have reason to know, that it is applied even to Baronets. Some years ago, I was bearer of a letter to my old school-fellow, Sir Gore Ouseley, from an accomplished French lady, the daughter of a gentleman to whom the right honorable baronet owed numerous civilities, when a boy at Bordeaux, (whither he accompanied his uncle in 1787,) in which letter the lady, on hearing of his advance in honors and title, appealed to His Grace's recollections of early youth. At least, so she designated him in transmitting it on to meSa Gráce. And he probably is in possession of the epistle; for he certainly returned a well-written reply in French, a language of which the illustrious Duke appears equally to command the familiar and correct use, as I had opportunities of ascertaining by a few private communications from him to the unfortunate Prince de Polignac, when ambassador here, on some concerns of my own, and unquestionably in the Duke's hand. Our frequent changes of title, by succession or promotion, are likewise a source of confusion, embarrassment, and puzzle; in so much that Thiebauld, in his "Souvenirs de Vingt Ans," mentions as an extraordinary effort of memory in one of the learned Germans at Berlin, his being able to unravel and pursue all the entanglements of the British peerage, in family names and titles. Nothing, too, is more usual than the suppression of the christian names of Baronets, and to say-Sir Peel-Sir Burdett, &c.; but, indeed, our aberrations in respect to continental distinctions of rank, names, &c., would appear quite as ludicrous, were I to indicate some that have struck me in that light, and in works, too, of no unpretending character. Thus, although the misnomer had already

been indicated in this Magazine, more than once in an incidental glance at Mr. Alison's tenth and last volume, page 95, of his History, lately received here, I find Madame de Montesquiou, the governess of young Napoleon, transformed, on a very interesting occasion, too, into Madame de Montesquieu, by a vulgar confusion of names, for which see Gent. Mag. for January last, page 42; and, that it is no typographical error, is manifest from its repetition at pages 471, 496, 803, and 819 subsequently.

In 1829-30, I met the late Sir R. Wilmot Horton at Paris, then in ardent pursuit of his emigration system, and other views of employment for the poor, which he expected to urge on England through the medium and advocacy of the continental press. For this purpose I translated some of his pamphlets; but he particularly consulted me on a letter addressed to the late Dr. Doyle, in which I remarked the omission of the title, now uniformly bestowed by the Irish catholics on their bishops-of Lord-an omission sure to impair the object of the letter, because most likely to be considered an insult, not, indeed by that admirable prelate himself, but by the catholic body at large. Sir Robert, however, maintained, that the title was temporal, not ecclesiastical, and therefore not given to Dr. Luscomb, the Anglican bishop at Paris, nor, he said, to the bishop of Sodor and Man, &c. He, in consequence, altered the direction of his letter, which, with suitable changes, he addressed to the then Mr. Poulett Thompson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, who was also in the French metropolis.

M. Grégoire (Gent. Mag. for January, page 42,) is twice adduced as authority for the superior morality

of England, where it will be sufficient to state that this ex-bishop's sojourn barely extended to three weeks, and that he spoke not a word of our language. The comparison was also made during, or directly after, the excesses of the Revolution, just as between a frantic madman and a person in his sober senses; but how will your correspondent construe another parallel of the same conventionalist, "que l'histoire des rois est le martyrologe des nations?" Will he equally accept this assimilation of royalty? "Aut omnia accipe, aut nihil fero," I would say, as Appius the decemvir's grandson addressed the clamorous tribunes. (Livy, vi., 40.) But, in truth, these are dangerous comparisons; for it will be found that, if the inhabitants of the south are, in one sense, more immoral, the prevalence of drunken habits in the north counterbalances, if it do not outweigh, the guilt. "O dolorosa omnium malorm mater, Ebrietas, omnis luxuriæ soror," &c., cries St. Augustin; and most applicable was the denunciation to this kingdom, until the wonder-working apostle of temperance, in imitation of his predecessor, to whom Ireland, it is believed, owes her exemption from poisonous reptiles, ("Ubi nulla venena veniunt, nec serpens serpit in herbâ,") emancipated his country from this debasing vice. His eulogy from the pen of Miss Edgeworth, who places his achievement "above any other example on record in history," and the justice emphatically rendered to his influence by Colonel Maxwell, in his " Run through the United States," far beyond his personal sphere of action, exhibit him as one of the most exalted, while I can add, that he is the humblest of christians. Well may we apply to him, when proceeding on his holy mission, the aspiration of Wordsworth—

66

Lift up your hearts, ye mourners, for the might

Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes;
Blessings and prayers, in nobler retinue

Than sceptered King or laurelled Conqueror knows,
Follows this wondrous potentate."

"Gratior est pulchro veniens in corpore virtus," is alike apposite in fact and consequence to this extraordinary man.

Your correspondent prefers the authority of the "Dictionnaire Historique" to our historians, in relation to James's conflict with Ruyter in 1672; but as the previous battle of 1665 is acknowledged a victory under the chief command of James, your correspondent's mistake is established, without pressing the second victory as claimed by our writers. I would, however, take the liberty of recommending less, much less, credit to these dictionaries. That of General Beauvais, as the subscribers now feel, according to Brunet, is wholly sunk in estimation; which will not surprise those who know that he was the compiler of that mass of falsehood, "Les Victoires et Conquêtes, &c., 1816-21," fraught with hatred and injustice to England, and extending to 26 volumes, 8vo.

I fully concur in your correspondent's reprobation of the calumnious reports of Calvin's private life, which, however, principally emanated from a renegade of his own sect, to whom, as the Spanish traitor confessed to Scipio, little credit can be given. "Scire enim se transfugæ nomen execrabile veteribus sociis, novis suspectum esse." (Tit. Liv. xxvii., 17.) The great reformer, on the contrary, was pure in morals, for which he justly claimed due merit in his treatise, "De Scandalis." (Geneva, 1550, 8vo.)

But Calvin's persecuting spirit was far more odious than any personal licentiousness, infinitely transcending in principle of guilt the inquisition, as powerfully expressed by Gibbon, (vol. x., 182,) and still more energetically by Walpole, in his correspondence, (11th October, 1771.)

High praise must, however, be granted to both Luther and Calvin for their pecuniary disinterestedness, though not less claimable for the chief agents of the French revolutionary horrors, Robespierre, St. Juste, Couthon, and even Marat, but not Danton, and others. Luther died in indigence, as his widow's affecting appeal of the 6th October, 1550, to the Danish monarch, Christern III., shows; and Calvin, the absolute sovereign, for so many years, of Geneva, left not more than one hundred and twenty crowns of gold, or about £300; nor was avarice the urging spring of Knox's impetuosity. So far, doubtless, these memorable personages are entitled to the distinction of heroism, of which, in Mr. Carlyle's definition, this virtue is a characteristic element, though it would ill apply to our Marlborough, while Ireland may proudly contemplate its radiance in the laurelled wreath of his immortal successor in the annals of British glory. Still, conspicuous as both Luther and Calvin are on the first line of historical importance, the rough but open-hearted Saxon presents to my mind a much fairer picture, and far nobler character; although his writings, it must be admitted, betray occasionally symptoms of that penalty, which, in the equipoise of heaven's dispensations, genius seems doomed to pay for its rarer attributes, and loftier aspirations. On this subject see page 445 of our first volume.