Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/295

 ii s. vii APRIL 12, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

291

It is urged by various critics who question Marshman's statement that Napier's con- science was clear ; that he was not fond of joking; and that if " peccavi " was used in a dispatch, it could easily be found. As to the first point, MB. WOOLLCOTT quotes from the ' Life,' ii. 326, w r ords written after the battle : " My conscience reproached me not." The remark suggests to me a qualm, and no wonder, for on 27 Oct., 1842 (' Life,' ii. 218), he had written : " We have no right to seize Scinde, yet we shall do so, and a very humane piece of rascality it will be " ; and nearer still to the battle-day he wrote (16 Jan., 1843): "My present position is not to my liking ; we had no right to come here " (p. 290).

As regards his alleged disinclination for jokes, I invite reference to his ' Journal ' (7 Oct.): "The Treaty says no tolls shall be levied on any boats. They still levy tolls, which shall not be, or they will sing toll de rol toll " (vol. ii. p. 217) ; and, refer- ring in a letter of later date to his antipathy Fonblanque (who Was, I think, editor of The Examiner), he writes " Fonblanque or Funblank," a poor, and withal not original, joke to come from the pen of the conqueror of the Jam of the Jokeas.

The third objection is more important, and the answer to it lies at the root of our difficulty in finding the exact birthday of " Peccavi." Napier wrote both formal and informal dispatches. Lord Ellenborough in his letter to the Duke of Wellington, dated 22 March, 1843.. writes :

" My correspondence with Sir C. Napier having been more of a private than of a public character, although all made official, J may have been less careful in the choice of expressions than I should have been had I written in the name of the secretary."

On 20 April, 1843, Lord Ellenborough reported to the Queen the occupation of Oomercote and " the entire conquest of Scinde."

On 13 Aug. following he wrote : " Your Majesty will read with much interest the explanations Sir C. Napier has afforded. Jvord Ellenborough has deemed it right to enclose for Y. M.'s perusal a letter from Sir C. Napier of a private rather than official character. There are passages in the letter which Lord Ellen- borough would have wished not to place before Your Majesty, but he was unwilling to send an extract only.

The Government were less scrupulous about omissions, as a reference to the Blue-books on Scinde will show. For Napier's letters are generally given as " extracts," some- times one single line being reproduced from the whole dispatch.

W T as " Peccavi " extracted, in the sense of the Word as used by a dentist, and not in the Parliamentary sense ? That I am still trying to ascertain. Meanwhile I trust tradition, and I feel sure that " Pec- cavi " was made famous before Punch issued in May, 1844,

W. LEE -WARNER.

Bickley.

The " Peccavi" pun reminds me of either Beckett's ' Comic History of England ' or O. P. Q. Philander Smiff's ' Comic History of England,' published in a paper called The Figaro, wherein it is told that there was a one-word message brought to Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort at the time of the Armada which no one but the Queen could make out. " All ! " she said, " Cantharides, the Spanish fly." JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

MlTHRIDATES AND ALEXIPHARMICS (US.

vii. 189). By Mithridates is meant, I sup- pose, varieties of the " antidotum Mithrida- tium," of which Mithridates VI., King of Pont us, was the reputed author. There are many different receipts for the preparation. That in our older London pharmacopoeias contained fifty -four ingredients ; of this (and the others) opium Was the most active constituent. The real author of this absurd compound, and the exact composition of the original, are alike unknown. In the time of Celsus it consisted of thirty-eight simples only ; Andromachus omitted six of these and added twenty others ; our Quincy reduced those in the official preparation to forty. It was finally omitted from the pharmacopoeia in 1 746.

Mithridate was itself an Alexipharmic, that term signifying an antidote or pre- servative against poison. There are many such in our older dispensatories, most of which contained opium. Some of them were even more cumbrous and absurd than Mithridate. One of the most famous of them was Venice, treacle, which is still sometimes asked for in the shops.

C. C. B.

DOMINUS ROGER CAPELLO (11 S. vii. 169, 238). Is J. A. M. certain that the third word is Capello ? I suggest that it is Capello' (Capells.), the shortened form of Capellanus ; and that the person indicated is Dominus Roger, the Chaplain. The title Dominus belongs to a graduate of the older universities. They who graduate as Bache- lors at Cambridge are still denominated in the class lists dotnini. F. P,