There has been revived in various ways, within the last few years, an old subject of controversy, namely, the execution of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, in cold blood, on the surrender of Colchester to Fairfax in 1648. Mr. Firth's discovery of the Clarke papers, his valuable lives of the two knights in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography’, Mr. Gardiner's judicial summary of the case, and—magnis cotnponere parva—the erection of a memorial on the scene of the execution by a local enthusiast, have all contributed to remind us of a dispute which has led, at the hands of partisans, to heated and angry recrimination.