Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/155

 s. iv. AUC, 19, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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I therefore ask whether any Society exists which collects such muniments and papers, and, if so, whether the Society would become the custodian thereof upon the terms that, if required, they should be returned. I cannot quite imagine how or why they could ever be needed by their owners, but I think the reservation ought to be made.

I would also ask whether the Society has fixed a date as the limit of modernity since which more proper records have been kept. I have in my mind the year 1800 as the boundary mark, but possibly 1837, when the civil registers of births and deaths were instituted, might be a more logical point to fix. X. Y.

MATTHEW ARNOLD'S FRENCH QUOTATION. In Matthew Arnold's 'Note-books' is the following (part of a much longer quotation) :

" Mepriser 1'erreur, c'est vouloir 1'homme, n'est-il pas ? "

If this is correctly quoted by Arnold a French friend declares it not to be intelli- gible, and suggests that it should run " c'est en vouloir a 1'homme, n'est-ce pas ? " who is the author ?

A. FORBES SIEVEKING.

' THE THESPIAN TELEGRAPH.' The first part of this dramatic magazine appeared 1 June, 1796, and it was to be continued monthly. It is an early use of the name " Telegraph " to indicate a periodical con- taining news, and a copy before me has a note identifying it as the Telegraph which Daniel Stuart bought and merged with The Gazetteer into The Morning Post. I can hardly accept this as correct. Although Stuart's transaction was almost contem- porary, the periodical he purchased, accord- ing to Fox Bourne (i. 273), was a daily paper. But was there any relationship between it and The Thespian Telegraph ?

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

HENRY BETHUNE ABBOTT was admitted to Gray's Inn, 12 June, 1833. Can any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' give me the date of his death and further particulars of his career ? G. F. R. B.

GILBERT AFFLECK was admitted to West- minster School 1 June, 1774. I should be glad to ascertain the dates of his birth and death as well as particulars of his parentage and career. G. F. B. B.

JOHN HEATHFIELD was admitted to West- minster School in October, 1749, aged 15. I should be glad to obtain any information about him. G. F. R. 'B.

I have received among ordinary currency a five-franc piece : on one side is " Republique Fransaise. An 13. " ; on the other, " Napoleon Empereur." Is this contradiction in terms usual on coins of that data.

S. WILLCOCK, Major.

WILLIAM STEPHENS HAYWARD, THE NOVELIST. Is anything known of the life and career of William Stephens Hayward, a voluminous writer of novels and romances, who began his literary career, I think, in 1862, with * Hunted to Death,' and ended it in 1884, with ' One in a Thousand ' ?

According to Allibone's ' Critical Dic- tionary of English Literature, of British and American Authors,' 35 works were produced by this author in little over twenty years, resulting, I understand, in a great number of readers of the English-speaking race throughout the world.

I think I am correct in saying that, with the exception of Allibone's, there is no reference to this writer in any of the works of reference which it is customary to consult in England.

Will some of our American literary friends kindly " make a note of it," and try to help us ? FBEDK. CHAULES WHITE.

26, Arran Street, l^oath, Cardiff.

GRAND SHARBI TEPHLIA. What is known of " The Supreme Grand Sharri Tephlia," which, at some time before 1900, was founded or attempted to be founded, and seems to have been taken seriously by a few people, as an elaborately printed ' Ritual ' came into existence, of which a well-bound copy in quarto is before me ? From accompanying papers, and particularly from The Voice of the Brotherhood, " the official organ of the Grand Sharri Tephlia," of which No. 2 was published at an address at Thornton Heath, apparently between January and May, 1900, it seems that the avowed objects were to adorn the members in sumptuous attire, to provide various funds in the nature of " benefit " for them, and to build a temple, a Right Worshipful Grand Chaplain (ap- pointed for life) having sole authority, and " the inherent power of enacting laws and regulations .... and of altering, repealing, and abrogating them." England and Wales were declared parcelled out into districts, and the organization seems to have had an especial eye to Birmingham, from which city, however, information on the subject is not forthcoming.

The sequel of this rather ambitious project is to be found in The Croydon