Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/491

 10 s. vin. NOV. 23, loo:.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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him in jail for the failure to repay the money he has never had. Now this is the exact situation set forth by Burke in the mighty speech on ' The Nabob of Arcot's Debts,' which of course the old professor knew well. The Nabob wanted to borrow 160,0002. from the Madras Government to pay off his useless mercenaries, who were draining him dry ; they agreed to lend it to him, charged him interest from the time of the agreement, took two years to furnish part of the money, and never did furnish the whole. Mean- while he had to keep his soldiers under pay for lack of means to discharge them, and incur immense interest obligations to the English (at 12 per cent.) ; and as a result, a couple of years later he owed them the original 160,0002., and still had his troops under pay, with several months' arrears, in consequence of borrowing to pay them off, besides having assigned to the English a large part of the territories from which alone he could gain revenues to pay principal or interest ! The English played Paul, and the Nabob Peter ; and I do not think it probable that the similarity in the very peculiar situations is coincidence.

FORREST MORGAN. Hartford, Conn.

OCEAN PENNY POST. The Athenaium of 26 October tells its readers that an ocean penny post was advocated in its pages as early as September, 1849. I thank the desire for it is somewhat older perhaps 1847 or 1848 : I cannot fix the exact date. A friend of mine, of about the same age as myself, was finishing his education at Putney College for Civil Engineers, and, when he came home for his summer vacation brought with him some envelopes with a " floreated border around the place for the " Queen's head," enclosing the inscription, " England, the world expects from thee an ocean penny postage." I had for several years one of these which he gave me, but. it is gone now. If it were in existence, it would not be without interest.

I well remember the strong feeling that existed against the penny post, not only before it came into action, but for some years after. One old clergyman a wise and good man in many respects was never tired of saying that permitting the poor to correspond with each other on such easy terms was " the pathway to revolution." EDWARD PEACOCK.

CHRISTENING THE DEAD. The first Russian Christians were moved by such a strong belief in the regenerating efficacy of

holy baptism, even upon the dead, that they actually took out of their tombs the remains of two of their heathen rulers, Yaropolk and Oleg, who had not embraced the Christian faith. After having beeiL christened they were buried again. This happened in 1044, Oleg having died in 977, Yaropolk in 980 (cf. Nestor's ' Chronicle,' chap. Ivi.). We may infer from this touch- ing record that the ancient custom of burning their dead, which had prevailed among the Russians as well as among the Germans and many other pagan people, was already partly superseded, in pre-Christian times, by the usage of burying the bodies.

H. K.

BLANK LEAVES IN BOOKS : BIBLIOPEGUS. In my copy of " Regum Pariumque Magnse Britanniae Historia Genealogica. . . . studio ac opera Jacobi Wilhelmi Im-Hoff. Norimbergse," 1690, between the " Pars. Prior " and the " Pars Posterior," i.e., following p. 63, is a blank leaf blank but for the following on the second page :

" Hanc chartam vacuani resecabit bibliopegus. " Dieses ledige Blat wird der Buchbinder weg zu>. schneiden wissen."

Are such leaves and instructions uncommon ? Perhaps unintentionally the Latin instruc- tion is a hexameter verse.

" Bibliopegus " appears in Stephens's. ' Thesaurus,' Editio Nova, 1734, the inter pretation being " librorum concinnator," and in Gesner's, 1749, where the inter- pretation is " Librorum concinnator vulgo vocatur, quern Magis Glutinatorem dixeris." In Bailey's Facciolati, 1827, it appears among the " Verba partim Grseca Latine scripta, partim barbara .... a nobis impro- bata," following the main dictionary, the interpretation being " qui libros compingit." The Greek substantive /^t/^AioTT^yos appears to have been a barbarous word. The modern Greek for " bookbinder " is, tTis. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

DANIEL'S ' CIVIL WARS,' 1595. In the Introductory Notice to the Auction-Sale Catalogue of the early English books of the late Mr. Thomas J. McKee of New York, an acknowledgment is made of the valuable aid afforded by the use of the ' Catalogue of Original and Early Editions of some of the Poetical and Prose Works of English Writers from Langland to Wither,' issued by the Grolier Club, and it is questioned whether any known work, on strictly bibliographical lines, can be more absolutely depended upon. There is no doubt that this opinion