^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 167. 



stration of our West Indian possessions was gene- 

 rally confided to the military commandants : our 

 policy, in that respect, being different from that 

 of the French, who have contrived at all times to 

 maintain, in each of their colonies, an uninter- 

 rupted succession of Governors appointed from 

 home. 



The name of the Dutch Governor of St. Martin, 

 to whom the letter was addressed, has not been 

 ascertained. He was probably some buccaneering 

 chief, who cared as little for the States- General as 

 he did for the Governor of St. Christopher, If 

 not actually engaged in the piratical enterprises of 

 his countrymen, he certainly had no objection to 

 receive, according to usage, the lion's share of the 

 booty as a reward for his connivance. 



It is very doubtful whether the outrage imputed, 

 in this instance, to the Dutch Governor, was per- 

 petrated, or even attempted. The buccaneers, 

 English, French, and Dutch, began by uniting 

 their efforts against the Spaniards. After a time 

 they "fell out" (as thieves will sometimes do), 

 and, turning from the common enemy, they di- 

 rected their marauding operations against each 

 other. It was doubtless during one of these that 

 the Dutch captured the English ship in question ; 

 detaining the passengers and crew at St. Martin, 

 in the hope of extorting some considerable ransom 

 for their release. When, therefore, the English 

 Governor threatened to complain to the States- 

 General of the " reduction to slavery of English 

 subjects," we must presume that, by the words 

 "reducing to slavery," he meant to describe the 

 forcible detention of the passengers and crew ; and 

 that, in doing so, he merely resorted to the expe- 

 dient of magnifying a common act of piracy into 

 an outrage of a more heinous character, with the 

 view of frightening the Dutch authorities into a 

 compliance with his wishes, and obtaining the 

 restitution of the property and subjects of his 

 " dread Sovereigne Lord y'= King." The annals of 

 that period are replete with similar adventures ; 

 and Labat relates several of them which he wit- 

 nessed during a voyage to Guadaloupe in a vessel 

 belonging to the French buccaneers. As to the 

 English, the daring exploits of Sir Henry Morgan 

 and his followers, and the encouragement which 

 they received, both at home and in the colonies, 

 show that we were not behind our neighbours in 

 those days of marauding notoriety. 



Henet H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia. 



' Jtoyal Assent, §*c. (Vol. vl., p. 556.). — 



1. No such forms as those referred to by Claren- 

 don are usual now. 



2. The last time the prerogative of rejecting a 

 bill, after passing both Houses of Parliament, was 



exercised, was in 1692, when William III. refused 

 his assent to the bill for Triennial Parliaments. 

 Two years after, however, he was induced to allow 

 the bill to become the law of the land. J. R. W. 

 Bristol. 



Can Bishops vacate their Sees? (Vol. v., p. 156.). 

 — R. C. C, in his reply to this Query of K. S., 

 writes, that he has never heard of any but Dr. 

 Pearce who wished so to do. 



There is another instance in the case of Berke- 

 ley, Bishop of Cloyne, who, having failed in his 

 attempt to exchange his bishopric for some 

 canonry or headship at Oxford, applied to the 

 Secretary of State for his majesty's permission to 

 resign his bishopric. 



So extraordinary a petition excited his majesty's 

 curiosity, and caused his inquiry from whence it 

 came ; when, learning that the person was his old 

 acquaintance, Dr. Berkeley, he declared that he 

 should die a bishop in spite of himself, but gave him 

 full power to choose his own place of residence. 

 This was in 1753. 



The above Is taken from Bp. Mant's History of 

 the Church of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 534. Rubi. 



" Genealogies of the Mordaunt Family," by the 

 Earl of Peterborough (Vol. vi., p. 553.).^Bridges, 

 in his History of Northamptonshire, vol. ii. p. 252., 

 states that twenty-four copies of the work were 

 printed. There is a l&rge paper copy of the work, 

 in the library at Drayton House, the former seat 

 of the Mordaunts, now the property of W.B. Stop- 

 ford, Esq. J. B. 



Niagara, or Niagara? (Vol. vi., p. 555. '). — An 

 enthusiastic person, of the name of Peraberton (who 

 had spent much time at the Falls, and was so en- 

 thusiastic in his admiration of them that he pro- 

 tested he could not keep away from them, and went 

 back and died there), informed me that the proper 

 name was Ni-dgara or aghera, — two Indian woi'ds 

 signifying " Hark to the thunder." J. G. 



Maudlin (Vol. vi., p. 552.). — ^Your Massachu- 

 setts correspondent comes a long way for informa- 

 tion which he might surely have obtained on his 

 own side of the Atlantic. Dr. Johnson says, 

 " Maudlin Is the corrupt appellation of Magdalen, 

 who is drawn by painters with swollen eyes and 

 disordered look." And do we not know that 

 Magdalene College Is always called Maudlin, and 

 that Madeleine is the French orthography ? very 

 closely resembling our vernacular pronunciation ? 



J. G. 



Spiritual Persons employed in Lay Offices 

 (Vol. vi., pp. 376. 567.). — Your correspondents 

 W. and E. H. A. seem to have overlooked the 

 modern instances of this practice, which the 

 London Gazette has recently recorded, in an- 



