Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/306

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xn. OCT. 10, im

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the article in Temple Bar which MR. ASTLEY mentions." Had they done so before rushing into print, they would not have imputed utter nonsense to me. (1) I never said, or implied, that the three English tourists were " invited " by the bishop and convent, or any one else, to be present at the inhumation (MR. MATTHEWS). I said they were un- expectedly" present; and if your corre- spondent will read the account he will see how it happened. I will not give away lempie Bar, or take up your space by explaining. (2) That the immurement alive of religious is not "a ridiculous myth," and that it is not 44 founded on a 'striking story' in lempie Bar " (MR. WAINEWRIGHT), appears from the fact that it is as old as Sir Walter bcott, and a good deal older, and that skeletons have been found in more than one instance in very suspicious positions, to say the least. The "story" was a "striking" illustration, if nothing more. (3) The Spaniards, no doubt, have " laws punishing murder (MR. PEACOCK). But, under the circumstances, who was to know that a murder had been committed ? The English Consul (in the story) advised our tourists to get quietly out of the country as soon as they could ; and we need to inquire what powers of visitation of monastic establishments are, or were, possessed by fche Government or the bishops in Spain.

All the evidence points to the conclusion that dark deeds have been done, and perhaps are being done, by persons possessed of irre- sponsible power.

H. J. DUKINFIELD ASTLEY.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Studies in Napoleonic Statesmanship. Germany

By Herbert A. L. Fisher, M.A. (Oxford, Claren

don Press.)

SHOULD the reception of Mr. Fisher's work provi all that is desired and merited it will be followec by other volumes dealing with Napoleonic states mauship in France, Italy, Holland, and Belgium The series thus constituted will be one of the mos important contributions to our knowledge of Napo Icon that the last decade, rich^ as it is in such, ha given. In Germany and in France the iniluenc of Napoleonic views is best studied. There is however, no part of Europe except Knglanc where such is not assertive. In Russia the mer external fringe was touched. From Sweden t Naples, and from Holland to Poland, the effect o Napoleon's administrative work was revolutionary Concerning Napoleonic battles and campaign next to nothing is now said. As a contributio to a comprehension of the civil side of th Napoleonic empire the book is of absprbin interest and supreme importance. It constitutes

oreover, pleasant reading, and may be studied om cover to cover with constant delight, efore the close of the Napoleonic era the map f Germany was transformed, and the old ideas hat had ruled the petty German states went, o use Mr. Fisher's phrase, "suddenly, pam-

lly, and shamefully bankrupt." The change that s wrought was universal and all-embracing, and xtended from the throne to the cottage. It is mpossible to trace at leisure the growth of French scendency, from the treaty of Campo-i orrmo )almatia, Austria, besides .renouncing Lombardy, eded Belgium and consented to the convocation f a congress at Rastadt to the abolition of the loman Empire and the end in 1813 of the Con- ederation of the Rhine. By 1801 Napoleon was in
 * hen, for compensation in Venice. Istria, and

position to dictate, and the treaty of Luneville atified and strengthened all that had been con- eded at Campo-Formio. A good account is supplied f the motives which led Napoleon to seize and lay the Due d'Enghien, Napoleon's gravest crime nd blunder, and of the high-handed, though com- prehensible proceedings against the British repre- entatives at the Courts of Munich and Stuttgart, jess successful was the abduction of Sir George Ber- iman Rumbold, arid Napoleon found himself com- pelled to recede from the position he had taken up. Lhe description of the capture of this British agent n Hamburg is strikingly dramatic. The camp at Boulogne and the question of a descent on England vere pretexts, the real object of the camp being Austria, in regard to which its existence gave Napoleon a start of twenty days. It is idle, Mr. Fisher holds, to weep over the fate of the German )etty Courts, but the larger Powers, who cringed and clamoured for their extinction, are worthy of no more sympathy. No altruistic purpose, how- ever, animated Napoleon in establishing the Con- 'ederation of the Rhine, and if he amused his confederates with the show of power, it was that they might serve him in his own designs. An enormous effect was caused by the execution of Palm of Nuremberg, the bookseller condemned by the verdict of seven French colonels in time of peace "for a pamphlet written in Vienna which he had never read," and the Prussian army, enter- ing upon the most disastrous campaign it ever experienced, was confident of success. Particularly worthy of study is the chapter (vii.) upon Tilsit and the settlement of North Germany ; and the account of Dalberg, the archchancellor whom Napo- leon called a numskull, is profoundly interesting. In nothing are the tact and wisdom of Napoleon better shown than in his counsels to the caterans his brothers and brothers-in-law. On the power ob- tained by Napoleon over the Grand Duchy of Berg, on the establishment of the Westphalian kingdom, and on its ruin, Mr. Fisher is equally well worth hearing. His book is one, indeed, which the pub- licist may not dream of neglecting, and by which the historical student cannot fail to profit.

The History of Two Ulster Manors and of their

Owners. By the Earl of Belmore, P.C., G.C.M.G.

(Dublin, Thorn & Co. ; London, Longmans Co.)

UPON the first appearance, twenty-two years ago,

of Lord Belmore's 'History of the Two Ulster

Manors of Finagh, in the County of Tyrone, and

Coole, otherwise Manor Atkinson, in the County of

Fermanagh ' (see 6 th S. v. 59), we congratulated the

author upon one of the earliest attempts to com-