362 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"i S. X, Nov. 10. '60. 



Touraine, as Virey and Potel say, and the great- 

 grandfather was next of kin to a lady of the same 

 name who was maggiordomo to the queen-mother 

 of Louis XIV. But though Baron Maurice thus 

 seems to make out that Lagrange had only one- 

 eighth of his blood French, he makes exact resti- 

 tution by informing us that Lagrange's mother, 

 Maria Teresa Gros, the daughter of a physician at 

 Cambiano, was situated, as to descent, precisely as 

 was her husband. So that, after all, Lagrange is 

 a quarter of a Frenchman. It may easily be sup- 

 posed that there is a great mixture of names and 

 blood between such near neighbours as the French 

 and Piedmontese : and if all the families of the 

 illustrious, in letters were to be searched up to the 

 third ascent, it is likely enough that the French 

 would have to yield a quarter of some one of their 

 best names, in exchange for this quarter of La- 

 grange which is fairly their due. 



The mother tongue of Lagrange was, of course, 

 Italian ; and his first publication was in that lan- 

 guage. It is Lettera al Marchese Fagnani sulfa 

 Relazione delle Potenze colle Differenziali, printed 

 at Turin in 1754. Shortly after 1817, a list of 

 works was added to the edition of the Mecanique 

 Analytique of 1811 ; in this list the title of the 

 letter to Fagnani is French, or rather, a descrip- 

 tion is substituted for the title. 



Looking at Lagrange as born at Turin, and 

 originally from Touraine, I suppose, if I were 

 clever enough, I could find out how Arago came 

 to think his name was Tournier. But I am not , 

 clever enough. 



In these controversies about blood, when rival 

 nations claim a personage and dispute which had 

 most of him, they always forget a very material 

 point. Mr. Samuel Weller might set them right : 

 of the hero of one of his narratives he doubts 

 whether love killed him, or gin and water, but 

 wisely decides that perhaps it was a little of both, 

 and came of mixing the two. The question of pure 

 and mixed blood, so far as facts justify a surmise, 

 seems to lead to a suspicion that very pure blood, 

 kept up without mixture for a very long time, 

 would produce intellectual inferiority at least, if 

 not physical also. But in no European country 

 can the experiment be fairly tried. Independ- 

 ently of mixture with other countries, which pro- 

 duces no small eflect in a century, all the different 

 countries are conglomerations of different races, 

 in which the peculiarities of race are not yet 

 fused. National pride learns a national tone of 

 language before there is, physiologically speaking, 

 a national existence : and similarities of preju- 

 dice are created centuries before there is that cor- 

 poreal and mental similarity of structure which the 

 prejudices take for granted. If a committee of 

 mixed Frenchmen and Italians were appointed to 

 investigate the question of this paper, consisting 

 of one tolerably marked specimen of each of the 



races which are found under the names, with one 

 of each of the races of the United Kingdom to see 

 fair play and keep the peace ; and if the presi- 

 dent were to open thus — " Gentlemen, we are 

 here as the representatives of three races" — I 

 should expect that he would be interrupted by a 

 shout of laughter, and a cry of — " Are you sure 

 you don't mean ' thirty' ? " A. Db Morgan. 



BYRON, AND RIDGE HIS FIRST PRINTER. 



Through the medium of " N. & Q." (2"^ S. vi. 

 302.) a correspondent, signing himself D. (Rother- 

 wood), has explained how it was that Fugitive 

 Pieces issued from a provincial press, and has 

 defended Byron's first printer from the charges 

 brought against him in the poet's Letters pub- 

 lished by Moore. Ridge published a second edi- 

 tion of Byron's earlier poems, under the title of 

 Hours of Idleness, and acted so much to the satis- 

 faction of his employer that he was requested to 

 bring out English Bards and Scotch Itevievwrs, 

 which, not liking the libels therein, he refused to 

 do. Then, of course, the poet was obliged to look 

 out for a printer who was less scrupulous ; but as 

 D. says, whenever Byron was staying at New- 

 .stead, " he used to testify his respect by calling or 

 purchasing a few books at the shop in Newark," 

 plainly showing, that whatever harsh expressions 

 may have slipped into his Letters, he did not feel 

 any real animosity against the so-called " pirate," 

 who was nevertheless undeserving of the name. 

 The three following letters which have, I believe, 

 never before been published, were received by 

 Ridge (1807-8), and may perhaps be interesting 

 to the readers of " N . & Q.," as they are very 

 characteristic of the writer. 



" Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, 

 January 12th, 1807. 

 " Mr. Ridge, 

 " I understand from some of my friends, that 

 several of the papers are in the habit of publish- 

 ing extracts from my volume, particularly the 

 Morning Herald. I cannot say for my own part 

 I have observed this, but I am assured it is so. 

 The thing is of no consequence to me, except that 

 I dislike it, but it is to you, and as publisher you 

 should put a stop to it, the Mornirtg Herald is the 

 paper, of course you cannot address any other, as 

 I am sure / have seen nothing of the Kind in 

 mine. You will act upon this as you think pro- 

 per, and proceed with the 2nd Edition as you 

 please, I am in no hurry, and I still think you 

 were premature in undertaking it. 



" &c. &c. 



" Bybon. 

 " P. S. Present a copy of the Antijacohin Re- 

 vieio to Mrs. Byron." 



