Downs._"--Can any of your correspondents tell me
where these lines are to be found?--

"So geographers on Afric downs,
Plant elephants instead of towns."

They sound Hudibrastic, but I cannot find them in _Hudibras_.

A. S.

_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,