434 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2-»i S. VI. 162., Xov. 27. '58. 



me, hath euerlastyng lyfe." The Pearle ends on fol.xcvi. ; 

 on fol. xcvii. commences " A humble peticyon to the 

 lord, practysed in th*e commune prayer of the whole 

 faniylye at "Shene, during the trouble of their Lord and 

 mayster the duke of Somerset his grace : gathered and 

 setfurth by Thomas Becon, Minister there. Whych 

 trouble began the vi. of October, the yeare of oure Lorde 

 M.D.xux. and ended the vi. of Ffebruarye than next 

 ensuyng." The volume ends on fol. ciiij., on the back of 

 which is the colophon : "Imprynted at London for Gwalter 

 Lynne, dwellynge on Somerskaye, by Byllynges gate. In 

 the yeare of our Lord ji.d.l. And thej' by to be sold in 

 Ponies churchyard next the great schole, at the signe of 

 the spied Eagle. Cum priuilegio ad imprimenduin solum." 

 16rao. " 



This volume was translated from the German by 

 Miles Coverdale. The Protector Duke of Somerset saw 

 it in MS. during his confinement in the Tower, and it 

 afforded him so much comfort in his misfortunes, that on 

 his release he caused it to be printed, and graced it with 

 a preface. Another edition was published in the same 

 year, 1550, by John Cawood. (Herbert's Ames, p. 787.) 

 The next edition we meet with is without name, place, 

 or date, but appears to have been printed (in black-letter) 

 at Frankfort, circa 1555, ICmo. This edition does not 

 contain " The Humble Peticyon by T. Becon." It was 

 also reprinted bj' Wm. Leake, 1560 ; Hugh Singleton, 

 1569, and one without date ; and by Robert Robinson in 

 Icii'o. There are also several modern editions. It is 

 likewise reprinted in vol. viii. of The Fathers of the Enrj- 

 Jish Church, edited by Legh Richmond, and in Bishop 

 Coverdale's Writings and Translations (Parker Society), 

 1844. Consult Herbert's Ames, ii. 744; and Dibdin's 

 Typog. Antiq. iv. 297.] 



Battle of Waterloo : Who brought the News to 

 England? — A correspondent of the Wiltshire 

 County Mirror says : — 



"In none of the sketches of the career of the late Mr. 

 Assheton Smith has mention been made of a fact which I 

 have heard stated on good authority, that he was the 

 first to bring into this country intelligence of the over- 

 throw of the great Kapoleon on the plains of Waterloo. 

 It having reached him while cruising in his yacht oS the 

 coast of France, he immediately set sail for England, and 

 was the first to proclaim the glorious news." 



The above paragraph I have copied from Bell's 

 Life in London of 31st October, 1858 ; if true, it is 

 worthy of a place among your Notes, and if not, 

 b}' appearing in your columns, it will doubtless be 

 clearly refuted. Haughmond. 



[There is nothing in cotemporary accounts to "re- 

 fute" the statement, that Mr. Assheton Smith was the 

 first to bring the important intelligence to this country, 

 but it appears to have been first made public in London 

 through a very different channel. The Duke's Dispatch, 

 indeed, did not arrive till late at night on the 2 1st June, 

 which was the Wednesday after the Sunday on which the 

 battle was fought. But at noon on that Wednesday the 

 glorious news was already well known in the City as to 

 all its leading particulars ; — a great battle fought, the 

 allied army victorious. Napoleon overthrown. This in- 

 telligence, however, was brought by a gentleman who 

 came, not from " off the coast of France," but direct from 

 Ghent, where, on Monday the 19th, Louis XVIII. had 

 received the news by a brief autograph from the Duke 

 himself. (^Courier, 21st June, 1815.) 



If it be true that, in those ticklish times, Mr. A. Smith 

 was really cruising in his yacht off the coast of France, his 



yacht, one would suppose, must have been far better 

 armed than the generality of such vessels. Jlerchantmen, 

 if unarmed, had to lie for days and days in the Downs, 

 waiting for a wind that should enable them to round the 

 South Foreland without fetching over to the French coast. 

 However, a flaming napoleonic account of the battles of the 

 16th (Lignj'and Quatre Bras) had certainly reached Bou- 

 logne by telegraph {Times 20th June, 181o) ; and Mr. A. 

 Smith may possibly have picked up early intelligence off 

 Boulogne of the final conflict of the 18th" This he might 

 have eO'ected through the aid of English smugglers, who 

 during the war were encouraged at Boulogne bj- the French 

 authorities, and allowed to do business there, in this 

 manner Mr. Smith may have been enabled to bring the 

 first news of the Waterloo consummation to England, 

 though we have no reason for thinking that he had any- 

 thing to do with making it public in London. 



Though several persons are mentioned by name in the 

 papers of the day as bringing intelligence from the seat of 

 war, we find no such cotemporary record of Mr. Assheton 

 Smith. A distinguished historian does indeed state that 

 "in the London papers of Tuesday the 20th June" [note in 

 margin, " Courier, June 20th, 1815 "] "a rumour was men- 

 tioned of Napoleon having been defeated in a great battle 

 near Brussels, on Sunday evening, in which he lost all his 

 heavy artillery:" and the same distinguished writer 

 adds, " The same paper {Courier, June 20, 1815) men- 

 tions that ' Rothschild had made great purchase of stock, 

 which raised the three-per-cents, from 56 to 58.' " This 

 alleged report of the 20th, anticipating by one day the 

 news from Ghent, might be supposed by some to have 

 originated from news brought by Jlr. Smith. But unfor- 

 tunatelj', on a close examination of the newspaper thus 

 cited, " Courier, June 20, 1815," we find no mention what- 

 ever either of the "great battle near Brussels" or of 

 Rothschild's " great purchase " in the funds ! The Morn- 

 ing Chronicle of the 21st, published, of course, before the 

 full intelligence of that day transpired, says merely, " On 

 Sunday the 18th the Armies were again engaged, and no 

 account has been received of the proceedings of that day.^' 



On the whole we may conclude that the news of Napo- 

 leon's final defeat on the 18th was first known generally 

 by the London public on Wednesday the 21st ; and that 

 this knowledge was mainly due to the " gentleman from 

 Ghent," — who had the best possible authoritj-, namel3', 

 that of the Duke himself. And the rise of the 3 per cents. 

 on account (for they were closed), a rise which, after all, 

 did not reach 58 till the 22nd, however profitable to Roth- 

 schild, does not appear to have been mainly due to his 

 operations, large as they are said to have been at the 

 Waterloo crisis, but rather to the general publicity which 

 the good news gradually acquired. 



1815. Consols for Account. 



June 19 (Monday) ... 56 555 56 

 „ 20 (Tuesday) - - - 56i | a | J A 

 „ 21 (Wednesday) - - 561 f 7 6f 7^ ^ 



„ 22 (Thursday) - - 58f 9 7,i 8| 



3Iorning Chronicle.'] 



Water-Marlis on Paper. — What are the autho- 

 rities upon ancient water-marks in paper, and 

 where are copies of such to be seen ? J. H. S. 



[We must refer our correspondent to the following 

 splendid work recently published : Principia Typogra- 

 phica : The Block-Books Exemplified and Coyisidered in 

 conne.vion with the Origin of Printing; to which is added 

 an Attempt to elucidate the Character of the Paper-Marks of 

 the Period. A work contemplated by the late Samuel 

 Sotheby, and carried out by his son, Samuel Leigh Sothe- 

 by. 3 vols. fol. 1858.] 



