July 21. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



45 



favour; and might even occasion some surprise 

 that the production is so entirely forgotten. Pre- 

 fixed is a dissertation exhibiting an intimate 

 knowledge of oriental dialects, with some curious 

 speculations concerning " Ahasuerus," who is al- 

 leged to be identical with "Xerxes." This hypo- 

 thesis, it is said, is maintained with great acute- 

 ness of reasoning and variety of learning. Indeed, 

 as regards Henley's acquirements as a linguist, 

 it is stated in a memoir of him, contained in 

 Nichols's Leicestershire, that he published, within 

 two or three years of taking the degree of B.A. 

 at Cambridge, a compendium of the grammar of 

 ten languages. Strange to say, the performance 

 first referred to is not to be found in the Cata- 

 logue of the British Museum Library : though 

 the unhappy celebrity of the author might impart 

 to it, one would think, a certain degree of in- 

 terest, independently of the erudition displayed, 

 and the poetical ability by which the work is 

 undoubtedly characterised. That a man so re- 

 markably gifted should have been debased to the 

 subsequent career which marked him for the 

 withering invective of Pope, and the graphical 

 satire of Hogarth, is among the most signal in- 

 stances of the perversion, conjointly with the moral 

 sense, of rare endowments of intellect riglitly im- 

 proved by education : a complete extinction of 

 the powers of taste and judgment — of almost 

 every attribute of scholarship — observable, it is 

 believed, in his later productions ; being, in the 

 following letter, indicated by a style the most 

 congenial to the degraded occupations of the 

 writer. It is difficult to conceive this effusion as 

 having proceeded from the author of Esther, and 

 the grammarian of ten languages! The person 

 addressed is the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke : the 

 date, 1755 : 



" I most humbly ask pardon for informing your Lord- 

 ship that one proof of my serving his Majesty, and the 

 ministry, in my speeches and advertisements, is, that I 

 gain intelligence by them of the real enemies of the court ; 

 and the late Rt. Eton. Mr. Pelham engaged it should not 

 be known but to the royal family, first ministers, and 

 judges. And Mr. Pelham, some months before his death, 

 gave me ten guineas for one piece of intelligence about 

 certain elections; which, with others, I could not have 

 obtained but by such advertisements and discourses. I 

 received sixty guineas from him, in the whole, for various 

 services of that kind on severall occasions ; and I allways 

 invariablj- devoted my oratory, and do to y^ like intention 

 in several shapes ; and shall be proud of every oppor- 

 tunity to be of any service or use to y^ Lordship, and y 

 noble family." 



Mr. D'Israeli sums up the character of the 

 " Orator" in these terras : 



" Henley was an indefatigable student — a scholar of 

 great attainments, and of no mean genius : hardy and 

 inventive, eloquent and witty. He might have been an 

 ornament to literature, which he made ridiculous — and 

 the pride of the pulpit, which he so lamentably disgraced." 



The object, however, of this communication 

 No. 299.] 



(which has run to an inordinate length), was to 

 inquire where the poem of Esther can be seen ? and 

 whether any of your correspondents may know 

 what are, or were, the contents of the 100 volumes 

 of MSS. inspected by Mr. D'Israeli? To judge 

 from the letter above cited, they might possibly 

 serve to illustrate some curious passages of the 

 political history of that period ; I mean in regard 

 to " party management." A. L. 



Temple. 



[There is a copy of Esther, Queen of Persia, by John 

 Henley, in the British Museum, entered in the new MS. 

 Catalogue under his name, press-mark 11,631. e. About 

 fifty volumes of Henley's Lectures, in his own hand- 

 writing, will be found among the Additional MSS. 

 10,346—10,349. ; 11,768—11,801. ; 12,199, 12,200. : 

 19,920—19,924.] 



Minav ^ueviti. 



Jonathan Swift. — A new edition of Swift'$ 

 Works is announced by Mr. Murray, to be edited 

 by Mr. John Forster. I, for one, rejoice at this. 

 Though we have had edition after edition fast 

 following one another for a century, a new one is 

 very much wanted. The best informed, however, 

 best know the patient labour required to pro- 

 duce such a work as is alone worth having. Can- 

 not " N. & Q." come to the rescue ? — help forward 

 the good cause ? The late discussions about Pope 

 have certainly cleared away some minor doubts 

 and difficulties ; and it is these minors which give 

 so much trouble to editors. May I be allowed to 

 start the game by asking when and where the first 

 edition of Poetry, a Rhapsody, was published ? 

 And how is the first edition to be known ? J. S. A. 



Edward Barnard. — Can you or any of your 

 readers give me any account of Edward Barnard, 

 author of a work published in 1757, under the 

 title of Virtue the Source of Pleasure? Another 

 work by the same author was published in 1741, 

 viz. Experimental Christianity of eternal advantage, 

 exemplified in the Life of Miss Lydia Allen, of 

 London, who died November 17, 1740, 8vo., 2nd 

 edition, 1741. R. J, 



Glasgow. 



Anonymous Worhs. — Can you inform me who 

 are the authors of the following anonymous 

 novels ? — 1 . Constantia, or the Distressed Friend, 

 12mo., 1770. 2. The Disguise, a dramatic novel 

 in two volumes, 12mo., 1771. 3. The West In- 

 dian; or Memoirs of Frederick Charlton, 12 mo., 

 1787. E. J. 



Glasgow. 



Chancels in Ormshirk Parish Church. — In the 

 registers of the sixteenth century, kept in the 

 parish church of Ormskirk, the chancel is divided 

 into two parts, and named as two distinct chan- 



