2"<» S. VI. 137., Aug. 14. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



135 



number of assignats were forged and circulated 

 at that time there is no doubt ; there is also no 

 question as to such forgeries being of English 

 execution ; but we shall require much more than 

 this trial (which is the only evidence brought by 

 Cobbett in support of the charge) to convince us 

 that the English Government ever resorted to a 

 step so dishonourable and also impolitic as to em- 

 ploy engravers to forge the paper-money of another 

 kingdom. John Jewell Penstone. 



Stanford in the Vale, Berks. 



I take it this anecdote is derivable from that 

 most prolific of all sources, the voluminous writ- 

 ings of the celebrated and insinuating pseudolo- 

 gist "rr-is-SAiD," who, one regrets to see, aided 

 by the notorious Mr. Potts of Eatanswill, has been 

 most malevolently busy with many of the worthiest 

 of our men of mark, living and dead. In this 

 special instance let us try and reduce fiction to 

 fact. On the determination of the Constituent 

 Assembly to issue assignats, it was required to 

 have printed an enormous quantity of this repre- 

 sentative paper (no less than four hundred mil- 

 lions were struck otFon April 19, 1790), involving 

 the necessity of an immense number of engraved 

 copper-plates from which to print them. And as 

 there was no method then, as now, of taking from 

 an original hardened steel-plate duplicates in soft 

 'steel afterwards hardened, and thus securing that 

 each (like our postage stamps for instance) should 

 be pro re identical, the revolutionary government 

 adopted the singular project of employing artists to 

 engrave three hundred facsimiles. This excessively 

 ingenious idea of the ruling powers, however, was 

 plainly open to the objection that other native 

 and less scrupulous " artistes " could have no diffi- 

 culty in engraving more assignats which should be 

 equally as much facsimiles as the government's 

 three hundred : that they did so is matter of his- 

 tory ; and equally so that the bank authorities 

 could not — as it was not in the nature of things 

 possible they should — be able to tell their own 

 from the unauthorised ones, the natural se- 

 quence was utter want of confidence in them. 

 To remedy the evil, they in their emergency hit 

 upon the more sensible plan of engraving a plate 

 in intaglio., from which they took in relief coppev 

 punches, called mother-punches. They thea struck 

 from the latter many hundred daughters, which 

 la.st, printed from in the usual manner of copper- 

 plates, possessed the required advantage of being 

 all perfect facsimiles of their intaglio progenitor. 



It was on the failure of the first-mentioned 

 issue of assignats, with a lack of ingenuousness 

 perhaps not now much to be surprised at, nor at 

 all Inconsistent with the known acrimonious sen- 

 timents of some of their body towards this coun- 

 try, that some of the revolutionists deemed it 

 politic — for the obvious odium attaching to such 



an act — to attribute such failure to the agency 

 of Pitt's government deluging their country with 

 forged instruments, — a charge against " the pilot 

 that weathered the storm " assuredly resting on no 

 better foundation than that of the editor of The 

 Anatomy of the Mass, 1561, who attributed the 

 fifteen pages of errata (a tithe of his text) to the 

 artifice of Satan ! W. J. Stannabd. 



HattoQ Garden. 



There can be no reasonable doubt of the cor- 

 rectness of what E. C. H. says he has " heard as- 

 serted " on this subject ; though probably not " any 

 of your readers " can say " what ground there is 

 for this anecdote," farther than its general belief 

 at the time, as I well remember. I have now be- 

 fore me five of the forged assignats. They were 

 struck off on thin sheets of a whity-browu paper; 

 each sheet containing eight, at least : four of mine 

 are yet on the same piece of paper. 



They have engraved borders, |ths of an inch 

 deep, 4f inches wide, and 2f inches high, exclusive 

 of the line all round the outside, and that up the 

 right and left hand within. In a central compart- 

 ment of the upper side of the border are the 

 words 



" Loi da 24 Octobre, 1792, 

 L'au 1" De La Republique." 



And in a similar compartment in the border be- 

 low, the words 



" La loi punit de mort le contrefacteur, 

 La nation recompense le de'nonciateur," 



each compartment being flanked by small em- 

 blematical figures. 



The assignat within the border reads thus : — 



" Domaines nationaus. 



Assignat 



de dix livres, 



payable au porteur. 



Caisaud. 

 S^rie |30_| Se""." 



the figures "10" being white on a dark ground, 

 within a wreath, supported by draped female 

 figures, winged, with trumpets. The name, Cai- 

 saud, is a signature imitated : on one side of 

 which is impressed on the paper a figure of liberty, 

 supporting the cap on a spear, and resting her 

 left hand on a Roman ftisces, but which has not 

 (as far as I can see) the usual axe-head, the dia- 

 bolical use of which has stamped the French revo- 

 lution with infamy. 1 cannot name the figure 

 on the other side, but it seems to hold an inverted 

 torch. P. II. Fisher. 



Stroud. 



ABMS OF BRUCE. 



(2"'' S. V. 23G. 2G4.) 



In connexion with tliis subject, a few remarks 

 as to the descent of the old Scotish Earls of Car- 



