NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER -COMMUNICATION 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTiaUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC, 



" "Wlien found, make a note of." — Caftain Cuttle. 



Vol. v.— No. 138.] 



Saturday, June 19. 1852. 



C Price Fourpence. 



i Stamped Edition, ^d. 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes:- ^»B« 



Defoe's Pamphlet on the Septennial Bill, by James 

 Crossley ------- •''• 



Arthur O'Connor - - - - - - 579 



Inedited Poetry, by W. Sparrow Simpson - - 580 



Folic Lore : — Lancashire May-day Custom — Hair cut 

 off; an Antidote —Weather Prophecy — The Oak Tree 



and the Ash ^^1 



The Diphthong "ai" I - - - - - 581 



Minor Notes: —A Bit o' fine Writing '— Custom of 

 Cranes in Storms — Aldress- How the ancient Irish 

 used to crown their King — One of Junius's Corre- 

 spondents identified - - - - • 581 



QVERIES ; — 



Old Music -.582 



Treasury of St. Mark's ; Record at Tiberiug - - 583 



Unicorn .----•- 583 

 Flanagan on the Round Towers of Ireland - - 684 



Minor Queries : — St. Augustine's Six Treatises on 



Music — Bishop Merriman — The Escubierto — J. 



Scandret — Mary Horton — Biblicus on the Apocalypse 



— Cleopatra playing at Billiards — " Then comes the 

 reckoning" — Giving the Sack — Scotch Provincial 

 Tokens of the Seventeenth Century — Burial of Sir 

 John Moore— Mexican, &c. Grammar— Foundation 

 Stones — Mary Faun — Tonson and the Westminsters 584 



Minor Queries Answered : — Lady Farewell's Funeral 

 Sermon— Sir E. K. Williams— Order of the Cockle 



— Waller Family — Life of St. Werburgh — Blind- 

 man's Holiday — Ab. Seller— Martin-drunk — Bag- 

 ster's English Version - - - - - 585 



Replies : — 



Reply to Mr. Hickson's Objections - • - 587 



The Term " Milesian," by John D'Alton - - 588 



Ben. Jonson's adopted Sons, by C. H. Cooper - - 588 



Shakspeare's Seal ------ 589 



Reason and Understanding according to Coleridge - 690 



General Wolfe 590 



•' The MiUer's Melody," an old Ballad, by Dr. E. F. Rim- 



bault 591 



Surnames ------- 592 



Sir John Trenchard, by Sydney Walton - - - 693 



■ Papal Seal - . 593 



Market Crosses ------ 594 



Replies to Minor Queries : — The two Gilberts de Clare 



— Baxter's Shove — Frebord — Devil — Mummy 

 Wheat — Nacar — Mistletoe — The Number Seven — 

 Gabriel Hounds — Burial — Marvell's Life and Works 



— The Death- Watch — The Rabbit as a Symbol, &c. 594 



Miscellaneous : — 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted . - • • 599 



Notices to Correspondents - - » - 599 



Advertisements - - • . - • - 699 



Vol. v. — No. 138. 



DEPOe's pamphlet on the SEPTENNIAL BILL. 



It is impossible to read Chalmers' and Wilson's 

 Lvws of Defoe without being constantly struck 

 not merely by the want of all critical acumen and 

 ordinary knowledge of the characteristics of De- 

 foe's style which they display, but also by the 

 absence of research on almost every point of im- 

 portance connected with his career. Out of innu- 

 merable instances, I may mention his pamphlet on 

 the subject of the Septennial Bill. Chalmers, and 

 after him Wilson, are satisfied with repeating 

 Boyer's statement that Defoe was the author of 

 The Triennial Bill Impartially Stated, London, 

 1716; but neither of them appears to have re- 

 ferred to the pamphlet itself, and Wilson does not 

 seem to have even consulted Boyer. He observes, 

 " Mr. Chalmers thinks the pamphlet was not his." 

 Whatever Chalmers might think, he does not cer- 

 tainly say so in express terms. The point itself is 

 a curious one; and as It has not hitherto been 

 gone into, perhaps I shall not trespass too much 

 upon your space if I give your readers the results 

 of my examination of It. In Boyer's Political 

 State for April, 1716 (p. 484.), he enumerates in 

 the following terms the pamphlets on the Septen- 

 nial Bill:— 



" A Letter to a Country Gentleman, showing the Incon- 

 veniences which attend the Last Act for Triennial Par- 

 liaments, which, I am informed, was written by the 

 learned Dr. Tyndal. This was followed with others 

 intitled. An Epistle to a Whig Member of Parliament ; 

 Some Considerations on a Law for Triennial Parliaments; 

 The Suspension of the Triennial Bill, the Properest 

 Means to unite the Nation ; A First and Second Letter to 

 a Friend in Suffolk; The Alterations in the Triennial 

 Act Considered; The Innkeeper's Opinion of the Trien- 

 nial Act ; and a few others. The only pamphlet that 

 was published on the other side was called The IVien- 

 nial Act Impartially Stated, &c. This pamphlet was 

 judged, from its loose style and way of arguing, to be 

 written by that prostituted fool of the last ministry, 



D D — F — ; but whatever was offered either 



in print, or viva voce, against the Septennial Bill, was 

 fully answered and confuted by the following writing, 

 generally fathered on the ingenious and judicious 

 Joseph Addison, Esq." 



