consulted--namely, the Lord
Chancellor, who is by law the guardian of the king's conscience; and the
Lord Marshal, who is referee in Heraldry and in the pedigrees of the
nobility. Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, a Catholic peer, who is
hereditary Earl Marshal of England, had sent word by his deputy Earl
Marshal, Henry Howard, Earl Bindon, that he would agree with the Lord
Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor was William Cowper. We must not confound
this chancellor with his namesake and contemporary William Cowper, the
anatomist and commentator on Bidloo, who published a treatise on
muscles, in England, at the very time that Etienne Abeille published a
history of bones, in France. A surgeon is a very different thing from a
lord. Lord William Cowper is celebrated for having, with reference to
the affair of Talbot Yelverton, Viscount Longueville, propounded this
opinion: That in the English constitution the restoration of a peer is
more important than the restoration of a king. The flask found at
Calshor had awakened his interest in the highest degree. The author of a
maxim delights in opportunities to which it may be applied. Here was a
case of the restoration of a peer. Search was made. Gwynplaine, by the
inscription over his door, was soon found. Neither was Hardquanonne
dead. A prison rots a man, but preserves him--if to keep is to preserve.
People placed in Bastiles were rarely removed. There is little more
change in the dungeon than in the tomb. Hardquanonne was still in prison
at Chatham. They had only to put their hands on him. He was transferred
from Chatham to London. In the meantime information was sought in
Switzerland. The facts were found to be correct. They obtained from the
local archives at Vevey, at Lausanne, the certificate of Lord Linnaeus's
marriage in exile, the certificate of his child's birth, the certificate
of the decease of the father and mother; and they had duplicates, duly
authenticated, made to answer all necessary requirements.

All this was done with the most rigid secrecy, with what is called royal
promptitude, and with that mole-like silence recommended and practised
by Bacon, and later on made law by Blackstone, for affairs connected
with the Chancellorship and the state, and in matters termed
parliamentary. The _jussu regis_ and the signature _Jeffreys_ were
authenticated. To those who have studied pathologically the cases of
caprice called "our good will and pleasure," this _jussu regis_ is