Minor Notes.
Verses presented to General Monck.
—The subjoined notice of a curious entry in the records of the Belfast corporation may be acceptable. The author is unknown. They are inscribed, "Verses to General Monck," and, as the last six lines show, are an attack on the Rump Parliament:—
Advants George Monck, and Monck St. George shall be,
England's restorer to its liberty,
Scotland's protector, Ireland's president,
Reducing all to affree parliament.
And if thou dost intend the other thing,
Go on, and all shall cry God save ye king.
R. R doth rebellion represent,
V. By V nought else but villainy is meant,
M. M murther signifies all men doe knowe,
P. P perjuries in fashion grow.
Then R and V with M and P
Conjoined make up our misery.
The occasion of their presentation is unknown. General Monck took Belfast in 1646 from the Scotch, who being true Presbyterians of the older school, had turned against the parliament. This was the probable occasion of their being presented to the future restorer of King Charles II.
E. L. B.
Justice to Pope Pius V.
—You have done yourself credit by exonerating Queen Elizabeth from a charge the easiest to bring, and the most difficult to rebut, implying the proof of a negative; and therefore frequently brought by the unprincipled. I propose, as a counterpart, to exonerate Pope Pius V. from an imputation, mistakingly, though unjustly, cast upon him by an authority of no less weight than that of Sir Walter Scott. In his edition of Somers's Tracts, vol. i. p. 192., occurs a note on a place in the execution of justice: "Pius V. resolved to make his bastard son, Boncompagni, Marquis of Vincola, King of Ireland," &c. For this assertion no authority is cited, nor indeed could be. The very name might have suggested the filiation to his successor, Gregory XIII., which was the fact. In a work, not much known, The Burnt Child dreads the Fire, &c., by William Denton, M.D., London, 1675, at p. 25. we read, "Gregory XIII. had a bastard, James Buon Compagna, and to him he gave Ireland, and impowered Stewkely with men, arms, and money, to conquer it for him."[2] There is no reason to doubt, that with the editor of the Tracts the above imputation was a simple mistake; but it is an important duty of all who interfere with historical literature, to state and correct every discovered instance of the kind.
[2] Camden, in his Elizabeth, under 1578, states the fact without mention of the name, only calling him "the pope's bastard;" but the date is the sixth year of the pontificate of Gregory XIII.
EUPATOR.