Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/616

 510

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. DEC. 28, 1907.

few days ago from London to tell me that this

version is not Longfellow's own, but appeared first in a number of The British Quarterly for 1832. The notion that the English lines were Longfellow's own had been fixed in my mind by a thing trifling enough, but just of that kind from which one often draws a half-unconscious inference. In 1863 I met Thackeray in London, and with his iisual good- nature to old Carthusians he asked me what I had been doing lately especially, what I had been translating ? I mentioned these lines, and I remem- ber his saying that he thought no original work of Longfellow's was better "

I should like to know who made this version. It is superior to several others I have come across. The original is called ' Auf der Ueberfahrt,' and was written in 1823. The scene is the Neckar below Cannstatt. S. IN A.

BATE FAMILY. Is anything known of William Bate, Esq., whose daughter Marianne married * Mr. Wm. Banks of Revesby, father of Sir Joseph Banks ?

EDWARD SMITH.

Putney.

KING FAMILY. I should be greatly obliged for any information about Charles King, who married a IMiss Hill of Newent. Glos., c. 1728, or about Thomas King, who received a grant of arms in 1589 : Sa., a lion rampant between three cross-crosslets or, crowned with a ducal coronet ar., armed and langued gu. Crest, on a wreath a swan's neck couped, gorged with a ducal collar.

BASIL KING.

The Ferns, Chislehurst.

BEACONSFIELD ON PROTECTION. I have heard the remark, " Protection is not only dead, but damned," attributed to Lord Beaconsfield. In what speech or writing does it occur ? and at what period was it made ? R. L. MORETON.

GREEKS AND BLOCK AND TACKLE. Is there evidence that the ancient Greeks or Romans knew of the mechanical contrivance called a block and tackle ? Pieces of a simple pulley which had been in use at a well were found in a Roman fort at Bar Hill (Proceedings of the Soc. Antiq. Scotland, 1905-6, p. 494). JOHN MILNE, LL.D.

Aberdeen.

SIMON FAMILY. Can any of your reader: kindly inform me if John Simon the engrave was related to Abraham Simon and Thomas Simon the medallists ? I hav drawings in Indian ink and mezzotint signed by John Simon, his brother the Rev Peter Simon, and the latter's daughte Elizabeth Simon. SADI.

THE TREATY OF TILSIT: COLIN A. MACKENZIE.

(10 S. viii. 469.)

IF J. D. will read Dr. Holland Rose's aper of November, 1905, entitled Canning

md the Secret Intelligence from Tilsit,' in he Transactions of the Royal Historical

Society, New Series, vol. xx. p. 61, and The

Athenceum referred to by the Editor, and

also Mr. Temperley's excellent ' Life of ianning,' pp. 72 and 91, he will, I think,

find a reference to all that is known on this ubject. J. D. says that " Mackenzie, the English spy, who overheard the conversa- ion, left on the same day for Memel." ?his is a repetition of an old story, for

which I hope to show that there is abso- utely no foundation. Mackenzie was not

a British spy, but was well known as a British Agent, and he was no more a spy .han every ambassador and diplomatic agent s a spy, whose duty it is to ascertain what s going on in foreign countries affecting his

own country. Not a tittle of evidence has ver been produced to prove that Mac- canzie was an eavesdropper, and overheard

the conversation on the raft between the iwo emperors, Napoleon and Alexander,

relating to the treaty. Dr. Rose deals with

the spy story at p. 63. This is what he

says on the subject :-^

"At the time of the interview the pavilion was surrounded by sentries, both Russian and French. [t is therefore not easy to see how a spy could have secreted himself, in or near, or underneath, the tent where the interview took place. Judging from the care which was best/owed on all the preparations for that momentous interview', we may dismiss the stories respecting the presence of some English spy on the raft as being highly improbable."

According to Ireland's ' Life of Napoleon ' (iii. 61), the interview lasted about two hours and when it was closed the atten- dants of the two emperors were admitted. Is it suggested that the spy concealed him- self on the raft before it was moored in the river or that he went out in a boat and got on board, and concealed himself, and that after remaining there for hours a boat came and took him on shore again ? The story, although repeated from time to time, when it comes to be examined by the light of common sense is nothing but a myth. On 3 Feb., 1808, Canning, in his speech on the ' Expedition to Copenhagen,' argued that what had taken place since the meeting of the emperors was enough to