2nd s. No 114., mak. 6. -58.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



199 



menced towards the end of the year in Bengal. In the 

 following j'car the same regulation was begun in Bahar. 

 The whole was completed in 1793, when, in pursuance of 

 instructions from England, the settlement was declared 

 perpetual." 



"By this settlement, which produced such an important 

 change in that large portion of India, the Zemindars, 

 who were in fact the revenue agents of the Mogul Go- 

 vernment, usually hereditary and possessed of much 

 power and influence, but not owners of the land, which 

 they could neither sell nor alienate, were declared the 

 actual landowners, and from them the principal revenue 

 of India was to be derived, in the shape of land-tax. 

 The ryots, or peasantr}', who, though often grievously 

 oppressed, were the real owners of the soil, of which they 

 could not be dispossessed while they paid the assessments 

 levied upon it, were declared the tenants of the Zemin- 

 dars. The effects of this financial measure were disas- 

 trous. The Zemindars, obliged to go through the legal 

 formalities to collect their rents from the ryots, were 

 unable to pay their taxes to the Government, whose pro- 

 ceedings were summary. Their lands were gradually sold 

 for arrears of taxes, and passed into the hands of absentee 

 landlords. In a few years great numbers of the Zemin- 

 dars disappeared. No improvement took place among 

 the ryots, who were perhaps more oppressed by the mid- 

 dlemen immediately above them than they had been by 



W. H. W. T. 



the Zemindars.' 



Somerset House. 



Mr. De Quincy's Story of " Ann " (2"« S. iv. 

 472. ; V. 57.), and a most affecting one it is, is 

 given in full in pp. 47. to 54. of the Confessions 

 of an English Opium Eater, 3rd edit., London, 

 Taylor and Hessey, 1823. She is not, however, 

 there described as a "beautiful girl," but as a 

 very young (under sixteen), gentle, and generous 

 being, to whose timely aid he was indebted for his 

 life when sinking from extreme exhaustion. The 

 narrative is given as if intended to be read as a 

 fact! G. B. 



Shull and Butterfly (2»'i S. v. 147.) —I should 

 much doubt whether the above emblem, and its 

 accompanying motto, " Qz<e sais-je?" were ever 

 used heraldically. They formed, however, the 

 device of an individual, whose name I should be 

 happy to give privately to Ahch^ologist, if it at 

 all concerns him to know. He was one of a little 

 party of long-scattered Oxford friends, some 

 thirty years since. We had been much struck 

 with the beauty of the symbol, as figured in vol. 

 iii. p. 356. of Heyne's Virgil (edit. Lips., mdccc), 

 and adopted it for a season on our seals and book- 

 plates, though with different mottos. " Que sais- 

 j'e .«"' was one. C. W. Bingham. 



NOTES ON BOOKS AND BOOK SALES. 

 We have received the Seventh Volume of The Letters 

 of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, edited hy Peter Cun- 

 ningham, now Firat Chronologically Arranged, and which 

 contains Walpole's Correspondence from Nov. 1777 to 



Jan, 1781 — a very interesting period — and the stirring 

 events of which are chronicled by Walpole with the mi- 

 nuteness almost of a newspaper, but with a brilliancy 

 peculiarly his own. The present volume contains up- 

 wards of twenty letters hitherto unpublished : a few to 

 Grosvenor Bedford, but the greater portion to Lord Har- 

 court. The volume is illustrated with portraits of Madame 

 Du Deffand and the Duchess of Choiseul, of the Chud- 

 leigh Duchess of Kingston, and of the Young Pretender, 

 the Duke of Albany, and of his Duchess. 



We have this week to introduce to our Headers — and 

 to invite them to give a cordial welcome to a kinsman 

 from across the Atlantic — the First Volume of a work 

 which owes its origin to our own success. The Historical 

 Magazine and Notes and Queries concerning the Antiquities, 

 History, and Biography of Amenca, is so completely 

 modelled after our own journal, that to speak in its praise 

 is almost to sound our own. It has, however, withal it8 

 own peculiar characteristics : for, although as might well 

 have been the case, seeing that our early literature is 

 also the early literature of our transatlantic brethren, its 

 consideration might occupy a large portion of an Ameri- 

 can Notes and Queries, the Editor has with great judg- 

 ment preserved the national character of his journal, and 

 invested it with a thoroughly national interest — a fact 

 which, while it has ensured its success in the States, has 

 added greatly to its use and value to the literary world 

 of England. In conclusion we may remark, that it rivals 

 our own volumes in the completeness of its Index. 



The Clerical Directory ; a Biographical and Statistical 

 Book of Beference for Facts relating to the Clergy and the 

 Church, by the Conductors of the Clerical Journal, is a 

 goodly quarto volume, containing not only an Alpha- 

 betical List of the Clergy, but such additional inform- 

 ation as makes it a Biographical Directory. 



Fairy Fables, by Cuthbert Bede, with Illustrations by 

 Alfred Crowquill. A very amusing and pleasant story 

 for young children, who will assuredly not like the book 

 the less for the quaint woodcuts with which Alfred Crow- 

 quill has illustrated it. 



Those of our readers who know the extraordinary skill 

 with which Mr. John Harris has been in the habit of 

 completing rare books hy facsimiles of the missing por- 

 tions will learn with regret that, in consequence of the 

 failure of his eyesight, he is no longer able to follow his 

 profession. We refer to our advertising columns for 

 further particulars of a case which well deserves the 

 sympathy of lovers of books. 



The valuable Library of the late Rt. Hon. Lord Al- 

 vanley was sold by Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson on 

 Eeb. 15, and five following days. Among others we 

 select the following lots ; — 



Lot 209. Biblia Sacra Latina, cum Epistola S. Hie- 

 ronymi et InterpretationeHebraicorumNominum. Manu- 

 script of the 13th Century on vellum, beautifully written 

 in a very distinct hand, having numerous elegant capitals 

 executed in various colours, old calf binding, with brass 

 corners and clasps. 13/. 13s. 



Thb fine Manuscript formerly belonged to John Crewe, 

 Esq. of Utkinton, whose a'utograph signature, with 

 his MS. note stating that " Acts is placed after ye 

 Hebrews & next before James," is on the fly-leaf. 

 Previously it was in the possession of " John Wat- 

 kyn, Sonne of Gyfford Watkyn, of Watford, in North- 

 amptonshire." 

 210. Bible (Holy) Authorised Version, an edition un- 

 known to Lowndes, Robert Barker, 1613 — Herrey (R. F.) 

 Two Concordances, 1613 — Book of Common Prayer, 1614 

 — Psalmes in Meeter, with apt Notes to sing them withall. 

 1615. 

 Black letter, beautiful copies in old richly gilt calf, with 



