Various

“ While Convocation was sitting, the Clergy could make their sentiments known by the Bishops who represented their Estate in Parliament; and we often find the Lower House of Convocation petitioning their lordships to make statements of this kind in their places in Parliament. But in the present suspension of Convocation and the disuse of diocesan synods, the Clergy have lost their weight with the Bishops themselves; and that once formidable Estate of the Realm retains but the shadow of a representation in Parliament. ”

“ It is true, as MR. FRASER observes, that the majority of the Upper House of Parliament binds the Clergy though all the Bishops should be dissentient, as in Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity. This is the result of the Spiritual Estate voting in the same chamber with the Nobility; and to avoid such a result the Commons very early demanded a chamber to themselves. The Spiritualty is thus yet further reduced under the power of the Temporalty; for "the authority of Parliament" (as Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity words it) is and must be supreme, however defective its representative constitution. ”

“ As some of your readers may like to know the real interpretation of this inscription, I give the translation of Rawlinson as amended from Westergaard's notes, and which is undoubtedly correct:
"The great God Ormazd, who has given this world, who has given that heaven, who has given mankind, who has given life to mankind; who has made Xerxes king, both the king of the people, and the law-giver of the people. I am Xerxes the king, the great king, the king of kings, the king of many-peopled countries, the supporter also of this great world, the son of King Darius the Achæmenian," &c. ”

“ Living near the Forest of Dean, I wish to state that it is not known that any trees exist there which can possibly be of anything approaching to the age of Edward III.; that the word forbid savours of a reservation of timber for the use of the mines, if the privileges of the free-miners can really be carried back to that time. The intelligence in Pepys was derived from Sir John Winter, the person who bought the whole forest in perpetuity from Charles I., but was allowed by Charles II. only to make the most of it he could in his own time. ”

“ Scheffer, who published his Description of Lapland in 1673, states that the practice of stone-pillar worship then existed there, and that Storjunkar, one of the deities of Scandinavian mythology, was—
Represented by a stone. Neither do they use any art in polishing it; but take it as they find it upon the banks of lakes and rivers. In this shape they worship it as his image, and call it Kied kie jubmal, that is, the stone god. ”

“ It were certainly to be wished that those liberal reformers who were so shocked at burgage tenures and rotten boroughs, would extend their compassion to the disfranchised clergy, some five or six hundred of whom are "represented," without their consent or opinion asked, by a prelate appointed by the Crown.
On the whole, the Convocation is "the true Church of England by representation" (Canon 139) in such matters as belong to the Church as distinguished from the State; but in Parliament, which is the State, the Spiritualty is represented by the Bishops alone. ”

“ It is clear that they who so petitioned did not esteem themselves to be, as a Convocation, already part of the Parliament. The Convocation would indeed have become the Spiritual Estate in Parliament, if the Clergy had acceded to the wise and patriotic design of King Edward I. But they, affecting an imperium in imperio, refused to assemble at the King's writ as a portion of the Parliament of their country, and chose to tax themselves apart in their Provincial Synods, where they used the forms of a separate Parliament for the Church. ”

“ Some of your readers may recollect the print of Garrick's Macbeth, with cocked hat of the last London cut, bag-wig, full court dress and ruffles!
In 1762, the rage for large ruffles was beginning to decline. A writer in the London Chronicle for that year (p. 167.) says (speaking of the gentlemen's dress) :—
"Their cuffs cover entirely their wrists, and only the edge of their ruffles are to be seen; as if they lived in the slovenly days of Lycurgus, when every one was ashamed to show clean linen." ”

“ STONE-PILLAR WORSHIP STILL EXISTING IN IRELAND.
In a work recently published by the Earl of Roden, entitled Progress of the Reformation in Ireland, there occurs a curious account of a remnant of this ancient form of fetichism still existing in Inniskea, an island off the coast of Mayo, with about 380 inhabitants amongst whom, he says,
"A stone carefully wrapped up in flannel is brought out at certain periods to be adored; and when a storm arises, this god is supplicated to send a wreck on their coast." ”

“ This statement, irrespective of graver reflections, is suggestive of curious inquiry, whether this point of Ireland, on the utmost western verge of Europe, be not the last spot in Christendom in which a trace can now be found of stone-pillar worship?—the most ancient of all forms of idolatry known to the records of the human race ”

“ The Three Estates of the Realm are, the Spiritualty, the Nobility, and the Commonalty: on this fact there is no dispute. The last is as certainly the third estate (tiers état) . But MR. FRASER demurs to my ranking the Spiritual Estate as the first, quoting the Collect in the Service for the fifth of November, which runs, "the Nobility, Clergy, and Commonalty." On this point I am not prepared with a decisive authority; but certainly the language and practice of Parliament is with me. The Lords Spiritual are always named before the Lords Temporal, and precedence is allotted to them accordingly ”

