318 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 287. 



Franciffi, et Hiberniae." It "was on this occasion that 

 Mr. Blayds, the Secretary to the Lords Justices, wrote to 

 Trior that the " French" might as well object to receive 

 anv instrument under the Great Seal of England, because 

 -it "had the arms of France in it ; " and that " he who 

 would give up this point must expect to answer it, not 

 with his pen, or mouth, but with his head."] 



Hag., the '^4 Oct. 1697. 



Sib, 

 I told you in my last that I thought the diffi- 

 culty which we apprehended as to hisMaj'^ stiling 

 himself King of France was over, the French hav- 

 ing without any objection coUationed, and put into 

 the mediat" hand the treaty with the ratification 

 as you sent it, signed by the signett; but on 

 Saturday, when they understood that the instru- 

 ment under the great seal was come from Eng- 

 land, they informed my lords ambassad" by the 

 mediat" that they excepted zf the style of Rex 

 FrancicB ; and after some arguing upon that point, 

 they came to this, that they would be satisfied 

 provided we declared that we would change it if 

 it be found otherwise in the ratification of the 

 Treaty of Breda, and in other treaties made since : 

 their Excell"' are very willing to oblige them- 

 selves to stand by the example of Breda (as they 

 have done likewise in the point of language), but 

 do not think it proper to consent to such loose 

 terms as and treaties made since import ; for that 

 they do not know but that the style of Rex 

 FrancicB may possibly have been omitted in those 

 neglected times when France had but too much 

 influence upon our negociations. The treaty made 

 with France in 1672 ag* Holland is in French, 

 and probably the ratification may be in the same 

 "language ; and, if so, the King may be mentioned 

 " Roy de la Grande Bretagne," with an et ccetera, 

 nor are we sure that either in the Treaty of 

 Commerce in 1677, or that of Neutrality for 

 America in 1686, the style may have been care- 

 fully observed, we only having the bodyes of these 

 treatyes by us, but neither the preambles nor 

 ratifications: nor do their Excell''" know what 

 secrett treaties K. James may have made with 

 France, or with what omission, novelty, or irre- 

 gularity of style. These are the considerations 

 which oblige my lords ambassad" to rely upon 

 the precedent of Breda, rather than consent to 

 the clause, and^ of any treaties viade since, which 

 renders the thing more vague and uncertain. The 

 mediaf has been with the French to-day, to try 

 to bring them off, but as yet without any success ; 

 and in this estate the matter is at present. Their 

 ExcelP" have resolved to desire a conference with 

 the French in the presence of the ambassad" of 

 the States and of the mediatour, of which in my 

 next I shall send you the result. In the mean 

 time I shall write to England, as I thank you for 

 having done already, for the best helps to our 

 present difficulty. On Saturday I received the 



favours of yours of the 10th and 11th, to the latter 

 of which the present is an answer, and brings its 

 reasons w*" it now why you did not receive^ it 

 sooner. On Sunday night we had the ratification 

 under the great seal, and this morning Lord Port- 

 land did me the honor to give me yours of the 

 13th, with the separate article. I shall obey your 

 commands relating to it as becomes 

 S' 

 Your most ob* and 



most humble serv', 



M. Pkiob. 

 The business of passports is, 

 you see, S"", at a stand 

 till we can get over this 

 rubb. 



lONGEVITY IN THE NORTH BIDING. 



In Vol. X., p, 401., the parish of Gilling, Rich- 

 mondshire, in the North Riding of York, is dis- 

 tino'uished for the long lives of its inhabitants. 

 I can adduce some memoranda from the church 

 registers of an adjoining parish to the east, in the 

 same wapentake, which struck me as so extraor- 

 dinary, that I entered them in my note-books, 

 during a short sojourn there last summer. 



Middleton Tyas has a population less by one 

 half or thereabouts than Gilling, and during a 

 certain series of years, the ages of considerably 

 more than one-third of the parishioners exceed 

 " threescore years and ten, or fourscore years." 



My figures embrace a period of sixteen years, 

 or fron" 1813 to 1829. During this time the 

 number of persons buried was 220, of which 

 seventy-eight had reached the age of 70 years or 

 upwards. In 1813, of fifteen deceased three were 

 nonagenarians, 90, 91, and 92 respectively. In 

 1815 a person died aged 97, thirty-three of the 

 number specified were 80 years old and upwards, 

 nine of these above 85, forty-one between 70 and 

 80, seventeen of these above 75. 



Like Gilling, Middleton can boast its century 

 men. In the churchyard is a tomb to a Mr. Leo- 

 nard Spence, who died in 1738 "at the great age 

 (says his epitaph) of 103 years ; " and in 1830 died 

 George Pattinson, aged 101. But, singularly 

 enough, during the last thirty-five years, instances 

 of longevity, once so common in this parish, form 

 the exception. 



The registers, which begin as early as 1539, the 

 31 Henry" VIIL, contain, during the "troublous 

 times," the following curious entry : 



«' 1650, Sept. 13. Jana uxor Johannis Middleton de 

 Middleton-'l ias peperit monstrum habens formam et pro- 

 portionem plenam duorum liliorum, ab umbilico ad su- 

 premam partem pectoris in unum connectorum. Sepult. 

 eodem die quo nascitur." 



ElCHABB LOXHAM. 



