assassinate King William III. Mind, the coincidence is only in name. The historic parallel is rather of kind than event, but it is not the less remarkable when we consider the excitement twice connected with these names. The character of James II. may be described as the villainy of weakness. It possessed nothing of elevation, breadth, or strength. It was this weak obliquity which made him deceive his people, and led them to subvert the laws, supplant the church, and to become a tyrant in the name of religious liberty. His means to recover the throne were as mean as the manner of its desertion was despicable. He tried cajolery, it failed; the bravery of his Irish soldiers, it was unavailing. He next relied on the corruption of Russell, the avarice of Marlborough; but as these men were to be bought as well as sold, he put his trust finally in any villain who was willing to be hired for assassination. In 1692 M. de Grandval, a captain of dragoons, was shot in the allied camp, who confessed that King James at St. Germain, in the presence of the queen, had engaged him to shoot King William. Four years later James had contrived another plot. At the head of this were Sir George Barclay and Sir William Perkins, and under their guidance twenty men were engaged to assist in the assassination of King William. The plan was as follows. It was the custom of the king to hunt near the house of Mr. Latten, in the neighbourhood of Brentford, and they designed to surprise the king on his return at a hollow part of the road between Brentford and Turnham Green, one division of them being placed behind some bushes and brushwood at the western end of the Green. Some of your correspondents may perhaps fix the spot; but as the Green extended then far beyond what it now does, I suspect it was about the road leading to Gunnesbury; the road itself I recollect as a boy seeing much elevated and improved. The design failed, two of the gang betrayed the rest,—Barclay escaped, but Perkins and some others were hung. Jeremy Collier attended them on the scaffold, and publicly gave them absolution in the name of Christ, and by imposition of hands, for all their sins. I need not describe to you the excitement caused by this plot of Barclay and Perkins: the event connected with their names, as at our later period—

James closed the drama becomingly; he published a defence of his conduct in a paper, the style of which has been well described as the "euphemism of assassination." The road between Turnham Green and Kew was long after associated with the names of "Barclay and Perkins."

S.H.

REMAINS OF KING JAMES II.

The enclosed copy of an authentic document, obtained through the kindness of Mr. Pickford, Her Majesty's consul in Paris, is communicated to the publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES", in the belief that it may prove acceptable to those who take an interest in the questions raised by the articles in Nos. 46. 48. and 56. of that valuable publication.

This document is an "Extract from the Register of the Deliberation of the Municipal Council of St. Germain-en-Laye," dated July 12, 1824, containing the official report, or procès-verbal, of the discovery made that day of three boxes, in which were deposited a portion of the remains of King James II. and of the Princess Louise-Marie, his daughter.

The "annexes" referred to, of the respective dates of September 16 and 17, A.D. 1701, leave no doubt as to the disposal of the royal corpse at that time. With respect to its fate, after its removal from the English Benedictine convent in Paris in 1793, as mentioned in the article No. 46., it is most probable that it shared the fate of other royal relics exhumed at the same disastrous period from the vaults of St. Denys, which were scattered to the winds, or cast into a common pit.

It may be presumed that the epitaph given in the same document, and mentioned as being such as it had existed in the church of St. Germain-en-Laye, had disappeared before the date of the "Extract from the Register." It probably was destroyed during the first fury of the French Revolution in 1793:—

"République Française.
"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.

"Ville de Saint Germain-en-Laye.

"Extrait du Régistre des Déliberations du Conseil Municipal.

"Séance du 12 Juillet, 1824.

"Aujourd'hui lundi douze Juillet mil huit cent vingt-quatre, trois heures de relevée, nous Pierre Danès de Montardat, ancien Colonel de Cavalerie, chevalier de l'ordre royal et militaire de St. Louis, Maire de la ville de St. Germain-en-Laye, ayant été informé par MM. les Architectes de la nouvelle église de cette ville, que ce matin, vers sept heures, en faisant la fouille de l'emplacement du nouveau clocher dans l'ancienne chapelle des fonds, on avait découvert successivement trois boites en plomb de différentes formes, placées très près les unes des autres, et dont l'une desquelles portait une inscription gravée sur une table d'étain, constatant qu'elle contient partie des restes du roi Jacques Stuart Second, Roi d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse et d'Irlande. Nous sommes transporté sur le lieu susdésigné accompagné de M. le Compte Bozon de Talleyrand, Lieutenant Général honoraire, Grand' Croix de l'ordre de St. Louis, Gouverneur du Château de St. Germain-en-Laye, de M. Jean Jacques Collignon, curé de cette paroisse royale, de MM. Malpièce et Moutier, architectes de la nouvelle église, de M. Rigault, secrétaire de la Mairie, et de MM. Voisin, Perrin, Baudin, de Beaurepaire (le comte), Dusouchet, Galot, Decan, Dupuis, Jeulin, Journet, Griveau, Dufour, Delaval, Casse et Barbé, membres du Conseil Municipal, et de M. Morin, Commissaire de Police,

"Où étant, nous avons reconnu et constaté;

"1o. Que la première des trois boites susdites (figure A) était en plomb de 0m. 35c. carrés et 0m. 18 centimêtres de hauteur, recouverte d'une plaque en même de 0m. 22 centimêtres carrés, sous laquelle plaque on a trouvé une table en étain de 0m. 20 centimêtres de haut, 0m. 15c. de large, portant cette inscription:—

"'Ici est une portion de la chair et des parties nobles du corps de très haut, très puissant, très excellent Prince Jacques Stuart, second du nom, Roi de la Grande Brétagne; naquit le XXIII Octobre MDCXXXIII, décédé en France, à St. Germain-en-Laye, le XVI Septembre MDCCI.'

"Au bas de la plaque sont empreintes ses armes.

"Cette boite est en partie mutilée: elle contient plusieurs portions d'ossements et des restes non encore consommés.

"La deuxième boite (figure B) circulaire est aussi en plomb de 0m. 34 centimêtres de diamétre et 0m. 30c. de hauteur et découverte.

"La troisième boite (figure C) de 0m. 30c. carrés et 0m. 25 centimêtres de hauteur est aussi en plomb et fermée de toutes parts à l'exception d'un trou oxydé.