Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/69

 ii s. v. J A >. 20, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

the beginning of this reply, that it was the captain's right hand that was missing, there is really no need to argue the question further. The strange point is that neither Dickens nor his illustrators were able to bear it in mind, and that even careful students o his writings have passed it over. (See also 4 S. iv. 266; 7 S. ix. 386, 472; 10 S. viii. 467 ix. 331.) JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

This particular instance was included in a collection of ' Artists' Mistakes ' at 9 S. iv 237. W. C. B.

OXFORD DEGREES AND ORDINATION (US. iv. 528). Samuel Wesley, in a letter to the Lord Chancellor, dated Westminster, 14 Jan., 1733/4 (quoted by Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch in ' Hetty Wesley '), says :

" I sent him [John Whitelamb] to Oxford, to my son John Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College, under whom he made such proficiency that he was the last summer admitted by the 'Bishop of Oxford into Deacon's Orders."

It appears from the story that Whitelamb was preparing for Oxford in 1728, and took or received his degree as B.A. some time before ordination. C. C. B.

John White Lamb, s. Robert of Hat- feild, co. York, pleb., Lincoln Coll., matric. 10 April, 1731, aged 21.

John Romley, s. William of Burton, co. Lincoln, pleb., Magdalen Hall, matric. 13 Dec., 1735, aged 24.

Apparently neither of them took a degree.

If Sir Walter Besant, in his novel ' Dorothy Forster,' was correct in describing Robert Patten as M.A., the author of the ' His- tory of the Rising of 1715' may, perhaps, have been a graduate of some other Univer- sity than Oxford. The ' D.N.B.' assigns him to none. A. R. BAYLEY.

[DiEGO queries Sir A. Conan Doyle as the author of ' Dorothy Forster.']

It was usual in the nineteenth century for men to be ordained after a short residence at Oxford University. Why should not that custom have been handed down from the previous century ? I have an old Calendar of 1845 : therein I read :

" A residence of 3 weeks in each Terra is sufficient for Bachelors of Arts keeping Terms for a Master's degree, and for Students in Civil Law, who having kept by actual residence 12 Terms exclusive of the Term in which they were matriculated, and been examined for their degree, have put on the Civilian's gown."

I always understood that a man had to pass Responsions and keep a certain number of

terms, and then without further examination could be admitted to the status of S.C.L. ; but it was not considered a degree, and several men were ordained with that status and never graduated. Adam Smith in 1744 became a S.C.L. He paid the fees and went through the formalities, in virtue of which he was enrolled as a Student of Civil Law. This step was frequently taken by wealthier students in preference to graduation in Arts. In 1870, when I went to Oxford, the common idea was that those who had taken the status of S.C.L. were unable to pass other Schools than the First Responsions, or Littlego ; and they were spoken of rather depreciatingly. Some were somewhat elderly. As some bishops would not ordain men without a degree, I always understood that those undergraduates applied for and obtained the S.C.L. ' But I see in Crockford that the late Archbishop Alexander of Armagh took the S.C.L. in 1847, and was ordained that year ; he did not graduate B.A. till 1854.

M.A.OxoN.

FOREIGN JOURNALS IN AMERICA (US. iv. 466, 514). The number of German periodi- cals in America in 1910 as given by Mr. Dana (632) is doubtless correct, and MR. ROBBINS'S doubts can be easily removed. In 1900 there were 613 (besides 20 printed in German and English) ; in 1890, 727 ; and in 1880, 641. See 'The Twelfth Census of the United States' (1900), ix. 1048, table xxi. The number of German periodicals in America in 1900 represented only '034 of the whole number. There was then one German periodical to every 4,213 Germans in the country, as compared with one French periodical to every 3,366 Frenchmen, and one Scandinavian periodical to every 9,255 Scandinavians. On German - American journalism in general see Dr. Albert B. Faust, ' The German Element in the United States,' ii. 365-76, Boston, LLS.A., 1909. CLARK S. NORTHTTP.

WEST INDIA COMMITTEE (11 S. iv. 507). The Gentleman's Magazine for 1738 refers on p. 162 to a petition presented to the rlouse of Commons by the West India Merchants, complaining of the depredations of the Spaniards, and gives a list of sixty- iwo vessels which had been plundered since 1728. There are several minor references >oth before and after this date. A Parlia- mentary report, written (by Samuel John- son?) in the style of 'Gulliver,' appears on p. 397 of the same volume, and mentions