Popular Genealogists; or, the Art of Pedigree-Making. (Edinburgh Edmonston and
Douglas.)—This is an amusing attack upon Sir Bernard Burke, whose reputation certainly will suer severely if it remains un- answered. The errors in the Peerage are first pointed out, but these are "nothing compared with the fables" encountered everywhere in the Landed Gentry. Two specimens are then given, which are startling enough. " Coulthart of Coulthart will henceforth be a leading case in the heralds' books. In the course of this astounding pedigree, Ta.citus, Ptolemy, and Bede are made to contribute names that are sought in vain in their extant works; a marriage settlement is quoted of a data 100 years antecedent to the very earliest written legal instruments known in Scotland ; parish records appear in the reign of Alexander H.; and, to come to later times, we have an admiral of the fleet in the reign of James IV.; a captain, Royal Artillery, reign of James VL, and an eminent agriculturist, born 1659, author of a work which "long formed a text-book to the farmers in Scotland," but has never been heard of out of the pages of Burke. There is a good deal more that is very funny, both in this and the other illustration of the art of pedigree- making, and we advise all who are interested in the subject to study the two, and to beware how they put their trust in kings—at-arms.
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