10. Mece, A.-S., a knife. The word is found in the Sclavonic and Tartar dialects. I thinly I remember some years ago reading in a newspaper of rioters armed with "pea makes." I do not remember any other instance of its use in English.
F.Q.
MISTAKES IN GIBBON.
The following references may be of use to a future editor of Gibbon; Mr. Milman has not, I believe, rectified any of the mistakes pointed out by the authors cited.
In the Netherlands ... 50,000 in less than fifty years were ... sacrificed to the intolerance of popery. (Fra Paolo, Sarpi Conc. Trid. 1. i. p. 422. ed. sec. Grotius, in his Annal. Belq. 1. v. pp. 1G, 17. duod., including all the persecutions of Charles V, makes the number 100,000. The supposed contradiction between these two historians supplied Mr. Gibbon with an argument by which he satisfied himself that be had completely demolished the whole credibility of Eusebius's history. See conclusion of his 16th book.) [Mendham's Life of Pius V., p. 303. and note; compare p. 252., where Gibbon's attack on Eusebius is discussed.]
In Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled, several of Gibbon's statements are questioned. I have not the book at hand, and did not think the corrections very important when I read it some time back. The reader who has it may see pp. 339. 385. 461-2. 472. 483. 498. of the second volume.
In Dr. Maitland's Dark Ages, p. 229. seq. note, a gross blunder is pointed out.
See too the Gentlemans Magazine, July, 1839, p. 49.
Dr. Maitland, in his Facts and Documents relating to the ancient Albigenses and Waldenses, p. 217. note, corrects an error respecting the Book of Sentences.