198 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 36., Sept. 6. '56. 



The following extract from Barnuni's Autobio- 

 graphy seems to confirm ihis statement : 



" Being in Albany on business in November, 1842, I 

 stopped one nigbt in Bridjjeporc, Ct., my brother, Philo 

 F., lleeping the Franklin Hotel at the time. 



" 1 had heard of a remarkably small child in Bridgeport, 

 and by my request my brother brought him to the hotel. 

 He was the smallest child I ever saw that could walk 

 alone. He was not two feet in height, and weighed less 

 than sixteen pounds. He was a bright-eyed little fellow, 

 with light hair and ruddy cheeks, was perfectly healthy, 

 and as symmetrical as an Apollo. He was exceedingly 

 bashful ; but, after some coaxing, he was induced to con- 

 verse with me, and informed me that his name was 

 Charles S. Stratton, son of Sherwood JE. Stratton. 



" They arrived in New York on Thanksgiving Day, 

 December 8, 1842 ; and Mrs. Stratton was greatly asto- 

 nished to find her son heralded in my Museum bills as 

 Gen. Tom Thumb, a dwarf of eleven years of age, just 

 arrived from England ! " , 



Why is December 8th termed " Thanksgiving 

 Day ? " I cannot find that any public event con- 

 nected with America occurred on that day. Is it 

 a rdigious festival ? Ein Frager. 



Germination of Seeds (2""* S. ii. 117.) —Mr. R. 

 W. Hackwood asks if it be really a fact, that if 

 quick-lime be put on land which from time imme- 

 morial produced nothing but heather, the heather 

 will be killed, and white clover spring up in its 

 place ? 



Nothing can be more certain than this : that 

 lime as a manure brings trefoil of some species, 

 where it never has appeared before, in the West 

 of Ireland ; where sea-sand (containing more or 

 less of lime) is a general manure for bog and 

 heath land. Every farmer is familiar with the 

 phenomenon of trefoil growing within a year or 

 so after sand-top dressing, on a wild mountain side, 

 where it never had been seen before. A. B. R. 



In the deep cuttings made by railways various 

 strata become exposed to light and^ir. Travel- 

 ling, a short time ago, near Rossl^I thought I 

 could detect a particular plant, I think it was 

 charlock, growing along the line of one of the 

 strata, and not on any of the others. 



Have any of your readers noticed such a thing, 

 or will this hint induce them to do so in future, 

 and confirm the observation, if true ? T. W. 



Family of Hogarth (2°'^ S. ii. 149.) — Mr. Wil- 

 liam Hogarth, the representative of the family 

 inquired after by Sigma Theta, is, or recently 

 was, living at Clifton, near Penrith, and I believe 

 has taken great pains in tracing his family pedi- 

 gree. J. F. M. 



Ten years since I stayed some days with one 

 of this family, with whom a young friend of mine 

 was " a mud student," that is, was a farming pupil. 

 This Mr. Hogarth died very lately, and gave up 



his farm, near Wooler, in Northumberland, several 

 years since, on account of ill health. He was from 

 the Scotch side of the Border, full of anecdote 

 and information, and a very good specimen of a 

 gentle-minded man and practical farmer. He 

 pronounced his name Hog-arth. 



A. Holt White. 

 Southend. 



The House of Brunswick and the Casting Vote 

 (2°^ S. ii. 44. 97.) — Joseph Paice, Esq., M.P. for 

 Lyme Regis, Dorset, has had the credit of giving 

 the casting vote for the succession of the House 

 of Hanover to the throne of this realm. 



Statements to this effect have often appeared 

 in print, and have met with no contradiction. 



The late Mr. Samuel Bagster, the publisher, and 

 founder of the Polyglot warehouse, Paternoster 

 Row, London, who was from Lyme Regis, once 

 invited me to see a medal given by Queen Anne 

 to Joseph Paice, Esq., M.P,, at a Mr. F, (?) Gib- 

 son's, Turnham Green, a descendant of that 

 member of parliament. Having taken my place 

 for the Continent I could not accept the invitation. 

 I believe this was in 1824. George Roberts, 



Worthing. 



Modem Judaism (2°'^ S. ii. 148.) — I will answer 

 Delta's Queries as briefly as possible. 



A good deal of information, from a Gentile point 

 of view, may be got from Mill's work on the 

 British Jews, and from Ridley Herschel's small 

 work on the Jews of Poland. The best account, 

 however, is to be had in Jewish works ; a great 

 variety of which can be obtained at the bookshops 

 in the Minories and that neighbourhood. 



The Jews are permitted to be landholders In 

 different countries ; but the law of Moses, which 

 commands the restoration of the land to the owner, 

 is applicable only to Palestine. 



If the Jews were restored to Palestine, and had 

 their temple rebuilt, why ought they not to re- 

 sume sacrifices ? The law commanding sacrifices 

 has never been repealed ; and sacrifices are at 

 this day offered by the Samaritans at Naplous. 



It would be impossible to determine what in- 

 fluence " Christianity, philosophy, and the general 

 progress of knowledge," have had " on the creed, 

 conduct, and habits" of the Jews. The Gentiles 

 have, no doubt, had a great influence on the Jews ; 

 but probably the Jews have exerted a still greater 

 reciprocal action on the Gentiles — greater, be- 

 cause for thousands of years they have been so 

 firmly knit and massed together, whereas the 

 Gentiles have been continually fluctuating. One 

 day It is the Greeks, next day it is the Romans, 

 then it is the Moors, and now it is the British and 

 Americans that are influencing the Jews ; but the 

 Jews remain constant through the ages. 



As to the restoration of the Jews, there can be 

 little doubt that one day It will be accomplished. 



