Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/386

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY 7, 1910.

cement. In the ' Guide to the Search Depart- ment of the Patent Office,' 1908 edition (see Appendix II., ' Select Dictionary of Words and Phrases associated with Inventions introduced under Letters Patent J ), the following entry occurs at the foot of p. 151 : " Portland Cement. Inventor, J. Aspdin. Specification No. 5022 of 1824 ; (p. 2.1.3). Cf. Redgrave, ' Calcareous Cements,' p. 27. (24259.) "

The early history of Portland cement and an interesting account of notable manu- facturers of it, are given in Redgrave's work, London, 1895, pp. 24-31.

J. MACFARLAN.

Accounts of Portland cement will be found in 'Haydn's Dictionary of Dates' (1904) and ' Harmsworth's Encyclopaedia.'

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. [W. C. B. also thanked for reply.]

FIRST ELECTIONS UNDER THE BALLOT ACT (11 S. i. 268). I am not aware of any elections under the Ballot Act of 1872 earlier than those named in the query.

Although not strictly relevant to the subject in hand, it may perhaps be worth while recalling the fact that secret voting received legislative sanction in England before the passing of the Ballot Act. Under the Education Act of 1870 certain School Boards (one of the first of them being within the London area) elected their representatives by secret voting. But the ballot was in operation in England from a far earlier period. In 1873 a correspondent pointed out (4 S. xi. 74) that the first occasion of voting by ballot in Parliament was on 21 Feb., 1707/8. W. SCOTT.

" JIRGA " (11 S. i. 327). Jirga is a Pushtoo word meaning a council of the heads of a village community or the representatives of a clan. See Sir T. Holdich's ' Indian Border- land l (p. 356), " the Orakzai jirga."

W. A. H.

Whitworth's ' Anglo-Indian Dictionary ' registers: " Jirgah [Pashto]. The council of headmen which governs each Afghan tribe."-

The jirga mentioned by The Times was, no doubt, composed of the creme de la creme of many County Councils.

ST. SWITHIN.

AGUE-RING (11 S. i. 288). In a note to an article on ' Superstitions about Diseases ' in Chambers's 'Book of Days,' ii. 732, mention is made of spiders and spiders' webs as cures for ague. TOM JONES.

on

The Electress Sophia and the Hanoverian Succes- sion. By Adolphus William Ward. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. (Longmans Co.)

DR. WARD has produced a thoroughly sound and learned book, which the judicious will have ready to hand both for reading and reference. It is, virtually a new book for the general public, for the previous issue, included in Messrs. GoupiFs elaborate series of monographs in 1903, -was beyond the purse of the ordinary man.

The present edition shows the fruits of careful study of the available sources, foreign and English, in the interval that has elapsed. Three appendices and an admirable index complete the volume, which exhibits, besides the essentials of learning and good judgment, an effective use of the personal details which bring out character.

Goldsmith : Selected Essays, edited by .T. H. Lobban, and Narratives selected from ' Peaks* Passes, and Glaciers,' edited by George Wherry, are two recent additions to the series of " English Literature for Schools " (Cambridge University Press) which please us well. The thirty-two essays Mr. Lobban has chosen and introduced with skill' should be widely "read in schools. There is no easier or more delightful style than that of Goldsmith, but he has not, we think, received the credit due to him as a master of English.

The Alpine " Narratives," which begin with ' A Day among the Seracs of the Glacier du Geant,' by Tyndall, are full of interest, and open up a field of exercise which is now far more accessible than it was. The Introduction pays a just tribute to the distinguished men who founded the Alpine Club in 1858, and produced ' Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers ' in 1850. Times and manners have changed since then, as Dr. W T herry's notes show. Ascents are easier, and much more fuss is made about them. A member of the Club whom we knew well deplored the fluent sentimentalism and readiness for public advertisement of modern climbers. He did not think that they wrote so well as the old ones, nor do we.

The Fortnightly is a well-varied number. Mr, William Watson opens with a poem on Alfred, ' The King without Peer.' The answer to tl question * Why Russia went to War with Japan t is begun with ' The Story of the Yalu Concession told by M. van Larlarsky, one of a triumvirate which brought on the war. Mr. A. R. Colquhoun s article on ' Theodore Roosevelt ' tells us a gooc deal that we have heard many tunes before and the same may be said of the doctrines incu. cated in ' England's Peril : Invasion or Starva tion ' by Mr. A. Hurd. Mr. Sydney Brooks is t< obviously biased in ' The Bankruptcy of Libera ism ' to carry conviction to people of modera views. Miss Elizabeth Robins's ' Shall Womer Work ? ' is forcibly written, and suggests fs that ought to be faced. Mr. F. Lawton has i good subiect in ' Jules Claretie,' whose brilliant per is well 'known in this country. Mr. William \rcher gives a good deal of useful information in ' The American Cheap Magazine.' That type o which is due to Mr. S. S. McClure he regards