"Sir,
"The enclosed (most of it) was prepared for you a fortnight since; but now (upon the occasion given by your letter) you have it with some advantage from
"Your servt., J.C.
"I desire the fav"
"S. Germ. July 12."
4. The most important part of this MS., however, is contained in the long letter or treatise placed first in the volume, and bearing for its title, "A View of F.P.'s Answer to the First Paper."
This is dated from S. Germains, July 25, 1645 and would appear to be Cosin's last letter. But, if it be really so, Basire must, I think, be in error, when he says, "Our Doctor … could never get from the Prior any reply to his last answer." For at p. 81. of the MS. there is a reply to the above "Review of a Letter sent by F.R. to a Lady," &c. which, though copied without either date or signature, was evidently written by the Prior, whilst it professes to be a reply to a treatise closely answering to Cosin's letter of July 25, but which letter the writer did not receive (as he states) before the 26th of September.
I wish yet further to take notice, that Dr. Tho. Smith, in His Vitæ (Lond. 1707, præf. pp. vii, viii.), refers to these manuscripts in the following satisfactory manner:—
"Cum, post mortem D. Cosini, de pretio et valore schedarum, quas reliquit, hæredibus non satis constaret, … auspieatò tandem devenit, ut favore, beneficio, et perquam insigni humanitate reverendi et doctissimi viri, D. Joannis Smith, Sacræ Theologiæ Professoris Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis Præbendarii, quorum frequens hac de re commercium literarum, occasione data, (opportunè intercedente prænobili et reverendo, D. Georgio Whelero, equite aurato, et Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Presbytero, ejusdem quoque Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Prebendario), habui, duos libellos (tanquam prætiosas tabulas ab isthoc infami naufragio servatas) a D. Cosino, dum in Galliâ exularet, Anglieè conscriptos jam possidieam: quarum unus Vindicias Ordinatianum Ecclesieæ Anglicanæ contra exceptiones et cavillationes cujusdem Pontificii sacerdotis e gente nostra, alter Responsionem ad Epistolam nobili fæminæ Anglæ ab alio saccrdote pro defensione communionis sub unicâ specie administrandæ inscriptam, complectitur," &c.
I should still be glad to add to this long note the followng Queries:—
1. Can any of your readers kindly inform me whether Cosin's two letters to Dr. Geo. Morley are still in existence, either in MS. or in print?
2. Whether there be any fuller or more authentic account of the controversy than that in these MS. preserved by the care of Dr. Smith?
3. Whether Cosin wrote any letter to the Prior later than that of July 25?
4. Who was the lady the Prior wished to seduce to the Roman party?
5. Is there any other account of the controversy?
J. SANSOM.
ENGELMAN'S BIBILIOTHECA SCRIPTORUM CLASSICORUM
A little while ago, I ordered Engelman's Bibliotheca Scriptoram Classicorum, purporting to contain all such works published from 1700 to 1846. It was furnished to my bookseller by a foreign bookseller in London with an English title, having his own name on it as publisher, and an invitation to purchase the books described in it from him. As the paper and type were German, I objected and received in consequence a new English title, with the same name upon it, and a shorter invitation to purchase from him. I was captious enough to object even to this; and I then received a Leipzig title in German. But there still remains a difficulty: for this German title has also the name of a Parisian bookseller upon it, a la maison duquel on peut s'adresser, &c. Now, as Engelman is a bookseller, and would probably not object to an order out of his own catalogue, of which he is both author and publisher, the preceding, circumstances naturally raise the following Queries:
1. What is the real title-page of Engelman's Catalogue 2. Is the Parisian house accredited by Engelman; or has the former served the latter as the London house has Served both? 3. Is it not desirable that literary men should set their faces very decidedly against all and every the slightest alteration in the genuine description of a book? 4. Would it not be desirable that every such alteration should forthwith be communicate to your paper?
The English title-page omits the important fact, that the Catalogue begins at 1700, and describes it as containing all editions, &c., up to 1846.
A. DE MORGAN.
September 24. 1850.
MINOR QUERIES
Portrait of Sir P. Sidney, by Paul Veronese.—In the letters of Sir P. Sidney which I found at Hamburg, and which were published by Pickering, 1845, it is stated that a portrait of Sidney was painted by Paul Veronese, at Venice, for Herbert Languet. It would be very interesting to discover the existence of this picture.
