but almost every living person who either holds or has held a seat in Parliament. Thus we find Mr. Edwin James recorded, and Mr. Chisholm Anstey, Mr. J. F. Maguire, and Mr. J. P. Murrough, not one of whom has any pretensions to a place in such a work, if the author adheres to his title. In a future edition he will do well to remedy these defects, and also to exclude, however highly born and connected, all such clergymen as have not a real bona fide and permanent connection with their several counties, as being both parsons and squires at once, or at least as patrons of the livings they hold; for when this is not the case, although they may happen to have been placed in the commission of the peace, death or promotion severs the local tie, and the Rev. Mr. Smith who appears in the edition for 1860 as Vicar of Sleepcum-Snorley in the Fens, will figure in 1862 as Rector of the populous but well endowed parish of Drowsyton in -shire.

We give the following specimens of the notices of Catholic families as they stand in Mr. Walford's work which will serve as a sample of the performance.

"WHITGREAVE, George Thomas, Esq. (of Moseley Court).

Only surviving son of the late Thomas Henry Francis Whitgreave, Esq., of Moseley, by Mary, dau. of John Lockley, Esq., of Sardaw, co. Stafford; b. 1787; s. 1816; m. 1st. 1814 Amelia, dau. of Benjamin Hodges, Esq., of London (she d. 1848); 2nd 1849 Charlotte Juliana, eldest dau. of the late Admiral the Hon. Sir John Talbot, G.C.B. (she d. 1854); 3rd 1856 Mary Anne, dau. of Sandford, Esq. Is a Magistrate and Dep. Lieut. for co. Stafford (High Sheriff 1837). This family were settled at Whitgreave, co. Stafford, in the reign of King John. His ancestor, Mr. Whitgreave, sheltered Charles II. at Moseley Court after the battle of Worcester.-Moseley Court, near Wolverhamp ton, Staffordshire; 22, Eaton square, S.W.

Heir, his son Henry Benjamin George, b. 1816; m. 1st. 1841 Henrietta Maria, dau. of the late Hon. Thomas Clifford; 2nd 1858 Mary, dau. of the late Walter Selby, Esq."

"MAC DONNELL, Francis Edmund Joseph, Esq. (of Donforth, co. Kildare.)

Eldest surviving son of the late Sir Francis Mac Donnell,* of

*This gentleman, having held a commission in the Spanish service, was employed in the British commissariat, under Sir J. Moore and the Duke of Wellington in the peninsula. He ultimately returned to Ireland and purchased the Donforth property,

Donforth, by Bridget Mary, dau. of James O'Conner Esq., of Madrid, b. 1823; s. 1840; m. 1859 Ellen, only child of the late Henry McNamara, Esq., of Barbados. Educated at Clongowes Coll; is a Magistrate for cos. Kildare and Meath. This family held large properties in cos. Mayo, Galway, and Roscommon, which they lost under the penal laws against Roman Catholics,Donforth, near Enfield, Ireland; Stephen's green Club, Dublin." "AcroN, William Joseph, Esq., of (Wolverton).

Only son of the late William Acton, Esq., of Wolverton, by Anne Constantia, dau. of Davies, Esq.; b. 1803; s. 1814; m. 1833 Mary, Widow of William Trafford, Esq. Educated at St. Mary's Coll., Oscott; is a Magistrate for co. Worcester. This family is of Saxon origin, and has been seated in Worcestershire since the times anterior to the Norman Conquest.-Wolverton, near Pershore, Worcestershire."

"Heir, his son William Robert. b. 1835."

"MACNAMARA, Francis, Esq., (of Ennistymon).

Eldest surviving son of the late Francis MacNamara, Esq., of Ennistymon; b. 1780; s. his brother the late Lieutenant-Colonel William Nugent MacNamara (who was M.P. for co. Clare 1830-52) 1856. Educated at Trinity Coll., Dublin; is a Magistrate and Dep. Lieut. for co. Clare, and an Officer in the Clare Militia; was M.P. for Ennis 1835-7. Represents a branch of the old Milesian house of MacNamara, long resident at Ballinacraigie Castle, and descended from the old native Irish families of Thomond, Inchiquin, MacDonnell of Antrim, and O'Neill of Tyrone, as also from the ancient Admirals of Munster, from whose office is said to have originated their name, which means "Son of the Sea." -Ennistymon and Doolen Castle, near Ennis, co. Clare." "LAWSON, Sir William, Bart, (cr. 1841).

Second son of the late John Wright, Esq., of Kelvedon Hall, Essex, by Elizabeth, dau. and co-heiress of Sir John Lawson, Bart., of Brough Hall, co. York; b. 1796; s. 1834; m. 1825 Clarinda Catherine, dau. of J. Lawson, Esq., M.D. Educated at Stonyhurst; is a Magistrate and Dep. Lieut. for North Riding of Yorkshire; received the order of Christ from Pope Gregory XIV., 1844; assumed the name of Lawson in lieu of Wright, by Royal Licence in 1834. This family was formerly of Cramlington, Northumberland. Ralph Lawson, temp. Elizabeth, married the

and took a leading part with O'Connell in the agitation for Catholic emancipation. His death in 1840 set aside the intention of the Government to create him a baronet, which had been notified to him.

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heiress de Burgh, of Burg, alias Brough.-Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire."

"Heir, his son John b. 1829; m. 1856 Mary Ann, eldest dau. of F. S. Gerard, Esq., of Aspull House, Lancashire."

