"Laissez faire, laissez passer."—I think your correspondent "Á MAN IN A GARRET" (No. 19. p. 308.) is not warranted in stating that M. de Gournay was the author of the above axiom of political economy. Last session Lord J. Russell related an anecdote in the House of Commons which referred the phrase to an earlier date. In the Times of the 2nd of April, 1849, his Lordship is reported to have said, on the preceding day, in a debate on the Rate-in-Aid Bill, that Colbert, with the intention of fostering the manufactures of France, established regulations which limited the webs woven in looms to a particular size. He also prohibited the introduction of foreign manufactures into France. The French vine-growers, finding that under this system they could no longer exchange their wine for foreign goods, began to grumble. "It was then," said his Lordship, "that Colbert, having asked a merchant what he should do, he (the merchant), with great justice and great sagacity, said, 'Laissez faire et laissez passer-do not interfere as to the size and mode of your manufactures, do not interfere with the entrance of foreign imports, but let them compete with your own manufactures." Colbert died twenty-nine years before M. de Gournay was born. Lord J. Russell omitted to state whether Colbert followed the merchant's advice. C. Ross. College Salting and Tucking of Freshmen (No. 17. p. 261., No. 19. p. 306.).—A circumstantial account of the tucking of freshmen, as practised in Exeter College, Oxford, in 1636, is given in Mr. Martyn's Life of the First Lord Shaftesbury, vol. i. P. 42. "On a particular day, the senior under-graduates, in the evening, called the freshmen to the fire, and made them hold out their chins; whilst one of the seniors, with the nail of his thumb (which was left long for that purpose), grated off all the skin from the lip to the chin, and then obliged him to drink a beerglass of water and salt.” Lord Shaftesbury was a freshman in Exeter in 1636; and the story told by his biographer is, that he organized a resistance among his fellow freshmen to the practice, and that a row took place in the college hall, which led to the interference of the master, Dr. Prideaux, and to the abolition of the practice in Exeter College. The custom is there said to have been of great antiquity in the college. The authority cited by Mr. Martyn for the story is a Mr. Stringer, who was a confidential friend of Lord Shaftesbury's, and made collections for a Life of him; and it probably comes from Lord Shaftesbury himself. C. Byron and Tacitus.-Although Byron is, by our school rules, a forbidden author, I sometimes contrive to indulge myself in reading his works by stealth. Among the passages that have struck my (boyish) fancy is the couplet in "The Bride of Abydos." (line 912), "Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it-peace!" Engaged this morning in a more legitimate study, that of Tacitus, I stumbled upon this passage in the speech of Galgacus (Ag. xxx.),— "Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem adpellant.” Does not this look very much like what we call cabbaging?" If you think so, by adding it to the other plagiarisms of the same author, noted in great honour on some of your former numbers, you will confer a A SCHOOLBOY. The Pardonere and Frere.-If Mr. J. P. Collier would, at some leisure moment, forward, for your pages, a complete list of the variations from the original, in Smeeton's reprint of The Pardonere and Frere, he would confer a favour which would be duly appreciated by the possessors of that rare tract, small as their number must be; since, in my copy (once in the library of Thomas Jolley, Esq.), there is an autograph attestation by Mr. Rodd, that "there were no more than twenty copies printed." G. A. S. Mistake in Gibbon (No. 21. p. 341.).—The passage in Gibbon has an error more interesting than the mere mistake of the author. That a senator should make a motion to be repeated and chanted by the rest, would be rather a strange thing; but tors as parodies of those in praise of Commodus, the tumultuous acclamations chanted by the senawhich had been usual at the Theatres (Dio), were one thing; the vote or decree itself which follows, is another. There are many errors, no doubt, to be found in Gibbon. I will mention one, which may be entertaining, though I dare say Mr. Milman has found it out. In chap. 47. (and see note 26.), Gibbon was too happy to make the most of the murder of the female philosopher Hypatia, by a Christian mob at Alexandria. But the account which he gives is more shocking than the fact. He seems not to have been familiar enough with Greek to recollect that áveiλov means killed. Her throat was cut with an oyster-shell, because, for a reason which he has very acutely pointed out, oyster-shells were at hand; but she was clearly not "cut in pieces," nor "her flesh scraped off the bones," till after she was dead. Indeed, there was no scraping from the bones at all. That they used oyster-shells is a proof that the act was not premeditated. Neither did she deserve the title of modest which Gibbon gives her. Her way of rejecting suitors is disgusting enough in Suidas. C. B. Public Libraries. In looking through the Parliamentary Report on Libraries, I missed, though they may have escaped my notice, any mention of a valuable one in Newcastle-on-Tyne, "Dr. Thomlinson's;" for which a handsome building was erected early last century, near St. Nicholas Church, and a Catalogue of its contents has been published. I saw also, some years ago, a library attached to Wimborne Minster, which appeared to contain some curious books. The Garrison Library at Gibraltar is, I believe, one of the most valuable English libraries on the continent of Europe. Edinburgh, March 30. 