the literal meaning was exemplified.* I was perfectly aware that some inconvenience must attend upon my method of proceeding; but I knew of no method without its accompanying inconvenience, and I was convinced that the advantages secured by an uniform adherence to chronology (thus continually presenting some slip, if I may so call it, of a genealogical tablet of the English language) were sufficient to entitle it to my choice. In the Quarterly Review for Sept. 1835 my Dictionary is again the subject of criticism, and, after some complimentary expressions, which-but for the insatiability of an author's appetite for praise-might be adjudged abundant enough, the Reviewer declares himself to be still of opinion, that it would be a more scientific and, in all respects, preferable arrangement to give the signification of words in the natural order of succession; and he suggests that a chronological arrangement of authors would enable every reader to classify the quotations according to their respective ages. But the question between us is fairly before the literary world; and it has already, I believe, been so fully decided in my favour, that I am not much concerned about the weight which Mr. R. Taylor may be able to throw into the scale of my opponent. Mr. Taylor now stands before us, Mr. Urban, divested of every particle of borrowed strength; and there remains one general charge to be disposed of, originating in his own sole and unaided ingenuity: and it is this, he makes it a ground of accusation against me, that I have really some pre-conceived system of philology; that I have pre-established in my own mind certain principles as to the meaning of words; and that, in my explanations, I have proceeded in conformity to them. This is certainly a default which I cannot retort upon him. The sentence pronounced by Tooke upon a brother editor, and to which Mr. Taylor first gave publicity in no tender regard to the feelings of a fellow labourer, is far more appropriate, as characteristic of his penury in the philosophy of speech: "He knows as little as heart can wish of the signification of words." It is he, however, who presumes to affirm that a Dictionary formed upon such principles as mine can only mislead and bewilder: I sincerely regret this unfortunate effect upon his understanding, but I profess no surprise, and prescribe no remedy. In April 1836 § you permitted me, Mr. Urban, to present an exposition of those principles to the readers of your Miscellany; they were no novelties; they were authorized by names * The instance referred to by the Reviewer is rather an unlucky one; and shews that, if Homer sometimes nods, Aristarchus may sometimes dose. It is this, from Chaucer, "His comb was redder than the fin corall, This, says the critic, common sense tells us is a metaphorical usage, and it ought to be preceded by a simple one. Now, it is obvious that by the words-" as it were a castell wall," the simple usage of "embatteled " is very fairly established. And it might be added, that the literal meaning ought to be shewn by the etymology, and cannot, in a language like ours-derived from various sources-be regularly confirmed or illustrated by examples. How many words received from the Latin never are and never were used by us, except metaphorically. Even of home-bred words there are many which have always been confined to speech, or, at furthest, extended only to the written intercourse of private life, or the communications of business. Our first authors were assuredly neither tillers of the earth, nor workers at the bench or the forge, or the loom. Suppose the critic's plan adopted, where practicable, the author's (which is uniformly practicable) must in all other cases be pursued; and what a picture of confusion would the pages of the Dictionary have exhibited, if part had been constructed upon one scale and part upon another. †The reviewer means-to exemplify. In the explanations this arrangement is adopted, with little other effect upon Mr. Taylor than to puzzle him. Div. of Purley, p. 410, n. § P. 373, et seq. See also p. 44, of the Pref. to the 4to. Dictionary. long known and revered; and my only merit is that, I have in practice endeavoured to avail myself of their assistance. But this is my merit; though I must not expect that such philologers as Mr. T. will be either able to appreciate or willing to allow it. It is quite evident that this Gent. twice the editor of the Diversions of Purley, has profited so little from the study of his author, (if studied him he has,) and what is worse, from my exertions for a quarter of a century to illustrate and expound the doctrines which, to my mind, that author has so clearly and so forcibly inculcated, as not to have the slightest conception of the difference between the meaning and consequent application of a word.