be topography, not chronology. The second of the new series (the first being that of Islington and Finsbury), illustrating the topography and history of St. Pancras, is now on view. Over 140 items are shown. Among the places and buildings illustrated may be mentioned Kentish Town; Camden Town; Tottenham Court; St. Pancras Old Church; Agar Town (now for many years a thing of the past); Bagnigge Wells (one of the most popular resorts of the Londoner); Gray's Inn Road; King's Cross (the old Cross, the Dust Heaps, and the Panharmonium); and the Foundling Hospital. The room containing the drawings is included in the itinerary for visitors to the County Hall.

THE collector who once was a follower and

a gleaner-child, dilettante, or ancient recluse in need of a hobby-for whom chance and exercise of his own flair, rarity and unexpectedness were all precious factors in acquisition, lending various and peculiar charms to each several treasure-the collec

tor, in this new age, is developing into the arbiter and the point de mire of all sorts of making and contriving. Artists and makers of books have long since used themselves to considerable reckoning with him; and Governments begin to count on him at any rate in the matter of their stamps. And now we learn from the Aero-Field-in the Airpost Collectors' Chronicle '-that a work has been brought out, translated from the French, which ought to be read by every serious collector, showing under the title 'Undesirable Air Covers,' that there is a tendency among a number of collectors and dealers to use large or cumbersome envelopes on first-flight mails, and suggesting use of smaller, neater covers "" otherwise some of the value and much of the charm of a collection is liable to decrease." It is enter

taining to observe how a view of the world as first and foremost a museum is gaining ground. Ought we not with the symbolic animals,-lion, eagle, fox or bee-soon to place the bower-bird.

A correspondent sends us

an interesting letter printed in the Evening Standard of Jan. 20, from Mr. Henry Edmunds, M. Inst. C.E. of Moulscombe, Brighton. This gentleman with Professor Barker was present in Mr. Edison's laboratory when Mr. Edison first recorded speech. The two were making a chance visit, and on their entry Edison and his assistant put up their

hands as warning that something was happening.

We walked carefully to the table on which was a curious looking machine with a brass cylinder covered with tinfoil that seemed grcoved with curious indentations on, 'the groove, a fly-wheel at one end of a steel shaft which, when we arrived, Mr. Edison turned.

Great was our astonishment when we heard the spoken words, " Mary had a little lamb." of the other listeners, for evidently Mr. Edison Our astonishment was even greater than that had spoken the words just before we entered the building, and we had no idea what was coming. Thus we were just in time to be in at the birth of the phonograph.

Two Hundred Years Ago.

From

The British Journal. SATURDAY, January 28, 1726-7. LONDON, JAN. 28.

Some particular Letters from Petersburg fay, that the Czarina, is not quite recover'å The Jealoufies of her Court augment every of her Indifpofitions, and is even relapsed. Day. It is certain, that the Duke of Holstein and the Prince Menzikoff oppofe one another on all Occafions under-hand,, tho' Czarina. both of them continue in the Favour of the

Laft Week M. Voltaire, the famous French Poet, who was banifhed from France, was introduced to his Majefty, who received him very gracioufly. They fay he has received Notice from France, not to print his Poems againft him, by the Cardinal de Biffy, on of the League; a Profecution ftill depending

the Account of the Praifes beftow'd in that Book, on Queen Elifabeth's Behaviour in Matters of Religion, and a great many against Perfecution in Matter of Faith. Strokes against the Abufe of Popery, and

The Pamphlet newly publifh'd, called An Enquiry into the Reafons for the Conduct of Great Britain &c. hath had a furprizing Effect on all Ranks and Parties of People, every Perfon refenting with the utmoft Indignation the monftrous Ingratitude of the Emperor, and the infufferable Infolence of the Court of Spain. Above 20000 of the faid Pamphlets have been difpofed of in lefs than 3 Weeks Time: And we hear that fomething more of that kind is in the Prefs.

Notes.

GEORGE CHINNERY, 1774-1852, With Some Account of His Family and Genealogy.

(See ante, pp. 21, 39, 58.)

THE history of the artist's eldest brother is a striking example of the vicissitudes that may come in a man's career, a theme that has engaged the attention of moralists in every age. It is also illustrative of the saying that persons often bear adversity with a better spirit than they bear prosperity. He was born on March 3, 1766, and baptized William Bassett, Bassett being his mother's name. It is interesting to record that in the registers of Acton Parish, near Sudbury, is recorded the marriage of a John Bussett and Mary Chinery, Jan. 31, 1683, and on May 7, 1787, the marriage of William Bassett and Ann Chinnery as well as the birth of their son William, Aug. 3, 1789, subsequently known as the Reverend William Chinnery Bassett, who died in 1838, but who on Oct. 3, 1831, wrote to the Reverend Dr. Jermyn a letter now to be found in the British Museum in Davy's Suffolk Collections, a strange letter which runs thus: "The Chinnerys came from Ireland above a century ago, perhaps as much as 130 years and for a

