Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/211

 ii s. ix. MAR. n, i9R] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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No other such case of nominal publication in print is in our reports, save Baldwin v. Elphinstone a few years later (2 W. Bl. 1037), a decision rather doubted by Dr. Odgers, who observes, however, that it has several times been followed in America. There the Court said :

" Printing a libel may be an innocent act, but unless qualified by circumstances shall primd facie be understood to be a publishing. It must be de- livered to the compositor and to the other subordi- nate workmen. It is stated that 'he caused to be printed.' This confirms the fact of publication, for it calls in a third person to whom the libel must have been communicated."

Further, it must have been apparent to Mansfield that there was an intention to " publish " in the legal sense to twelve or thirteen other persons, to not one of whom Wilkes was privileged to suggest that Stone and Sackville acted in the manner indicated. It was not a question, as Macaulay put it, of corrupting the morals of the Medmenham monks, but of protecting great names from Wilkes's scurrilities. Nevertheless, popular sentiment found 'a just expression in a curious punchbowl now in the British Museum, with the portraits of Wilkes and Mansfield upon it. The culprit has for supporters Temple and Glynn ; the judge has Bute and the Devil, with the motto " Justice sans Pitie." ERIC R. WATSON.

( To be continued.}

HEARTH TAX, PAINSWICK, GLOS. The Hearth Tax, a payment to the King of 2s. on every hearth " in all houses paying to church and poor," was first established by statute 13 and 14 Car. II., although a similar payment under the name of "fumage," or " smoke farthings," was a custom of great antiquity, mention thereof being made in Domesday Book. This tax, which was especially obnoxious on account of its inquisitorial nature, was finally abolished by statute 1. William and Mary.

Six years later, however, a tax of 2s. was levied on all houses, except cottages, and also a tax on all windows in such houses exceeding nine in number.

Exemption from Hearth Tax, 24 Charles II. Painsivick, Gloucestershire.

We the Minister of the Parish of Painswick together with the Churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the said Parish do hereby certifie unto his Majesties' Justices of the Peace for the said County. That we do believe, that the respective Houses wherein the Persons here undernamed do Inhabit, are not of greater Value than twenty shillings per annum ; upon the full improved Bent ; And that neither the Person so

inhabiting nor any other using the same Mes- suages hath, useth, or occupieth any Lands or Tenements of their own, or others, of the yearly Value of twenty shillings per annum ; nor hath any Lands or Tenements, Goods or Chattels, of the Value of Ten Pounds in their own possession, or in the possession of any other in trust for them, And the said Houses have not above two Chim- neys, Firehearths, and Stoves in them respec- tively.

Witness our Hands this 3rd day of June 1672.

Spooribed tithing.

Henry Knowles. Dan Haselton.

John Mathews. John Hilman.

Widd. Denton. Tho. Taylor.

John Gardner. Wm. Taylor.

Widd. Cooke. James Church:

Dan Kitson. James Hilman.

Dan Swinning. Bich. Hilman.

Sheepscombe tith.

Steph. Townsend. John Millerds.

Widd. Edwards. John Gibbins.

John Castell. Wm. Wood.

John Burdock. Henry Knowles.

Dan Millerds. John Wheler.

Tho. Hobbs. Tho. Castell.

Tho. Whiting. Anne Poole.

Edge tith.

Bobt. Powell. Edw. Watkins.

John Osborne. Wm. Holiday.

Wm. Kinge. Henry Holiday

Edw. Williams. Bich. Hadnutt.

James Gransome. Bich. Benton.

Tho. Hoode. Widd. Merrett.

Bich. Stephens. Tho. Jones.

Dan Wrenn. Bobt. Motley.

Widd. Gardner. John Swining.

John Cooke. James Blanch.

Bobt. Durkle. Henry Wheler.

Henry Bidler. John Holder.

\Vm. Short. Bich. Page.

Margt. Lowe. Steph. Page.

John Ashmead. Eliz. Cooke.

Mary Holiday. Henry Wood.

James Bayley. Henry Bryan.

Stroud End tith.

Widd. Clissoll. Henry Eagles.

Wm. Jones. Steph. Watkins.

James Ellis. Tho. Hilman.

Bich. Blakeny. Tho. Wood.

Widd. Wrenn. Tho. Merrett.

We allow of this Certificate containing 73 names. Gab. Ix)we. George Dorwood. Clerk.

Tho. Smythe. Stephen Gardener, tithing John Gide. m'.

PERCY F. HOGG.

ORIGINALS OF THACKERAY'S CHARACTERS. Inquiries and suggestions on this subject usually bear on Thackeray's direct observa- tion of persons whom he had met and studied ; literary sources are less frequently alluded to. In ' The Newcomes ' (1854-5) the account given of " the eminent Mr. Gandish of Soho " (i. 17) may well have been assisted by perusal of the ' Memoirs ' of