Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/107

 ii s. ix. FEB. 7, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 191U.

CONTENTS. No. 215.

INOTES : The Naundorff Case, 101 Memorials of Galileo in England, 102 Dryden's ' Character of Polybius,' 103 ' Tudor and Stuart Glossary 'Notes for ' N.E.D.,' 105 Halley Family, Derbyshire Dean and Chapter of St. Martin -le- Grand 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' 106 Steam Vessels : Bombardment of Algiers, 107.

QUERIES : "Trapezist" ' 'Trash nail " " Trenchmore " 'Lieut. James Hope, 107 John Cassell Feast of Shells Will - Q' - the - wisp Constable's ' Cornfield ' Armorial Salver, 1694 Solemn League and Covenant- Martin Bulg, 108 Authors Wanted Biographical Infor- mation Wanted Breast Tackle " Rutland's Place" Hexagram and the Trinity, 109 Pyott Printed Form for Parish Register Thomson's Library Campana de Cavelli R. Short Heraldic Clerk, 110 Lord Mayor's Sword and Mace Colonels of 24th Regiment, 111.

UEPLIES : Daniant, 111 Gilbert Family London Nursery Grounds Field Marshal Sir George White, 112 " Lunkard " Arno Poebel : Tablet Deciphered Fire and New - Birth Two Curious Place - Names : Ottery vSt. Mary Author Wanted "Bay" and "Tray," 113 Military: Coloured Print Parishes in Two or More Counties" Broken - Glass " Effects Fire - Walking T. Cocking Jan Weenix Locke Family Lock Coffin- shaped Chapels Second Folio Shakespeare, 114 "The honours three" Human Fat as Medicine, 115 Aphra Behn's Comedies The Great Eastern W. Parsons : Life or Horse Guards Words in ' Lorna Doone' King's Lynn as a Spa "Trod," "Trode," 116-Badge of 6th Foot "Rucksack" Name of Durham Lists of Bishops and Deans, 117 John Clarke, Schoolmaster Pitt House, 118.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' Bridge of Dee' 'Naval Mutinies of 1797' ' Ingatestone ' ' Fry's London Charities' 4 Fortnightly ' ' Cornhill ' ' Nineteenth Century.'

THE NAUNDORFF CASE.

(See 11 S. viii. 506.)

THE following explanation of and com- mentary on the note on the Naundorff claims, and the recent decision in the French Courts, is interesting and valuable. It is extracted (by permission) from a letter "written to me by a Frenchman, the repre- sentative of a famous line of sovereign princes, and one well qualified by acquaintance with the details of it to speak on the subject :

"I have now read carefully Notes and Queries, and though it gives only an extract, I have come to the following conclusion, i.e., that the position is exactly the same as before.

" The French Courts were not asked to decide whether the first Naundorff was or was not the Dauphin. |If the question had been asked they could not have answered ifby a Yes or No. They have not the authority to do so, and if they had they could not have come to a decision any more than anybody else. The truth is, and will always remain, nobody knows.

" The facts before the Court were, I take it, as follows. The editor of a paper, Henri Rochefort, recently dead, and who in reality was the Marquis de Rochefort- Lucay, but had dropped long ago his

title and 4 de,' wrote in his paper that Louis Charles de Bourbon and his brothers had no right to that name, but merely to that of Naundorff. Then Louis Charles de Bourbon and his brother summoned Rochefort and the manager of the paper for libel. They pleaded 1st, that the summons was invalid because a false name was used in it ; 2nd, if the summons were held good that they had merely said the truth. The judges had to say whether legally the present surname of the prosecutors was 'de Bourbon' or 'Naundorff.' As their birth certifi- cates and their parents' marriage and death certi- ficates were under the name of ' de Bourbon,' and had been registered, some in Holland, some in England, seeing also that all these ' Bourbons ' were then and are now legally foreigners, ths judges were bound to say that they had a right to the surname 1 de Bourbon,' and even could have added and to no other. Whether the Dutch authorities who in days gone by had recognized the first Naundorff as beino- the Dauphin were right or wrong in doing so had nothing to do with the case. He was then legally a foreigner as Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, clock- maker, and the French Court has merely now said that a foreign Court had then allowed him a new surname, as it was their right to do, and that this new surname had to be accepted in France That is all. If an Englishman assumed here the surname 'de Bourbon,' and afterwards had a son with that surname on his birth certificate, if then later that son should come to live in France no French Court would be able to say that ' de Bour- bon ' was not his surname. The French Courts have considered, I take it, the present case in the same light.

"You must also consider that in France a sur- name can never be changed otherwise than by a long and costly procedure, and for very grave reasons. The French Courts, I am afraid, are under the delusion that it is much the same in other countries, and attach some importance to English birth and marriage certificates. They do not seem to know that here ' Moses ' becomes 'Montagu,' &c., at will. But then, even if they know it, they are bound to accept as legal the sur- name inscribed on the birth certificate of any foreigner.

"The Dutch death certificate of the first Naun- dorff is in the name of 'Charles Louis de Bourbon due de Normandie (Louis XVII.),' and his tomb in the Delft Cemetery is inscribed 'Louis XVII., roi de France et de Navarre (Charles Louis, due de Normandie).'

"I said before that nobody can answer by a Yes or No to the Naundorff controversy. Personally I feel quite certain that the Dauphin escaped But did he live to manhood ? If so, did he marry? Did he leave children ? I do not know, and nobody knows. He seems to have been swallowed up in the historical fog of the Revolution.

" These Naundorffs may very well be his descend- ants, but up to now have given no good proof of it I do not blame them for that, because I do not see how they could give absolute proofs, or even ' good enough ' ones, even if they were what they claim to be ; but we really cannot be satisfied with their bare assertions. It is to my mind a very painful case. The question will ever be, Is there a de- scendant of Louis XVI. alive ? If so, who is he ? "

Chelsea.

(Rev.) H. L. L. DENNY.