Feb. 28. 1852.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



199 



It has now been in circulation for nearly a cen- 

 tury and a half; an;l for want of a medium of 

 inter-communication in olden times like " N. & 

 Q.," its authorship has frequently been a topic of 

 keen discussion. Mr. Oakeley, in his work, The 

 Subject of Tract XC. historically examined, states 

 that 



" Its publication attracted at the time the notice of the 

 Government. A warrant appears to have been issued 

 from the Secretary of State's office for the seizure of 

 the author's papers, and the arrest of his person, under 

 a suspicion apparently that he was in league with the 

 Pretender." 



It is to be regretted that Mr. Oakeley has not 

 given his authoi-ity for this statement. Mr. Goode, 

 in his pamphlet entitled Tract XC. historically re- 

 futed, attributes it, on the authority of Dodd, to 

 Thomas Dean, a Roman Catholic Fellow of Uni- 

 versity Collesje, Oxford ; whereas the author of 

 The Sure Hope of Reconciliation, p. 61-, thinks 

 Mr. Goode's supposition open to exception ; and 

 as the writer styles himself " A Minister of the 

 Church of Enffland," he is inclined to admit his 

 claim to the title, till stronger evidence be adduced 

 to the contrary. 



The following curious colloquy between two 

 priests of the Koman and Anglican Churches, in 

 the Town Hall at Guildford, in 1838, respecting 

 the authorship of this Essay, is also worthy a 

 Note: 



" Rev. Joseph Sldden. The author of A Proposal for 

 a Catholic Communion says 



" Rev. M. Hobart Seymaur. Name ! name 



" Rev. J. Sidden. I do not know his name ; he ap- 

 pears to have been an archdeacon of the Church of 

 England in the reign of Queen Anne. His work is 

 on sale at Booker's. 



" The Chairman. Can you name the place of which 

 lie was archdeacon ? 



" Rev. J. Sid ten. No ; but I give these as the words 

 of a Protestant clergyman. 



" Rev. M. H. Seymaur. You do not know that he 

 was a Protestant at all. 



" Rev. J. Sidden. I have put the work into the hands 

 of a Protestant clergyman, who agrees with it; and it 

 agrees with Archbishop Bramhall. I have often tried 

 to discover who was the author. 



" Rev. M. H. Seymour. It was written perhaps by a 

 Roman Catholic Priest. 



" Rev. J. Sidden. I think not, because the Hon. and 

 Rev. Arthur Perceval, rector of East Horsley, bor- 

 rowed the book of me, and he wrote to nie, that he so 

 mucii approved of it, that he meant to procure a copy 

 of it. I do not know who wrote it." — Proceedings at 

 a Meeting of the Guildford Protestant Association, 1838, 

 p. 20. 



Now, without discussing the theological points 

 at issue between the two parties, it is desirable that 

 the authorship of this work, as a literary produc- 

 tion, should be finally settled, which I am inclined 

 to think will be the case when it is broujirht before 



the numerous readers of " N. & Q." On its first 

 appearance it was attacked by three N(mjuring 

 clergymen, viz. Grascome, Stephens, and Spincke.s. 

 Grascome, it a,ppears, knew the author ; but his 

 work, Concordia Discors, I have not been able to 

 procure. (See Life of Kettlewell, p. 328.) It is not 

 to be found in the catalogues of the Bodleian, 

 British Museum, or Sion College. The replies by 

 Edward Stephens and Nathanael Spinckes are 

 both in the Bodleian. The first edition of the 

 original Essay, 1704, is in the British Museum, 

 and on the title-page is written in pencil, " By 

 Thomas Dean, a papist," and underneath, in ink, 

 " By Nathanael Spinckes, not a Roman Catholic." 

 The latter entry is clearly a mistake. 



After some investigation, it appears to me that 

 the authorship rests between Thomas Dean and 

 Joshua Bassett. It is attributed to the former by 

 Dodd (alias Tootle) in his Certamen utriusque 

 Ecclesice ; but Wood, who has given some account 

 of Dean in his AthencB Oxon., vol. iv. p. 450. 

 (Bliss), does not include this Essay among his 

 other works. In the Bodleian Catalogue its 

 authorship is attributed to Joshua Bassett, Master 

 of Sidney College, Cambridge, of whom our bio- 

 graphical dictionaries are perfectly silent. Fortu- 

 nately, Cole has preserved some notices of him ia 

 his MSS.', vol. XX. p. 117. It appears that he was 

 a Roman Catholic, and had mass publicly said iu 

 his college ; but upon King James revoking the 

 mandamuses in 1688, he left Cambridge and settled 

 in London, where, says Cole, " he lived to be a 

 very old man, and died in no very affluent cir- 

 cumstances, as we may well imagine." Cole notices 

 a work by Bassett published anonymously, viz. 

 Reason and Authority ; or the Motives of a late 

 Protestanfs Reconciliation to the Catholic Church. 

 London : 1687, 4to. With this clue, probably, 

 some of your readers can finally settle the question. 



Hoxton. ♦ 



NEW ARRANGEMENT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



I am engaged in preparing the Old Testament 

 on the same plan, but with some alterations and 

 additions, as the Chronological New Testament 

 described in Vol. iv., p. 357. 



I write to ask if any of your correspondents can 

 aid me in my undertaking in the following points : 



I. To inform me where I can procure, by pur- 

 chase, or by loan for a few weeks, Torshell's 

 tract or book, in which he proposed to Charles I. 

 to undertake such a work. 



II. To make a re-division, according to the sub- 

 ject-matter, of Job, Ecclesiastes, and the greater 

 and the mincu* prophets. 



III. To draw up a brief analysis of this subject- 

 matter, similar to what is attempted in the New 

 Testament for the Epistles. 



