Tablet to Napoleon (Vol. i., p. 461.).—The form and punctuation given to this inscription by C. suggest its true meaning. Napoleon is called the Egyptian, the Italian, for reasons similar to those for which Publius Cornelius Scipio obtained the name of "Africanus." There is, however, another sense in which the epithet "bis Italicus" is applicable to Napoleon: he was an Italian by birth as well as by conquest. It is in this sense that Voltaire has applied to Henri Quatre the second line of the following couplet:—
"Je chante ce héros qui régna sur la France
Et par droit de conquête, et par droit de naissance."
As to the "lingual purity" of the inscription, there is not much to be said about it, one way or the other. It is on a level with most modern inscriptions and epitaphs in the Latin language; neither so elegant as the Latinity of Dr. Johnson, or Walter Savage Landor, nor yet so hackneyed as our "Latin de cuisine."
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, W.I., Nov. 1850.
North Sides of Churchyards (Vol. ii., pp. 55. &c.)—In a chapter on the custom of burying on the south side of churches, in Thompson's History of Swine, published 1824, I find the following mention of the north side being appropriated to felons:
"The writer hereof remembers, that between fifty and sixty years ago, a man who was executed at Lincoln, was brought to Swine, and buried on the north side of the church, as the proper place in which to bury a felon."
I have heard it stated by several inhabitants of the parish, that it is only within a few years that burials began to be made irrespectively on the north side. Whilst speaking of things in connection with this church, I may mention for the
interest of antiquaries, that only a short time ago, the sexton discovered a very curious fresco of the Virgin on one of the pillars in the north aisle. There is an inscription beneath the figure, but so very indistinct, as not to admit of being deciphered.