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que testamento cavet, ut corpus suum juxta piorum hominum qui hic jacent corpora humaretur. Tu verò quicumque es, quem in hanc domum pietas adducit, tuæ ipse mutabilitates ad hunc aspectum recordare, et clarissimam tanti viri memoriam precibus potius quàm elogiis prosequere."

The stone on which this is engraved is discoloured, as if it had lain in water; it is also very much cracked, and in one part it has been necessary to insert a fresh piece, in order to supply a deficiency, which would have rendered several lines unintelligible. A coat of arms, in outline, is placed over it; viz. a shield bearing a swan, and surmounted with a helmet.

Below it, but within the same frame, is a slab of black marble, with the following in gold letters:

"Epitaphium quod Nicolaus Boileau ad amici memoriam recolendam monumento ejus Portûs Regii ecclesiâ inscripserat, ex illarum ædium ruderibus, anno 1808 effossum. G. I. G. Comes Chabrol de Volvie præfectus urbi, heic ubi summi viri reliquiæ denuò depositæ sunt, instauratum transferri et locari curavit. A. H. S. 1818.

Racine was born at La Ferté-Milon, in Champagne, Dec. 21, 1639; he died at Paris, April 21, 1699, and was interred at Port Royal, where he was educated. On the suppression of that monastery in 1709, his remains, along with those of Lemaistre de Sacy, were brought to this Church, and buried in a little chapel in the north aisle, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Louis Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy, celebrated by his translation of the Bible, was born March 29, 1613, and died Jan. 4, 1684.

By the door, on the opposite side of the Church, is a tablet to the memory of James Benign Winslow, an anatomist of great reputation. He was born at Odensee, April 2, 1669, and died at Paris, April 3, 1760. He was converted to the Romish faith by Bossuet, according to the following paragraph:

"Parentibus Lutheranis natus, hæresim quam infans imbiberat, vir ejuravit, adnitente ill. episcopo Meldensi, Jacobo Benigno Bossueto, cujus nomen Benigni in confirmationem suscepit: ad ecclesiam Catholicam evocatus, stetit in ejus fide, vixit sub ejus lege, obiit in ejus sinu."

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cois de Condy (Gondy), Archbishop of Paris; and immediately below it is another, bearing as follows:

A roughly engraved stone, placed in the northern wall, records, that on the 15th of Feb. 1626, the Church was consecrated anew by Jehan Fran

"Et pendant les cerimonies de la dedicace deux filles de la parroisse tombèrent du hault des gallerie du cœur avec lappuy et deux des ballustres, qui furent miraculeusement preservées, comme aussi les assistans, ne sestant rencontré personne soubz les ruynes, veu laffluance du peuple, qui asistoyent ausdtes cerimonies."

Out of many flat tomb-stones on the pavement, scarcely any are legible; one has however been less exposed to the tread of the public.

"Ici repose le corps de Michel Morel, premier bedeau et sonneur de St. Etiennedu-Mont."

The date is not very distinct, but appears to be April 1717.

In this Church were likewise buried the painter Eustace Lesueur, ob. 1655, æt. 38; and the Abbé Gallois, member of the Academy, and author of the Journal des Savans, ob. 1707, æt. 75.

Since I last addressed you, I have ascertained that the tomb of the Duke de Crequi, now in St. Roch's Church, was formerly in the Convent of the Capuchin Nuns, which stood near the Rue Neuve des Capucines. Yours, &c.

W. S. B.

St. Servan, France, Mr. URBAN, March 1831. THE following literary desiderata have occurred to me while forming an historical library. I could not have supposed our stock was so defective.

A History of Greece, from the death of Alexander the Great, as a continuation of Mitford's valuable work: I am aware that Dr. Gillies has already published a history of that period, but, though copious and ably written, it is much too extensive for the subject. Its original title of a History of the World from Alexander to Augustus, would become it much better. The affairs of the different Greek kingdoms, together with those of Rome, are so blended in the same proportion, as to want proper keeping, and to weary the reader by calling for equal attention to every event. A History of that period, written on Mitford's plan, would complete his work. It should be thus arranged: I. Greece. 1. The affairs of Alexander's survivors to the battle of Ipsus. 2. Greece Proper, and Macedonia, to the accession of Augustus. 3. Sicily and Magna Græcia, till their

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disappearance in the Roman dominions. II. The several Greek kingdoms, growing out of Alexander's empire. 1. Egypt to the death of Cleopatra, including Cyrene. 2. Syria, to the extinction of the Seleucidæ. 3. Pergamus. 4. Bactria to the irruption of the Huns, B. C. 134. (The short-lived kingdom of Lysimachus would find its place under the first head.) 5. Pontic Heraclea. One of Mitford's excellencies is, that he knows what to omit, while Dr. Gillies seems anxious to include every event. However, one cannot refuse his book the praise of clearness of narration, and facility for reference.

Histories of Russia, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark. Except Card's Revolutions, and a translation of Malling, our deficiency in this department is almost a total one. I had forgotten Mr. Tooke, but he does not quite fill up the vacuity. Ségur's work on Peter the Great is bombastic, or else boldly translated, but we should not be content with translations.

A History of Holland and Flanders. Mr. C. Butler, in his Life of Grotius, is absolutely obliged to quote a Résumé.

A History of Spain. Mr. Coxe has treated some portions of this subject, but an entire work on that scale would be too long. The translation of Condé's History of the dominion of the Moors has supplied excellent materials.

A History of Portugal. Mr. Southey is said to be employed on this subject.

A History of France. I cannot speak of Dr. Ranken's from knowledge.

