gna, No 2., Jan, 12. °56.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
35 
Bibliotheca Hibernicana: or a Descriptive Cata- 
logue of a-Select Irish Library, collected for the 
Right Hon. Robert Peel (the late Sir Robert), 
of which there were only fifty copies printed, in 
1823, and which is, consequently, a rare little 
volume. The author is known to be William 
Shaw Mason, and in his note on Harris’s Ware, he 
says: 
« The first two [vols.] only were printed ; they contain 
the Antiquities, the Lives of the Bishops, and the Irish 
Writers continued to the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. Hedid not live to complete the third, which 
was to comprehend the Annals of Ireland. A most valuable 
collection for this purpose, consisting of several closely- 
written folios, was purchased by the late Irish Parlia- 
ment, and is deposited in the library of the Dublin So- 
ciety,” pp. 1-2. 
Is this valuable collection still in the library of 
the Society, and is it likely to be ever published, 
so as to form the intended third volume of Har- 
ris’s edition of Ware’s Works 2? 
Again, under the heading of Carte’s Life of the 
Duke of Ormonde, and Letters, at p.19., we read: 
“A collection of original lettersand papers concerning 
the affairs of England from 1641 to 1660, found among 
the Duke of Ormonde’s papers, was published by Carte in 
1739. They are said to have been printed at the expense 
of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning. None 
of them are to be found in the folio edition of the letters 
attached to Carte’s Life of Ormonde.” 
Is this collection, as a printed volume, easily 
obtainable, and is it uniform with the three pre- 
ceding volumes, published in 1735 and 1736 ? 
R. Hi. 
[{Carte’s Collection of Letters, 1739, makes 2 vols. 8vo., 
and is not uniform with his Life of Ormonde. | 
Replies. 
THE DE WITTS. 
(1* S. xii. 69. 244. 310. 438.) 
I cannot agree with P. that Burnet “ completely 
frees the Prince of Orange from the imputation of 
complicity ” in the murder of the De Witts. His 
words are: 
“Some furious agitators, who pretended zeal for the 
Prince, gathered the rabble together. And by that vile 
action that followed they did him more harm than they 
were ever able to repair. His enemies have taken ad- 
vantage from thence to cast the infamy of this on him 
and on his party, to make them all odious; though the 
prince spoke of it always to me with the greatest horror 
possible.” — Burnet, Own Time, vol.i. p. 455., ed. 1766. 
Macbeth speaks of his dear friend Banquo with 
the greatest kindness possible, and drinks his 
health in his absence.. The prince, who was a 
very good judge of his own interest, would not 
have pensioned and promoted the chief assassins 
had he thought that they had done him harm. 
-recited the first four lines. 
Hume’s statement seems exaggerated. I cannot 
trace his authority for saying that Cornelius de 
Witt was “torn to pieces by the most inhuman 
torments,” or that he “frequently repeated” the 
Ode of Horace. Ramsay (Mémoires de Turenne, 
t. ii. p. 467. ed. Paris, 1735.) says, ‘‘ Pendant qu’il 
subissoit la question, il chantoit lode d’Horace,” 
&c. In the Histoire de la Vie et de la Mort des 
deux illustres Freres J. et C. de Witte, Utrecht, 
1709, the word is “recita.” Basnage says he 
I do not find any 
mention of this in the accounts printed while the 
matter was fresh. 
As to the severity of the torture. He was put 
to the “ question ordinaire” on the 20th of Au- 
gust; what that was I cannot ascertain, but on 
the 22nd he was at dinner when the mob broke in, 
and able to walk down the prison stairs. ‘Tiche- 
laer told the mob that the torture had been merely 
a form, and the judges were afterwards taunted by 
the Orange party for the leniency with which it 
had been inflicted; more severity, they said, 
would have wrung a confession from him. In the 
British Museum is a pamphlet entitled Vervoelg 
van de Catalogus der Boechen,in de Bibliothéque 
van M. Jan de Wit, 1672. One is called : 
“Tractatus amplissimus de Torturad, door den_selben 
autheur (Jan) sijende een vervolg von gunt Johan Grevius 
Arminianische Predikunt, ? Amsterdum om het rasphuis sit- 
tende omtrent die materia geschreven heft.” 
“Vervattende eene heyligsame maxime om Princen- 
Moorders, als sijn Broer kreelis, wel op de pijn-banch te 
leggen, en de eyserne bandt om ’t lijf te doen, en dan 
strengelijk te pijnigen met twee houtchens tusschen twee 
vingers, ofte een scheen houten te adhiberen, gelijck men 
noch daagelijks de kinderen malkander siet doen; ende 
schrijkelijk feyt dan noch niet bekennende en niet wil- 
lende klappen, den selven wederom terstont los te laten, 
dat men ook bij sijne Rechters voor een torture kan doen 
valideren ; trouwens men sonde de man seer gedaen hebben 
en dat was crimen lesx majestatis geweest.” — P. 7. 
This pasquinade is not an authority for the 
fact, but the rumour. I have a small 4to. volume 
entitled Binnen-landtse Borgerlyke Beroerten in 
Hollandt en Zeeland in den Jare; 1672, Amsterdam, 
1676. It consists of authenticated documents 
connected by a brief narrative, which is singularly 
impartial in one who describes events so exciting 
and so recent. ‘The author, who was disposed to 
do justice to the De Witts, compares their deaths 
with that of Cesar. As to the torture, he says: 
“ «Men dreyghde dan den Ruart met de Pyn-bank; 
Tichelaer zeyt dat hy gepynight zou zijn, maer t’is niet 
te vermoeden, dat zulks in zyn tegenwoordigheyt ges- 
chiedt is, dies onzeker. Want of den Ruart schlechts 
met de Torture, alleen gedreyght, of in der daer gepij- 
night is, en hoe zwaar of licht, kan men niet wel te weten 
kommen, alzoo men dvoenmaals zeyde, dat den scherp- 
rechter of komende, al lachende gezeydt zou hebben, dat 
hy, om een halve Rijks-daalder, zoodanigh wel gepijnight 
wilde zijn.” — P. 132. 
On the title-page of the last-mentioned work 
