Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/238

 NOTES AND QUERIES. &' s. t MAS. 19,

career is traced in the correspondence of Mr. William Bowker (see pp, 177, 217, 288, 348). The story is substantially the same as that narrated by MR. BARKER at the last reference, but it is stated that at the moment of being turned off he admitted that he did boil the exciseman. The name of " Slender " in this account is given as Aberford, and an inter- esting family detail is furnished, to the effect that Mrs. Aberford could hold and fight the dogs when they were too savage for Billy, while it was Miss Aberford who " gave him the office " when the officers came to arrest him on one occasion. Billy was thus afforded time to loose his two bears, and turn them unmuzzled among the " redbreasts," who in less than five minutes were flown. These traditions seem to have lingered long among Westminster boys, and the variations in the form of the name show that they were handed down orally. Perhaps your valued corre- spondent G. F. E. B. could state if Mr. E. S. Surtees, the creator of " Mr. Jorrocks," who vainly contributed a five-pound note towards procuring a " hard-mouthed counsel " for poor Billy, was a " Westminster."

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

If Sir Walter Besant had taken the trouble to look up the trial of William Habberfield in the eighty-eighth volume of ' Sessions Papers ' (pp. 443-6), he would have found that the forged notes were not provided by the soli- citors of the Bank. Lord Albemarle's story is absolutely incredible. What really happened was this. Barry, having been provided with some genuine one-pound banknotes by the solicitors to the Bank, was taken into New- gate, where his old confederate Habberfield was confined. With three of these notes he purchased from Habberfield three two-pound notes forged on the Bank of England.

G. F. E. B.

" LORD BISHOP " (9 th S. i. 47). Why should a bishop suffragan (meaning a bishop without diocesan jurisdiction) not be called a "lord bishop" ? He seems to me to be exactly in the same case with a suffragan of the arch- bishop who has that jurisdiction, but has had no writ of summons to Parliament. Both are " Domini Episcopi," as I suppose all bishops have been (in Latin style) since bishops were. POLITICIAN feels the difficulty, but tries to solve it by saying that the unsummoned suffragans, though not peers, are by law " on the road to be peers," and therefore, though none but peers should be called lords, they who are not peers are reasonably so called an illogical conclusion. By like reasoning, certain eldest sons who are by law " on the

road to be" barons or viscounts should be lords, but they are not, and with good reason, for any one of them, or even of the said suffragans, may never reach the end of that road, and never become a peer. POLITICIAN'S view erroneous view, I may venture to call it arises from a confusion between lord- ship and peerage, and an assumption of their identity. But my Lord George Hamilton (to take as a worthy example one of the Queen's Ministers) is not a peer, but he is a lord all the same. A Lord High Admiral was not necessarily a peer ; and neither is Mr. Goschen, though First Lord of the Admiralty, nor Mr. Balfour, though First Lord of the Treasury, a peer of Parliament, nor the minor lords wno own them as chiefs. The Lord Chief Justice is a peer, but need not be, and so might his defunct brethren of the Common Pleas and Exchequer. The latter, indeed, was even a " baron," but no peer ex officio. So also are all the puisne judges called " my lord " in court. The Lords of Session in Scotland are veritable lords, and bear terri- torial titles ; but they are not lords of seat, i. e. y peers of that kingdom. King Tom (Maitland) was Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands ; but he was no peer. I suppose the Archbishop of Sydney, when he comes to this land as well as when he stays at home, is called "my lord" and "your grace," like archbishops of older mintage, not because of any supposed peerage, but " of congruity," as the schoolmen would have called it " by courtesy," and in virtue of the traditionary and prescriptive " Dominus Episcopus."

Not that all domini have that prescriptive right. The Scottish schoolmaster is addressed as " dominie." Doctors of divinity, physic, and law have all that same style in Latin Placet ne vobis Domini Doctores ? I should think you are well satisfied, for here at least you have neither had nor desired any other title in virtue of your office. ALDENHAM.

It is a fallacy to suppose that the title "lord," applied to a bishop, belongs to him only as a member of the House of Lords. There is a spiritual hierarchy as well as a temporal peerage, and the one has as much right to a title as the other. Just as a priest was styled " sir," so a bishop is a " lord," and graduates are still called "domini" at the universities. In Elizabeth's time the Suffragan Bishop of Dover was styled "My Lord of Dover." Perhaps POLITICIAN will be better satisfied with the following extract from a letter written by the Eight Hon. E. A. Cross, Secretary of State (now Viscount Cross),