2»d a VII. June 25. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



527 



en Bois du Temps. Lyon, impr. de Louis Perrin (F^vrier 

 1859). Tir^ ii 100 exemplaires num^rotds." 



The revival of the laws against the usurpation of titles 

 has told upon the bookselling trade in Paris; now that 

 the Conseil du Sceau des Titres is reorganised, and that a 

 new d'Hozier has become indispensable, pamphlets, hro- 

 chure.% books without number, are appearing every da}', 

 discussing genealogical topics, the minutia3 of heraldic 

 lore, or even the very existence of the aristocracy itself. 

 M. Anatole de Barthllemj' belongs to the last named class 

 of writers; he examines from a political point of view 

 the question of the aristocracy, and in his pamphlet, after 

 having proved the necessitj- of creating a kind of peerage, 

 he goes on to show on what principles that peerage should 

 be constituted. The first part of. M. de Barthelemy's 

 work contains an historical summary of the origin of 

 the aristocracy in Fiance. He points out the absurdity 

 of the scheme of equality forced upon the nation at the 

 time of the first revolution, " cette pre'tendue ^galit^ qui 

 est la mort des nations et la negation de la liberte." 

 Perfect equality is worse than an Utopian fancy ; it is a 

 monstrosity, because it goes against the decrees of Pro- 

 vidence, and the most elementary laws of our human 

 nature. We can safely say that the existence of an aris- 

 tocracy is the necessary condition of the happiness of a 

 nation ; it is for want of such an intermediate class that 

 we have seen, to quote M. de Barthelemy's own words, 

 " le spectacle douloureux et scandaleux du trone traine 

 dans la boue, de monarques chasses ; et dans le d^sordre, 

 pas un lien pour r^unir les hommes honnetes et eclaires, 

 et leur permettre de tenir tete h la populace." As a 

 remedy for this deficiency the author recommends the 

 introduction of a system nearly similar to the one adopted 

 in England : we would add, however, that if the regula- 

 tion of titles, ranks, and armorial bearings is susceptible 

 of being settled at once by virtue of a decree; it is far 

 more difficult to create the thing itself. A landed aris- 

 tocracj' cannot be formed at an hour's notice ; and even 

 supposing that the Bonaparte dynasty becomes finally 

 established in France, it will require some time before it 

 can raise between itself and the people the wholesome 

 medium of an influential noblesse. 



M. Louis de Baecker confines himself to researches on 

 the Flemish nobility in France: his little book has, there- 

 fore, more of an antiquarian than a political character. 

 It includes some very interesting strictures on the feudal 

 system, and a most suggestive chapter on the classifica- 

 tion of family surnames. His remarks, although imme- 

 diately limited to his northern compatriotes, are suscep- 

 tible of a far wider application, and can illustrate the 

 history of any other country in modern Europe. 



Next to the question respecting titles of nobility, the 

 cnno/me-nuisance is perhaps the one most actively dis- 

 cussed at the present time. We take up a smart looking 

 brochure, elegant^' printed, ornamented with an appro- 

 priate frontispiece, and we want to know what M. Albert 

 de la Fizeliere has to say on the subject. Our author 

 begins with a proposition which is almost a truism: "La 

 coquetterie des femmes est plus ancienne que le monde ;" 

 and then he undertakes to prove that crinoline, far from 

 being a modern invention, is only the revival of a fashion 

 long ago criticised by satirists and denounced by pulpit- 

 orators. We are not aware whether some of our fair 

 readers thus supplied with precedents by M. de la Fize- 

 lifere will quote, in favour of crinoline, the famous rule of 

 Vincent Lirinensis : "quod semper, guod ab omnibus," etc. 

 etc. ; but the quotations put together in the volume we 

 are now considering are extremely amusing, and the 

 " petite bibliographic des stoles, basquines, vertugales et 

 paniers," which the author has subjoined, includes no less 

 than twenty-four distinct publications referring to whale- 



bone and steel petticoats. M, de la Fizelifere has selected 

 as his motto the two following lines of Horace; they 

 seem, says he, " faits k plaisir pour servir d'^pigraphe k ua 

 trait^ de la crinoline " : — 



" Si interdicta petes, vallo circumdata (nam te 

 Hoc facit insanum) multje tibi turn ofiicient res." 



