H. B. C.
Oxford.
The Man with the Iron Mask (Vol. vii., pp. 234. 344.).—I think that Mr. James, in his Life and Times of Louis XIV., has, to say the least, shown strong grounds for doubting the theory which identifies this person with Mathioli; and since then several writers have been inclined to fall back, in the want of any more probable explanation, on the old idea that the captive was a twin brother of Louis. What has become of the letter from M. de St. Mars, said to have been discovered some years ago, confirming this last hypothesis? Has any such letter been published, and, if so, what is the opinion of its genuineness?
J. S. Warden.
Gentleman executed for Murder of a Slave (Vol. vii., p. 107.)—Sometime between 1800 and 1805, Lord Seaforth being Governor of Barbadoes, a slaveowner, having killed one of his own slaves, was tried for the murder and acquitted, the law considering that such an act was not murder. Thereupon Lord Seaforth came to England, obtained an act of parliament declaring the killing of a slave to be murder, and returned to Barbadoes to resume his official duties. Soon afterwards another slave was killed by his owner, who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged for murder under the new act of parliament. At the time appointed the prisoner was brought out for execution, but so strong was public feeling, that the ordinary executioner was not forthcoming; and on the governor requiring the sheriff to perform his office either in person or by deputy, after some excuses he absolutely refused. The governor then addressed the guard of soldiers, desiring a volunteer for executioner, adding, "whoever would volunteer should be subsequently protected as well as rewarded then." One presented himself, and it thenceforth became as dangerous to kill a slave as a freeman in Barbadoes.
G. M. E. C.
Jahn's Jahrbuch (Vol. viii., p. 34.).—Permit me to inform your correspondent E. C. that there is a copy of Jahn's Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik in the library of Sir Robert Taylor's Institution, Oxford. Although this library is for the use of members of the university, I am sure the curators of the institution will give their permission to consult the books in it, to any gentleman who is properly recommended to them.
J. Macray.
Oxford.
Character of the Song of the Nightingale (Vol. vii., p. 397.).—I imagine that many of the writers quoted by your correspondent lived in places too far removed to the north or west (as is my own case) ever to have heard the nightingale, and are, in consequence, not competent authorities as to a song they can only have described at second hand; but that Shelley was not far wrong in styling it voluptuous, and placing it amidst the luxurious bowers of Daphne, may receive some confirmation from an anecdote told by Nimrod ("Life and Times," Fraser's Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 301.) of the sad effects produced both on morals and parish rates by the visit of a nightingale one summer to the groves of Erthig, near Wrexham.