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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. DEO. 6, 1902,

IRISH AND SCOTCH OLD HOUSES (9 th S. x. 408). H. B. R.'s query is a little ambiguous. Does he mean, by "seeking the owners" of the houses he names, that he wants to know to whom they belong? Kylemore, I think, is still in the possession of its creator, Mr. Mitchell Henry, though it is for sale ; Clifden Castle (formerly owned by the D'Arcys) belongs to Mr. J. J. Eyre; Rowallan Castle, Ayrshire, was sold a year ago by Lord Loudoun to Mr. Cameron-Corbett, M.P. ; Craufurdland (not Craufordland) Castle is Col. Houison- Crawford's ; Culzean (not Gul- zean) Castle the Marquis of Ailsa's ; and Kilkerran House Sir James Fergusson's. Some of these houses, I may add, are not old at all certainly not old enough to have any history, striking or otherwise.

D. OSWALD HUNTER-BLAIR, O.S.B.

Fort Augustus, N.B.

ADMIRAL EDWARDS (9 th S. x. 387). Accord- ing to Haydn (' Book of Dignities,' 1894) Capt. Richard Edwards was Governor of Newfound- land 1757-60; was promoted rear-admiral in 1779 ; and died in 1794. C. S. WARD.

Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Paris in 1789-94 ' Farewell Letters of Victims of the Guillotine. By John Gold worth Alger. (Allen.) NOT the first contribution to a knowledge of the French Revolution is this by Mr. Alger. It is, however, in all respects the most valuable he has yet given us. English students of the most troublous period in French history are under a great obliga- tion to a writer who has simplified for them many matters concerning which precise information is not easily obtainable, though a full comprehension of them is indispensable to exact knowledge, and has almost for the first time revealed to what extent English and American subjects participated in the dreams or the excesses of the revolutionaries. There are few Englishmen, indeed, who will not rise from a perusal of Mr. Alger's work with a more intelligent appreciation of the aspirations and efforts of the dreamers and visionaries by whom schemes of human perfection were advocated, and even with modified ideas concerning all participants in the movement whose motives were not abject and interested or bloodthirsty and animal. The second part of Mr. Alger's title is to some extent to be regretted, since it sends the reader off on a false quest. Farewell letters of victims of the guillotine constitute but a portion, and that not the most interesting or valuable, of the book. None the less, the prominence assigned them is answer- able for the fact that most, if not all, the notices of the book that have appeared are occupied prin- cipally with them. Other matter, however, even if less dramatic, is more helpful. The first chapter, in some respects the most useful of all, gives a description of Paris at the immediately pre-Revo-

lutionary epoch. This is illustrated by a plan, the direct purpose of which is to show the Paris Sections, which are dealt with in chap. iv. The intermediate chapters describe the various deputa- tions to the Assemblies, and the growth, proceed- ings, and extinction of the Commune, the separate functions of which are not generally understood. Chaps, v. and vi. describe, from journalistic ex- tracts and other sources, life in Paris during and immediately subsequent to the Terror. Two chap- ters out of twelve are assigned to prison documents, and one only of these is occupied with the farewell letters of the guillotined. Among the deputations to the Assembly the place of honour belongs to that on 19 June, signed by thirty-five commissaries of all nations, wherein Englishmen, Americans, Germans, Russians, Italians, Spaniards, Swiss, Orientals of various sorts, &c. " free men," as they called themselves, "whose country is in chains" ask leave to take part in the great national celebration, and to post themselves within the Champ de Mars, when they will raise the cap of liberty "with transports [which] will be a pledge of the early deliverance of their unhappy fellow-citizens." The first signature to this document is that of Ana- charsis Clootz. Another name appended to it is that of Casanova, presumably a brother of the self- styled Chevalier de Seingalt. The English signers are Price, Procter, Page, and Townsend, concerning whom information, partly conjectural, is supplied. The cloven hoof had not then been shown, and the proceedings which were to convert admiration into loathing and contempt were yet remote. The first signature to an American address is that of the well-known Paul Jones. Paoli, the liberator, headed a deputation of Corsicans. On 15 July, 1793, Bellay (a negro), Mills (a mulatto), and Dupay (a white), deputies from Martinique, were " kissed by the President of the Convention, which next day decreed the abolition of slavery." On 17 Novem- ber, 1793, Gobel. constitutional Bishop of Paris, and his vicars-general renounced their ecclesiastical status. The Commune was, of course, a rival of, and on some occasions superior to, the Convention. By its orders the names Roi, Heine, and others were abolished at cards and chess. Its most notorious function was the custody of the royal family in the Temple. At one time the allowance to these and to other prisoners was fairly liberal, and the charge was brought that people, from interested motives, aspired to confinement. It is satisfactory bo see the Committee of the Paris Section refusing to intercede for the release of the infamous Marquis de Sade. It is amusing to find how bent were the journalists upon an invasion of England, animated by the belief that the people would rise to welcome the invaders. After describing a " fraternal dinner ' of sixty people at Villette, an ebullient journalist named Bacon declares " the dinner is calculated to make MM. Pitt and Coburg tremble with fear. :> Another journalist, signing " Pourvoyeur," sees no need for an invasion. Before it can be carried out, " George and his minister Pitt," with some lords, will have their heads cut off. A third, more en- lightened, sees that, if the Convention fell into the trap of invading England, the Republic would be ruined. We could give innumerable illustrations of the value and interest of the book, but considera- tions of space prohibit. We have not even reached the prison documents. The book is one which the general reader should peruse and the student should place on his shelves.