The Tr€sor des Pieces rares ou in^diies, published by 

 M. Aubry, will be, when completed, a curious storehouse 

 of literary gems. Some volumes belonging to that col- 

 lection have already been examined in the columns of 

 " N. & Q." The present one is certainl}' one of the most 

 important, embracing as it does a variety' of documents 

 relating to the murder of King Henry IV. of Navarre, 

 and to the subsequent trial and execution of Ravaillac. 

 An enumeration of the several pieces contained in the 

 volume will best give the reader an idea of its value : — 



1". The narrative of the king's death, taken from the 

 Mercure Francois for 1611. The facts are minutely stated 

 hy the contemporary journalist, and his account is both 

 correct and impartial. 



2°. Instruction du Proces, faicte par les Srs. President 

 Jeannin, de Lom6nie, Secretaire d^Estat, et de BuUimi, Con- 

 seiller d'Estat. This piece here printed from MSS. re- 

 cently discovered, by the editor, supplies many curious 

 biographical details about Ravaillac, and it is singular 

 to remark the refined barbarity with which " plusieurs 

 genres de supplices" were imagined and seriously pro- 

 posed by zealous royalists to draw from the murderer the 

 names of his abettors. 



3". Interrogatoires. — The examination of Ravaillac 

 may be found in the Mercure Frangois for 1611, and the 

 Memoires de Conde ; but the text given by M. Aubry is 

 much more satisfactorj', and supplies a number of read- 

 ings derived from a MS. which belonged to Joly de Fleury, 

 Solicitor- General to the Parliament of Paris. 



4°. Confirmation des Temoins. 



5°. Arrest de la Cour de Parlement. 



6°. Proces Verbal de la Question. 



70. Notes. 



The murder of Henr}' IV. was the cause of a multipli- 

 city of pamphlets now for the most part excessively 

 scarce, and in which the Jesuits on the one side, and the 

 Galileans on the other, explained the melancholy event. 

 The fury of the Leaguers was not yet forgotten, their 

 hatred of the king had not j'et subsided, and accordingly 

 the violence of party spirit found a ready vent in thou- 

 sands of diatribes wlaich now lie buried amidst the dust 

 of public libraries. The list of these pamphlets, although 

 necessarily incomplete, extends over forty pages of M. 

 Aubry's book, and are a really valuable appendix to it. 

 A woodcut portrait of Ravaillac has also bee^ added. 



Antoine Verard is well known by bibliographers and 

 amateurs for his beautiful black-letter editions, his talent 

 as an artist, and his enterprising spirit as a publisher. 

 La Caille, Dibdin, Brunet, De la Borde, and many others 

 have spoken of him at considerable length, but amongst 

 much that has been said of his publications, we find very 

 few allusions even to the beautiful woodcuts adorning the 

 editions which came from his presses. This omission has 

 been rectified by M. J. Renouvier in a suggestive notice 

 printed by Ih&t facile princeps of all French typographers, 

 M. Louis Perrin of Lj-ons. Praj^er-books, devotional 

 works, illustrations of the Dance of Death, histories, books 

 on science, old poets, romances of chivalry, poetry: 

 such are the various headings under which M. Renou- 

 vier has classed his observations. The conclusion of 

 the whole matter may thus be stated. Verard was 

 habitually both the composer and the engraver of the 

 woodcuts, and although the roughness and want of finish 

 in some of them proves that he occasionally borrowed the 

 assistance of inferior hands, j-et " il n'en fut pas moins 