“ A writer in the Archæologia for A.D. 1800 says that many of the stone crosses which form so interesting and beautiful a feature in Irish antiquities were originally pagan pillar-stones, on which the cross was sculptured subsequent to the introduction of Christianity, in order that—
"The common people, who were not easily to be diverted from their superstitious reverence for these stones, might pay a kind of justifiable adoration to them when thus appropriated to the use of Christian memorials by the sign of the cross." ”

“ Even in the refined period of Grecian philosophy, the common people could not divest themselves of the influence of the ancient belief; and Theophrastus gives it as the characteristic of the "superstitious man," that he could not resist the impulse to bow to these mysterious stones, which served to mark the confluence of the highways. From Asia Minor pillar worship was carried to Italy and Gaul, and eventually extended to Germany, where the trunks of trees occasionally became the substitute for stone. ”

“ Keeping a poet is a luxury enjoyed by many, from the Queen down to Messrs. Moses, Hyam and Co.; but the refinement of keeping an hermit would appear to be a more recherché and less ordinary appendage of wealth and taste. ”

“ I believe that the Irish branch had previously been settled in London. A third branch settled in the American colonies in the seventeenth century, and has produced a highly respectable and wealthy progeny still resident in the New England states, and elsewhere. I have at hand materials for a complete pedigree of the Sussex or elder line of the family, down to the time of its extinction. Perhaps your correspondent will communicate with me on this subject by a private letter. ”

“ Ladies and gentlemen, desirous of becoming Ordinary Members, are requested to send their names and address, with their literary, scientific, or official descriptions, to any one of the officers, by whom they will be duly laid before the council: and, if approved, their election will be notified to them.
Eminent foreign scholars, and men of science, known to be conversant with Chronology, will be requested to accept diplomas, and to render their valuable aid by correspondence with the Institute. ”

“ In the midland counties there is a similar saying among the lower classes, and I have heard it said of an individual who had married and lost several wives by death, that he had a white liver. A young woman once told me that she had been advised not to marry a certain suitor, because he had a white liver, and she would be dead within a year. ”

“ The absence of religion is supplied by the open practice of pagan idolatry. In the south island a stone idol called in the Irish Neevougi, has been from time immemorial religiously preserved and worshipped. ”

“ I send you an advertisement for, and two actual instances of going a hermiting, from my scrapbook:
"A young man, who wishes to retire from the world and live as an hermit in some convenient spot in England, is willing to engage with any nobleman or gentleman who may be desirous of having one. ”

“ Whether there ever was such a woman or not, is immaterial; the story is sufficiently ancient to have occasioned the saying. Megg is there described as having breadth in proportion to her height. Fuller says, that the large grave-stone shown on the south side of the cloister in Westminster Abbey, said to cover her body, was, as he has read in an ancient record, placed over a number of monks who died of the plague, and were all buried in one grave; that being the place appointed for the sepulture of the abbots and monks, in which no woman was permitted to be interred."—Edit. ”

“ King William Street, City, London.
ADDRESS
OF THE
CHRONOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
OF LONDON.
In the present state of human knowledge, there are few sciences in which so great difficulties appear, or so great differences of opinion prevail, among the principal authors who have treated of it, as in Chronology. It hath been justly styled "one of the eyes" of History: yet its vision is indistinct, with regard to many of its most important objects. So far as it is a mathematical science, it is capable of the utmost exactness ”

“ Since there is no doubt that the Clergy sat regularly in Convocation, we should not hear of their occasional presence in the House of Commons had the Convocation been deemed a part of Parliament. It is certain that Convocation never exercised the powers which belong to a chamber of Parliament ”

“ I am sorry not to be able to agree with MR. CHADWICK in thinking "that no fee is legally payable for searching the register-books of baptisms and burials, nor even for making a copy," &c. It is quite certain that even parishioners have no right to inspect the parish books, except for ordinary parochial purposes. ”

“ G. S. A.
Serjeants' Rings (Vol. v., pp. 59. 92. 110.) .
—The happiest motto which comes to my recollection is that adopted by the first serjeants who were called after the decision of the Court of Common Pleas in January, 1840, overturning the warrant issued by King William IV., which opened the court to all members of the bar. Five new serjeants were then called, who gave rings with this motto, in allusion to the restoration of their rights:—
"Honor nomenque manebunt." ”

“ It was a subject of a grant to the Stanleys by Queen Elizabeth, and of an act of parliament in the reign of James I., under which the isle became vested in the Duchess Dowager of Athol, as heir of the body of James, seventh Earl of Derby, and ultimately became vested by purchase in the crown. It may be said that during the time of authentic history, the Isle of Man was not an independent kingdom, until the regality was granted by the crown, as already mentioned. ”