1850. W. C. T. ing of "Southampton House," the residence of the Wriothesleys, Earls of Southampton. A plate of "Street Monuments, Signs, Badges, &c.," gives at once variety to the subjects, and a curious illustration of what was once one of the marked features of the metropolis. "Interior of a Tower belonging to the wall of London," in the premises of Mr. Burt, in the Old Bailey, presents us with a curious memorial of ancient London in its forti fied state; it being the only vestige of a tower belonging to the wall in its entire height, and with its original roof existing. The last plate exhibits "Old Houses, with the open part of Fleet Ditch, near Field Lane;" and the letter-press illustration of this plate describes a state of filth and profligacy which we hope will soon only be known among us as a thing that has been. some We have received the following Catalogues:Messrs. Williams and Norgate's (14. Henrietta Street) German Catalogue, Part I. comprising Theology, Ecclesiastical History, and Philosophy; John Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue, Part CX. No. 4. for 1850, of Old and New Books; John Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue, Number Four for 1850 of Books Old and New; and E. Palmer and Son's (18. Paternoster Row) Catalogue of Scarce and Curious Books. BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES (In continuation of Lists in former Nos.) PARISH CHURCHES, by BRANDON. Parts 1. and 2. Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, MISCELLANEOUS. NOTES ON BOOKS, CATALOGUES, SALES, ETC. Mr. Thorpe is preparing for publication a Collection of the Popular Traditions or Folk Lore of Scandinavia and Belgium, as a continuation of his Northern Mythology and Superstitions, now ready for the press. Mr. Wykeham Archer's Vestiges of Old London, of which the Second Part is now before us, maintains its character as an interesting record of localities fast disappearing. The contents of the present number are, the "House of Sir Paul Pindar, in Bishopgate Without," once the residence of that merchant prince, and now a public-house bearing his name; "Remains of the East Gate, Bermondsey Abbey;" which is followed by a handsome staircase one of the few vestiges still remain NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. W. R. F. and T. P. are assured that the omissions of which they complain have arisen neither from want of courtesy nor want of attention, as they would be quite satisfied if they knew all the circumstances of their respec tive cases. NOTES AND QUERIES may be procured by the Trade at noon on Friday: so that our country Subscribers ought to experience no difficulty in receiving it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers are probably not yet aware of this arrangement, which enables them to receive Copies in their Saturday parcels. Part V. is now ready. Erratum. By a provoking accident, some few copies of the last No. were worked off before the words "Saxoniæ,"" Saxonia " and andactes," in p. 365. col. 2. were corrected to "Saxonice " and "audacter." JUVENILE PRESENTS & PRIZES. MRS. GATTY'S NEW CHRISTMAS BOOK. THE HUMAN FACE DIVINE, and Other Tales. ALSO, BY THE SAME 1. Legendary Tales, 58. 2. The Fairy Godmothers, 2s. 6d. POPULAR AUTHORESS, 6. Worlds not Realized, 28. 8. The Poor Incumbent, 1s.; cloth, 9. Aunt Judy's Tales, 38. 6d. "We should not be doing justice to the highest class of juvenile fiction were we to omit, as particularly worthy of attention, at this season, the whole series of Mrs. Gatty's admirable oooks. They are quite sui generis, and deserve the widest possible circulation."-Literary Church man. 5s. each; Coloured, with Illustrations, 9s. THE CHILDREN'S PICTURE-BOOK OF Five Shillings each. DR. RICHARDSON'S PHILOLOGICAL WORKS. New Edition, with a Supplement containing additional Words and NEW DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH Combining Explanation with Etymology, and Copiously Illustrated by The WORDS- with those of the same Family—are traced to their The QUOTATIONS are arranged Chronologically, from the Earliest *** The Supplement separately, 4to. 128. "It is an admirable addition to our Lexicography, supplying a great desideratum, as exhibiting the biography of each word its birth, parentage and education, the changes that have befallen it, the company it has kept, and the connexions it has formed by rich series of quotations, all in chronological order. This is such a Dictionary as perhaps no other language could ever boast."