J. R. P.
Kingswei, Kings-way, or Kinsey (Vol. iv., p. 231.).
—In addition to the instances in Oxon and Wilts, already mentioned, the town of Kinsey occurs on the high road leading from Prince's Risborough to Thame. Is Kinsey, in this case, a contraction for Kings-way, as in Oxon; and is this a continuation of King Athelstan's road?
B. WILLIAMS.
Fouché's Memoirs.
—At Vol. iv., p. 455., on the subject of the Duc d'Enghien's murder, Fouché's Memoirs are quoted in proof that the saying, "C'était pire qu'un crime, c'était une faute," was claimed as his own by that famous police minister. Indeed, I have little doubt of the fact, which, however, can derive no confirmation or authority from the quoted work; for this nominal autobiography has been pronounced, on a regular trial before the French tribunals, an utter cheat and imposition; though referred to by Mr. Alison, in his History of Europe, volume the fifth, p. 482. (original edition), as genuine, as well as by Lord Brougham in the third volume of his Statesmen; yet with less decided assertion than by the Scotch historian. Fouché's family at once denounced the fabrication, and obtained heavy damages from the printer; who equally succeeded against the writer, Alphons de Beaumont, and was awarded large damages for the imposition. (See Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1842.) It is at present perfectly understood that the sharp and apt antithesis, however immoral, was Fouché's.
Talleyrand's reputation for ready wit fixed on him the paternity of numerous bons mots, which have proved to be of alien birth. Voltaire, Piron, Mirabeau, in France; and Chesterfield, Selwyn, Wilkes, &c. in England; with Curran in Ireland, and many others, have similarly obtained credit for pointed expressions not of their utterance, as to the rich are generally given by rumour more than they possess. "On ne prête qu'aux riches," is an apposite proverb, long since indeed stated by the sententious Euripides: "Ὁρῶσσι δὲ οἱ διδόντες εἰς τὰ χρήματα" (In Fragmentis). Cicero tells us, in his letter to Volumnius (Epistol. Famil. lib. vii. ep. 32.), that the sayings of others had been thus similarly fathered on him: "Ais omnia omnium dicta in me conferri;" and complains, half-humorously and half-seriously, that his supremacy of wit was not sufficiently protected from usurpers or intruders: "Quod parum diligenter possessio salinarum mearum, ate procuratore, defenditur," &c.
J. R. (Cork.)
The Pelican as a Symbol of our Saviour (Vol. v., pp. 59. 165.).
—Shakspeare, in Hamlet, alludes to the popular notion respecting this bird: