6. Bumbailiff.—­The French have pousse-cul, for the follower or assistant to the sergeant.

7.  Epergne, perhaps epargne, a save-all or hold-all.  Here seems no more difficulty in the transfer of the name than in that of chiffonier, from a rag-basket to a piece of ornamental furniture.

8. Doggrel.—­Has the word any connexion with sdrucciolo?

9. Derrick.—­A spar arranged to form an extempore crane.  I think Derrick was the name of an executioner.

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 {277} 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.

“Gibbon, speaking of this Book of Sentences, in a note on his 54th chapter, says, ’Of a list of criminals which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men and four women were delivered to the secular arm.’  Vol. v. p. 535.  I believe he should have said thirty-two men and eight women; and imagine that he was misled by the fact that the index-maker most commonly (but by no means always) states the nature of the sentence passed on each person.  From the book, however, it appears that forty persons were so delivered, viz., twenty-nine Albigenses, seven Waldenses, and four Beguins.”

The following mistake was pointed out by the learned Cork correspondent of the Gentleman’s Magazine, I think in 1838; it has misled the writer of the article “Anicius”, in Smith’s Dictionary of Ancient Biography, and is not corrected by Mr. Milman (Gibbon, chap. xxxi. note 14 and text):—­