Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/480

 472

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. DEO. is, 1902.

though there can be little doubt that that is the sense intended. The reference to Charlemagne at the beginning of the para- graph can leave no doubt that, as the Editor suggests, Paladius is a misprint for " Pala- dins." ' W. F. PRIDEAUX.

This heading appears to indicate a mis conception. The sense of the passage quoted demands the elision of the apostrophe, and the apprehension of "dress " as a verb. The extract then reads, "just as our English doubles and Birminghams dress after his Royal Highness or his Grace." As to the interpretation, that partly depends on whether " His Royal Highness " was merely used generically, or whether it had a specific application to the Prince of Wales. Assuming the latter to have been the case, then the remaining title must have referred to some well-known duke whom Birminghams dressed after (? his Grace of Bedford, one of the moribund "Bloomsbury gang"). This indi- cates, when taken in conjunction with the political import of the context, that '* Bir- mingham " was merely the resuscitated nick- name of a Whig, originating in 1680 over the Exclusion Bill, when counterfeit Brummagem groats were common. Says Macaulay :

" In that year our tongue was enriched with two words, Mob and Sham, remarkable memorials of a season of tumult and imposture. Opponents of the court were called Birminghams, Petitioners, and Exclusionists. Those who took the King's side were Anti-birminghams, Abhorrers, and Tantivies." -' Hist.' (1858), i. 266.

The Tories ridiculed the title of " true Pro- testants," with which the Whigs had endowed themselves, by stigmatizing their opponents as "Brummagem Protestants." There was probably an intentional amphibology in associating this nickname with his Royal Highness (whose Whig proclivities were well known), and in using the term " double " in connexion with so notorious an equivocator.

J. DORMER.

[The heading was printed as the words appeared in the quotation. The suggestion in the Editorial note that " Birmingham "dandy was the same as that offered above.]

"WHAT HAS POSTERITY DONE FOR us?" (9 th S. x. 309, 415.) This utterance occurred, as MR. ADAMS surmises, in the time of Grattan's Parliament. Amongst the strange characters of those days in Dublin not the least singular was Sir Boyle Roche, Bart. As an officer of the British army he dis- tinguished himself in the American War. Retiring from the service, he obtained a seat in Parliament, and was, according to Mr. Froude, the buffoon of the Conservative

party in the Irish House of Commons. He was continually perpetrating "bulls," which the great Irish orator J. P. Curran, who disliked him very much, believed were the result of preparation. However, it may be mentioned that on one occasion, when oppos- ing a grant for some public works, Sir Boyle Roche remarked, "What, Mr. Speaker, so we are to beggar ourselves for the fear of vexing posterity ! Now, I would ask the honourable gentleman, and this still more honourable House, why we should put our- selves out of the way to do anything for posterity, for what has posterity done for us ? " When the roar of laughter which followed had subsided, Sir Boyle entered upon a lucid explanation. " I apprehend," he replied, "gentlemen have entirely mistaken my words. I assure the House that by posterity I do not mean my ancestors, but tnose who are to come immediately after them." It need hardly be added that Sir Boyle Roche voted for the Union, and was in conse-

Sjence granted a pension and a post in ublin Castle. He was a fine, bluff, and soldier-like old gentleman. He passed away on 5 June, 1807. HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

I have verified the reference to the letter of Mrs. Montagu, and find the date given (1 January, 1742) correct. Sir Boyle Roche, as a correspondent points out, is usually credited with the authorship of the saying, but he did not see the light until 1743. Trumbull is, of course, out of it. EDWARD LATHAM.

61, Friends' Road, East Croydon.

AUTHOR OF BOOK (9 th S. x. 347). The Rev. John Moore Capes, who was educated at Westminster and Balliol College, Oxford, was the author of ' Reasons for returning to the Church of England' (1871), 'To Rome and Back ' (1873), and other books. After taking Anglican orders he became a convert to the Roman Church ; he subsequently returned to the Anglican Communion, but became reconciled to the Roman Church before his death. G. F. R. B.

I have always understood, and never heard it denied, that the late J. M. Capes wrote the book referred to. It may be noted that Mr. Capes returned to, and died in, the Roman Communion. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B.

ST. NICOLAS (9 th S. x. 368). In annotating " St. Nicholas be thy speed " (' Two Gentle- men of Verona,' Act III. sc. i.) Charles Knight says the story of the deliverance of