Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/113

 s. in. FEB. 11, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and broke some pipes which he was carrying ' The undergraduate, now advanced in years feels his conscience oppressed by the fact that he never in any way made good the damage done either to the boy or his employer.' If ' the boy ii still alive, he would be glad to hear from him."

W. B. H.

WE must request correspondents desiring in formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

ST. WILLIAM'S DAY AT YOBK. Can any

one kindly refer me to an historical account

of the observance of St. William's Day at

York, either at the Minster or in the city ?

GEORGE AUSTEN.

The Residence, York.

DOM FBANCISCO MANUEL DE MELLO, the Portuguese writer, was in London on diplo- matic missions in 1641 and in the spring of 1663. I should be glad to know of any references in the newspapers, memoirs, or other writings of the time to his presence among us. He was in Rome for the greater part of 1664, endeavouring to obtain Papal confirmation for the King of Portugal's episcopal nominees, and there printed his
 * Cartas Familiares ' and * Obras Morales.'

Are there any references to him and his negotiations in Italian printed sources of the period ? He sometimes styled himself Chevalier de St. Clement.

EDGAR PRESTAGE.

Chiltern, Bowdon, Cheshire.

WILLIAM PITT'S LETTER ON SUPERSTITION. This letter, quoted by Dr. von Ruville in his ' Life of Chatham,' vol. iii. p. 359 (Engl. ed.), is stated to have first appeared in The London Journal for 1733.

Unfortunately, the only copy of The London Journal which I have seen, in the British Museum, has a few pages missing for 1733: the letter is not printed in the remaining pages.

The letter first, as far as I know, appears in print in a leaflet which bears no date, but is ticketed in one of the British Museum ecrapbooks as of 1760. In 1819 and 1820 the letter was reprinted as a hawker's broad- sheet. It was finally republished about 1875 by A. Holyoake as a secularist tract.

Can any reader inform me

1. What authority there is for attributing this letter to W. Pitt ?

2. Whether any extant copy of The London Journal for 1733 shows this letter ?

3. If so, whether the letter there appears signed by Pitt ? BASIL WILLIAMS.

ISavile Club, Piccadilly.

ARISTOTLE ON EDUCATION. Aristotle says somewhere that the work of the educator is like that of the sculptor, who finds and dis- engages the statue that is hidden in a block of marble. Addison refers to it in The Spectator, No. 215, 1711. Will some one kindly give me the reference ?

A. SMYTHE PALMER.

MARINE INSURANCE. I am anxious to know something about the earliest policies for assurance of ships or cargoes. The few facts I was able to find tended towards showing Valencia and the neighbouring parts of South-Eastern Spain to be the most hopeful quarter for further search.

I read, however, in Prof. Heinrich Sieve- king's * Studio sulle finanze genovesi nel medioevo ' (Atti della societd ligure di storia patria, xxxv. [1905] Introd.,p. 15) :

" La tenuta dei libri di commercio ed il cambio, Passicurazione e la banca furono coltivati, prima che da altri, dai Genovesi."

Is this primacy admitted in the particular case of marine insurance ? Where shall I find the best " documented " treatment of the subject ? ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

Oxford.

SIR ROBERT PEEL AND HIS SPEECHES. Can any correspondent give the authority for the story that Sir Robert Peel, when Prime Minister, used always to lock his study- door before a great speech ? One day an urgent letter, it is said, came from the Queen, and Lady Peel entered the study through the window in order to deliver it without delay, and found the Prime Minister on his knees, praying. W. J.

COURT LIFE. Where can one find an account of the various duties of officers of the Court, Ladies-in-waiting, &c. ? X. Y.

" BEZANT." The Salisbury Journal, 20 April, 1761, in form of advertisement says :

1 There will be a ball at the George Inn, Shaftes- bury, on tuesday 28 th irist., being the day after a Bezant."

What was a Bezant T E. G.

MOTHEB'S MAIDEN NAME AS CHILDREN'S SURNAME. Was it formerly a fairly com- mon practice in Fifesliire for children to take as surname their mother's maiden name