- Quarterly Review. "A work indispensable to every one who is curious in his mother tongue, and without which no library can be considered complete."Spectator. "In most cases Richardson's Dictionary, the only one from which I can promise you effectual help, for it is the only English one, in which Etymology assumes the dignity of a Science, will put you in the right position for judging why the word has been suggested to you."-Trench on the Study of Words. Gleam of UNDINE. THE By 8vo. cloth, price 158. A Smaller Edition, with all the EXPLANATIONS and ETYMOLOGIES, but without the Quotations. Halfbound in russia, 208.; russia, 24s. Fcap. 8vo., price 4s. 6d., DR. RICHARDSON ON THE STUDY OF This Book is now used in Preparing for the Public Examinations. NEW WORKS. Shortly, fcap. 8vo. ULTIMATE CIVILIZATION, &c. By ISAAC TAYLOR, ESQ., Author of "The Natural History of Enthusiasm." DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF This Day, crown 8vo., with Frontispiece, 78. 6d., THE GEM OF THORNEY ISLAND; GEOLOGY IN THE GARDEN; With 106 Illustrations. By the REV. HENRY ELEY, M.A., Vicar of Broomfield, Essex. Geology in the Garden' is a pleasing idea; it suggests at once the simple plan and story of the book, but we scarcely thought when we opened it, the garden would have given so wide a range-so much scope of subject available for so much instruction, as Mr. Eley has made it convey. We have derived both pleasure and instruction from Mr. Eley's book, and there are but few which it has fallen to our lot to read, that we could recommend to our readers so sincerely, or with so much pleasure."-The Geologist. London: BELL & DALDY, 186. Fleet Street, E.C. Printed by GEORGE ANDREW SPOTTISWOODE, of No. 10. Little New Street, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London, at No. 5. New-street Square, in the said Parish, and published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street, aforesaid.-April 20, 1860. A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. Roger Bacon, Hints for a New Edition of Page Price Threepence. which able correspondents pour out their stores of 393 learning, may be said to place the judicious inquirer in the condition of Posthumus, and - 393 394 39.5 396 397 397 - 399 Luther's Translation of the New Testament Scala Coeli, by C. H. Cooper Queries Answered, No. 7., by Bolton Corney MISCELLANEOUS : Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. Notices to Correspondents Advertisements OUR FURTHER PROGRESS. " 402 403 403 "Puts to him all the learnings that this time Could make him the receiver of." And here we may be permitted to avail ourselves of this opportunity, as, indeed, we feel compelled to do, to impress upon our correspondents generally, the necessity of confining their communications within the narrowest possible limits consistent with a satisfactory explanation of the immediate objects of them. "He that questioneth much," says Bacon, "shall learn much, and content much; but especially if he apply his Questions to the skill of the Persons whom he asketh. For he shall give them occasion to please themselves in speaking, and himself shall continually gather knowledge. But let his Questions not be troublesome, for that is fit for a Poser; and let him be sure to leave other Men their turn to 404 speak." What Bacon has said so wisely and so well, "OF DISCOURSE," we would apply to our little Journal; and beg our kind friends to remember, that our space is necessarily limited, and that, therefore, in our eyes, Brevity will be as much the Soul of a communication as it is said to be that of Wit. 407 - 407 - 407 408 We have again been called upon to reprint our first Four Numbers; that is to say, to print a Third Edition of them. No stronger evidence could be afforded that our endeavour to do good service to the cause of sound learning, by affording to Men of Letters a medium of intercommunication, has met with the sympathy and encouragement of those for whose sake we made the trial. We thank them heartily for their generous support, and trust we shall not be disappointed in our hope and expectation that they will find their reward in the growing utility of "NOTES AND QUERIES," which, thanks to the readiness with ROGER BACON HINTS AND QUERIES FOR A NEW Victor Cousin, who has been for many years engaged in researches on the scholastic philosophy, with the view of collecting and publishing such of its monuments as have escaped the diligence of scholars or the ravages of time, has lately made the discovery in the library at Douay of a copy of an inedited MS. of Roger Bacon, entitled Opus Tertium, of which but two or three other copies are known to exist; and has taken occasion, in some elaborate critiques, to enter, at considerable length, into the history and character of Roger Bacon and his writings." The following is a summary of part of M. Cousin's observations. The Opus Tertium contains the author's last revision, in the form of an abridgment and improvement, of the Opus Majus; and was drawn up at the command of Pope Clement IV., and so called from being the third of