Kov. 25. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



425 



St. George's, Hanover Square. — When were 

 houses in the parish of St. George, Hanover 

 Square, first numbered ? I will instance George 

 Street. D. 



[According to Cunningham's Handbook, George Street 

 was built about 1719, and Lord Chancellor Cowper died 

 at No. 23 in 1723 ; so that the street must have been 

 numbered between those dates.] 



^tplitg. 



TOLTAIRE, SOUTHET, AND PKOFESSOB DE MORGAN. 



(Vol. X., p. 282.) 



It is well known to all who are conversant 

 with the state of literature and public opinion in 

 France, that great anxiety is generally shown in 

 the most distinguished quarters to disavow all 

 sympathy with, or participation in, the sceptical 

 and irreligious opinions and tenets circulated for 

 a time with such fatal effect by Voltaire and his 

 infidel school. Whatever dark traces these crude 

 notions may have left in the literature of the 

 eighteenth century, the best and greatest writers 

 of the present age are happily free from them. 

 A deeper acquaintance with the spirit and cha- 

 racter of the literature of other countries, — above 

 all with the works of Dante and Shakspeare in 

 poetry, and in philosophy with the writings of 

 Bacon, Vico, Herder, Keid, and Stewart, — has 

 had a chief part in effecting this happy change. 

 In consequence of this reaction, a new school has 

 arisen in France, deriving its chief inspiration 

 from Christian sources ; the school of Chateau- 

 briand, Mme. de Stael, Cousin, Guizot, Villemain, 

 and Lamartine, whose disciples and admirers, 

 now spread all over France, wielding the chief 

 organs of the press, and occupying the most emi- 

 nent social positions, are zealous in propagating 

 the doctrines and in diffusing the spirit of their 

 great masters. The laudable attempts of many 

 writers in France, as well as in other countries, 

 to free Voltaire from the charge of having written 

 the most horrible blasphemy ever conceived and 

 uttered to the world, are honourable in themselves, 

 as showing that sincere doubts, and often positive 

 disbelief, exist in their minds respecting the jus- 

 tice of the imputation. However bad his charac- 

 ter may be, let it not be made to seem worse than 

 it really is by unfounded charges, which only re- 

 coil upon their authors. To the exculpatory evi- 

 dence brought forward by Sou they and Professor 

 De Morgan, permit me to add that of a recent 

 writer in La Presse, a French newspaper, in the 

 number for February 23, 1853, in an essay on 

 the works and character of Voltaire. The charge 

 is not formally disposed of, but only incidentally 

 alluded to in a way to show that the writer looked 

 upon the dreadful expression as wholly inappli- 



cable, and never meant to be used in the deplor- 

 able sense that some would elicit from it. Such, 

 at least, appears to me to be the construction 

 which a candid mind would put upon the follow- 

 ing language : 



" Ce qu'ils (ses ennemis) ne pardonnent pas h Vol- 

 taire, c'est d'avoir si puissamment contribue h. couvrir 

 de lumifere le peuple, que ses oppresseurs chargeaient de 

 scandales, d'iniquite's, et d'impots. Ce qu'ils ne lui par- 

 donnent pas, c'est la guerre si glorieuse qu'il a faite k 

 Vinfame (sic), c'est-a-dire, au fanatisme, h I'intol^rance, k 

 la superstition, a la tyrannie. Ce qu'ils ne lui pardonnent 

 pas, surtout, c'est de nous avoir laisse des ciseaux et des 

 limes pour rogner les ongles et limer les dents de ce 

 monstre." 



John Maceat. 



Oxford. 



BISHOP GKrETITH WILLIAMS. 



(Vol. X., pp. 66. 252.) 



Your correspondent Hielas has fallen into a 

 few mistakes respecting this eminent prelate. 

 Ware states that the time of his birth was 1589, 

 not 1587 ; and as he took his degree of Bachelor 

 of Divinity a.d. 1616, and Doctor of Divinity 

 a.b. 1627, both at Cambridge, it is evident that 

 Oxford cannot claim him. The truth I believe is, 

 that after being for some short time at Christ 

 Church College, at Oxford, he entered Jesus 

 College, Cambridge. He was ordained deacon by 

 the Bishop of Rochester 1606-7, and priest by the 

 Bishop of Ely three months after, on the 30th of 

 May, 1607. The diocese of Kilkenny owes him a 

 deep debt of gratitude, for on his return to St. 

 Canice after the Restoration, finding the see-house 

 dilapidated, the cathedral desecrated, and the 

 church lands alienated, he devoted his entire 

 energies to the restoration of the three. He lived 

 to the advanced age of eighty-four, and was buried 

 in Kilkenny. He was one of the four bishops to 

 whom King Charles addressed his commission for 

 the restoration of the Irish Church; and on the 

 27th of January, 1660, he, with Bramhall, Arch- 

 bishop of Armagh, Lesley, Bishop of Raphoe, and 

 Maxwell, Bishop of Kilmore, at St. Patrick's, 

 Dublin, consecrated together the following twelve 

 Irish bishops : — Margetson for Dublin, PuUen for 

 Tuam, Boyle for Cork, Taylor for Down, Price 

 for Ferns, Wild for Derry, Synge for Limerick, 

 Parker for Elphin, Hall for Killala, Baker for 

 Waterford, Leslie for Dromore, and Warth for 

 Killala. 



Some interesting particulars respecting him will 

 be found in Mant's History of the Irish Church, 

 as well as in the books quoted by Hirlas. In 

 addition to the books named as being published 

 by him, in the cathedral library here (Waterford), 

 I find The Chariot of Truth, London, Tyler, 1663, 

 which contains a declaration against sacrilege, and 



