Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851

When the copper coins of the last reign appeared, a slight tinge in the colour of the metal excited the suspicion of those accustomed to examine such things, that it contained gold, which proved to be the fact; hence their real value was greater than that for which they passed current, and they were speedily collected and melted down by manufacturers, principally, I believe, as an alloy to gold, whereby every particle of that metal which they contained was turned to account. I have been told that various Birmingham establishments had agents in different parts of the country, appointed to collect this coinage.

    R. C. H.

Burnet.—In the list of conflicting judgments on Burnet, quoted by your correspondents (Vol. i., pp. 40. 120. 181. 341. 493.), I find no reference to the opinion of his contemporary, Bishop Nicolson. That writer takes a somewhat partial view of the character and merits of the historian, and canvasses, by anticipation, much of what has been urged against him by our more modern critics. But, as the weight of authorities already cited appears to militate against Burnet, I am induced to send you some of Bishop Nicolson's remarks, for the sake of those readers who may not have immediate access to them. I quote from his English Historical Library, 2nd edition, p. 119.:

"In the months of December and January in the year following (1680), the historian (G. Burnet) had the thanks of both Houses of Parliament for what he had already done; and was desired to proceed to the finishing of the whole work, which was done accordingly. This historian gives a punctual account of all the affairs of the Reformation, from its first beginning in the reign of Henry VIII., till it was finally completed and settled by Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1559. And the whole is penned in such a masculine style as becomes an historian, and such as is this author's property in all his writings. The collection of records which he gives in the conclusion of each volume are good vouchers of the truth of all he delivers (as such) in the body of his history; and are much more perfect than could reasonably be expected, after the pains taken, in Queen Mary's days, to suppress everything that carried the marks of the Reformation upon it. The work has had so much justice done it, as to meet with a general acceptance abroad, and to be translated into most of the European languages; insomuch that even the most piquant of the author's enemies allow it to have a reputation firmly and deservedly established. Indeed, some of the French writers have cavilled at it; but the most eminent of them (M. Varillas and M. Le Grand) have received due correction from the author himself."

    Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia, Dec. 1850.

Coleridge's Opinion of Defoe.—Wilson, in his Memoirs of the life and Times of Defoe, vol. ii. p. 205., having quoted the opinion of the Editor of Cadell's edition of Robinson Crusoe,—"that Defoe wanted many of those qualities, both of mind and manner, which fitted Steele and Addison to be the inimitable arbitri elegantiarum of English society, there can be no doubt,"—Coleridge wrote in the margin of his copy, "I doubt this, particularly in respect to Addison, and think I could select from Defoe's writings a volume equal in size to Addison's collected papers, little inferior in wit and humour, and greatly superior in vigor of style and thought."

    Ts.

Miller's "Philosophy of Modern History."—In the memoir, chiefly autobiographical, prefixed to the last edition (published by Mr. Bohn, 1848-9) of this most able and interesting work, we find the following words, p. xxxv.:

"In the preceding period of my lecturing, I collected a moderate audience [seldom exceeding ten persons] in the Law School [his friend, Alexander Knox, being always one], sufficient to encourage me, or at least to permit me, to persevere, but not to animate my exertions by publicity. But as I was approaching the sixteenth century, the number of my hearers increased so much, that I was encouraged to remove to the Examination Hall, from which time my lectures attracted a large portion of public attention, strangers forming a considerable portion of the auditory."

It is worthy of remark, in connexion with this production of a highly-gifted scholar and divine, whose name does honour to Trinity College, Dublin, that Dr. Sullivan's Lectures on the Constitution and Laws of England, which have since deservedly acquired so much fame, were delivered in presence of only three individuals, Dr. Michael Kearney and two others—surely no great encouragement to Irish genius! In fact, the Irish long seemed unconscious of the merits of two considerable works by sons of their own university,—Hamilton's Conic Sections and Sullivan's Lectures; and hesitated to praise, until the incense of fame arose to one from the literary altars of Cambridge, and an English judge, Sir William Blackstone, authorised the other.

In the memoir to which I have referred, we find a complete list of the many publications which Dr. Miller, "distinguished for his services in theology and literature," sent forth from the press. We are likewise informed that there are some unpublished letters from Hannah More, Alexander Knox, and other distinguished characters, with whom Dr. Miller was in the habit of corresponding.

    Abhba.

Anticipations of Modern Ideas or Inventions.—In Vol. iii., pp. 62. 69., are two interesting instances of this sort. In Wilson's Life of Defoe, he gives the titles of two works which I have often sought in vain, and which he classes amongst the writings of that voluminous author. They run thus:

"Augusta triumphans, or the way to make London the most flourishing city in the universe. I. By establishing a university where gentlemen may have an academical education under the eye of their friends [the London University anticipated]. II. To prevent much murder, &c., by an hospital for foundlings. III. By suppressing pretended madhouses, where many of the fair sex are unjustly confin'd while their husbands keep mistresses, and many widows are lock'd up for the sake of their jointures. IV. To save our youth from destruction by suppressing gaming tables, and Sunday debauches. V. To avoid the expensive importation of foreign musicians by promoting an academy of our own, [Anticipation of the Royal Academy of Music], &c. &c. London: T. Warner. 1728. 8vo."

"Second Thoughts are Best; or a further Improvement of a late Scheme to prevent Street Robberies, by which our Streets will be so strongly guarded and so gloriously illuminated, that any Part of London will be as safe and pleasant at Midnight as at Noonday; and Burglary totally impracticable [a remarkable anticipation of the present state of things in the principal thoroughfares]. With some Thoughts for suppressing Robberies in all the Public Roads of England [rural police anticipated]. Humbly offer'd for the Good of his Country, submitted to the Consideration of Parliament, and dedicated to his Sacred Majesty Geo. II., by Andrew Moreton, Esq. [supposed to be an assumed name; a common practice of De Foe's]. London. W. Meadows, 1729."

