Mar. 31. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



241 



The blind Lascar. — London is full of Lascars, 

 or Asiatic seamen who have taken to the trade of 

 begging. One of these fellows committed a gross 

 outrage upon a lady, for which he received due 

 punishment. In describing the man, the news- 

 papers unfortunately did not distinguish suf- 

 ficiently the two Mahomeds, and our blind friend 

 with his little brown dog, known about the eastern 

 suburbs, came in for a large share of the obloquy 

 wholly due to his namesake ; and to disabuse 

 the minds of the public, and at the same time to 

 reprove them, he is now going about with the fol- 

 lowing spirited protest prominently affixed to his 

 person, satisfactorily showing that he is not t'other 

 Mahomed > 



" To the humane and generous public. This is to let 

 you know that I am not the man you take me for ; that 

 man comes from Calcutta, and I come from Mascate, in 

 Arabia. JMy name is Mahomed, Arab. I am very much 

 surprise that you people that having a great knowledge 

 and wont go by (it). I am lost in this case, for I have no 

 friends nor home. He that giveth to the poor lendeth to 

 the Lord. Please to pitty the poor blind." 



J. o. 



Parochial Registers. — Will you give a nook in 

 your columns for the following cutting from The 

 TaWeit of February 24? 



" Mgr. Parisis, Bishop o( Arras, Boulogne, and S. Omer, 

 has requested (in a supplement to the Ritual) that all 

 curates shall write an account of the facts and events 

 which take place in their parishes worthy of being re- 

 corded, and to send them to the register of the parish. 

 This custom, which was formerly practised, is very useful 

 and should be restored. It existed in ancient times in all 

 the parishes in the diocese of Carabrai, and history has 

 been greatly benefited by it. We are told of a curate 

 whose parisia register has been most useful in clearing up 

 several passages in the history of the country. Cardinal 

 Giraud, the last Archbishop of Cambrai, required of all 

 his clergy, that they should make researches about the 

 foundation of history and vicissitudes of their churches, 

 for historical as well as archjeological purposes." 



It would be well if this ancient custom, by no 

 means confined to the diocese of Cambrai, or 

 indeed to the French kingdom, were again to 

 become common. K. P. D. E. 



Tlie Oxford Educational St/ stem. — The nature 

 and advantages of the Oxford System of Education 

 were perhaps never better, if so well and compen- 

 diously expressed, as in the following extract from 

 a Lecture " On the Digestion of Knowledge," by 

 the Rev. Charles Marriott, of Oriel College, deli- 

 vered at St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, London. 



" It is principally a system of exercise for the mental 

 faculties, but it is also a study of the elementary portions 

 of the science of man. We study the sacred history, 

 which is the spiritual history of mankind ; the history 

 of Rome, which jgives us the fundamental positions of 

 human law and human society ; and the history of Greece, 

 which gives us the early development of man's intellect 

 and philosophical observation. We study all these with 

 cotemporary literature enough to open to us the very life 



of the men of whom we read, and who were forming pro- 

 spectively the elements of the society in which we now 

 live, and of the technical language in which we think. 

 We study also philosophy much more freely in the works 

 of the ancients, whom we do not fear to criticise, than we 

 could do in the lectures of some modern professor who 

 held the rod of systematised intellect over us, if not that 

 of actual power and castigation. We study language with 

 the advantage of the finest models, and with the most 

 elaborate criticism, to aid and test our own researches. 

 We study mathematics and physics well when we study 

 them at all, and I trust I may ventui-e to say we are 

 advancing in those studies, and in the provision * of means 

 and appliances for them." 



J.M. 



An Independent Editor. — 



" We do not belong to our patrons, 

 Our paper is wholly our own, 

 Whoever may like it, may take it, 

 Who don't, can just let it alone." 



American Paper. 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Moore's Wife. — Miss Dyke, the sister of the 

 poet's "Bessy," married a Mr. Duff"; and, with 

 her husband, was for many years connected with 

 the American stage. Many recollections of this 

 lady, some of which are intimately connected with 

 her early life, and thus refer to Mrs. Moore, may 

 be found in two late American works : Wood's 

 Personal Recollections of the Stage (Phil., 1854), 

 and Clapp's History of the Boston Stage (1853). 



Seeviens. 



Charles IL's Wig. — You have noticed (Vol. xi., 

 p. 164.) the cap which King Charles II. took 

 from his head and placed upon that of Captain 

 Richard Haddock, after the latter's return from 

 the battle of Solebay. 



AVhen I was a young man, and frequented the 

 Bodleian Library, I well remember that in one of 

 the schools of Oxford, entered from a staircase of 

 the Bodleian, King Charles II.'s wig was pre- 

 served, placed on a bust of him. It was made of 

 horse-hair, I hope the University have taken the 

 same care of the wig, which Captain Haddock's 

 family have taken of the cap. H. E. 



A Sign. — The following appeared five or six 

 years ago upon the house of a coloured man in 

 this city : 



" Peter Brown, Porter and Waiter. — N.B. Attends to 

 Funerals, Dinner Parties, and other Practical Occasions." 



M. E. 



Philadelphia. 



* This refers, I suppose, to the New Museum of Natural 

 Science, now about to be erected, after a delay of many 

 years, which has been at length overcome by the un- 

 wearied efforts of many friends and benefactors of science, 

 among whom the names of the Rev. F. W. Hope, late presi- 

 dent of the Entomological Society, and Dr. H. W. Acland, 

 stand pre-eminent. 



