that some of the good people of Warwickshire possess most extraordinary memories! That a cross examination at the bar of the House of Lords will ascertain the simple fact, whether such a monument existed or not, it would be folly to doubt; and in the mean time we will only remark, that no account of any such monument occurs in Thomas's edition of Dugdale's Warwickshire', or we believe, in any MS. collection for that county; and we subjoin the AttorneyGeneral's comments on the subject. "There is another circumstance relating to the supposed monument which it may be material to notice. It appeared in evidence that various monuments to the memory of the different members of the family of Lord Leigh were placed in the chancel, which was the property of that family: it is not very probable therefore that a monument to the memory of the honourable Christopher Leigh, son of the first Lord Leigh, should have been separated from the rest and placed in the body of the church." Besides the supposed monument, and the alleged tradition, two other facts have been urged in support of the claim. The one, that Mr. Manning, the former solicitor of the claimant, had seen a pedigree in the possession of Lord Combermere, in which the marriage of Christopher Leigh with a Penelope Cotton was mentioned, and that Lord Combermere had admitted the existence of such a pedigree, and added, "that he had never been able to find it since he had given permission to a Mr. Manning to examine it in the month of August, 1814." The last fact adduced is, that a Francis Willoughby was a witness to the will of Roger Leigh, the presumed son of Christopher; which Francis Willoughby is attempted to be identified with the Hon. Francis Willoughby, brother of Lord Willoughby of Parham, who married Honora, sister of Thomas the second Lord Leigh, and niece of the said Christopher; but we confess we see no proof whatever of that identity, and think it would but slightly strengthen the case if it were established. Several insinuations are thrown out in the Case that parish registers have been obliterated, and that the will of the Hon. Christopher Leigh has been taken away from the proper registry for the purpose of destroying the evidence of the claimant's descent. On the justice of these hints we cannot give an opinion; but we must not forget that documents have sometimes been destroyed by claimants themselves, with the view of removing the proofs of the falsehood of their pretensions. It is necessary also to examine the other facts as they appear in the claimant's Case. First,-Although Constance, the widow of the Hon. Christopher Leigh, made a very long will, in which she mentions a number of her husband's relations, there is not a word that can be fairly deemed to allude to his having had issue by a former wife. Secondly, Roger Leigh, the alleged eldest son of the Hon. Christopher Leigh, and consequently the grandson and first cousin of a Whether Dr. Thomas has given all the inscriptions respecting the Leighs that existed in Stoneley church in 1730, when he wrote, we have not the means of knowing; but as he has introduced the copy of one to a porter of that family, who died in 1688, it is difficult to believe that he would have passed over that which recorded the descent of three generations from a son of the first peer. peer, was not only a yeoman, and in a very low situation of life, but he decidedly could not write his name, since his will is certified by his mark; and though this circumstance is attempted to be explained by attributing it to illness and infirmity, the fact is unquestionable. Thirdly, The supposed marriage with Penelope Cotton does not appear in any of the pedigrees of the Cotton family in the College of Arms, or in the British Museum. Fourthly,-In the four descents of the claimant's undoubted pedigree, not one baptismal name resembles those of the family of the Lords Leigh. Fifthly, That neither of the pretended sons of Christopher Leigh, nor their issue, are noticed in any will or deed which has been found of persons who undoubtedly belonged to the baronial line. Sixthly,-Though the Hon. Mary Leigh, who died in 1806, is made, according to one witness, to admit that " her nearest relations of the name of Leigh lived in Lancashire," she settled her property on a much more distant branch, apparently with the sole intention of preserving it to the male representatives of the family of Leigh, since she passed over her much nearer relations in the female line. Such were the facts, together with those that have been already noticed, which appeared in the case laid before the Attorney-General, and which induced him to state, that although he "was far from being satisfied that Roger Leigh, of Haigh, from whom the petitioner derives his descent, was the son of the Hon. Christopher Leigh, and thought the statement extremely improbable; yet, as the existence of the supposed monument has been asserted by so many witnesses, who have stated that they had repeatedly seen it and read the inscription, he considered it his duty to recommend that the claimant's petition should be submitted to the House of Lords." We question however whether such would have been the Attorney-General's report had his doubts been strengthened by the following circumstances; and of one of which, the agent for the claimant, who has said so much on the suppression of documents, must undoubtedly have been aware. In the Herald's Visitation of Warwickshire in 1683, a pedigree of Leigh occurs which was certified by Thomas the second Baron, and in which the said Christopher, the son of the first Lord and uncle of the individual who vouched for the facts, is thus described: "4. Christoph Leigh, Constance, da' of John Thomas Leigh, onely child æt. circa 12, annor. 1683." This statement of Lord Leigh, in 1683, is corroborated by that of Peter le Neve, in 1694, who was then an officer, and soon afterwards became Norroy, King of Arms. In a valuable collection of materials for a Baronage of England', that accurate genealogist has given a pedigree of the Lords Leigh, and where he thus notices Christopher, the son of the first Baron. 