2'"J S. No 104., Dec. 26, '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



519 



There being four judges in each court, a ma- 

 jority of three to one is thereby obtained on any 

 point of law. If the Chief Justice, however, had a 

 second voice, it would give to his opinion a double 

 weight, which it is hardly probable would properly 

 belong to it as compared with the^opinions of his 

 brothers on the bench. 



The second vote was unknown, I believe, to the 

 Greeks and Romans; the latter even exercised 

 the veto. In the management of commercial, 

 scientific, and charitable institutions, as in private 

 life, prudence dictates that, when motives* are 

 equally for and against, adherence to past expe- 

 rience is better than the adoption of a new course 

 for tlie future, the consequences of which cannot 

 be fully predicated. 



The Court of Directors of the.East India Com- 

 pany, when equally divided, determine the question 

 by lot (Wilson's Continuation of Mill, i. 299.), 

 " agreeably to law." I have been unable to find 

 the authority in their Acts of Parliament for so 

 settling points which may affect the interests of 

 one-sixth of the human race. " Hoc est non con- 

 siderare, sed sortiri quid loquare." — Cic. Nat. 

 Beor. i. 35. 



The Municipal Corporations' Act (5 & 6 "W. 4. 

 c. 76. s. 69.) gives "a second or casting vote in 

 all cases of equality of votes " to the chairman of 

 the council. The Companies' Clauses Act (8 Vict. 

 c. 16. s. 67.) empowers a chairman to give such 

 casting vote in addition to his other votes as prin- 

 cipal and proxy. Banking companies and other 

 bodies give often, by^deed or otherwise, a like 

 power to the chairman. The inference then is 

 that the motion in question was not carried at 

 the Mechanics' Institute, unless such second vote 

 were authorised by the laws of the Institute, or 

 the motion itself were confirmed by some subse- 

 quent act of the proprietary or committee who 

 voted without a majority on the first occasion. 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Lichfield. 



The custom in parish vestries may do something 

 to clear this point. It has been my lot divers 

 times to preside at vestries officially, and as hold- 

 ing the freehold of a church, but where, not being 

 a ratepayer, I have had no ordinary vote as a 

 member of the vestry. In other cases I have pre- 

 sided, being a ratepayer, and have not forfeited 

 my ratepayer's suffrage by the circumstance of my 

 being chairman. In either case, had the votes been 

 equal, it would have belonged to me, as presiding 

 member, to exercise (not for my own advantage, 

 but for the convenience of the public body), the 

 acknowledged privilege of a chairman's casting 

 vote, totally independent of any other vote I 

 might have given. Under the Vestry Act it is 

 possible for a chairman, (or any other vestryman,) 

 to have as many as four or five votes, in right of 



his large rateable property ; but surely the chance 

 of a " casting vote," should the numbers be equal, 

 cannot deprive a ratepayer of his four or five re- 

 gular and legal votes, merely because he presides 

 at the meeting. 



Tiie practice of the Speaker of the House of 

 Commons cannot guide us in this matter for cer- 

 tain obvious reasons.] J. Sansom. 



London Funerals (2"^ S. iv. 394, 395.) — The 

 funerals quoted by Mr. Coleman, as well as those 

 given by Mr. Brew^ee, are alike derived from 

 Machyn's Diary. " Goodrick, the great lawyer," 

 buried in 1562, was Richard Goodrick, a nephew 

 of the Lord Chancellor of that name, Thomas 

 Goodrick, Bishop of Ely. His funeral was at- 

 tended by the Company of Clerks, singing ; and 

 he is known to have been attached to the ancient 

 ritual of the church, as probably was Thomas 

 Percy, Queen Mary's skinner : and this shows the 

 origin of funerals being attended by the children 

 of Christ's Hospital. It had been customary that 

 a quire of parish clerks should attend to chaunt 

 the Dirige. This being abandoned, the children 

 were substituted at the funerals of Protestants. 

 But in some cases we find funerals attended by 

 both the clerks and the children. 



J. G. Nichols. 



Luther and Gerbelius (2°'' S. iv. 482.) — Was 

 Luther assisted in translating the New Testament 

 by Gerbelius's edition of the Greek, small 4to., 

 March 1521? In the sale of the library of the late 

 Bishop of London, noticed at p. 482., it is stated 

 that a copy of Gerbelius's Greek Testament sold 

 for 21. 6s., " supposed to have been the one made 

 use of by Luther for his version." But how t;ould 

 this be ? Luther first published his version in 

 parts, of which I possess Das Andor ThoylEvan- 

 gelii S. Lucas van der Apostel Geschichte. It is 

 in small 8vo., printed on thick vellum, lettered, 

 1521. These small volumes were revised by 

 Luther, aided by Melancthon, who says * that the 

 volume was in the hands of the printers May 5, 

 1522 (Old Style, and only two months after the 

 date of Gerbelius's edition). It is an extremely 

 curious book from some Greek MS., without even 

 the division into chapters. It omits 1 John v. 7., 

 the three heavenly witnesses, which is inserted in 

 Bibelius's edition, 8vo., Basil, August, 1524. I 

 possess fine copies of these books, and value them 

 highly, because it is very probable that they 

 guided Tyndale in his translation of the New 

 Testament into English. He certainly followed thef 

 Greek original ; and where he differs with Eras- 

 mus and the Vulgate, he must have been aided 



• Townley, Bib. Lit, vol. ii. p. 276. 