considerable time lived at Chilton Hall. I believe they were a respectable family but I have never taken any trouble to trace them far back. But to resumethis William Bassett Chinnery, according to the Diaries of Sir George Henry Rose, was a sort of Secretary to Lord Chancellor Thurlow, a Suffolk man himself. Prior to the removal of Lord Shelbourne from the Treasury it was decided to appoint five Treasury clerks and the nomination to one of these posts was given by Shelbourne to Rose who, according to Farington's Diary, Vol. i., had been a Scotch schoolmaster, then Purser of a Man-of-War, and had been brought forward into a political line by Lord Thurlow. Rose was induced by Thurlow to give this post to William Chinnery, whose father Rose wrongly describes as a writing-master. His grandfather was the

writing--master. Chinnery showed great advancement was rapid. He became agent for the Bahamas. (in 1794) for New South Wales, and for other colonies, posts which brought him in over £4,000 a year. In October, 1790, he married Margaret, one of the three daughters of Leonard Tresilian of Bromton," Middlesex. Later he fixed his residence at Gilwell Hall, Sewardstone, Essex, keeping an apartment at Mr. Smith's in the Adelphi. He had previously resided in Mortimer Street, Marylebone, where he He held house acquired house property.

property also in Great Coram Street and owned a leasehold house in St. Paul's Churchyard. At Gilwell Hall he launched out into so expensive a mode of living, buying objects of art and giving costly concerts that Rose wrote him a letter of strong expostulation, and in 1810 caused Spencer Perceval to make an examination of Chinnery's accounts. Perceval, however, assured Rose in a letter written from Ealing Sept. nothing unfavour10, 1810, that there was able in the least degree to Mr. Chinnery in the state of his accounts," but in March, 1812, Perceval writing from Downing Street, sounded another note: "" I have to acquaint you," he wrote, "that all your fears respecting Chinnery are realised. He deceived me most terribly in 1810, and he is in arrear even beyond your conception. I have directed him to be removed from his situation at the Treasury and all his agencies.” In short Chinnery was found to be a defaulter to the tune of £81,000 and almost simultaneously another Treasury official named Hunt was discovered to be £89,000 in default. Hence the allusion, April 21, 1812, in Lord Byron's speech in the House of Lords: The insect defaulters of the Treasury, your Hunts and your Chinnerys," these large sums being trifles in the imagination of the poet compared with other delinquencies and defalcations which he was urging against the Government of the day. An extent was issued against the estate of Chinnery, he himself escaping to Gothenburg and dying in Paris in 1834. His sureties had to pay up considerable sums. Sir Thomas Baring, £2,000, and Pascoe Grenfell, M.P., £1,000. Another surety a Mr. Wigglesworth, had died in 1800. All Chinnery's property and his collection of statuary, vases and pictures were sold, proceedings in the case lasting for ten years, till

""

1822. His widow died in Paris in 1840. Of the three children of this marriage not one survived their parents. George Robert, the eldest, entered Christ College, Oxford, in January, 1808, where he graduated B. A., in 1811, and M. A. in 1814, and where in July, 1810, he won the Newdigate Prize with a poem on The Statue of the Dying Gladiator.' The Statue is in the British Museum and the curious may read the poem in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine. He was admitted as a student in one of the Inns of Court but he never practised. He was given a post in the Treasury and was nade Commissioner of Claims at Madrid where he died unmarried at the end of 1825 or early in 1826. His will was proved in London, March 22, 1826. The second son, Walter Grenfell Chinnery died in December, 1802, and the daughter Caroline died in April, 1812, at the age of 20.

Of Chinnery's sister, Elizabeth Harriet, and his brother, Thomas Welch, no record has been found beyond that of their birth in the Registers of St. Bride's Church.

John Terry Chinnery, the next brother, became a writer in the East India Company's service in 1792, on the recommendation of Simon Frazer, one of the directors, his first difficulty being in regard to his name, Richard Webb Jupp, Attorney, of London, having had to make affidavit that John Terry Chinnery and John Chinnery were one and the same person. Arrived in Madras he was appointed Assistant under the Secretary in the Political and Military Department from Aug. 1, 1792. In 1793 he became Assistant under the Resident at Cuddalore. In March, 1810, we find him a partner in the Agency house of Chase, Sewell and Chinnery, which by the end of that year had become the firm of Chase, Chinnery and Macdowell. In 1812 we find him Commissioner, Resident, Northern Division, and he died in Madras, Nov. 15, 1817. Of the sister, Frances Hughes Chinnery, we get a glimpse in The Memoirs of George Elers,' Elers, born in 1777, embarked for India in 1796. There were four lady passengers: two Miss Smiths, a Miss Payton and a Miss Chinnery, her friend. Miss Payton, a very handsome old maid, about 36, the other a good-tempered but very plain girl of my own age. The Miss Smiths had many admirers, and Mamma Payton too had hers but, as to poor Miss Chinnery, no one even thought of her. She had neither beauty nor

Miss Payton was on her way to Madras to marry John Chinnery, the artist's brother, the marriage taking place, in January, 1797, and, as she was born in 1771, George Elers' estimate of her age seems to have been singularly unhappy. He committed the unpardonable offence of adding about eleven years to the lady's age. Miss Chinnery too was on her way to marry John Duncan of the East India Company's Medical Service, the marriage taking place on April 27, 1797, at Cuddalore.

