_Irish Brigade._--Can any of your correspondents furnish any account of what were called "The Capitulations of the Irish Brigades?" These _Capitulations_ (to prevent mistakes) were simply the agreements under which foreign regiments entered the French service. The Swiss regiments had their special "capitulations" until 1830, when they ceased to be employed in France. They appear to have differed in almost every regiment of the Irish brigade; the privileges of some being greater than those of others. One was common to all, namely, the right of _trial_ by their officers or comrades solely, and according to the laws of their own country. Also, is there any history of the brigades published? I have heard that a Colonel Dromgoole published one. Can any information be afforded on that head? K. _Passage in Oldham._--The following lines, on the virtues of "impudence," occur in that exquisite satirist, Oldham, described by Dryden as "too little and too lately known:" "Get that great gift and talent, impudence, Accomplish'd mankind's highest excellence: 'Tis that alone prefers, alone makes great, Confers alone wealth, titles, and estate; Gains place at court, can make a fool a peer; An ass a bishop; can vil'st blockhead rear To wear red hats, and sit in porph'ry chair: 'Tis learning, parts, and skill, and wit, and sense, Worth, merit, honour, virtue, innocence." I quote this passage chiefly with reference to the "porphyry chair," and with the view of ascertaining whether the allusion has been explained in any edition of Oldham's Poems. Does the expression refer to any established use of such chairs by the wearers of "red hats?" or is it intended merely to convey a general idea of the sumptuousness and splendour of their style of living? HENRY H. BREEN. St. Lucia, March, 1851. _Mont-de-Piete._-Can any of your readers furnish information as to the connexion between these words and the thing which they are used to denote? Mrs. Jameson says, in her _Legends of the Monastic Orders_, p. 307.: "Another attribute of St. Bernardin's of Siena, is the _Monte-di-Pieta_, a little green hill composed of three mounds, and on the top either a cross or a standard, on which is the figure of the dead Saviour, usually called in Italy a _Pieta_. St. B. is said to have been the founder of the charitable institutions still called in France _Monts-de-Piete_, originally for the purpose of lending to the poor small sums on trifling pledges--what we should now call a loan society,--and which, in their commencement, were purely disinterested and beneficial. In every city which he visited as a preacher, he founded a Monte-di-Pieta; and before his death, these institutions had spread all over Italy and through a great part of France." It is added in a note: