by this glorious emancipation.

Ebernburg, the fortress of his friend, the noble and heroic Franz von
Sickingen, Hutten called the _Bulwark of Righteousness_. I had long
sought for a representation of Sickingen, and at length found a medal
represented in the _Sylloge Numismatum Elegantiorum_ of Luckius, fol.
Argent, 1620, bearing the date 1522.

Hutten's life is full of romantic incident: it was one of toil and
pain, for the most part; and he may well have compared his wanderings
to those of Ulysses, as he seems to have done in the following verses,
which accompany the portrait first above mentioned:

"Desine fortunam miseris inimicaque fata
Objicere, et casus velle putare deos.
Jactatur pius AEneas, jactatur Ulysses,
Per mare, per terras, hic bonus, ille pius.
Crede mihi non sunt meritis sua praemia, casu
Volvimur, haud malus est, cui mala proveniunt.
Sis miser, et nulli miserabilis, omnia quisquis
A diis pro merito cuique venire putas."

{337}

I should like to see the German verses your correspondent mentions, if
he will be good enough to favour me, through your intervention, with
an inspection of the volume containing them.

S.W.S.

March 12. 1850.

* * * * *

CHANGE OF NAME.

"B." inquires (No. 16. p. 246.) what is the use of the royal license
for the change of a surname? He is referred to Mr. Markland's
paper "On the Antiquity and Introduction of Surnames into England"
(_Archaeologia_, xviii. p. 111.). Mr. Markland says,--

"Sir Joseph Jekyll, when Master of the Rolls, in the year
1730, remarks--'I am satisfied the usage of passing Acts of
Parliament for the taking upon one a surname is but modern;
and that any one may take upon him what surname, and as many
surnames, as he pleases, without an Act of Parliament.' The
decree in the above case was reversed in the House of Lords."

Mr. Markland adds,--

"From the facts and deductions here stated, it would seem
that the Master of the Rolls had good ground for making his
decree. The law, as it stands, however, had grown out of the
_practice_: and common prudence dictates, that the assumption
of a new surname should now be accompanied by such an
authority as may establish beyond all question the legality of
the act."

It must also be remembered, that a testator often directs that a
devisee shall procure the royal license or an Act of Parliamen