A good deal of interest was taken on Thursday in
an inquiry by Mr. Creyke into a grant of a pension of £250 a year to Prince Lucien Bonaparte. Mr. Gladstone explained that the Prince had devoted, not only his whole time, but much money,. to philological researches of a kind essential to human history, but entirely unremnnerative, the public declining to buy the books. He had, for example, printed the Gospel of St. Matthew in twenty-nine different languages, the Parable of the Sower in seventy-two European languages and dialects, and the Song of the Three Children in eleven dialects of Basque. Labours of this kind permanently facilitate philological inquiry, and Mr.. Gladstone might, we believe, have added that the Prince trans- lated the Song of Solomon into most of the dialects of English. The only fair ground for comment is that the pension is rather larger than usual, and larger than it would have been had the Prince been either an Englishman or a commoner. It must be remembered, however, that he had expended far more than he will ever receive in distributing the books, as aids to inquiry,. among the philologists of the world.
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