    R. D. H.

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon!"—The above text is often quoted as not being in accordance with the present state of our astronomical knowledge, and many well-known commentators on the Bible have adopted the same opinion.

I find Kitto, in the Pictorial Bible, characterising it as "an example of those bold metaphors and poetical forms of expression with which the Scriptures abound." Scott (edit. 1850) states that "it would have been improper that he (Joshua) should speak, or that the miracle should be recorded according to the terms of modern astronomy."

Mant (edit. 1830) says: "It is remarkable that the terms in which this event is recorded do not agree with what is now known rewarding the motion of the heavenly bodies."

Is it certain that Joshua's words are absolutely at variance and irreconcileable with the present state of astronomical knowledge? Astronomers allow that the sun is the centre and governing principle of our system, and that it revolves on its axis. What readier means, then, could Joshua have found for staying the motion of our planet, than by commanding the revolving centre, in its inseparable connexion with all planetary motion, to stand still?

    I. K.

Langley's Polidore Vergile.—At the back of the title of a copy of Langley's Abridgement of Polidore Vergile, 8vo., Lond. 1546, seen by Hearne in 1719, was the following MS. note:

"At Oxforde, the yere 1546, browt down to Seynbury by John Darbye, pryse 14d. When I kept Mr. Letymer's shype I bout thys boke when the Testament was obberagatyd that shepe herdys myght not red hit. I prey God amende that blyndnes. Wryt by Robert Wyllyams, kepynge shepe uppon Seynbury Hill."

At the end of the dedication to Sir Ant. Denny is also written:

"Robert Wyllyams Boke, bowgyt by John Darby at Oesforth, and brot to Seynbury."

The Seynbury here mentioned was doubtless Saintbury in Gloucestershire, on the borders of Worcestershire, near Chipping Campden, and about four miles distant from Evesham.

    P. B.

Luther and Ignatius Loyola.—A parallel or counterpoising view of these two characters has been quoted in several publications, some of recent date; but in all it is attributed to a wrong source. Mr. M

Gavin, in his Protestant, Letter CXL., (p. 582, ed. 1846); Mr. Overbury, in his Jesuits (Lond. 1846), p. 8., and, of course, the authority from which he borrows, Poynder's History of the Jesuits; and Dr. Dowling's Romanism, p. 473. (ed. New York, 1849)—all these give, as the authority for the contrasted characters quoted, Damian's Synopsis Societatis Jesu. Nothing of the kind appears there; but in the Imago primi Sæculi Soc. Jesu, 1640, it will be found, p. 19.

The misleader of these writers seems to have been Villers, in his Prize Essay on the Reformation, or his annotator, Mills, p. 374.

    Novus.

P.S. (Vol. ii., p. 375.).—The lines quoted by Dr. Pusey, I have some notion, belong to a Romish, not a Socinian, writer.

Winkel.—I thought, some time since, that the places bearing this name in England, were taken from the like German word, signifying a corner. I find, on examination, that there is a village in Rhenish Prussia named "Winkel." It seems that Charlemagne had a wine-cellar there; so that that word is no doubt taken from the German words wein and keller, from the Latin vinum and cella.

    Aredjid Kooez.

Foreign Renderings.—In addition to those given, I will add the following, which I once came across at Salzburg:

"George Nelböck recommande l'hôtel aux Trois Alliés, vis-à-vis de la maison paternelle du célèbre Mozart, lequel est nouvellement fourni et offre tous les comforts à Mrs. les voyageurs."

Translated as follows:

"George Nelböck begs leave to recommand his hotel to the Three Allied, situated vis-à-vis of the birth house of Mozart, which offers all comforts to the meanest charges."

Also the following:

"M. Reutlinger (of Frankfort on Main) takes leave to recommande his well furnished magazine of all kind of travelling-luggage and sadle-works."

    Aredjid Kooez.

Samuel Johnson—Gilbert Wakefield.—Whoever has had much to do with the press will sympathise with Mr. Charles Knight in all that he has stated ("Notes and Queries," Vol. iii., p. 62.) respecting the accidental—but not at first discovered—substitution of modern for moderate. If that word modern had not been detected till it was too late for an explanation on authority, what strange conjectures would have been the consequence! Happily, Mr. Knight was at hand to remove that stumbling-block.

I rather fancy that I can rescue Samuel Johnson from the fangs of Gilbert Wakefield, by the supposition of an error of the press. In 1786, Wakefield published an edition of Gray's Poems, with notes; and in the last note on Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Cat," he thus animadverts on Dr. Johnson:—

Our critic exposes himself to reproof from the manner in which he has conveyed his severe remark: show a rhyme is sometimes made. The omission of the relative, a too common practice with our writers, is an impropriety of the grossest kind: and which neither gods or men, as one expresses himself, nor any language under heaven, can endure."

Now in Dr. Johnson's Life of Gray, we find this sentence:—

"In the first stanza 'the azure flowers that blow' show resolutely a rhyme is sometimes made when it cannot easily be found."

My notion is, that the word how has been omitted in the printing, from the similarity of blow, show, how; and thus the sentence will be—

"The azure flowers that blow show how resolutely a rhyme is sometimes made when it cannot easily be found."

But Gilbert Wakefield was a critic by profession, and apparently as great in English as he was in Greek.