Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/435

 12 s. vii. OCT. so, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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estate at Montmatre which cost her 9,000 and another that belonged to one of the French Royal Princes at Saint Assise which cost her 55,000." This excerpt is from some unpublished MS. Life prepared for or by the industrious collector before mentioned. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

AUTHOR WANTED (12 S. vii. 311). The definition of " Genealogist : a fool with a long memory " is commonly attributed to Count Grammont (1621-1707), one of the merry profligates, exiled from France, attached to the court of Charles II.

W. JAGGARD, Capt.

THE LIGHTS OF LONDON : STATE TRIALS (12 S. vii. 229, 258, 276, 315). Many of your readers are no doubt equally indebted with myself to Mr. COURTHOPE FORMAN for the light he has shed on the mystery of the Annesley case.

A re-perusal of the cases in 'Howell's S.T.,' vols. xvii. and xviii. only a few weeks since, left me chagrined at the uncertainty as to why the successful claimant failed to come into possession of the estates, and reference to Mr. Andrew Lang's entertaining Introduction to 'The Annesley Case ' ('Notable English Trials, 1912 ') carried me no further. Both Mr. Andrew Lang and Mr. Justice H. L. Stephen in his notes to the Case ('State Trials : Political and Social,' vol. iv. 1902), apparently know nothing of the suit to which Herald's College refer Mr. COURTHOPE FORMAN.

One entirely sympathises with Mr. Andrew Lang's repeated reference to the badly edited * State Trials, ' but when he says (referring to 'The Wandering Heir') "Mr. Reade used to brag endlessly about his immense historical researches ; had he not read ' Peregrine Pickle ' ? " one is tempted to ask why Mr. Lang, when making all his research into the Annesley Case, did not go to Herald's College ?

Yes, the ' State Trials ' are badly edited.

Take, for instance, the trial of Nundo- comar " at the suit of " Warren Hastings in vol. xx. It stops short at the verdict of "Guilty," and we are left with nothing there to show how far Sir Elijah Impey was " the servile tool " of Warren Hastings : at least in that case. Without contending that he was not such a tool, it is difficult to come to such a conclusion from that case alone. Hastings' opponents in the Council had made unsuccessful efforts in a most unconstitutional manner to prevent the

trial, and the Chief Justice as strenuously and constitutionally thwarted them, and his summing up seems eminently fair.

But 1 am afraid 1 wander from the point.

What was the fate of Mr. Joseph Fowke, an ally of Nundocomar against Warren Hastings whose trial and conviction immediately follow in vol. xx. but nothing more.

And the trial of Warren Hastings is not in ' State Trials ! ' A. R. A.

Old and New Sundry Papers. By C. H. Grandgent. (Harvard University Press : Oxford University Press, 6s. Qd.).

THIS book pursues two lines of interest. It con- cerns itself first, with education, principally on its literary side ; and secondly, with changes and varieties of trans-atlantic pronunciation. This latter cannot usefully be discussed within the limits of a short review. Let it be sufficient to- say that those who are interested in the question will find both information and entertainment here.

Prof. Grandgent's line on questions of education and literature is that of enlightened and' experienced common-sense. He has seen many countries ; watched the onslaught of many fiery new ideas upon old established things ; and, like the rest of us, is struck, again and again, with the narrowness and the conventionalism of the recurrent revolts against convention. We think, however, that he does not quite hit the mark in making out that revolt may usually itself be reduced to a convention. It is chiefly an affair of youth, and seems to us exceptis excipiendis a simple, almost inevitable, concomi- tant of growth growth, in some sort, translated 1 into consciousness. Its essential nature has no relation to that from which, nor yet to that towards which, the revolt is made : in the move- ment itself lies all the significance. And hence it is that the products of revolt, being, to use an old-fashioned term " subjective," tend to be evanescent. Making allowance for some undue harshness, and consequent error here or so we think it we found the first essay ' Nor yet the New ' full of excellent things.

That on modern language teaching is also stimulating. Among other things it brings out the comparative success with which the classics have been taught, and the comparative failure over modern languages. There is one condition of the success of Latin which Prof. Grandgent approaches, but never quite sets out, and that is,, the happy effect in education of Latin being, so to put it, a limited, a closed subject, which does not change. This circumstance not only makes a difference to. the learner, but also we believe this to be of much importance gives a distinct quality and tone to the work of the teacher. No modern language has that note of finality which is rare everywhere hi learning, and is of immense value in laying the first foundations of education ; while it also enters into the enjoyment of the finished scholar. It is interesting to note that