Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/454

 446

NOTES AND QUEKIES.

[2n

23., JUNE 7. '56.

news is worth extracting, as bearing on the Rus- sian question :

" VIENNA, Feb. 8. Letters from Adrianople, of the 28th of January, advise, that the whole Ottoman Army was to rendezvous there the 28th of March, and immedi- ately to march to Jassy in Moldavia, 40 Leagues from Bender. The Sultan, who was there with his whole Court, had sent a principal Aga to the King of Sweden, for his Majesty to move with his whole Army, which, it was believ'd, would be done before the End of January. The Cham of Tartary had Orders to conduct his Majesty, and to fall upon his Enemies wheresoever he met them. Many Polish Noblemen were lateh' come again to Bender, who assur'd, that most of the Poles would declare for Stanislaus and join the King of Sweden as soon as his Majesty appear'd in Poland. It is believ'd at Adrianople that the Sultan's Design is to drive the Muscovites out of the Ukrain, to make the Natives of that Country in- dependent of Muscovy, and b}' that Means to obstruct the Czar's raising any Recruits of Foot there, as also to secure Grim Tartary. We are not here without Appre- hensions of the Turks attempting something against the Emperor, because of his obliging the Imperial Minister to depart before his Time, on Pretence that he gave Ad- vice to the Polish Envoy Goltz, who lay at his House, and to the Muscovite Ministers, against the King of Sweden, and appear'd partial for them."

It is now matter of history, that the king of Sweden (Charles XII.) did penetrate into the Ukraine, but was defeated at Pultawa (1709), and that he took refuge in Turkey ; that the Sultan (Ahmed III.) tried in vain to get rid of him ; that he deposed his Grand Vizier, Ali Chorlili, who had brought the king into the Ukraine, and raised Baltagi Mohammed to the Grand Vizir- ship ; but that the intrigues of Charles prevailed in the Divan, and war was declared with Russia. Peter the Great, flushed with his late success, allowed himself to be surrounded on the Pruth, and eventually purchased the peace of Falczy by the restoration of Azof, and by other humiliating concessions. Here, however, it seems that a more severe blow might have been struck had it not been for the usual policy of Russia, corruption by bribery, the timid policy of the Porte, and the treason of Baltagi Mohammed. The emperor here spoken of, in the last paragragh, was Charles VI., against whom the Porte declared war, un- wisely fancying that, because Austria was then weaker than Russia, it was more to his benefit and that of his country to subdue her. The re- sult, however, was the defeat at Peterwaradin, the disbanding of the Turks at Belgrade, and the peace of Passarowicz, by which the Sultan ceded to Austria the banat of Temesvar, the western parts of Wallachia and Servia, with Belgrade, as well as all his Venetian conquests, except the Morea. From this blow, Turkey never recovered her influence in Europe.

Then follow extracts from the Gazette a la Main, and a postscript (equal to our second edi- tions) containing the latest news from Holland. We have also a list of Sermons for the week

["Mr. Sherlock" among the preachers], the bills of mortality [" christen'd 313, bury'd 343! de- ereas'd in the latter 69"]; the prices of corn, the assize of bread, prices of stocks (speet prizes*), standing orders for the lotteries, course of ex- change, and state of the exchequer. A few advertisements follow; the first for a periwig- maker's shop in Threadneedle Street, and the other three for quack medicines of the all-heal kind: the last being singular for stating, that " acute rheumatism and gout are cousin-german in degree," and are therefore only to be cured by a " German gentlewoman at a linendraper's shop, next door to the ' Fountain Tavern.' " The im- print runs thus :

"London: Printed by Hugh Moore [Meere] at the Black Fryer in Black Fryers. Where, and at the Sun-Fire- Office, Advertisements are taken in."

The whole newspaper amounts to six pages of foolscap, which might easily be got into a column, of the Times, if set in their smallest type.

I have compared the extracts in the above with the original, and have made a few corrections.

AVON LEA.

OLD JOKES.

" When Person was told that Prettyman had been left a large estate by a person who had seen him only once, he said, ' It would not have happened if the person had seen him twice.' " Table Talk of Samuel Rogers, "Por- soniana," p. 319.

" I owe, says Metius, much to Colon's care ; Once only seen he chose me for his heir. True Metius, hence your fortunes take their rise, His heir you were not had he seen you twice."

The epigram is in most collections. The names Metius and Colon suggest a Latin original, but I have not been able to find it.

Horses and men (2 nd S. i. 114 )

" A society called the Hippophagi has been established in Paris. That well-known writer, Alphonse Karr, says, ' The horse has carried the man long enough ; it is now time for the man to carry the horse.' "

"Bene me admonuit domina mea. In prospectu ha- buimus ursinae frustum, de quo cum imprudens Scintilla gustasset, paene intestina sua vomuit. Ego contra plus libram coined), nam ipsum apruin sapiebat. Et si, inquam, ursus homuncionem comest, quanto magis debet hoinun- cio ursum comesse?" Petronii Arbitrl Satyricon, cap. Ixvi. p. 196., ed Anton.

" A. Mi/ocd; ya /naxos oCros.

B. 'AAA' airav KOKOV." Acharnenses, 1. 909. Expanded by Dryden :

" With all his bulk there's nothing lost in Og, For every inch that is not fool is rogue."

Absalom and Achitophel, pt. ii. Spoiled by Bulwer : " Dicaeopolis, in the Acharnenses, in presenting a gen-

for "spelt prizes." It is spelt so in orig.
 * What does this mean ? Query, is it not a misprint