10 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 88. 



they fortified themselves " luith the assistance of the 

 principal irentlemeii of quality, and of the Lord 

 jMayor, Aldermen, and Citizens." This paper is 

 first signed by the Peers, and then by all who hap- 

 pen to be present, promiscuonsly. At the acces- 

 sion o_. William IV., there were about 180 names, of 

 which "J. Crowder, Mayor," stands the 106th. 

 At the accession ot Queen Victoria, there were 

 about 160 names, of which " Thomas Kelly, 

 Mayor," is the 111th. And in both cases we find 

 the names of the Aldermen, Sheriff's, 'J'own Clerk, 

 City Remembrancer, and several others, — private 

 citizens, and many altogether private persons, who 

 happened to come to tlie palace at that time. 



It is obvious that all this has nothing to do with 

 the Privy Council, for, in fact, at that moment, no 

 Privy Council exists. But while these things are 

 going on in an outward room of the palace, where 

 everybody is admitted, the new sovereign com- 

 mands the attendance of the late Privy Council in 

 the council chamber, where the old Privy Council- 

 lors are generally (I suppose always) re-sworn of 

 the new council ; and then and there are prepared 

 and promulgated several acts of the new sovereign, 

 to which are prefixed the names of the Privy 

 Councillors present. Now, to this co!<«c«Z chamber 

 the Lord j\Iayor is no more admitted than the 

 Town Clerk would be, and to these acts of the 

 council his name has never appeared. 



All these facts appear in the London Gazettes 

 for the 27th June, 18-30, and the 30th June, 1837 ; 

 and similar proceedings took place in Dublin ; 

 though since the Union the practice is at least su- 

 perfluous. 



This establishes the rationale of the case, but 

 there is a precedent that concludes it : — 



" On tlie '27th May, 1 768, Mr. Thomas Harley, then 

 Lord Mayor of I-.ondoii, was sworn of His Majesty's 

 Most Honourable Privy Council !" 

 — an honour never since conferred on any Mayor 

 or Alderman, and which could not have been con- 

 ferred on him if he had already been of that body. 



C. 



BR. ELRINGTON S EDITION OF USSHER S WORKS. 



(Vol. iii., p. 496.) 



In reply to your correspondent C. Paine, Jun. 

 I beg to say that this University has recently 

 requested me to undertake the completion of 

 Ussher's works. Dr. Elrington has left about haK 

 the fourteenth volume printed oif: but I have 

 found considerable diihculty in ascertaining what 

 he intended to print, or what ought to be printed, 

 in the remaining lialf. The printed portion con- 

 tains the archbishop's Theological Lectures, in 

 reply to Bellarmine, never before published. * I 



• Elrington's Life of Ussher, p. 26. 



have found amongst Dr. Elrington's papers a vo- 

 lume of sermons (a MS. of the latter half of the 

 seventeenth century), which are attributed, in the 

 MS. iiself, to Ussher ; but the authenticity of 

 these sermons is, it appears to me, very doubtful. 

 I therefore hesitate to print them. 



I am anxious to find a treatise on the Seventy 

 Weeks, by Ussher, which I have some reason to 

 think once existed in ISIS. This tract, with an- 

 other on the question of the Millennium, from 

 Eev. XX. 4., formed the exercises which he per- 

 formed for the degree of D.D., at the commence- 

 ment of the University in 1612: and I remember 

 Dr. Elrington tellins; me (if I did not mistake his 

 meaning), that he intended to print them in the 

 fourteenth volume. IMy difficulty is, that I cannot 

 find them amongst Ussher's MSS., and I do not 

 know where they are to be had. Some imperfect 

 fragments on the Seventy Weeks are preserved 

 in Ms. in Trinity College Library, in Ussher's au- 

 tograph; but they are far too crude and unfinished 

 for publication. 



The Bihliotheca Theohgica, a work on the same 

 plan as Cave's Scriptores Ecclesiastici, exists in 

 MS. in the Bodleian Libi-ary, and a copy from the 

 Bodleian MS. is in Dublin. This work has not 

 been included in Dr. Elrington's edition; and I 

 remember his discussing the subject with me, and 

 deciding not to print it. His reasons were these : 

 — 1. It is an imfinished work, which the arch- 

 bishop did not live to complete. 2. It is full of 

 errors, which our present increased materials and 

 knowledge of the subject would easily enable us 

 to correct ; but the correction of them would 

 swell the work to a considerable extent. 3. The 

 work was used, and is frequently quoted by Cave, 

 who seems to have published the most valuably 

 parts of it. Its publication, therefore, would not 

 add anything to our knowledge, whilst it would 

 probably detract, however unfairly, from the arch- 

 bishop's reputation : for the public seldom make 

 allowances for an unfinished work. 4. It would 

 probably make three, if not four volumes ; and 

 Dr. Elrington did not think its publication of 

 sufficient importance to warrant so great an ad- 

 dition to the cost and bulk of the Works. 



The System of Theology having been disclaimed 

 by Ussher himself (although it is quoted as his 

 by the Committee of the Privy Council in their 

 decision of the " Gorham Case"), has not been 

 included by Dr. Elrington in the collection of 

 Ussher's works. 



I shall be much obliged to Mr. Payne, or to 

 any other of your correspondents, if he will give 

 me any information respecting the treatises on 

 the Seventy Weeks and on the Millennium, or 

 any other advice which may assist me in the com- 

 pletion of the fourteenth volume. 



I may add, that it is my intention, with the 

 able assistance of my learned friend Dr. Reeves, of 