* I suspect the very confident Typographer to be possessed by that dangerous thing a little learning, (I do not allude to his attainments in particular languages, but in the principles common to all,) which so frequently renders its victim too opinionated to be docile; and thus debars him from the reception of that very instruction of which he is most in need. It was said of a celebrated lawyer, Lord Hardwicke, if I remember rightly, that his doubts were of more value than the certainties of other men. Mr. Taylor seems to claim for himself some pre-eminence as a suggester of doubts. In 1829 he had suggested that Tooke's explanation of for, from the Latin for-is, would "not apply to the generality of cases." In 1839 he reminds us of his having done so, and laconically adds-" Mr. Richardson, however, in his New Dictionary, adheres to it." This is very provoking, undoubtedly; but it may, perhaps, abate the soreness of the learned Editor, to be informed that my delinquency in adhering to the certainties of Horne Tooke, upon the convictions of my own understanding, had been committed in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana full two years before he had committed his suggestive scepticism to the press; and I do think that he has, in an unguarded moment, been pushed beyond the modesty of his nature, to expect that I should sweep from my pages, upon his bare intimation of a doubt, the double assurances of authority and reason. It is not my wish to trouble you, Mr. Urban, with one word in defence of the individual etymologies or explanations by which the distaste of the Editor of the Diversions of Purley has been so painfully excited. I believe in every instance (and their number is very small) they are founded upon, if not immediately sustained by, the authority of his book. It has not, indeed, suited him to carry his aggressions so far as to molest me where I stand alone. If any readers of his notes, or of your Miscellany, should be desirous to arrive at a right conclusion in any case, where the annotator has placed himself at issue against the text of his own author, and the expositions of it occasionally proffered in the New English Dictionary, it will be incumbent upon them to read us in the pages of our own books. The mutilated, I will not say the garbled, quotations, which Mr. T. has exhibited from my Dictionary, might, perhaps, have the effect of producing a state of bewilderment and perplexity, not exceeded by that in which he is himself involved. These quotations are accompanied by brief comments, which present as decided evidences of their writer's capacity to form a correct judgment, as the quotations themselves are of his disposition to pronounce a fair one. One observation more, Mr. Urban, upon Mr. Taylor and his performances, and I have done if he were a person who, in the character of a critic, had displayed any qualifications which could induce me, in the character of an author, to fear him as an adversary or court him as an ally, I might be sensible of regret that, out of the 2000 pages of my Dictionary, he has not been able or willing to select a single passage upon which he could bestow the pittance of his approval. I am, &c. C. R. Tulse Hill, Jan. 1840. * Mr. Taylor refers to my Illustrations of English Philology. It may be of service to him to read § iv. of the 3rd Letter. Mr. Taylor says-I have wholly omitted fore-go: he will find it in the very same column in the very same page in which he found fore-think (from Wilson's Rhetoric.) He asks-Can Mr. R. be ignorant of the existence of Dr. Webster's Dictionary? 1 refer him to my Prospectus. THE FRENCH HISTORICAL COMMISSION. SINCE our Oct. number, in which we expressed some uncertainty as to the proceedings of the Historical (or Record) Commission in France, we have received, together with many new volumes of its publications, the Reports of its different Committees, and we think it will be by no means uninteresting to our readers, if we give a slight sketch of what they are doing. The perseverance with which our neighbours are pursuing their interesting labours, ought to stimulate us also to take measures for snatching from oblivion the records and monuments of our national history. The French Historical Commission came into life just before the period when our own Record Commission was obliged to cease from its labours. Its first foundation was laid in 1834, by M. Guizot, then Minister of Public Instruction. A grant of 120,000 francs (something less than 5000l.) a year was passed by the Chambers, for carrying out its objects. We believe that the sum thus granted has been varied in different years since that time. A very few months elapsed from the establishment of the commission to the appearance, in 1835, of the three first volumes of its publications, under the general title of Collection de Documents inédits sur l'Histoire de France, publiés par Ordre du Roi et par les soins du Ministre de l'Instruction Public, uniformly printed in handsome 4to. volumes. These were, a Journal of the proceedings of the States-General of France, held at Tours in 1484, in the reign of Charles VIII. and two volumes of a more extensive series of Correspondence and papers concerning the negotiations relating to the succession to the Crown of Spain, by the house of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XIV. an event which involved all Europe in war at the beginning of the last century, and which has had a great influence on European politics ever since. This work is edited by the historian Mignet. At the same time appeared also the first volume of a collection of documents from the archives of the Ministère de la Guerre, relating to the military transactions of the same period, edited by General Pelet, under the title of Mémoires Militaires. These publications were followed in 1836 by three others, the inedited works of Peter Abelard, edited by Victor Cousin; the minutes of the deliberations of the Council of Charles VIII.; and the second volume of the collection of Military Memoirs relating to the War of the Succession. It should be