Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/363

 12 S. III. JCIA-, 1917

NOTKS AND QUERIES.

357

States Minister, was also desirous to go to Pekin to arrange a treaty of friendship with China, there having been no quarrel with the United States. He arrived before the British and French envoys, and was asked by the Chinese officials to wait for the latter. The Chinese, however, blocked the Peiho river, and refused to allow any of the ministers to ascend it. The British and French envoys decided to proceed, and Admiral Hope ordered a number of gunboats to clear the obstacles and attack the forts. The attack failed, the admiral was wounded, and the river ran too strongly to allow reinforcements in boats to get up. The American commodore, after receiving a visit from a British naval officer, and consulting the Americm Minister, decided to tow the boats up. The Times of Oct. 6, 1859, printed on p. 8 a long dispatch from the Hon. F. W. A. Bruce, her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary to China, to the Earl of Malmesbury as Foreign Secretary. This was dated " Shanghae, July 15, 1859," and contained the following reference to the American Minister : " He remained at the mouth of the river during the attack, deter- mined to push up had we opened a way through the barriers, and it is very gratifying to me to bear testimony to the friendly feeling and assist- ance we derived from himself and flag officer Tatnall on that day."

The American official report of the matter is printed in The Times of Oct. 25 in a, long dis- patch from " Josiah Tattnall, Flag Officer com- manding East India Squadron," to " The Hon. Isaac Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, Washing- ton." This was dated " off Peiho River, July 4, 1859," and describes how on June 24 he and the American Minister, knowing that the British and French vessels were to attack the following day, attempted to ascend the Peiho in an unarmed steamer ; but their boat grounded, and all their efforts to back off failed. " At this moment I received from Admiral Sir James Hope an attention and kindness which must place me under lasting obligations to him." The admiral, thinking that the Chinese would fire on them when they saw them aground, and fearing also that the steamer would capsize, offered to send a gunboat to tow them off ; but Commodore Tattnall declined the assistance, their steamer later floated again, and in the evening they returned beyond the British and French fleets. After describing how he watched the failure of the allied attack, he relates that he went in his barge to visit Sir James Hope, who had been severely wounded, and to thank him for his 'kindness of the previous day. " When within a few feet of the Cormorant, to which Sir James had trans- ferred his flag, the commodore's boat was struck by a round shot and nearly sunk, John Hart, the coxswain, being killed. The whole account breathes a most friendly spirit, and the commodore makes a strong appeal on behalf of the deceased coxswain's dependants ; but there is no allusion in any way to the " Blood is thicker than water " incident.

The action of the American Minister and the commodore in towing boats containing re- inforcements was naturally criticized in the United States, as overstepping the limits of neutrality, and some extracts from American comments are printed on the same page of The Tim as Commodore Tattnall's dispatch. The Minister took his full share of responsibility for I

what had been done, and The Times of Nov. 2 reprinted from The New York Times a very long letter from Mr. Ward justifying his course of action. After describing the commodore's con- sultation with him he says that the commodore " did more that day to illustrate the gallantry of the American navy in the eyes of the world than twenty successful engagements would have done."

Neither Mr. Ward nor Commodore Tattnall mentions in the above letters anything about "Blood is thicker than water" ; but the phrase occurs in a letter, signed " Ex-officio," which appeared in The Times of Tuesday, Dec. 13, 1859 (p. 7). The letter dwelt princi- pally on the merits of Admiral Hope, but the final paragraph ran thus : " Is our Govern- ment going to do nothing to show its sense of the conduct of Commodore Patnall [sic] ? Surely a gold medal, with the inscription ' Blood is thicker than water,' would be significant and well bestowed." Here we have the commodore's name associated with the proverb at a definite date, though it is not stated that he had used the words. The eleventh edition of 'The Encyclo- pedia Britannica ' in its notice of Tattnall remarks : " He may be said to have gained a worldwide reputation by his use of the phrase ' Blood is thicker than water' to justify his intervention." Will some one produce evidence that Tattnall himself used the words before Dec. 13, 1859 ?

Another interesting question remains to be solved. How far back can the proverb actually be traced ? The late VINCENT S. LEAN stated at 7 S. xii. 114 that Edwards's ' Words, Facts, and Phrases ' was wrong in saying that it is to be found in the 1672 edition of Bay's ' Collection of English Proverbs.' The tenth edition of Bartlett's ' Familiar Quotations,' 1914, after citing Scott's use of the proverb in ' Guy Manner- ing,' adds in a foot-note (p. 493) : " This proverb, so frequently ascribed to Scott, is a common proverb of the seventeenth century. It is found in Bay and other collections of proverbs." Can any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' cite an instance from the seventeenth century ? MB. LEAN said that he had found the proverb in the British Museum copy of the 1797 edition of Allan Bamsay's ' Collection,' the first edition of which had ap'peared in 1737. Was " Blude's thicker than water " in that ?]

" A LEICESTER PLOVEB." In chap, xxxiii. of ' The Heart of Midlothian ' Sir Walter Scott makes an old lady in Lincolnshire say :

" There are men here, well to pass in the world, would not want their share of a Leicester plover, and that's a bag-pudding, if fasting for three hours would make all their poor children read the Bible from end to end."

Wh,at is the history of this expression ? It is noted in ' The English Dialect Dictionary/ and sounds a^ good as " a Norfolk haddock," which Dr. W. W. Skeat adduced in his ' English Dictionary ' in defence of "a "Welsh rabbit," which many have turned into " rarebit " by indiscreet purism.

E. S. DODGSON.