Cocker's Arithmetic.
—I have a copy of Cocker's Arithmetic, the 37th edition, 1720, with an engraved portrait of the author; respecting which there is the following manuscript note on the flyleaf:—
"Mr. Douce, of Bath, the literary antiquary and book-collector, showed me a copy of Cocker's Arithmetic, with the frontispiece cut of the author, which he said was very scarce.
"J. P., April, 1823."
Mr. Douce's copy (the first edition, 1678) is now in the possession of Mr. Rainy, an upholsterer in Bath, and is for sale. He asks 8l. 10s. for it.
CRANMORE.
The Duke of Normandy.
—The question relative to the late Duke of Normandy being the individual who was Dauphin of France, the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, and who was said to have died in the Temple, has never been as publicly and satisfactorily settled as it deserves. The high station and unquestionable integrity of the individuals of the Perceval family who instituted the inquiry, and in the most open manner laid the results of that inquiry before the public, constitute an unexceptionable guarantee for its genuineness and authenticity. The acute perception and accurate memory of Madame Tussaud carry great weight with them. She was asked by the writer of this paragraph, if she thought the person calling himself the Duke of Normandy was the same individual she had modelled when a child. Madame Tussaud replied with great emphasis, "I would take my oath of it for he had a peculiar formation on the neck which still remains. Besides something transpired between us, which he referred to, which was never likely to be mentioned to any one." The late Mr. Jeremy, the active and highly intelligent magistrate who presided in the court of Greenwich, and whose long experience adds value to his judgment, was of opinion that there were no traces of the impostor discovered by him during several scrutinising examinations which were held in his office, and that the members of the old French nobility who were present treated him with profound respect. He was supported through unknown channels, was twice shot at, and refused permission by the French government, though it was applied for by legal advocates of the highest standing, to bring the question before the legal tribunals. At first the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, who knew that the Dauphin was alive, opposed the Duke of Wellington's proposal to reinstate Louis XVIII. The Empress Josephine is also said to have been aware, that the Dauphine did not die in the Temple, and is reported to have said "Ah! legitimacy is nearer than you suppose." It is an unsettled historical question worthy the attention of the historian who has time to bestow on it.
ÆGROTUS.