French Translation of the "London Gazette" (Vol. vi., p. 223.).—A correspondent describes a French edition of the London Gazette, which he had met with of the date of May 6, 1703; and considering it as a curiosity, he wishes some reader would give an account of it. It has occurred to me to meet with a similar publication, which

appeared twenty years antecedent to the time above specified. It is entitled La Gazette de Londres, publiée avec Privilège, depuis le Jeudi 11, jusqu'au Lundi 15, Mai, 1682 (vieux style), No. 1621. It gives a very circumstantial detail of the loss of the "Gloucester" frigate, near the mouth of the Humber, in the night of Friday, May 5, 1682, when she was conveying the Duke of York (postquam James II.) to Scotland. Sir John Berry, who commanded the vessel, managed to remove the duke to another ship; but the Earl of Roxburgh, Lord O'Brien, the Laird of Hopetoun, Sir Joseph Douglas, Mr. Hyde (Lord Clarendon's brother), several of the duke's servants, and about 130 seamen, were lost in the "Gloucester." The pilot was either deficient in skill, or obstinate, and was to be brought to trial.[[1]]

With regard to the reason of publishing a French version of the Gazette, might it not be judged expedient (as the French was then spoken in every Court in Europe, and the English language almost unknown out of the British dominions) to publish this translation in French for foreign circulation? It is to be remarked that the copy I have met with is styled privileged?

D. N.

Footnote 1:[(return)]

[It will be remembered that Pepys accompanied the Duke of York on this excursion to Scotland, and was fortunately on board his own yacht when the "Gloucester" was wrecked. His graphic account of the disaster will be found in the Correspondence at the end of his Diary.—Ed.]

"Poscimus in vitâ," &c. (Vol. ix., p. 19.).—Allow me to correct a double error in this line into which Mr. Potter has fallen, though he has improved upon the line of Balliolensis. The true reading of it is—

"Poscimus in vitam pauca, nec ista diu."

In vitam (for life) is better Latin than "in vitâ;" and ista is more appropriate than "illa," in reference to things spoken unfavourably of.

C. DelaPryme.