three copies forwarded to his holiness; the third copy being not a fac-simile of the others, but containing many most important additions, particularly with regard to the reformation of the calendar. It also throws much light on Bacon's own literary history and studies, and the difficulties and persecutions he had to surmount from the jealousies and suspicions of his less-enlightened contemporaries and rivals. The Opus Tertium, according to the sketch given of its contents by Bacon himself, is not complete either in the Douay MS. or in that in the British Museum, several subjects being left out; and, among others, that of Moral Philosophy. This deficiency may arise, either from Bacon not having completed his original design, or from no complete MS. of this portion of his writings having yet been discovered. M. Cousin says, that the Opus Tertium, as well as the Opus Minus, is still inedited; and is only known by what Jebb has said of it in his preface to the Opus Majus. Jebb quotes it from a copy in the Cottonian Library, now in the British Museum; and it was not known that there was a copy in France, till M. Cousin was led to the discovery of one, by observing in the Catalogue of the public library of Douay, a small MS. in 4to. with the following title, Rog. Baconis Grammatica Græca. Accustomed to suspect the accuracy of such titles to MSS., M. Cousin caused a strict examination of the MS. to be made, when the discovery was communicated to him that only the first part of the MS. consisted of a Greek grammar, and that the remaining portion, which the compiler of the Catalogue had not taken the trouble to examine, consisted of many fragments of other works of Bacon, and a copy of the Opus Tertium. This copy of the Opus Tertium is imperfect, but fortunately the deficiencies are made up by the British Museum copy, which M. Cousin examined, and which also contains a valuable addition to Chapter I., and a number of good readings. The Opus Majus, as published by Jebb, contains but six parts; but the work in its complete state had originally a seventh part, containing Moral Philosophy, which was reproduced, in an abridged and improved state, by the renowned author, in the Opus Tertium. This is now ascertained, says M. Cousin, with unquestionable certainty, and for the first time, from the examination of the Douay MS.; which alludes, in the most precise terms, to the treatise on that subject. Hence the importance of endeavouring to discover what has become of the MS. Treatise of Moral Philosophy mentioned by Jebb, on the authority of Bale and Pits, as it is very likely to have been the seventh part of the Opus Majus. Jebb published the Opus Majus from a Dublin MS., collated with other MSS.; but he gives no description of that MS., only saying that it contained many other works attributed to Bacon, and in such an order that they seemed to form but one and the same work. It becomes necessary, therefore, to ascertain what were the different works of Bacon included in the Dublin MS.; which is, in all probability, the same mentioned as being in Trinity College, in the Catalogi Codicum Manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hibernia in unum Collecti: Folio Oxon, 1697. According to this Catalogue, a Treatise on Moral Philosophy forms part of Roger Bacon's MSS. there enumerated; and if so, why did Jebb suppress it in his edition of the Opus Majus? Perhaps some of your correspondents in Dublin may think it worth the trouble to endeavour to clear up this difficulty, on which M. Cousin lays great stress; and recommends, at the same time, a new and complete edition of the Opus Majus to the patriotism of some Oxford or Cambridge Savant. He might well have included Dublin in his appeal for help in this undertaking; which, he says, would throw a better light on that vast, and not very intelligible monument of one of the most independent and greatest minds of the Middle Ages. J.M. Oxford, April 9th. CRAIK'S ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE. If I knew where to address Mr. G. L. Craik, I should send him the following "Note:" if you think it deserves a place in your columns, it may probably meet his eye. In the article on the Lady Arabella Stuart (Romance of the Peerage, vol. ii. p. 370.), a letter of Sir Ralph Winwood, dated 1610, is quoted, in which he states, that she is "not altogether free from suspicion of being collapsed." On this Mr. Craik observes, "It is difficult to conjecture what can be here meant by collapsed, unless it be fallen off to Romanism." Now it is not a little curious, and it proves Mr. Craik's capability for the task of illustrating family history from the obscure allusions in letters and documents, that there exists cotemporary authority for fixing the meaning Mr. Craik has conjectured to be the true one, to the word collapsed. A pamphlet, with the title A Letter to Mr. T. H., late Minister, now Fugitive, was published in 1609, with a dedication to all Romish collapsed "ladies of Great Britain; " which bears internal evidence of being addressed to those who were converts from the Church of England to Romanism. |