2" J S. IX. Mas, 3. 'GO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



161 



ness, they do what those " noble youths " were 

 commanded to do, namely, " communicate their 

 remarks " and information to each other. Report- 

 ing, therefore, according to the above, must be 

 over 3200 years old as a profession. AVhat will 

 our friends in the " gallery of the House " say to 

 this ? I know a few of the latter, and would back 

 them as "short-band writers" against the dozen 

 of noble youths who sailed with Gollamh from 

 Coruuna ! The passage is worth a Note, at all 

 events. The same subject is alluded to again at 

 p. 90. S. Redmond. 



Liverpool. 



N.B. Our expeditions to the Crimea, India, and 

 China were accompanied by reporters, like the 

 above. 



Dock and Custom-house Business. — Among 

 the many useful " Handy Books " on various sub- 

 jects which are daily issuing from the press, do 

 any of them treat on the above intricate duties ? 

 The first question generally put by a merchant to a 

 clerk seeking an engagement is, " Do you under- 

 stand dock and custom-house business?" which 

 not one clerk in a hundred doss. If a little work 

 on the above subject was written in a clear and 

 intelligible manner it could not fail to be remu- 

 nerative to the author, and at the same time it 

 would prove the " open sesame " to many a young 

 man to a "rood situation. Gkesham. 



«Ruertc3. 



GEORGE FOX'S WILL. 



Having had occasion to read the several Essays 

 recently published relative to the "Decay of 

 Quakerism " in this country, I was also led to re- 

 peruse Mrs. Green's Domestic Narratiue, printed 

 in 1852, as " illustrating the peculiar doctrines 

 held by the disciples of George Fox." This is in 

 more senses than one a remarkable book ; but my 

 present object is neither to discuss its character 

 nor to remark on the sentiments of those leading 

 authorities of the " Society of Friends " which are 

 adduced in the work, whether as part of the Nar- 

 rative, or as documentary appendices. I confine 

 myself to what appears to me a curious and puz- 

 zling literary question : in pp. 171-5., vol. ii., we 

 have what purports to be a copy of " George 

 Fox's last will and testament, written with his own 

 hand, and now to be seen at the Prerogative 

 Office." 



Now the form, the matter, and especially the 

 cacography, of this document are so extraor- 

 dinary that I cannot but suspect some mistake ; 

 and would fain hope that some truth-loving me- 

 tropolitan reader of " N. & Q." will take the 

 trouble to call at the office named, see the instru- 

 ment in question, ami frankly report upon it. 

 There may be, and most likely i&, some such 



paper as the one alluded to ; but, in the first 

 place, is it properly speaking a " will ? " And, in 

 the next place, is it really in the handwriting of 

 the founder of Quakerism, from the whole of 

 whose works, published in his lifetime, it so es- 

 sentially differs ? It has indeed been stated on 

 good authority that the latter, on passing into 

 print, underwent revision by competent literate 

 " Friends." Be it so. It seems difficult to ima- 

 gine that even the merest substratum of the 

 plain, vigorous, and varied matter of " the Jour- 

 nal" and other books bearing the name of Fox, 

 could ever have existed in the crude and clumsy 

 style of this so-called " will." Apart from this 

 startling discrepancy, there are some prima facie 

 features suggestive of doubt. " The original is in 

 black-letter," says Mrs. Green. What does this 

 mean ? — that such was George Fox's ordinary au- 

 tograph ? or that he used some peculiar charac- 

 ter of writing on this occasion ? Either alternative 

 seems very unlikely. Again, she says, " the will 

 was proved by George Whitehead." This may 

 have been so ; but no such name — nor indeed any 

 executorial appointment — appears in the printed 

 document. But, supposing this mass of misshapen 

 sentences, in its vile spelling, to exist in any 

 writing, and the appended initials to be really 

 those of the stout-hearted man " in the leather 

 breeches," — the Cromwell of the Puritans! — is 

 it not more likely to have been written by some 

 illiterate servant, at the interrupted dictation of 

 his master, when the latter was in extreme feeble- 

 ness of mind and body ? And is not this notion 

 countenanced by the closing indorsement, " For 

 G. F. to be layed in the truncke at W. M. the 

 8 mo. 1688 ?" On several accounts I think this 

 " will " is a " curiosity " of literature of sufficient 

 interest to justify examination and verification by 

 some candid and competent individual, whose re- 

 port may perhaps be allowed a place in " N. & Q." 



D. 



Jesuit Epigram on Church or England 

 temi\ Car. I. — On p. 30. of Plabupokens Letters 

 to Dr. Dodge (justly commended in the Notes on 

 Books, p. 134.), allusion is made to the "sneering 

 epigram of the Jesuits, asking what was to be- 

 come of a Church whose bead was cut off?" and 

 which was handed about at the time of the Great 

 Rebellion. Where can I find this epigram ? 



Ache. 



Fitzwilliam Family, of Merrion. — Being 

 engaged at present in collecting materials respect- 

 ing the noble family of Fitzwilliam, of Merrion, in 

 the county of Dublin (now represented by the 

 Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P.) I shall feel 

 very much obliged to any correspondent of " N. 

 & <,>." for references to sources of information. 

 Of course 1 am aware of what is given in Arch- 



