2» J S. IX. Feb. !. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



79 



the termination of its participle, monopolises the 

 sound of the vowels. And as to the fourth, 

 which has turned up conspicuously within the last 

 few days in a correspondence with the United 

 States Legation, I think " it wcareth such a mien 

 as to he shunned, needs but be seen/' If the 

 whole trio were to settle, as little imps, on the 

 sensorium of a philologist during sleep, they 

 surely would conjure up the visions of Fuseli, and 

 produce a night-mare. 



I beg to propose, therefore, that as this little 

 foreigner is perpetually crossing and recrossing 

 the Channel, and is the bosom companion of 

 thousands of Englishmen, he receive a patent of 

 naturalisation, and the garb of a Briton ; and 

 that he henceforth be styled Mr. Vise. " Is your 

 passport vised ? " will then be plain English. And 

 what objection can there be ? It would scarcely 

 be a new- coinage. There is a cognate word. ? - e- 

 vise. It would, with a little use, be as natural 

 to say, " to vise a passport," as to revise a proof- 

 sheet. 



" Multa renascentur qua jam cecidere, cadentqne, 

 Qua; nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus." 



This has been lately exemplified in the word 

 " telegram." It sounded oddly at first ; but now 

 it is universally adopted. 



I have hitherto spoken only of the verb. The 

 case of the substantive visa is somewhat different. 

 But even here, the word vise might be used as a 

 substantive also : just as a revoke at whist, e. g., 

 or even as in the case of the word revise itself, 

 which, as a substantive, is used in the printing- 

 office to denote the revised proof; and in " N. 

 & Q." (2 Bi S. ix. 6.) your distinguished corre- 

 spondent Sir Henry Ellis speaks of the " re- 

 vise of the bankruptcy law." However, this is 

 not so necessary as the avoiding of the barbarisms 

 above alluded to. John Williams. 



Arno'a Court. 



Leighton's Pulpit. — It may be interesting to 

 your correspondents who have been writing on the 

 history and works of Archbishop Leighton to 

 know that the pulpit in the church of Newbatlle 

 (near Edinburgh), of which parish he was at) one 

 time minister, and from which the present in- 

 cumbent preaches, is the pulpit he then filled, it 

 having never been changed. T. 



«Qucrtea. 



A JEW JESUIT. 



The following story may be interesting at the 

 present time, when the case of the Jewish boy 

 Mortara is exciting so much attention. It oc- 

 curs in a very remarkable work by an Irish 

 divine of the last century, the Kev. Philip Skel- 

 ton, whose writings I would recommend to your 



readers. The work I quote from is entitled 

 Seitilia, or an Old ji fan's Miscellany, because it 

 was written in the seventy-ninth year of the 

 author's age. It consists of a number of mis- 

 cellaneous articles, chiefly theological, but con- 

 taining also anecdotes on antiquarian, historical, 

 and other subjects. The folk lore contributors 

 to " N". & Q." would find in it several things 

 to their taste ; and the following may be taken 

 as a sample. It is the 136th article (vol. vi. p. 

 139.) of Skelton's Works, edited by the Rev. 

 Eobt. Lynam, A.M., Lond., 1824. 



" An old gentleman, a Romanist, and a man of truth, 

 who had studied physic at Prague, and practised it here 

 [('. e. I suppose, in Ireland] with reputation, told me 

 that when he was there two Jews were executed for some 

 crime on a public stage; that three Jesuits, mounting 

 the stage with them, did all that was in their power to 

 convert them to Christianity in their last moments; that 

 one of these Jesuits pressed his arguments with a force 

 of reason, and a most astonishing power in speaking, 

 surpassing all that the crowded audience had ever heard ; 

 that the Jews did nothing all the time but spit in his 

 face with virulence and fury; and that he, preserving 

 his temper, wiped off the spittle, and pursued his per- 

 suasives, seemingly, at least, in the true spirit of Chris- 

 tian meekness and charity, but in vain. This very 

 Jesuit soon after died; and when he was near his exit, 

 his brethren of the same order, standing round his bed, 

 lamented in most pathetic terms the approaching loss of 

 the greatest and ablest man among them. The dying 

 man then said : ' You see, my brethren, that all is now 

 over with me. Yoa may, therefore, now tell me who I 

 am.' One of them answered ; ' Our order stole you when 

 little more than an infant from your Jewish parents, and, 

 from motives of charity, bred you a Christian.' ' Am I 

 a Jew, then ? ' said he ; ' I renounce Christianity, and die 

 a Jew.' As soon as he was dead, the Jesuits threw his 

 naked body without one of the city gates, and the Jews 

 buried it. Query, had this man ever been a Christian ? 

 or, if he mistook Jesuitism for Christianity, how came it 

 to pass, that the approach of death, and his being pro- 

 nounced a child of Abraham, should all at once recall 

 him to his family, and set his mere blood in his estima- 

 tion above all the principles he had been habituated to 

 from infancy? This is no otherwise to be answered, but 

 by taking it for granted that either he was delirious at 

 the last, or judged that he had never known anything 

 but chicane and hypocrisy for Christianity." 



In addition to the queries here proposed by our 

 author, I would ask whether the name of the 

 Jesuit, who in this remarkable manner returned 

 to Judaism, can be ascertained ? and whether 

 there is any historical record extant in confirma- 

 tion of the story ? James H. Todd. 



Trin. College, Dublin. 



Mou Cap. — Having often wondered what 

 could be the origin of this word, I was pleased to 

 see the following passage, but am still at a loss 

 for the derivation of the word, which, if not known, 

 the passage may assist in the elucidation of it : — 



" The enormous Elizabeth Huff, and the awkward 

 Queen of Bcots' Mob, are fatal instances of the evil in- 