observed that this latter work is accompanied with a magnificent atlas. In 1837, the Commission issued five volumes, of which the two first, the "Livre des Metiers et les Réglemens sur les Arts et Metiers," and the "Taille de Paris," besides illustrating generally the manners of former times, throw much light on the condition of the French capital in the Middle Ages. Two others, the history of the crusade against the Albigenses, in Provençal verse, by William of Tudela; and the first volume of the Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle by Benoît the former edited by M. Fauriel, the latter by M. Michel, are important monuments of literature as well as of history. The fifth volume was a specimen of a truly noble national work, which the Commission has projected, the Statistique Monumentale of France; this specimen being confined to the two arrondissements of Nancy and Toul, and containing a complete survey, with numerous folio plates of every monument in those arrondissements which belong to a date previous to the seventeenth century. The works issued during the year 1838, were, the third volume of the Military Memoirs, and the second volume of the Chronicle of Benoît, with the reports on the political state of France, made by the Venetian Ambassadors in the 16th century, in two volumes, and a very useful work entitled Elements of Palæography, in two very large folio volumes, illustrated by fine plates of fac-similes of writing, and of seals. The volumes issued by the Historical Commission during the past year were more numerous than in any of the preceding years. They were, 1. the Metrical History of the famous Bertrand du Guesclin, by a trouvère named Cuvalier, in two volumes. This interesting work is valuable to the English historian, for the information it gives relating to the wars between the two countries in the reign of Edward III. and more particularly to the expedition of the Black Prince into Spain. 2. The two first volumes of a selection of the archives of the city of Reims. 3. The diplomatic correspondence of De Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, relating to the naval operations under Louis XIII. in three volumes, edited by Eugène Sue. 4. The first volume of the Latin Chronicle of a monk of St. Denis, relating to the latter part of the fourteenth century. It will be seen, by the foregoing list of publications, that the labours of the French Historical Commission embrace a wide and varied field. The Commission was, in the first place, divided into three Committees, which severally devoted themselves to the history of the literature and language of France, to political history, and to the history of science. In the beginning of the year 1838 were formed two new Committees, the object of one of which was to preserve and publish surveys of the monumental antiquities of France, whilst the other was occupied with the "moral and political sciences." We have now received the several Reports of these five Committees, published in 1839, and will lay before our readers the most interesting parts of their contents. We will take them in the same order in which they are presented to us. The first Committee, that of Language and Literature, has not yet issued a single publication; but it has long been occupied in discussing and preparing a work of great importance. The work to which we allude, is intended to form a complete comparative series of monuments of the French language during the Middle Ages, beginning with the twelfth century. In order to make the comparison as easy and perfect as possible, it has been determined to take a certain portion of the Bible, and to give this portion from the vernacular translations as they are found in manuscripts of different dates during the period just mentioned. The publication of various other works is contemplated; and none will be more interesting to the general reader than the correspondence of Marguerite d'Angoulême, the famous Queen of Navarre, to whose pen we owe the Cent Nouvelles. "This princess, the most remarkable woman of her time, has left a reputation for wit, that seems to be rather an echo of the opinion of her contemporaries, than the result of the unfaithful and mutilated publication of her so celebrated contes; indeed, the publishers, in their deplorable love of the beau langage, have not left a single phrase of the excellent language of the author untouched. But her correspondence, of which Mr. Génin (the secretary of this Committee) is collecting and arranging the materials, will be more than sufficient to justify the praise which has been given to the Queen of Navarre. These letters are addressed to the King or to M. de Montmorency, grand master, afterwards constable of France. To judge of the historical interest which they possess, it is sufficient to know that there are twenty-five written in Spain, where Marguerite went to negociate the deliverance of her brother, prisoner of Charles the Fifth after the battle of Pavia. This correspondence, entirely inedited, will be accompanied with notes on the personages whose names occur most frequently, and to illustrate the allusions, without the explanation of which the interest of the reader diminishes in proportion to the obscurity of the book." The second Committee is entitled the Committee of Charters, Chronicles, and Inscriptions, and it is to it that we owe a great part of the works hitherto published. In addition to those already enumerated, we