We wish that Mr. E. Walford had followed Mr. Shirley's example, and had appended to his account of the families whom he records their armorial bearings; for heraldry, though out of fashion as a science, is really after all, and to rate it at the very lowest, a great aid to the study of genealogy. This is not the place for, nor indeed have we the inclination for an essay on the "nobil and gentil scyaunce;" but there can be no doubt that, as Mr. Walford observes in his preface, "it is the bearing of arms, not of titles, that forms the real test of nobility;" though the lax and mistaken usage of English writers appears to have indoctrinated the nation with the belief that the members of the peerage and their wives, sons, and daughters alone form "the nobility.

If we remember rightly, the late Sir J. Lawrence, Knight of Malta, some twenty or thirty years ago, published a work which he entitled the "Nobility of English Gentry," in which he urges this point most strongly, but the work has long been out of print. In a recent number of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, however, we find some remarks which are so appropriate to the subject that, by leave of our reader, we will transfer them to our pages by way of a conclusion to this article.

"Court armour, borne by right of descent or legal grant, constitutes nobility in the European acceptation of the term, though English custom limits the distinction of nobility to the Peerage and their descendants. No foreigner comprehends all this finessing. If you are a patrician, he says, 'you should bear a coronet, or be a Count or Baron, or at least a Chevalier; if not, you have no business with arms at all.' So he shrugs up his shoulders at Mr. Bull, and gives him up as a hopeless riddle. But John Bull is used to an isolated On account of sea position in other than a geographical sense. and religion, of language and customs, he has long been sent to Coventry by the other members of the European family, and he takes the deprivation most lightly and easily. He is rich and likes to I have his own way: nor, in spite of all the ridicule and abuse that have been poured on it,-in spite of keen democratic wit and downright abuse-does Mr. Bull choose utterly to renounce the old heraldic toys that his fathers cherished so sincerely and tenderly. He uses them, he sneers at them, he scarcely knows whether he has at his heart more contempt or more affection for them; but he will

not give them up. Writers may flout them, orators may denounce them, philosophers may pick holes in them; but still John likes to retain them on his glowing carriage door, his neatly engraved spoons, his elegant hall chairs, his snug hatchment, his gold signet, and his embossed envelopes."

If the taste of John Bull for "the old heraldic toys" be so widely spread and so deeply engraved in his disposition as is suggested by the writer whose words we have just quoted, cannot Mr. Walford endeavour to gratify that taste in future editions of his " County Families"?

ART. VI.-1. Correspondence Relative to the Affairs of Hungary, 1847-8. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 15th August, 1830.

2. Hungary and Transylvania. By John Paget, Esq. London: Murray, 1850. 2 vols. 8vo.

3. The War in Hungary, 1848-9. By Max Schlesinger. Translated by John Edward Taylor. Edited, with Notes and an Introduction, by Francis Pulzsky. London: Bentley, 1850. 2 vols. 4. Hungary: its Constitution and its Catastrophe. By Corvinus. London: Murray, 1850, 8vo.

5. The North American Review, for January, 1850, and January, 1851.

USTRIA and Hungary form a topic upon which we

range of European politics, there is not one of keener interest or more practical importance: The associations connected with their past history, the peculiarities of character in their soil and peoples, their local position, their agricultural and mineral products, their present capabili ties and future prospects, and the degree of influence which their destiny may have upon the course of events in Europe, combine to concentrate the recollections, the thoughts, and the hopes of many upon this portion of the continent. Yet little is known or understood about it, and that little but inaccurately. It is not in the beaten track of either reading or travel. The information and

sentiments of most on this subject are derived from the newspapers of the day, and they, on such a subject, form a very questionable source of information, because they usually aim at, and write to accomplish a preconceived purpose, and their accounts are coloured and bent from the simple directness of narrative by the necessity of being accommodated to the previous design. Most English newspapers write in the interest of a particular party, and their accounts, especially of matters distant and unknown, are, perhaps unconsciously, adapted to suit the the wishes of their party, whilst the Times, through medium of which, perhaps, more than of any other paper, accounts reach us respecting Austria and Hungary, from its foreign correspondents, is a huge but mere commercial undertaking, designed and conducted to supply such articles of merchandize as will best suit and find the most ready sale in the public market, such opinions as the majority of the public happen at the moment to be most eager for, facts of such a colour, and sentiments of such a tone as will most largely be swallowed. In fine, the object is to "make things pleasant" to the public taste, and suit the supply to the demand-hence the gross inconsistency to be seen at different times in the columns of the Times-hence the brag and the bounce of popular championship which it often assumes, the vehement rush and swoop down upon every gainsayer of whatever is the popular fancy at the moment, the parade of fair play in its columns along with the denial of publicity or of any thing like fair play to any one who attempts to make a stand for what he believes to be the truth, against the temporary torrent of prejudice; its occasional bold attack upon a great man pleases the public who are gratified with the apparent display of independence; but a persistant support of any unpopular truth, a persevering warfare against any popular delusion, cannot be found in the columns of the Times, is contrary to the principle of its existence and its success, which is to supply the greatest possible quantity of whatever people are most willing to buy.

Through publications which are designed for either the purposes of a party, or only the profits of a trade, it is not likely that full and accurate information can be obtained, without resorting to and comparing many different accounts, and culling what may seem least suspicious