248 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2"* S. VI. us., Sept. 25. '58. 



appear that the 



discretion of the 



Libya. 



A widelj'-scattered population naturally prefers a sum- 

 mary mode of legal procedure, more particularly in 

 criminal cases ; and this has led too frequentl_v to abuses 

 in the nascent States of America. We are not aware that 

 anj' specific work has been written on the subject of 

 Lynch-law; but Mr. Offor will find much of the in- 

 formation he desires in the late Capt. Marryat's Diai-y in 

 America, 3 vols. 12mo., Lend. 1839 ; in the British and 

 Foreign Review, vol. xiv. p. 29. ; and in the American 

 Review, vol. xi. p. 459. art. " Uses and Abuses of Lynch- 

 law."] 



Parliamentary Fines. — From the following pas- 

 sage, copied from a letter from an M.P. to his 

 wife in the country, bearing date " Maye 25"^, 

 1604," it appears that the Speaker had power of 

 fining absent members. What was the amount 

 of the fine ? and when was the custom discon- 

 tinued ? 



" These shall be humbly to require you not to thinke 

 it muche, nor to be displeased for my not coming home, 

 accordinge to your expectation nor accordinge to mine 

 owne desyre, as God dothe knowe, for I cannot depart 

 from the Parlyment without the Forfeyture of I knowe 

 not what, even as much as it pleaseth the Speaker of the 

 house to impose uppon mee; and although some Gentle- 

 men do come home at theyer pleasure, yet a poore 

 Mans oflfence is not so lightlie esteemed. Little flies do 

 hange in the Spiders webb, but the great Hornets do 

 rnshe through as ofte as they like." 



From the above it would 

 amount of the fine was at the 

 Speaker. AVas this the case ? 



[The personal service of every member of the Com- 

 mons' House has been compulsorj' from time immemorial. 

 By 5 Rich. IL c. 14. it is enacted, that " if any person 

 summoned to P.arliament do absent himself, and come 

 not at the said summons (except he may reasonably and 

 honestly excuse himself to our Lord the King), he shall 

 be amerced, or otherwise punished, according as of old 

 times hath been used to be done within the said realm in 

 the said case." And by 6 Hen. VHL c. 16. it is declared 

 that no member shall absent himself " without the license 

 of the Speaker and the Commons." The penalties im- 

 posed upon members so oflfending have varied with the 

 times and the temper of the House. Sometimes absentees 

 have been committed to prison, but more frequently pun- 

 ished by fines, or the forfeiture of their " wages." In the 

 later Parliaments of Charles L and those of the Common- 

 wealth, the fine for disobeying a call of the House was 

 not less than ten nor more than twenty pounds ; and most 

 probably the last-mentioned sum was the maximum in all 

 times. Taking the value of money into consideration, as 

 well as the loss of the parliamentary allowance, the cost 

 of absenteeism at the period referred to certainly was not 

 to be " lightlie esteemed." The infliction of fines seems 

 to have ceased towards the close of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. The power of inflicting them rested with the 

 House ; the Speaker, in virtue of his office, merely exe- 

 cuted its orders.] 



Palm-Sunday at Rome. — It is customary at 

 Rome, on Palm- Sunday, the beginning of the 

 Settimana Santa, for persons to carry about twigs, 

 of what I suppose is a branch of Salix, intended 

 probably to exemplify S. John xii. 12. and 13. : 

 " When they (the people) heard that Jesus was 

 coming to Jerusalem, they took branches oi palm- 



trees and went forth to meet him." As the species 

 I Salix is so multifarious, considerably above two 

 hundred, perhaps some reader of " N. & Q." will 

 please to specify the particular one used on this 

 occasion. H. 



i [Out of the numerous species of willows described in 

 the Salictum Wohurnense and elsewhere, it does not ap- 

 pear certain that any one kind in particular, to the 

 exclusion of others, is used in Roman Catholic countries 

 on Palm Sunday. The day was sometimes called Osanna 

 (from the hosannas sung when our Lord entered Jeru- 

 salem and the Temple) ; and Osanna was also a name 

 applied by the Jews to branches of palm, olive, and 

 willow, carried in procession. " Porro dicuntur apud He- 

 briBOS Osanna termites palmse, oleajve, aut salicis. alte- 

 riusve arboris, Grjecis ^aia, quos quatiebant in honorem 

 ejus cui pompa ducebatur." (Du Cange on Dominica.") 

 There is nothing in this or in other accounts which re- 

 stricts the willow- branches used on Palm Sunday in the 

 South of Europe to any one species. In fact the boughs 

 of various trees are borne upon that day in France, ac- 

 cording to Bescherelle, simply as substitutes, in default of 

 palm-branches. " Dimanche des Palmes .... A defaut 

 des palmes, on porte diverses branches." In England 

 and Scotland, however, and apparently in Germany, a 

 particular kind of willow is specially used for Palm 

 Sundaj's, on account of the peculiar beauty of its catkins. 

 This is the Salix caprea, or palm-sallow, of which the 

 catkins are called in German weiden-palme (willow- 

 palms). Some account of this salix may be seen in " N. 

 & Q." 2">* S. V. 24. To the short passages there cited 

 from Jamieson, Halliwell, and Loudon, it may here be as 

 well to add one from Johnston, Flora of Berwick-upon- 

 Tweed (1829), vol. i. p. 217., on iS. caprea. Its "flowering 

 branches are called palms, and are gathered by children 

 about the time of Easter, the relics of a ceremony onco 

 performed in commemoration of our Saviour's entry into 

 Jerusalem."] 



XlrpltetC. 



ENGLISH MODE OF PBONOUNCIKG GKEEK. 

 (2°'» S. vi. 167.) 



A querist, E. F. D. C, in the above number of 

 "N. & Q." has asked the very interesting ques- 

 tion, whence we in England get our method of 

 pronouncing Greek ? justifying the inquiry by an 

 example of the very different pronunciation in use 

 among the Greeks of the present day. Having 

 had occasion to look into this subject many years 

 ago, in connexion with the political History of 

 modern Greece, the following passages may serve 

 to supply the information desired. The Modern 

 Greeks give to the vowels n), i, and v, and to the 

 diphthongs fi, oi, and vi almost indiscriminately 

 the same sound as that of the Italian i; e and ai 

 are each identical with the Italian e ; ov is sounded 

 as u; and av and eu are resolved into ay and e/" be- 

 fore all vowels, and most of the consonants ; fi is 

 pronounced as v in English, and 5 as th ; and, ge- 

 nerally speaking, accent has superseded quantity 

 as a guide for pronunciation. 



Greek literature, after the subversion of the 

 Western Empire, had become almost extinct in 



