Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/201

 9*8. VII. MARCH 9, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

193

'Biographia Literaria,' No. 2 of Satyrane's Letters (p. 255, Bell's edition, 1870) :

" When Buonaparte was in Italy, having been irritated by some instance of perfidy, he said, in a loud and vehement tone, in a public company, "Tis a true proverb, "gli Italiani tutti ladroni (i.e., the Italians are all plunderers). A lady had the courage to reply ' Non tutti, ma buona parte ' (Not all, but a good part, or Buonaparte). This, I confess, sounded to my ears as one of the good things tha might have been said."

It will, of course, be remembered that Napo leon was a Corsican.

I forget where, but I have seen somewher another turn given to this incident, the occa sion of the remark and repartee being a con versatipn on Italian banditti, and the ques tion being addressed by Napoleon to the ladj as a sort of insolent jest, "Pray, madam, ar all your countrymen robbers ? "

The other and briefer version I transcrib from Catherine Taylor's * Letters from Italy vol. i. p. 239 (Murray, 1840). In a letter on Pasquinades she says :

" At the time when the French were in possession of Rome, the caustic jester [Pasquin] thus welcome< them :

I Francesci son tutti ladri.

Non tutti ma buona parte I " It is just possible that the same form of repartee may have occurred to more than one person quite independently; but, as Dr Johnson observes in his 'Life of Waller, " Pointed axioms and acute replies fly loose about the world, and are assigned to those whom it may be the fashion to celebrate."

In 'Secret Memoirs of Napoleon,' by Charles Doris (1896), p. 119, may be se another clever pun at the expense of the Corsican. C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A.

Bath.

Charlotte Eaton, in her 'Rome in the Nine- teenth Century ' (Bohn, 1852), vol. ii. p. 120, says that one of the squibs affixed to the statue of Pasquin was, " I Francesi son' tutti dr i ; . the answer affixed to the statue of Marfono was, " Non tutti ma Buona parte." It is not said when this squib appeared. Mrs. .baton was a niece of Sir Walter Scott, and

g u Wished her book about 1820. If the ussian warrior ever used the words, he probably borrowed them from the Roman

M. N. G.

Vol. i. p. 494 ; 'Life of Tennyson,' by his son (1897), reads : " What pleased my father was the reply of the Italian lady to Napo- leon who said to her, 'Tutti Italiani sono ' Non tutti, ma Buona parte.'" JUBAL STAFFORD.

THE NATIONAL FLAG (9 th S. v. 414, 440, 457, 478 ; Supplement, 30 June ; vi. 17, 31, 351, 451, 519). Once thrashed out, always thrashed out, does not appear to be the motto of the Standard. During the past month various letters have appeared in that paper about 'Our National Flag.' That subject, undoubtedly of great interest and moment at the present day, was, however, fully discussed at the above references.

S. S. J.

HORSES WITH FOUR WHITE STOCKINGS TOLL- FREE (9 th S. vi. 507 ; vii. 111). It is noticeable that the breeders of Clydesdale horses have apparently changed their views in recent years regarding the colours of their animals. A few years ago the preference was for black legs and faces, with as little white in them as possible. This fashion has ceased. In the magnificent animals yoked to the lorries in Glasgow streets white faces and white stock- ings are at present probably in the majority. The same thing was observable among the entire horses exhibited at a show of Clydes- dales at Glasgow on 6 February. Variety in colour is now apparently allowed, if it is not actually cultivated. The modern expert would appear to ignore the old scruples as to white faces and stockings, four of the latter being now no rarity whatever.

THOMAS BAYNE.

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER (9 th S. vii. 126). [f your correspondent had referred to the Revised Version of the New Testament he would have found a similar change in St. Matthew vi. 10, which now reads : " Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth," which is virtually the old reading of this clause of the Lord's Prayer in St. Luke xi. 2, Authorized Version. The Revised Version )mits it altogether from the text of St. Luke, 5ut retains it in the margin. There is, by

he way, another and a more startling change of punctuation in the Revised Version of

Corinthians xv. 32, which now reads :

"If after the manner of men I fought with beasts t Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead re not raised, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

C. C. B.

BONAPARTE BALLAD (9 th S. vi. 349). I have miserable - looking broadside, bought in Shoreditch some years ago, and entitled Deeds of Napoleon,' on which are printed wo ballads, one being 'The Isle of St. Helena/ eferred to by MR. W. H. PATTERSON. It has x stanzas, instead of the five quoted by him The arrangement of the couplets is quite different, and there are many variations in