beginning with the year 1570, and ending with 1796, entitled 'Collegio,
Secreta, Lettere. Re e Regina d'Inghilterra.' These volumes contain one
hundred and seventy-one letters, thus distributed among the various
sovereigns; there are thirteen in the reign of Elizabeth; forty in that
of James I.; four in that of Charles I.; three from Oliver Cromwell; one
from Richard Cromwell; one from Speaker Lenthal: ten during the reign of
Charles II.; five during that of his brother; three during the reign of
William, including one from the Old Pretender; seven in the reign of
Anne; eight in that of George I.; twenty-one from George II; and
fifty-five from George III. These letters are concerned with formal
announcements and the exchange of courtesies, the credentials of
ambassadors and notices of royal births, marriages and deaths. Their
historical importance is very slight. The long series of George III. is
almost entirely occupied by noting the yearly increase of his family.
The autographs of the ministers who countersigned the letters, form
their greatest attraction. The late Mr. Rawdon Brown has published
facsimiles of these autographs down to the year 1659; but after that
date we find such interesting endorsements as those of Lauderdale,
Arlington, Bolingbroke, Carteret, Pitt, Halifax, Henry Conway,
Shelburne, and Charles James Fox. On a loose parchment among these
letters is one very curious document. It is dated Bologna, 21st
February, 1671, and begins 'Carlo Dudley per la gratia di Dio Duca di
Northumbria et del Sacro Romano Impero, Conte di Woruih e di Licester,
et Pari d'Ingliterra.' The document goes on to state that Charles
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in consideration of the affection and
partiality always shown towards his person and house, grants to Ottavio
Dionisio, noble of Verona, the title of Marquis to him and to his eldest
son, to his younger sons and to his brothers and their sons the title of
Count, in perpetuity; and this in virtue of the declaration and
authority of His Holiness Pope Urban VIII., which conferred on Charles
Dudley and his eldest born the right to exercise all the privileges of
an independent prince. At the date which this document bears, 1671,
there was no Duke of Northumberland; that title had lately been bestowed
by Charles II. on an illegitimate son, and had perished with him. This
Charles Dudley was probably some pretender to the honours of the Dudley
family who once held the dukedom