Histories of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Dr. O'Connor has collected materials for the first. The second is in a course of able elucidation by Mr. Tytler, but he begins at too late a period, with Alexander III. Warrington's History of Wales rather makes us wish for a selection of Welsh events, leaving the rest to be buried in oblivion. I had once the idea of writing a History of Wales, but abandoned it with a sigh of humbled partiality, on account of the little interest such a narrative could inspire foreigners with. The late Edward Williams, the bard, had projected an extensive work on this subject. Caveret lector.

A History of the Caliphate. This defect is partly supplied by Mills's History of Mahomedanism. M. Buisson of Rennes has translated it into French, price 6 francs, the profits of

In this instrument it is stated that three bonds, amounting together to 15,000l. were executed by Lord Shelburne to Mr. Macleane (then described of the parish of Saint Marylebone), in July 1769; that these bonds were assigned by the latter to Messrs. Panchaud, Bankers at Paris, and were by them transferred to Mr. Thomas Tierney, then of Paris (father of the late Mr. George Tierney, M. P.), in part security for a larger sum mentioned to be due to him from Messrs. Panchaud. These bonds, which were supposed to have been given to Macleane for the purpose of raising money, became the subject of a lawsuit between Mr. Thomas Tierney and his Lordship, which was for some time strongly contested, but afterwards compromised, the Earl having agreed to pay the money as mentioned in some of your former volumes.*

Mr. Macleane, who was a native of the north of Ireland,† is mentioned, as well as Lord Shelburne, in various parts of Mr. Prior's Memoir of Mr. Burke, particularly in vol. i. p. 411

*See a former letter by this Correspondent, in vol. xciv. ii. 488; and a memoir of Macleane, ibid. p. 400.

+ It appears from Mr. Prior's Memoir of Burke, that Sir Philip Francis was also a native of Ireland.

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413, (2d edit.) of that entertaining work. This leads me to remark that, from the honourable, benevolent, and generous mind, and the manly character of Mr. Burke, as there pourtrayed, he was incapable of the dark, cowardly, and assassin-like malignity evinced in many of Junius's letters; which sufficiently accounts for that writer's dread of being discovered. I might here add the marked difference in politics and party connexions between Mr. Burke and that scorpion. Of Mr. Burke's ability to equal and excel the composition of those letters, powerfully and elegantly as they are written, I think few persons acquainted with the works of that extraordinary man can entertain a doubt. P. R.

Mr. URBAN, Thetford, March 15. I DID not profess to advocate the claims of Lauchlin Macleane to the composition of Junius's Letters; but made the quotation for the purpose of showing that the fact of the sudden elevation of Macleane to an important station in India, deprived the Franciscans of one great argument, on which they relied.

Your correspondent P. R. refers to the hand-writing of Macleane, which, "according to his recollection, bore no resemblance to that of Junius;" and as almost every writer on this perplexing question appeals to handwriting as a test of authorship, permit me to lay before P. R. and your readers in general, two extracts from my Letters on the Authorship of Junius's Letters, for the purpose of preventing such idle appeals in future, and of directing inquiry to more legitimate sources of evidence. Even in a legal point of view the suggestions which I have offered, are not unworthy of public attention, and I know that these suggestions, and some others contained in my little volume, have attracted the attention of gentlemen connected with the legal profession.

"Hand-writing is a very fallacious criterion for determining the authorship of Junius's Letters; and I would remark that in any ordinary case proof founded on handwriting, though generally in the courts of justice considered the least liable to suspicion, is often in the courts of conscience very insufficient evidence to demonstrate guilt. It ought in no case of importance to be received as satisfactory proof in itself, though it may justly be admitted as confir

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matory of other evidence. The testimony of an accomplice, if unconfirmed by other witnesses, is rejected, and I would put on the same footing testimony of this kind: let it be regarded as a collateral, not as a ship, not authorship. Cases continually ocsubstantive proof,— -as proving amanuensiscur, where the personal identity of a prisoner is positively sworn to by a witness, while the prisoner himself establishes the fact of his non-identity. Hence I desire to see courts of justice governed by this rule, that the personal identity of a prisoner should not be admitted on the oath of a prosecuting witness, unless the identity should be shown by corroborating circumstances. With what propriety can a court of justice solemnly, but from mere inspection, declare any particular letter, produced before its eyes, to be the composition and the writing of any specific individual, unless the court has satisfied itself that no other individual could write a very resembling hand? For what crime is more common than the forgery of hand-writing? And what fraud oftener succeeds in eluding the vigilance of the persons most accustomed to see the real hand? But the difficulty of judging from the hand-writing, in the case of Junius, is great indeed; 1. because we have before us a mere fictitious personage; 2. because we have no evidence that all the Letters of Junius were written in one and the same hand; 3. because we have no proof to show that, if that were the case, the writing is not the hand of some amanuensis; 4. because it is an unascertained point, whether Junius did (as Mr. Butler, in his Reminiscences, i. 100, thinks) or did not (as Mr. Taylor, p. 370, thinks) employ an ama

nuensis; 5. because it is an equally undecided point whether, if any amanuensis were employed, he did or did not convey the Letters to the office of Mr. Woodfall; 6. because it is an equally undecided point whether the writing, to whomsoever the hand belonged, was a real or a disguised hand. This branch of the question, then, is involved in so much doubt and difficulty, that all reasoning about it is either unsatisfactory, or insecure; and I must strongly impress on the reader the necessity of looking at it with the greatest caution and the keenest suspicion, because the advocates for particular claims appeal to hand-writing as one of the best tests for detecting the author of Junius. I have remarked that any argument in favour of an individual, grounded on this test, will have peculiar and striking force, if the same argument be not employed to support other claims; but that, if it be so employed, it loses much of its effect, and half of its value. Its strength lies in its exclusive adaptation to one particular claimant."-p. 181.

Yours, &c.

E. H. BARKER.