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List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages

Notes.

BONAPARTE AND LORD WHITWORTH.

The Rev. J. Sanford has authorised me to place the following letter in your hands, in order that you may print it in "N. & Q." should it appear to be of sufficient interest.

BRAYBROOKE.

"I send you an account of the very memorable scene which occurred at Madame Bonaparte's drawing-room on the 13th of March, 1803. I believe I am the only living witness, as those who were near the person of Lord Whitworth were members of the corps diplomatique, Cobenzel, Marcoff, Lucchesini, all dead. Many years after I became intimately acquainted with the Marchese Lucchesini at Florence, when I had an opportunity of referring to that remarkable conversation.

"It was announced that Madame Bonaparte was to receive on the following Sunday, and it was reported that she was to have maids of honour for the first time; a little curiosity was excited on this score. The apartment of Madame B. was on the opposite side of the Tuilleries in which Bonaparte held his levees. I was acquainted with Lord Whitworth, who told me to place myself near to him, in order to afford facility for presentation, as Madame B. would occupy an arm-chair to which he pointed, and on each side of which were two tabourets. As all foreigners had been presented to General B. at his levee, his presence was not expected. The rooms, two in number, were not very large; the ladies were seated round the rooms in arm-chairs: a passage was left, I suppose, for Madame B. to pass without obstacle. When the door of the adjoining room was opened, instead of Madame B. the First Consul entered; and as Lord Whitworth was the first ambassador he encountered, he addressed him by enquiring about the Duchess of Dorset's health, she being absent from a cold. He then observed that we had had fifteen years' war; Lord W. smiled very courteously, and said it was fifteen years too much. We shall probably, replied General B., have fifteen years more: and if so, England will have to answer for it to all Europe, and to God and man. He then enquired where the armaments in Holland were going on, for he knew of none. Then for a moment he quitted Lord W. and passed all the ladies' addressing Mrs. Greathead only, though the Duchess of Gordon and her daughter, Lady Georgina, were present. After speaking to several officers in the centre of the room, which was crowded, he returned to Lord W. and asked why Malta was not given up. Lord W. then looked more serious, and said he had no doubt that Malta would be given up when the other articles of the treaty were complied with. General B. then left the room, and Madame B. immediately entered. As soon as the drawing-room was over, I observed to Lord W. that it was the first cabinet council I had ever witnessed; he laughingly answered, by far the most numerously attended. Lord W. then addressed the American Minister, who was very deaf, and repeated what had passed, and I perceived that he was very much offended at what had occurred. In justice to the First Consul, I must say that the impropriety consisted in the unfitness of the place for such a subject; the tone of his voice was not raised, as was said at the time. He spoke in the same tone as when he enquired for the Duchess of Dorset."

NOTES ON PRYNNE'S BREVIATE, BY ARCHBISHOP LAUD.

I have two Queries to propose; but before I can do so effectually, it is necessary to enter into an explanation and statement of facts, which may be considered as Notes conveying information which will, I anticipate, prove new and interesting to many readers of "N. & Q."

On the 2nd of September, 1644, Archbishop Laud, then a man of more than threescore years and ten, but still with intellect vigorous, active, and unimpaired by age or trouble, appeared at the bar of the House of Lords, to recapitulate in one address the various points of his defence, which had been made at intervals during the six months previous, as the trial had gone on, from time to time, since the 12th of the preceding March. On coming to the bar, he was for the moment staggered by seeing, in the hands of each of his judges, a blue book, containing, as he had just learnt, great part of his own most secret memoranda and most private thoughts, extracted by the bitterest of his opponents out of his Diary and MS. book of devotions. This was Prynne's Breviate of the Life of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury; extracted (for the most part) verbatim out of his own Diary, and other writings, under his own hand.

"So soon as I came to the bar," (this is his own account,) "I saw every Lord present with a new thin book in folio, in a blue coat. I heard that morning that Mr. Pryn had printed my Diary, and published it to the world, to disgrace me. Some notes of his own are made upon it. The first and the last are two desperate untruths, beside some others. This was the book then in the Lords' hands, and I assure myself, that time picked for it, that the sight of it might damp me, and disinable me to speak. I confess I was a little troubled at it. But after I had gathered up myself, and looked up to God, I went on to the business of the day, and thus I spake."

History of Troubles and Trial, c. xlii. pp. 411, 412.

In his defence he turned this circumstance, and the use previously made of his Diary and Devotions during the course of his trial, very happily to account. After speaking of the means which had been used to frame the charges against him, how he had been "sifted to the very bran," he says:

"My very pockets searched; and my Diary, nay, my very Prayer Book taken from me, and after used against me; and that, in some cases, not to prove, but to make a charge. Yet I am thus far glad, even for this sad accident. For by my Diary your Lordships have seen the passages of my life; and by my Prayer Book, the greatest secrets between God and my soul: so that you may be sure you have me at the very bottom. Yet, blessed be God, no disloyalty is found in the one; no Popery in the other."

Ibid. c. xliii. p. 413.

The recapitulation over, the Archbishop was remanded to the Tower, and prosecuted the work on which he had been long engaged, The History of his Troubles and Tryal: intending, when that was finished, to publish a reply to this Breviate. His words are:

"For this Breviate of his, if God lend me life and strength to end this (the History) first, I shall discover to the world the base and malitious slanders with which it is fraught."

Ibid. c. xx. p. 254.

His life was not spared to do more than carry on that History to the day preceding the passing of the bill of attainder by the Lords, three months after the publication of the Breviate. Thus it ends:

"And thus far had I proceeded in this sad history by Jan. 3, 1644-45. The rest shall follow as it comes to my knowledge."

Ibid. c. xlvi. p. 443.

Wharton adds this note:

"Next day the Archbishop, receiving the news that the bill of attainder had passed the House of Lords, broke off his history, and prepared himself for death."

He was beheaded the 10th day of the same month, January 1645.

The information I have to communicate, after this long preface, is, that a copy of