Languet had it with him at Prague, framed, as he asserts, and hung up in his room, in the year 1575. He remarks upon it, in one place, that it represented Sidney as too young (he was nineteen when it was taken); in another place he says that it has given him too sad an expression. I should add, that on Languet's death, his property passed into the hands of his friend Du Plessis.
I am led to write to you on this subject, by having observed, a few days since, in the collection at Blenheim, two portraits by Paul Veronese, of persons unknown. There may be many such, and that of Sir Philip Sidney may yet be identified.
STEUART A. PEARS.
Harrow, Sept. 6.
Confession.—You would much oblige if you could discover the name of a Catholic priest, in German history, who submitted to die rather than reveal a secret committed to him in confession?
U.J.B.
Scotch Prisoners at Worcester.—In Mr. Walcott's History of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, I find the following extract from church wardens' accounts:—
"1652. P'd to Thos. Wright for 67 loads of soyle laid on the graves in Tothill Fields, wherein 1200 Scotch prisoners, taken at the fight at Worcester, were buried; and for other pains taken with his teeme of horses, about mending the Sanctuary Highway, when Gen. Ireton was buried."
I have taken the pains to verify this extract, and find the figures quite correctly given. I wish to put the Query: Is this abominable massacre in cold blood mentioned by any of our historians? But for such unexceptionable evidence, it would appear incredible.
C.F.S.
Adamson's Reign of Edward II.—
"The Reigns of King Edward II., and so far of King Edward III., as relates to the Lives and Actions of Piers Gaveston, Hugh de Spencer, and Roger Lord Mortimer, with Remarks thereon adapted to the present Time: Humbly addressed to all his Majesty's Subjects of Great Britain, &c., by J. Adamson. Printed for J. Millar, near the Horse Guards, 1732, and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, price One Shilling."
The above is the title-page of a little work of eighty-six pages in my possession, which I am inclined to think is scarce. It appears to be a defence of the Walpole administration from the attacks of the Craftsman, a periodical of the time, conducted by Amhurst, who was supported by Bolinbroke and Pulteney, the leaders of the opposition. Is anything known of J. Adamson, the author?
H.A.E.
Sir Thomas Moore.—Can any of your readers give any account of Sir Thomas Moore, beyond what Victor tells of him in his History of the Theatre, ii. p. 144., "that he was the author of an absurd tragedy called Mangora (played in 1717), and was knighted by George I."
In Pope's "Epistle to Arbuthnot," he writes—
"Arthur, whose giddy son leglects the laws."
on which Warburton notes—
"Arthur Moore, Esq."
Who was Arthur Moore, Esq.? and who was the "giddy son?" Was the latter James Moore Smith a gentleman whose family name was, I think, Moore, and who assumed (perhaps for a fortune) the additional name of Smith? This gentleman Pope seems to call indiscriminately Moore, Moor, and More: and when he says that his good nature towards the dunces was so great that he had even "rhymed for Moor" (Ib. v. 373.), I cannot but suspect that the Moor for whom he had rhymed, was the giddy son whom Arthur accused him of seducing from the law to the Muses. There are many allusions to this Mr. James Moore Smith throughout Pope's satirical works, but all very obscure; and Warburton, though he appears to have known him, affords no explanation as to who or what he was. He was the author of a comedy called The Rival Modes.
C.
Dr. E. Cleaver, Bishop of Cork.—I shall feel much obliged to any of your correspondents who will furnish me with the particulars of the consecration of Dr. Euseby Cleaver to the sees of Cork and Ross, in March, April, or May, 1789. Finding no record of the transaction in the Diocesan Registry of Cork, and not being able to trace it in any other part of Ireland, I am induced to believe that this consecration may have taken place in England; and shall be very glad to be correctly informed upon the point.
H. COTTON.
Thurles, Ireland.
Gwynn's London and Westminster.—Mr. Thomas Frederick Hunt, in his Exemplars of Tudor Architecture, 4to. London, 1830, in a note at p. 23., alludes to London and Westminster improved, by John Gywnn, London, 1766, 4to., and has this remark:
"It is a singular fact, that in this work John Gwynn pointed out almost all the designs for the improvement of London, which have been devised by the civil and military architects of the present day."