•Nov. 4. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



363 



have had the greatest influence in moulding and 

 civilising the barbarous empire of Peter the 

 Great. Most of the professors in the Russian 

 universities are Germans, who are also the prin- 

 ■cipal agents in the boasted progress that the 

 Russians have made in the study of the Oriental 

 languages. The compilers of the great Sanscrit 

 Dictionary, now preparing under the auspices of 

 the Imperial Academy of Sciences, are two dis- 

 tinguished German scholars, Messrs. Bothllngk 

 and Roth. The Russians, hitherto, have not been 

 remarkable for their studious and literary habits. 

 Their popular poets of the present day are weak 

 imitators of the worst features of Byron's poetry. 

 Professor Max Miiller, of Oxford, in his valu- 

 able and most seasonable Suggestions for the 

 Assistance of Officers in learning the Languages of 

 the Seat of War in the East, remarks : 



"The nations that speak the Slavonic languages [of 

 which the Russian is the chief] may have great destinies 

 to fulfil in the long future ; they "have means at their 

 command vast as any European nation ; and if they can 

 throw out of their system the bastard blood of a Mongo- 

 lian nobility, and resist the poison of a premature civilis- 

 ation, their history and literature may rise high on the 

 horizon of Europe, and restore to Slava its original mean- 

 ing of ' good report and glory.' " 



J. M. S. 



Books with defectively-expressed Titles. — There 

 are many works, bibliographers well know, whose 

 title-pages convey only an imperfect account of 

 the subjects discussed ; and I beg to suggest that 

 when your readers meet with any strikingly-im- 

 portant instances of such works, they will be kind 

 enough to "note" them to the world through 

 your pages. J. M. S. 



PETER BUSMAN. 



•' Peter Burman, a professor of history and eloquence in 

 the University of Leyden, was of a quarrelsome and ma- 

 lignant disposition, which, joined to evil qualities of the 

 heart, and besides this a wicked {gotthser) life, made him 

 so universally hated and abhorred, that at his death no 

 one was found who would write his eulogy, or say any- 

 thing about him." 



The above is translated from vol. i. p. 409. of the 

 Historisch-hiographisches Worterbuch, von J. G. 

 Grohman, 8 vols. 8vo.,] Leipzig, 1796. It differs 

 from all the other accounts of Burman which I 

 have seen, and especially from Dr. Johnson's life 

 of him, which first appeared in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine for 1742, and is the basis of a very 

 good article in the last edition of the Encyclo' 

 pcedia Sritannica, vol. v. p. 785. On such au- 

 thorities I have believed that Burman had a good 

 moral character and many sincere friends ; and 

 that, though irascible on literary matters, he was 

 not more so than great scholars were in his time, 



or commentators on Shakspeare in ours. I do 

 not suppose that Grohman invented the above 

 charges, though he seems to dislike writers of 

 Burman's order, treating James Gronovius little 

 better.* His Worterbuch is a slovenly compila- 

 tion, and he is negligent in citing authorities. 

 The eloge, or Lobspruch, was a compliment usu- 

 ally paid to German and Dutch professors, and I 

 think it unlikely to have been omitted on the 

 death of one so eminent. I shall be much obliged 

 by reference to any passages illustrating Burman's 

 private life, and printed before 1750. H. B. C. 

 U. U. Club. 



Harems Accusation. — The following letter is 

 extracted from the Wells City Records. Can any 

 of the readers of " N. & Q." tell me of what of- 

 fence this John Hare was accused ? 



" Convoca ibm tent' xxiiij die Decembris, anno Dni Eliz. 

 quinto. 



" The CouncUVs Letter. 



" After our mooste hartie comendacons, &c., forsomuch 

 as one John Hare, a dier inhabitynge in the towne of 

 Welles, is vehemently accused before us of sondry greve 

 offences, we have thought goode,myndyngethe reformacon 

 of hym and suche tyke offenders, to require you, and by 

 the authorytye of the Queen's commission to us directed 

 to comand you, with all secresye and lyke dilygence to 

 apprehend the said John Hare, and forthwythe to send 

 hym in safe custodye unto us hither to London, and up- 

 pon his aryvall here wee shall give order for the allow- 

 ance of the charges susteyned in his conveyance; and 

 hereof faj'le you not. And alsoe to advertise us of youre 

 doings therein. Fare you Avell. From Sackfield House, 

 the 20th Novembre. Your very loving friendes, Edward 

 Northe, Ric. Sackfielde, Williii Cycell" and five others. 



Ina. 



Wells, Somersetshire. 



BosivelVs Arithmetic. — I once pointed out a 

 mistake which Boswell had fixed on Johnson (on 

 which see Vol. i., p. 107. ; Vol. viii., p. 250.). The 

 curiosity is, not that Boswell should have blun- 

 dered, but that so many editors should have 

 allowed the blunder to pass. I now point put 

 another such mistake, and submit it for correction. 



" Boswell. I wish to have a good walled garden. 



" Johnson. I don't think it would be worth the ex- 

 pense to you. We compute, in England, a park wall at 

 a thousand pounds a mile ; now a garden wall must cost 

 at least as much. You intend your trees should grow 

 higher than a deer will leap. Now let us see; for a 

 hundred pounds you could only have forty-four square 

 yards, which is very little ; for two hundred pounds you 

 may have eighty-four [eighty-eight of course] square 

 yards, which is verj' well." — BoswelCs Johnson, aetat. 74, 

 vol. viii. p. 195. of Croker's ten-volume edition. 



* "Man konnte ihm selbst in dem gleichgultigsten 

 Dingen nicht wiedersprechen, ohne sich allem dem, was 

 die Galle eines eingebildeten, stolzen Pedanten nur immer 

 bitteres hat, auszusetzen." — B. iv. p. 136. 