1 Harleian MSS. 5808. f. 102. of 3. Christopher marr' Constant Clent Thomas Leigh about 18 yrs old It is material to observe that Le Neve must have derived his information from some other source than the Visitation of Warwickshire in 1683, since his account differs from it; first, by his calling Christopher the third son instead of the fourth, which probably arose from his being the third son then surviving; secondly, by the omission of the place in Worcestershire of which the father of Constance Clent is described in the pedigree in that Visitation; thirdly, by the omission of the words "onely child;" and lastly, by Le Neve stating that Thomas, the son of Christopher, was in 1694 about eighteen years old, whereas, if he had merely followed the pedigree in question he would have said that he was about twenty-three years age in that year. Under these circumstances, no other inference can be drawn than that the person from whom he had derived his information was as ignorant in 1694, as Lord Leigh was in 1683, that his Lordship's uncle, Christopher Leigh, had left issue by a former wife; and it seems actually incredible that the individual who recorded such minute information of his uncle as to state the very day of his funeral, and the age of his son, should call that son his only child, if, as the supposed monument affirms, he had by a former wife two sons and two daughters, one at least of whom must have been then living! Nor is it likely that a similar statement should be made by so celebrated a Herald as Le Neve, when, as we have shown, he must have derived his information from a new source, if the Hon. Christopher Leigh had left issue by a former wife. The question is however before the House of Peers, and it would ill become us to enter into any farther discussion of its merits. SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. WHEN We undertook the ungracious task of exposing the abuses which for so many years have existed in this Society, our most sanguine hopes did not allow us to flatter ourselves. with the expectation of being able to commence our third paper on the subject in the language of congratulation. A new era has, however, we are happy to say, dawned upon the institution; and though the spirit of reform has only entered its portals, it has met with a reception, which justifies the belief, that the day is close at hand, when dulness will no longer be the characteristic of the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, nor incapacity and supineness the only traits for which its officers VOL. I.-PART III. L L and the members of its councils are distinguished. Many of the Fellows are already roused from their lethargy, and it is impossible to doubt that others will speedily be influenced by their example. Thus the friends of the institution look forward to its becoming really useful to the world, and to its being likely to confer honour upon all who are connected with it; but to accomplish these desirable objects, much, very much, remains to be done. The means of attaining it are fortunately in the hands of the body at large, and they consist in selecting ten independent and zealous individuals to supply the places of that number who must retire from the council on the next anniversary; unless it be also advisable to remove the officers who, as it is our purpose to state, have refused the Fellows the exercise of a right which belongs to the members of every corporation in the kingdom. The proceedings of the Society, since our last number, have been of almost unprecedented importance; and it is material that they should be detailed at length: for, whilst they show that the Fellows are disposed to shake off the torpidity in which they have long existed, they prove that its servants are, if possible, more indifferent to their duties, and more eager to enrich themselves out of its funds; and that its officers and its present council, by refusing an application for access to the accounts and records of the Society, have virtually invaded the rights of all its members by resolving to exclude them from a knowledge of the manner in which the money they have contributed has been expended. We announced that on the 29th of November a ballot was to take place, for voting an addition of fifty guineas per annum to Mr. Ellis, the junior secretary, on the ground that he had edited the publications of the Society for several years; and we reminded our readers of the enormous labour which that learned gentleman must consequently have undergone. Previous to the appointed day, several of the diurnal journals commented upon this application in a manner which would have shamed most persons from persisting in it but the individual in question appears to possess nerves which are not to be so easily shaken; for the question was suffered to be put to the vote, and though only fifty-two members were present, nineteen of them were sufficiently conscious of propriety to vote against it. The proposition was, of course, carried', though the sense of that portion of the Society which Mr. Ellis must and does respect the most, was sufficiently : The officers of the Society and Members of the Council present were ten in number, who, doubtless, supported their own proposition, which, deducted from thirteen, left the question carried by the three only! evinced to have induced him to refuse a boon, which had been granted merely by the votes of his own personal friends, of the council who sanctioned it, and of the tradesmen of the Society, who ought not to be allowed a voice upon any pecuniary subject. A question arose after this decision, whether the forms prescribed upon submitting the recommendation had been complied with; and a curious piece of information was elicited, which speaks volumes on the necessity of a revision of the statutes. It is requisite that a proposition to alter or repeal one of the bye-laws should be proposed in writing, and publicly read, and then shall be hung up in the Society's meeting-room for three ordinary meetings;" but it was proved, by the admission of the senior secretary, that the proposition was never suspended even for a single hour, and hence that the whole proceeding was void ab initio. Upon this being pointed out, the officers stated that they had been in error, not, however, in the omission, but in considering the proposed augmentation, as " the repeal or alteration of a bye-law," and consequently that it was only necessary that it should have been recommended by the council, for it to be put to the vote at the very next meeting of the Society. We admit, that, by the present statutes, the council may propose a grant of money, or any other measure, no matter how ridiculous or injurious, five minutes before a meeting, and that it may be balloted for immediately. That such a state of things should be allowed to exist is incredible, and demands the immediate attention of the Society; but we insist, that a vote of an annual payment is a creation of a bye-law, and requires the observance of the statute regulating the mode in which byelaws are to be made; and we, therefore, contend, that the additional salary has been voted to the secretary in an illegal manner. Within a very few weeks after this event, Mr. Ellis deservedly succeeded to the office of head Librarian of the British Museum, a situation of considerable emolument, when it was supposed that he would have resigned the secretaryship of the Society, because there are but few persons who seek to retain every thing they can hold, and perhaps still fewer who would not have seized the opportunity of retiring from an office in which they had just received a severe and humiliating mortification. But our opinion of that gentleman's feelings seems to have been much too favourable: he remains, "with all his blushing honours thick upon him," and must therefore submit to the general impression, that he is excluding a much more efficient person. It is, we believe, the opinion of some of the most important persons in the Society, that its secretaries ought to be well paid to ensure an attentive performance of their duties. They will not believe in the possibility of any one being sufficiently ac |