Neither John Chinnery nor John Duncan lived to great age in India: the former died there in November, 1817, and the latter in April, 1819. Four children survived John Chinnery, a son William Charles, born in England about 1805, who died in 1839, a captain in the 4th Madras Native Infantry, unmarried; a daughter, Matilda Marianna, who must have been born by the end of 1797 and who, when very young, became a traveller; for in April 1800, we find Miss M. Chinnery a passenger on the ship Charlton from Madras Roads and in March, 1801, we find the London Chronicle announcing the arrival in the last fleet from India of Miss Matilda Chinnery. She became the wife in September 1822 of Colonel Samuel Irton Hodgson, of the Madras Native Infantry, and in December 1823 her sister Elizabeth Marianna married Lieut. Colonel Charles McLeod, afterwards Lieut. General Sir Charles McLeod, K. C.B. The remaining daughter, Mary Henrietta, died unmarried in London in July 1885.

William Massey's Origin and Progress of! Letters,' London, 1763. It relates to William Chinnery, the writing-master, grandfather of the artist, and incidentally it puts out of doubt any question as to his identity with Richard Ford's apprentice of 1723.

CHINNERY (William) this is one of our present eminent performers in the way of penmanship; he was educated (as I have been informed) in the first rudiments of his learning under Mr. Miers, heretofore a writing master, on Tower-hill; but was not then designed for the employ, that he has since So happily adorned.

He was put apprentice to Mr. Ford, a Bookseller in the Poultry; and after his time was out there, he went to live with Mr. Bernard Lintot, a noted bookseller, in Fleet-street. It was whilst he lived in those places, that he improved his natural genius for fine writing, to such a degree, as to become one of the celebrated writing masters in London; but his utmost abilities have not been sufficiently exhibited from the rolling-press; or else, from what I have seen of his performances, in the Calligraphic way, he would have made a greater figure than he has yet done in public.

There is printed, without any date, a book entitled, The Compendious Emblematist; or Writing, and Drawing made easy. It contains 24 plates, in a large long octavo, in writing, each page having a moral distich, in the order of the alphabet, with an application, in one short

sentence more. William Chinnery, Senior's name is put to ten of the plates, and only William Chinnery to seven others. The rest, it seems, were written by the principal engraver, T. Hutchinson. It does not appear, that Mr. Chinnery had any hand in the 24 plates of emblems, that are joined to the writing-plates. The whole looks more like a thing designed for amusement, than any improvement in the hands. London, printed for T. Bellamy, bookseller, at Kingston upon Thames.

N.B. The anonymous prefacer says, that the greatest part of the moral copies were wrote by that able and experienced penman, Mr. William Chinnery, senior.

He also published a large whole sheet piece, divided into seven compartments, containing so many specimens of the round-hand, and roundtext, for learners to copy after. There is no date to it; engraved by Thomas Gardner, price 6d.

I have reason to believe, there are several other small pieces, which Mr. Chinnery as published from the rolling press; but such as have not the author's name to them, I can give no just account of. When I wrote this, Anno 1762, Mr. Chinnery employed his whole time, in teaching abroad; and instructing young gentlemen in his house, at the Globe in Chancery-lane.

W. H. W.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE

SOME

"SCRAP OF PAPER.”

recent official and public references to the official history of the outbreak of the World War and to the late Sir Edward Goschen's report of his memorable interview with the German Chancellor on Aug. 4, 1914, may recall an interesting discussion in The Times of May-July, 1924, ás to the precise words used by the Chancellor on that occasion, in contempt of the Belgian treaty of neutrality.

It is well known to students of Diplomatic History that certain linguistic formalities were observed in early times for recording the tenor of an international engagement, among which the use of Latin in the texts of Treaties and of French in subsidiary documents or conversations survived till the nineteenth century, while traces of this usuage are still preserved. But in whatever language diplomatic writing or speech may be expressed, it is obviously desirable that its nature should be known to us.

The importance of this academic aspect of the final British protest against an impend ing violation of the international guarantee of Belgian neutrality, in August, 1914, was not realised at that time, but it is emphasized by the interest displayed in the recent discussion of the case which is still at issue. Therefore, in order to facilitate a satisfactory reply to a question of some importance for the study of international affairs, a brief statement of the problem is desirable.

Early in 1915 I was asked by my friend, M. Charles Bémont, of the Ecole des Chartes and Sorbonne, to obtain an authoritative statement as to the exact language in which the Scrap of Paper was denounced by the German Chancellor. No official note of the actual conversation existed in the Forthe Librarian I was able to convey to M. eign Office archives, but by the courtesy of Bémont the written assurance of Sir Edward Goschen himself that the conversation was, from first to last, in English. This fact was noted in the Revue Historique and elsewhere; but after the decease of both parties to the interview, I felt that a further precaution was desirable, in case I might be "vouched to warranty" by my French correspondents for a historical fact of something more than personal interest; and I therefore restated the case for an accepted version of the now famous phrase in a letter published in The Times of 27 May, 1924.