Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/508

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420


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. m. MAY 27, 1905.


lation as it comes in. For this purpose nothing can be better than the review; before us of some of the leading works on the subject.

The Scottish Historical fieview (Glasgow, Mac- Lehose & Sons) is always interesting, and more especially so in those papers which relate exclu- sively to Scotland ; but there are exceptions to be made, and we have a striking one before us in the number for April in Mr. R. D. Melville's paper on ' Judicial Torture.' The writer here very properly includes England as well as his own country. In the strict sense, torture for the sake of extracting evidence has never been part of the law of England, And the writer tells us a fact of which we were not previously cognizant that the same was the case in Aragon and Sweden. We need not say, however, that in all barbarous States callousness as to human suffering has prevailed to a degree which fills the modern mind with sickening horror. In most of the other States of Europe torture was not only in use, but also strictly legal, having been absorbed into the various national codes from the old Roman law. The practice extended both to Eng- land and Scotland, but was legal only in the latter country. Though there can be no doubt that it was illegal in England, it was employed all the same. When Felton murdered the Duke of Buck- ingham the judges unanimously declared against torturing the criminal ; but there is overwhelming evidence that it was frequently permitted by exercise of the royal prerogative. When torture is referred to in historical or legal books it commonly means that form of it used to extract evidence ; but there was another kind, namely, that after conviction in cases of high treason. The sen- tence in these cases is far too horrible to be dwelt -upon here. It may be well, however, to say that the regicides suffered in this manner after the Restoration, and several of the Jacobites who had

  • een out with Prince Charles in the '45. We were

beforehand with the continental cation* in this particular : torture was put an end to in Scotland as early as 1708. It has often been said that the French Revolution caused the abolition of torture ^throughout Christian Europe. That its influence was in that direction no one can doubt ; but the -statement is, nevertheless, not accurate. It was .not finally done away with in Hanover until 1840, though suspended eighteen years earlier; but in the Kingdom of Naples, Mr. Melville tells us, it lingered till 1860. The writer has furnished his readers with a series of engravings, which will be of .service to those who wish to realize the sufferings of those on whom torture was inflicted. Dr. W. E. Scott has contributed an excellent article on many of the industrial undertakings of Scotland when she was an independent kingdom, and Mr. Thomas H Bryce gives us a paper on ' Scottish Ethnology.' He treats a difficult subject in a lucid manner, though we are by no means sure that all his con- clusions will stand the test of further discovery and research. In Mr. Eeles's paper on the altar of St. Fergus in Holy Trinity, St. Andrews, there is a curious inventory of the year 1525. It is not an inventory only, but also an account of work done. As an example, we are told that Sir James Braid had built a dovecot, six fireplaces, a bath, sunk a well, and planted trees in the garden. This men- tion of making a bath is useful, as there are still simple folk who think that in pre-Reformation times cleanliness was discouraged.


STUDENTS will be interested to hear of Dr. Reich's monumental work which Messrs. P. S. King & Son will publish shortly. Dr. Reich has been long engaged in collecting documents illustrating the history of mediaeval and modern times, and the result is a volume of some 800 pages. Four trained students of history, in addition to the editor, have been employed in the task. To each document is prefixed a short introduction or head- ing giving the essential facts, or points of view, illustrating the historical perspective of the docu- ment. A short, yet full bibliography for the further study of the details, circumstances, and effects of the events on institutions recorded in the documents is appended to the introductions. The index, which alone consists of some 70 pages, has been designed with a view of exhausting both the proper names and the subjects contained in the documents. With the rare exception of a few unimportant names containing mere titles of ambassadors, every proper name of " subject," whether bearing on historical geography, diplo- matic, or church, has been entered in the index, together with some qualifying word, so as to avoid bald references.


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We must call special attention to the following notices :

ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication "Duplicate."

G. F. PRATT ("Barnabe Googe's 'Popish King- dome ' ") A reprint was edited by Mr. R. C. Hope, and published in 1881 by Messrs. Satchell at a guinea.

C. L. E. C. (" Queen's Uniform "). See under ' Windsor Uniform,' 9 th S. ix. 268, 292 ; x. 36.

M. (" Washington's Arms and the American Flag").-See 7 th S. vi. 328, 494; 8 th S. vi. 124; xi. 347, 441 ; 9 th S. i. 469.

CORRIGENDUM. P. 362, col. 2, 1. 8, the words " Cre'dit Lyonnais" should be at the head of the inscription in Baskish.

NOTICE.

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