Another of Archibald’s singular errors is his translation of _droit du timbre_ (stamp duty) into “timber duties.” This is about as sensible as his quoting with approbation from De Tocqueville the false and foolish assertion that the American people are “regardless of historical records or monuments,” and that future historians will be obliged “to write the history of the present generation from the archives of other lands.” Such ignorance of American scholarship and research and of the vigorous vitality of American Historical Societies, is unpardonable. Disraeli thus refers to a curious blunder in Nagler’s _Künstler-Lexicon_, concerning the artist Cruikshank:— Some years ago the relative merits of George Cruikshank and his brother were contrasted in an English Review, and George was spoken of as “the real Simon Pure”—the first who had illustrated “Scenes of Life in London.” Unaware of the real significance of a quotation which has become proverbial among us, the German editor begins his memoir of Cruikshank by gravely informing us that he is an English artist “whose real name is Simon Pure!” Turning to the artists under letter P. we accordingly read, “Pure (Simon), the real name of the celebrated caricaturist, George Cruikshank.” This will remind some of our readers of the index which refers to Mr. Justice Best. A searcher after something or other, running his eye down the index through letter B, arrived at the reference “Best—Mr. Justice—his great mind.” Desiring to be better acquainted with the particulars of this assertion, he turned to the page referred to, and there found, to his entire satisfaction, “Mr. Justice Best said he had a great mind to commit the witness for prevarication.” In the fourth canto of _Don Juan_, stanza CX., Byron says: Oh, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue, As some one somewhere sings about the sky. Byron was mistaken in thinking his quotation referred to the sky. The line is in Southey’s _Madoc_, canto V., and describes fish. A note intimates that dolphins are meant. “Though in blue ocean seen, Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue, In all its rich variety of shades, Suffused with glowing gold.” Fabrications. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SAVIOUR’S PERSON. Chalmers charges upon Huarte (a native of French Navarre) the publication (as genuine and authentic) of the Letter of Lentulus (the Proconsul of Jerusalem) to the Roman Senate, describing the person and manners of our Lord, and for which, of course, he deservedly censures him. A copy of the letter will be found in the chapter of this volume headed I. H. S. A CLEVER HOAX ON SIR WALTER SCOTT. The following passage occurs in one of Sir Walter Scott’s letters to Southey, written in September, 1810:—