Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/12

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xi. JAN. 2, 1915.

To my mind the walls discovered in Brampton correspond to the walls at present used in our own country, although I admit this holds true in only a rough way. Should I be assuming too much were I to say that these Brampton walls were once above ground, or at least in some cave or grotto ? Their depth in the earth upon discovery might be due to gradual changes that had taken place in the topography and physio- graphy of the neighbourhood. As to any doubt that might arise concerning the survival of the brick walls through so many centuries without wearing away and finally disappearing, I might offer as an example the artificial mounds and walls lately brought to light in North America. These were built during the Pleistocene Age. Or if the Brampton burial walls were constructed in a cave, they very probably were not sub- merged in earth until recent times, when the roof of the cave fell in.

Whether the walls were built in a cave or on the surface of the ground, the important fact is that their peculiar construction, in coincidence with the method of burial in New Orleans, brings forth the idea of the topo- graphical changes that have occurred in England. Was the region around Brampton at one time in the vicinity of a large river, or did the sea approach close thereto, making the wall method of burial compulsory ? It is for those best fitted in this line of research to determine. KENNETH M. LEWIS.

Short Hills, New Jersey, U.S.

THE LITERARY FRAUDS OF HENRY WALKER THE IRONMONGER.

(See 11 S. x. 441, 462, 483, 503.)

10. (a) ' SEVERALL SPEECHES DELIVERED AT A CONFERENCE CONCERNING THE POWER or PARLIAMENT TO PROCEED

AGAINST THEIR KlNG FOR MISGOVERN-

MENT. '

PUBLISHED on 3 Feb., 1648, nearly a whole year before the King was beheaded, and professing (inferentially) to be a report of a conference between the Lords and the Co -unions about taking action against the King, this book is the most important fraud in English history. It is usually catalogued to the Jesuit Father Robert Persons, or Parsons, who, or Verstegan, wrote the original book, of which this was a piracy. The original is a rare work, owing to the steps ta'<en to suppress it when it was pub- lished. The following is the title of the

copy in the Grenville Library at the British Museum :

" A Conference about the next succession to the- Crowne of England. Divided into two partes. Whereof the first conteineth the discourse of a civill lawyer, how and in what manner pro- pinquity of blood is to be preferred. And the- second the speech of a temporal! lawyer, about the particuler titles of all such as do or may pretende within Inglande or withoute to the next succession.

" Whereunto is also added a new and perfect arbor or genealogie of the descents of all the- kings and princes of England from the Conquest down to this day, whereby each man's pretence is made more plaine. Directed to the right honourable the Earle of Essex, of her Majesties privie councell & of the noble order of the Garter- Published by R. Doleman. Imprinted at N. with License. MDXCIIII."

The origin and history of this book have been exhaustively treated by the Rev. J. H. Pollen, S. J., in a paper entitled ' The Question of Queen Elizabeth's Successor,' printed in The Month for May, 1903. Father Pollen seemed to incline to the view that its printer,. Verstegan, poet and antiquary, was it author, rather than Father Persons, though I understand that he has since somewhat modified his opinion. The work is a learned one, but met, and still meets, with con- demnation on all sides, both Catholic and Protestant. What is quite certain is that no controversial work ever had a stranger after-history. The full title of Walker's piracy deserves citation, if only to show how he succeeded in changing the original object of the book :

" Severall Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the power of Parliament to proceed against their King for misgovernment.

" In which is stated :

" I. That government by blood is not by Law of Nature or divine, but only by human and positive laws of every particular Common- wealth, and may upon just causes be altered.

" II. The particular forme of monarchies and kingdomes, and the different lawes whereby they are to be obtained, liolden and governed, in divers countries, according as each Common- wealth hath chosen and established.

" III. The great reverence and respect due to kings, and yet how divers of them have been lawfully chastised by their Parliaments and Commonwealths for their misgovernment, and of the good and prosperous successe that God hath commonly given to the same.

" IV. The lawfulnesse of proceeding against Princes ; what interest Princes have in their subject's goods or lives ; how oathes dp binde or may be broken by subjects towards their Princes, and, finally, the difference between a good King and a tyrant.

" V. The coronation of Princes and manner of admitting to their authority & the othes [sic] which they doe make in the same, unto the Com- monwealth, for their good government.