Julys. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



able to the use of tlie foreign cliurcbes, to the 

 custom of the University heretofore, and to the 

 nature and intendment of that holy exercise." It 

 will surprise many of your readers to find that the 

 reading of sermons was considered to be a mere 

 puritanical innovation. 



" The Duke of Monmouth, Chancellor of the University 



of Cambridge, to the Vice- Chancellor and University. 

 " Mr. Vice- Chancellor and Gentlemen, 



" His Majesty having taken noiice of the liberty 

 which several persons in holy orders have taken to wear 

 their hair and periwigs of an unusual and unbecoming 

 length, hath commanded me to let you know, that he 

 is much displeased therewith, and strictly injoins that 

 all such persons as profess or intend the study of 

 divinity, do for the future wear their hair in a manner 

 more suitable to the gravity and sobriety of their pro- 

 fession, and that distinction which was always main- 

 tained between the habit of men devoted to the ministry 

 and other persons. 



" And whereas, his Majesty is informed that the prac- 

 tice of reading sermons is generally taken up by the 

 preachers before the University, and there for some 

 time continued, even before himself, his Majesty hath 

 commanded me to signify to you his pleasure, that the 

 said practice, which took beginning with the disorders 

 of the late times, be wholly laid aside ; and that the 

 foresaid preachers deliver their sermons, both in Latin 

 and English, by memory, or without book, as being a 

 way of preaching which his Majesty judges most agree- 

 able to the use of the foreign churches, and to the 

 custom of the University heretofore, and to the nature 

 and intendment of that holy exercise. 



" And that his Majesty's commands in the premisses 

 may be duly regarded and observed, his Majesty's 

 farther pleasure is, that the names of all such ecclesias- 

 tical persons as shall wear their hair as heretofore in an 

 unlitting imitation of the fashion of laymen, or that 

 shall continue in the present slothful! way oCpreaching, 

 be from time to time signified unto me by the Vice- 

 Chancellor for the time being, upon pain of his 

 Majesty's displeasure. 



" Having in obedience to his Majesty's will signified 

 thus much unto you, I shall not doubt of that your 

 ready compliance; and the rather because his ]\Iajesty 

 intends to send the same injunctions very speedily to 

 the University of Oxford, whom I am assured you will 

 equal in all other excellencies, and so in obedience to 

 the king; especially when his commands are so much 

 to the honour and esteem of that renowned University, 

 whose welfare is so heartily desired, and shall ever be 

 endeavoured by, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, 



" Your loving friend and Chancellor, 



" Monmouth." 



I believe this letter, or something like it, was 

 published by Teck in his Desiderata Curiosa, and 

 also by Mr. Roberts in his Life of Monmouth. 

 The transcri[)t I send you was made from a cni)y 

 in the handwriting of Dr. Birch in the Additional 

 MS. 4162., fo. 230. John Bruce. 



The following passage occurs in Rutt's Diary of 

 Thomas Burton, 4 vols. : Colburn, 1828. I have 



not the work at hand, but from a MS. extract 

 from the same, believe it may be found as a note 

 by the editor in vol. i. p. 359. 



" Burnet was always an extempore preacher. He 

 says that reading is peculiar to this nation, and cannot 

 be induced in any other. The only discourse he ever 

 wrote beforehand was a thanksgiving sermon before 

 the queen in 1705. He never before was at a pause 

 in preaching. It is contrary to a university statute, 

 obsolete, though unrepealed." 



C. H. P. 



Brighton, June 27. 



LOED MAYOR NOT A PRIVY COUNCILLOR. 



(Vol. iii., p. 496.) 



This Query, and your answer, involve one or 

 two important questions, which are worth a fuller 

 soKition than you have given. 



The Lord Mayor is no more a Privy Coimcillor 

 than he is Archbishop of Canterbury. The title 

 of "Right Honourable," which has given rise to 

 that vulgar error, is in itself a more courtesy ap- 

 pended to the title of " Lord ;" which is also, popu- 

 larly, though not legally, given him : for in all 

 his own acts, he is designated officially as "Mayor" 

 only. The courtesy-title of Lord he shares with 

 the Mayors of Dublin and York, the Lord- 

 Advocate of Scotland, the younger sons of Dukes 

 and Marquises, &c. &c., and all such Lords are 

 styled by courtesy " Riglit Honourable ;" and this 

 style of Right Honourahle is also given to Privy 

 Councillors in virtue of their projier official title 

 of " Lords of Her Majesty's jNIost Honourable 

 Privy Council." So, the " Right Honourable the 

 Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty." So much 

 for the title. The fact stated in the Editor's an- 

 swer, of the admission of the Lord Mayor to the 

 Council Chamber after some clamour, on the acces- 

 sion of William IV., is a mistake arising out of the 

 following circumstances. On the demise of the 

 crown, a London Gazette Extraordinary is imme- 

 diately published, with a proclamation announcing 

 the death of one sovereign and the accession of 

 the other. This proclamation styles itself to be 

 that of the — 



" Peers Spiritual and Temporal of the Realm, 

 assisted by those of the late Privy Council, with num- 

 bers of others, Gentlemen of Quality, with the Lord 

 Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London." 



The proclamation is that of the Peers alone, but 

 assisted by the othei-s. Tiie cause of this form is, 

 that the demise of tlie crown dissolves the Privy 

 Council, and used (till modern times) to dissolve 

 parliaments, and abrogate the commissions of the 

 Judges, and all other public officers ; so that the 

 Lords Spiritual and Temporal were the only sub- 

 sisting authority. Hence they, of necessity, under- 

 took the duty of proclaiming the new king ; but 



