12 Pluviose.

Note. It will seem proper to copy entire the article of the Report of the Citizen Carnot which

.y concerned, concerns my person.

The italicized words are crossed out in. the original. The words " to divert " in the second line of the last paragraph of the petition should have been crossed out.

D. J.

OXFORD GRADUATES, 1675-84. In the ' Calendar of the Ormonde MSS.,' new series,. vol. iv., recently issued by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, there is a long series of letters from Ormonde as Chancellor, asking for various dispensations, &c., for more than 300 Oxford men. This list should be noted by all who are interested, for in many cases biographical facts are mentioned. The letters occupy pp. 599-641, and the names are indexed on pp. 710-13.

fel( W. C. B.

SCHOOL SLANG AT ROSSALL. It may be worth while to put on record in ' N. & Q.' the slang in use at Rossall in July, 1906 school terminology so quickly changes.

1. The following abbreviations were in vogue : Mu(seum), sani(torium), hos(pital), puni(shment school), compul(sory cricket, football, or hockey), enter(tainment).

2. The last is on the borderline of the formations originated at Harrow, and since disseminated everywhere : brekker (= break- fast), Blacker (= Blackpool), collegger (= col- lection). Perhaps other formations like these, however, are dying out : " exhibigger" (exhibition) is dead.

3. More distinctive are : scanty (a small