2'"' S. No G2., Mar. 7. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



191 



from which they have extracted cheques ; and 

 no bad man wittingly registers his own baseness. 

 The negative evidence derived from tliis fact re- 

 minds one of the well-known offer of a culprit 

 charged with horse-stealing to produce " twenty 

 witnesses who did not see him steal the ho7'se" But, 

 unluckily, the evidence of one who had seen him 

 do so outweighed them all, with judge and jury. 



The inference against A. Bacon's being a " pro- 

 vident character," and thence of his being an 

 unlikely person to wring hush-money from his 

 ])atron, seems to me scarce to rest on firm ground ; 

 on the contrary, I should be disposed to argue 

 parsimony from his very explanation of the cost of 

 " coaling Essex house for four summer months." 

 Again, might not free-handedness and extrava- 

 gance account for his extortion as well as avarice ? 

 What his pecuniary position might have been 

 may be doubtful ; but the sketch in Lloyd's 

 Worthies informs us, that it was his death which 

 first placed his brother Francis in easy circum- 

 stances. He had at least a "life estate" in 

 Gorhamhury, which fell not to Sir F. Bacon until 

 his " dearest brother Anthony's death." 



As to Wotton's feelings towards his kinsman, 

 while the truth of such a story as he tells would 

 fully account for the "disgust" he is said to have 

 ft'lt to Anthony Bacon personally, it does not seem 

 to have disturbed his friendly relations with the 

 rest of the family. I cannot see any probability that 

 Ihe "kinsman" selected to pen the elegant and eu- 

 logistic epitaph for one brother's tomb would be 

 likely to lend easy belief, or exercise malignant 

 invention, to defame the character of the other. 

 The string of suppositions produced by J. S. to 

 account for the " probable origin " of the story, in 

 which he introduces one man wondering at — a 

 second guessing at— a third! repeating — some idle 

 gossip, — and credulous Wotton believing, and 

 thereon committing himself to a deliberate and 

 circumstantial calumny, — seems to me to involve 

 the most violent improbability of all ! A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



TREATISE or THE BENEFIT OF CHRIST CRU- 

 CIFIED." 



(I»' S. ix. 321. ; X. 384. 406. 477. ; 2"'^ S. i. 351.) 



Vergerio (quoted by Schelhorn, Amcenit. Hist. 

 Ecdes., vol. i. p. 444.) says : 



" Reginald Pole, the British Cardinal, and the intimate 

 friend of Morone, was esteemed the author of that book, 

 or partly so; at least it is known that he with Flaminio, 

 Priuh', and his other friends, defended and circulated it." 



In confirmation of this statement I subjoin an 

 extract from a notice which appeared some months 

 ago in The Guardian, of a Report of the Trial and 

 Martyrdom of Pietro Carnesecchi, sometime Secre- 

 tary to Pope Clement VII., and Apostolic Protono- 



tary ; translated and edited by the Rev. R. Gib- 

 bings : 



" The present publication, from a MS. in the Dublin 

 University Librarj', is a kind of sequel and companion to 

 one of much wider interest, namely, the celebrated treatise 

 De Beneficio Christi, republished lately in English by Mr. 

 Ayre, and still more learnedly by Mr. Babington, and as- 

 signed by them, in accordance with general belief, to 

 Aonio Paleario. The process of Carnesecchi incidentally, 

 but, as it appears to us, conclusively, disproves this sup- 

 posed authorship. And partly on this account Mr. Gib- 

 bings seems to have been originally led to the idea of 

 publishing it. The elaborate and ingenious argument of 

 Mr. Babington appears to be precisely of that character 

 which establishes a fair presumption in default of direct 

 testimony, but which cannot weigh one grain against 

 contrary facts. Paleario describes a book of his own in 

 1542, as written in that year, and as containing in general 

 matter similar to that of the treatise. The treatise itself 

 is also known (from Vergerio) to have been largely cur- 

 rent at Venice for six years prior to 1549, and Mr. Ba- 

 bington obtained an edition printed in that city in 1543. 

 Certainly, on this showing, Paleario's book and the treatise 

 may have been, and in default of further evidence we 

 should have said probably were, identical. But, unfor- 

 tunately for the theorj-, it is conclusively shown by the 

 articles against Carnesecchi that the treatise was current 

 at Naples in 1540. All the circumstances also, and the 

 scanty original evidence, point much more strongly to 

 persons in the position of Cardinal Pole and Flaminio, 

 whom Mr. Gibbings suggests as the probable authors, 

 than to so comparatively insignificant a person as Paleario, 

 who could hardl}' be said to be, in 1550, high in favour 

 with the Pope and his Ministers. 



"Another literary question, once much debated, and 

 noticed by Roscoe, seems also to be set at rest by this 

 document — viz. the (Romanist) orthodoxy of Flaminio 

 himself, and the view taken of it by the Papal authorities. 

 Flaminio and his writings are treated throughout the do- 

 cument as indisputably heretical ; and the document is 

 the printed record of the Inquisition." 



It would much enhance the value of " N. & 

 Q." as a book of reference, if every subject of real 

 interest and importance, once taken up in its pages, 

 •were followed up as opportunities occur. No such 

 subject admitting of further elucidation or illus- 

 tration should be considered as finally dropped ;" 

 but, according as time and research bring new 

 matter to light, it should be noted and put on re- 

 cord in the pages of the same work in which the 

 subject was started. Eirionnacii. 



RESUSCITATION OF DROWNED FLIES. 



(2«<> S. iii. 127.) 



Mr. Rilet does not seem to be aware that this 

 subject bad engaged the attention of the eminent 

 American philosopher and politician Dr. Franklin. 

 I have a copy of an edition of his Life and Works, 

 Bungay : Printed and published by Brightly and 

 Child (n. d.), in which, at p. 322., there is a com- 

 munication entitled " Observations on the prevail- 

 ing Doctrines of Life and Death," addressed to a 

 M. Dubourg, and from it I make the following 