may expect soon the Chartulary of Chartres, which is to open a series of such works, to be edited by M. Guérard. The letters between the Kings and Queens of England and France, collected by Bréquigny, and edited by M. Champollion, are also nearly ready for publication. The Count Beugnot has in the press the four volumes of the earliest Parliamentary Archives, known by the name of Olim; M. Michelet has collected into two volumes all the documents relating to the trial and suppression of the Templars; M. de Golbéry has formed two volumes of the original and inedited historians of Alsace; M. Guérard has nearly finished the impression of the Chartularies of the two Haganons; M. Louis Pâris has in an equally advanced state the Correspondence of Aubespiere, ambassador of France at the court of Spain during the first period of the religious troubles; Augustin Thierry is preparing a large series of documents illustrative of the history of the tiers-état; Champollion-Figeac is employed upon a detailed description of all the historical manuscripts in the Royal Library; and, in addition to all these books, a critical examination of the sources of French History, by M. Jules Desnoyers, is on the point of publication. The third Committee is the Comité Historique des Sciences. Its object is to collect and publish the most important manuscripts relating to science as it existed in the Middle Ages. The history of science during that period, has been far too much neglected, and is at present very little known. M. Libri is charged with the publication of a collection of documents relating to the history of the sciences in France since the Middle Ages. Besides the older documents of this kind, this Collection will include the correspondence of many of the scientific men of the seventeenth century, with some of their treatises, which, long supposed to be lost, have been, or may hereafter be, discovered in the libraries of France. "The first volume will contain a specimen of the Great Encyclopedias, published in France in the Middle Ages, and which are so little known; the Trésor of Brunetti, the master of Dante, will be published entire. Napoleon had at one time the idea of giving to the world this Trésor, equally important for the history of the sciences and for that of the French language. These different pieces will be preceded by a history of Encyclopedias, beginning with the great Encyclopedias of the Chinese and Arabs." Some of the most extensive works which have yet appeared, are the publications of the Committee of Moral and Political Sciences, such as the negotiations and the military memoirs relative to the succession of Spain, and the correspondence of the Archbishop de Sourdis. This Committee has also in preparation a collection of the papers of the Cardinal de Granville, highly im. portant for the history of Europe during the sixteenth century; as well as the Livre de justice et de plet, a valuable treatise on Middle Age jurisprudence, and a volume of inedited works of our famous countryman Roger Bacon, which will be edited by Victor Cousin. The Report on the labours of the Committee of Arts and Monuments is so extremely interesting, that, were it not too long, we should be inclined to translate the whole. The object of this Committee is not only to publish a complete survey of all the monumental antiquities of France, but also to provide for the preservation of the monuments themselves. A series of printed questions is sent to every parish throughout the kingdom, in order to obtain the primary information to regulate the proceedings of the Committee in this survey. The undertaking will require many years, and much money. Those districts and monuments will be taken first in order which are of the greatest interest, or are most important in their character, or which are in the greatest danger of perishing; for the Committee has established it as a rule, that an edifice which is threatened with ruin shall always be preferred to a monument which is in a good state of preservation. At present this Committee is occupied in the publication of specimens or models of the different forms which its labours will take. These are to be, 1, the complete survey in description and delineation of the cathedral of Noyon, as a specimen of severe ecclesiastical architecture, and, 2, of that of Chartres, as being the most extensive and superb ecclesiastical edifice in France; 3, the Roman, Merovingian, and Carlovingian antiquities of Paris, as a specimen of the mode in which the great towns will be treated; 4, the description of the arrondissement of Reims, as a model of the monumental statistics of the provinces. "The mission of the Committee is, in fact, to search nôtre France monumentale; to catalogue, describe, and delineate all the objects of art scattered over our soil; to draw up an archæological register, so succinct that the monuments of every age and of every kind may be mentioned in it, and of such an extent that every work of art may obtain in it a place proportionate to its esthetic or historical value. "Two orders of works are therefore to be prosecuted under the direction of the Committee: statistics for all the monuments without exception; monographies for those monuments of importance which could not be developed sufficiently in the statistics. The Committee cannot itself execute all the statistics, which will amount to eighty-six if we proceed by department, and to three hundred and fifty if |