“ Goldsmith (Vol. v., p. 63.) .
—Thanks to your sensible correspondent A. E. B.! A true poet always puts the right word in the right place, and A. E. B.'s good taste assured him of Goldsmith's propriety.
We have it upon record, that Burke asked Goldsmith what he meant by the word "slow," in the first line of his Traveller—
"Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow." ”

“ SARPEDON.
[Our correspondent is clearly not aware that this line has already been the subject of much discussion in our columns. (See Vol. iii., p. 494.; Vol. iv., pp. 125. 160.) But as the Query has not yet been solved, and many curious points may depend upon its solution, we avail ourselves of SARPEDON'S inquiry to bring the matter again under the consideration of our readers.] ”

“ There was a Sybil, who was daughter of William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury and King of Man and Derby, one of the most distinguished characters in the heroic age of Edward III. She married Edmund, the younger of the two sons of Edmund Earl of Arundel, by Alice, sister and heir of John, last Earl of Warren and Surrey, who died in 1347 (Dugd. Bar. i. 82.) ”

“ It is a well-known fact that the proud Duke of Somerset, and Prince George, his successor as a Knight of the Garter, occupied the space between 1684 and 1820. The anecdote, however, related of George IV. by your intelligent correspondent C. cannot be correct, because the blue ribbon was conferred upon Lord Moira by the Prince Regent in June, 1812, who advanced him in 1816 to the Marquisate of Hastings, and George III. did not die till 1820. The story, therefore, must belong to the period of the Regency, and not to the commencement of the reign of George IV.
BRAYBROOKE.
Audley End. ”

“ In a copy of Gascoigne's Works, sold in Heber's sale, was the following MS. note by George Steevens:—
"This volume was bought for 1l. 13s. at Mr. Mallet's alias Malloch's, sale, March 14, 1776. He was the only Scotchman who died in my memory unlamented by an individual of his own nation."
David Malloch, or Mallet, is said to have been born about the year 1700, at Crieff, in Perthshire, at which place his father was an innkeeper. A search has been made in the parochial registers of Crieff, from 1692 to 1730, but his baptism is not registered. ”

“ The application of the principle of the division of labour hath caused the establishment of various societies, for the special cultivation and promotion of distinct branches of science. Among these, Geography, "the other eye" of History, hath long enjoyed the advantage of a public institution. Astronomy also, which more than any other science, except History, is connected with Chronology, hath obtained the like distinction ”

“ A correspondent in the same volume writes to Lord Roden that—
"They all speak the Irish language, and among them is a trace of that government by chiefs, which in former times prevailed in Ireland: the present chief or king of Inniskea is an intelligent peasant called CAIN, whose authority is acknowledged, and the settlement of all disputes is referred to his decision. Though nominally Roman Catholics, these islanders have no priest resident among them ”

“ Reginald, styled King of Man, did homage to Henry III., as appears by the extract given from the Rot. Pat. 3 Hen. III., by Selden. During a series of years previously, the kings of Man, who seem to have held this isle together with the Hebrides, had done homage to the kings of Norway, and its bishops went to Drontheim for consecration. Magnus, last sovereign of Man of the Norwegian dynasty, died in 1265. From that period the shadowy crown of Man is seen from time to time resting on lords of different races, and its descent is in many periods involved in great obscurity. ”

“ MR. FRASER will find this account of the matter fully borne out by the extract he has given from Bennet's Narrative. "The King in full Parliament charged the Prelates, Earls, Barons, and other great men, and the Knights of the shire, and the Commons," to give him counsel. Here we have a description of Parliament precisely as it is constituted at this day, and the "Prelates" are the only members of the Spiritualty. ”

“ To the same effect is the language of the celebrated preamble to the act 24 Henry VIII. c. 12.:—
"This realm of England is an empire ... governed by one supreme head and King ... unto whom a body politic compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty, be bounden and owen."
2. The Convocations of the Clergy (which are two synods sitting in three houses) are no part of the Parliament. ”

“ If hell be pleased, when souls are damned therein,
If earth be pleased, when its rid of a knave,
Then all are pleased, for Coleman's in his grave."
State Poems, vol. iii. 1704.
Qy. Who was Coleman?
JAMES CORNISH.
[We are indebted to another correspondent, LOUISA JULIA NORMAN, for pointing out the same epigram on Coleman in The Panorama of Wit (1809) . Coleman, on whom the epigram appears to have been originally written, is obviously the Jesuit of that name executed in the reign of Charles II.]
"Son of the Morning" (Vol. iv., pp. 209. 330. 391.) . ”