Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/207

 2< S. N 10., MAR. 8. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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marriage festivities were prolonged ? Would not the failure of the wine be owing to the crowd of people who, doubtless, had followed Him to hear His words, and who would thus " increase, be- yond previous calculation, the number of the guests ? " Thus, this miracle would not only confirm the faith of the new disciples (John ii. 11.), but would create this crowd of followers into believers on Him who " beautified and adorned with His presence," and first miracle that He wrought, the marriage-feast at the house of a poor relative or friend. It seems to me that when Mr. Trench represents our Blessed Lord and His disciples as coming accidentally, as it were, to the wedding, he robs this part of the narrative of much of its force. Our Lord's ac- ceptance of the invitation to the marriage-feast on His own part, and on that of His disciples, would seem to show something further than His sanction to the institution of marriage, viz. that He came to sanctify all life its times of joy, as well as its times of sorrow ; that He thereby " shewed that His religion was not morose and unsocial ; that He discountenanced by His example that course of rigid abstinence and mortification by which some, who would be thought His most perfect disciples, have disgraced His gospel " (Abp. New- come) ; and " that He should not be as another Baptist, and withdraw Himself from the common paths of men, a solitary teacher in the desert ; but that His should be at once a harder and a higher task, to mingle with and purify the common life of men, to witness for and bring out the glory which was hidden in its every relation." (Tracts for Christian Seasons.) CUTHBERT BEDE.

PAUL JONES.

Two of your correspondents call the celebrated Paul Jones a pirate. One SERVIENS (2 nd S. i. 55.), and another under the signature of V. (2 nd S. i. 74.). I am not going to attempt the defence of Paul Jones's character ; but to do a simple act of jus- tice, in denying his being a pirate in any sense of the word.

Paul Jones, though a native of Great Britain, went to reside in what were then called our Ame- rican plantations, very early in life, when quite a boy ; and that country was to him, as to tens of thousands of others, his adopted country. When the dispute between the mother country and her colonies arose, some of the colonists took the part of their adopted country, and some of the parent state. Those on the British s^de called the oppo- ske ones rebels ; but did not venture to treat them as such when taken prisoners, by hanging them. Now Paul Jones was a commissioned officer in the newly formed government of the United States. He never sailed an hour without a com-

mission ; and had he been taken prisoner, his commission would have protected him from the pirate's doom. Had death, after surrender, been his fate, the Americans, and their allies the French, would probably have retaliated, and hung all our officers fallen into their hands. By the acknow- ledged law of nations, Jones was safe under his commission ; a much more honourable document than a letter of marque.

It is true that Jones had under him men who were something like the modern American flibus- tiers, and whom he could not control, as is proved when they landed at the Earl of Selkirk's ; but the history of that transaction, and a letter of Jones's (which I have read) to Lady Selkirk, shows his vexation, and his own chivalrous turn of mind. As far as I can recollect of this history, as much of the plate as Jones could collect was returned with the letter. Besides the history of his life in two volumes, which I read some years ago, the novelists have done Jones justice in this instance, especially as to his more than dis- approval, his abhorrence of the crime of his fol- lowers.

Paul Jones was afterwards in the service of the French crown ; and received knighthood and an order, the name of which I have forgotten. Then he was in the service of Russia, and received into the Order of Knights of St. Anne. Undoubtedly (however people may differ as to the general cha- racter of Paul Jones), he was a rear-admiral in the United States service, and was Sir John Paul Jones, Knt., of the two Orders alluded to. And if bravery alone is considered, he well deserved his honours ; and if Capt. Pearson was knighted by George III. for fighting the celebrated hero, which he did to the delight of his brave adver- sary, we have no reason to be ashamed of Jones as a native of Britain. Pirate he was not. And his taking the part of his adopted country was natural ; and what thousands so situated did, but whether right or wrong, will ever be an open question. GERVAS K. HOLMES.

Budleigh Salterton.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Helioplastic, and Photography on Lithographic Stone. M. Becquerel has communicated to the French Academy of Sciences two processes, called by their inventor, M. Poitevin, Helioplastic and Photography on Lithographic Stone.

The first of these is based on the property possessed by gelatine, which has been dried and impregnated with a chromate or bichromate, and submitted to the action of light, of ceasing to swell when immersed in water, whilst if it has not undergone that action, it increases to about six times its bulk.

M. Poitevin spreads a uniform coating of a solution o. gelatine upon a smooth surface, such as glass; allows it to dry, and then plunges it into a solution of bichromate