22
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY 13, 1907.
But Swift himself, of course, had empha-
sized such a connexion, in what proved his
greatest political days, by recording on the
Christmas Day of 1711, in his 37th Letter
to Stella, concerning " poor Mrs. Long " :
"I have ordered a paragraph to be put in The Po*t-Boy, giving an account of her death, and making honourable mention of her ; which is all I can do to serve her memory " ; and again, in the 55th Letter, under date 17 Nov., 1712, he wrote :
" I have been drawing up a paragraph for The Poxf-Boy, to be put out to-morrow, and as malicious as possible, and very proper for Abel Roper, the printer of it."
This discovery of 1699 is of the more literary interest not only because it shows a close connexion between Jacob Tonson and Swift long before that previously known, but because the " D. Jones, Gent.," who coolly described Swift as " a Pirate," was obviously that wondrous author-adventurer who wrote ' The Secret History of White Hall from the Restoration of Charles II. down to the Abdication of the late King James,' and for whose career see ' D.N.B.,' vol. xxx. pp. 92-3, and 1 S. xii. 267 ; 4 S. xi. 154. ALFRED F. BOBBINS.
CBOMWELL AND MILTON : A FAMOUS
PICTURE.
MR. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL in his essay on Milton (' Obiter Dicta,' Second Series) says :
"There is a print one sees about, representing Oliver Cromwell dictating a foreign despatch to John Milton ; but it is all imagination, nor is there anything to prove that Cromwell and Milton were ever in the same room together, or exchanged words with one another."
Within the limited compass of this passage there lie three statements which clamour loudly for refutation. Why their cry has been unheeded for, or been stifled by the dust of, twenty years and more is a present mystery to me. It is high time to give heed to the call and respond in no uncertain tones. Had that call reached my ears when first uttered, it would have received an instant hearing and a quick response ; as it is, its strident notes have but recently arrested my attention, and I hasten, after so long an interval, to give the answering call.
In his first assertion Mr. Birrell pours an airy scorn upon the print he refers to by branding it as nothing but a freak of ima- gination. He will hardly resent a fair if drastic criticism of this random utterance in the teeth of his own invitation to the readers of his other essay on Johnson :
"Come, let us criticize him. Our qualifications
for this high office need not be investigated
curiously" ;
and of his contention further on :
" It is a good thing to be positive. To be positive in your own opinions is the best recipe, if not for happiness, at all events for that far more attainable commodity, comfort. 'A noisy man,' sang poor Cowper, 'is always in the right,' and a positive man can seldom be proved wrong."
I venture to maintain the converse of this double proposition, and to hold that Mr. Birrell himself in this instance, while being both " noisy " and " positive," is decidedly not " in the right," and can easily " be proved wrong." And be it remembered,, on the toe-line of the inquiry, that a demoli- tion of the first statement carries with it that of the two subsequent clauses.
For years I have been the lucky possessor of the fine print (engraving, in my case) presumably referred to, which bears the following inscription :
"London. Published 1854 by Owen Batley, 4,. Arlington Street, Morniugton Crescent. The Pro- tector dictating the Letter to the Duke of Savoy to stop the Persecution of the Protestants in Pied- mont, 1655. Prom the original Picture in the possession of James Watts, Esq**, Abney Hall, Cheshire."
Between the words " Savoy " and " to stop " is inserted a circle with the words " Magnum Sigillum. Reipub. Anglise. Scotiae. et. Hiberniae " on its inner rim, embracing the quarterings of the three kingdoms, with the motto " Pax quseritur Bello " beneath them on a scroll.
I have twice inspected " the original picture " at Abney Hall, a fine stretch of canvas overlooking the grand staircase and entrance hall, and regarded it, in my ignor- ance, as a splendid, if imaginative (because non-photographic) presentment of an actual fact. Mr. Birrell says it is worse than imaginative : it is imaginary. Will this judgment stand an impartial investigation ? Let us see what can be made of both.
In a foot-note to Milton's exquisite sonnet ' On the late Massacre in Piedmont ' it is stated (in my edition of the poet) that
"in 1665 the Duke of Savoy determined to make his reformed subjects in Piedmont return to the Roman Church. All who refused compliance with the sovereign's will were masacred. Those who escaped, concealed in their mountain fastnesses, sent to Cromwell for relief Cromwell com- manded a general fast, and a national contribution for the relief of the sufferers. 40,000/. were col- lected. He then wrote to the Duke ; and so great was the terror of the English name the Protector threatened that his ships should visit Civita Vecchia that the persecution was stopped."
If this bejsound history, the truthfulness of
