Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/528

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. xn. DEC. 26, im.

preaching completion. One reading the present, as any previous section, will be pleased and edified by observing how much is taken from our pages, and how much beside deals precisely with those matters which are specially the object of 'N. & Q.' Turn for instance, to tune, and find how Steele employ "the tune of a thousand pounds," and how an ok ballad (which?) gives us "the tune the old cow died of." Very interesting is it, moreover, to com pare with the slang of yesterday that of to-day .and find how, while much of it is fluctuating, a large quantity dates back to early times and is stil .used with the same significance as before. America of course, supplies us with abundance of new form of expression, as do the British dependencies.

As regards the new issue of vol. i., it may be .scheme has expanded and developed. At a con .siderable cost, accordingly, the volume is reprintec with alterations and additions. It contains three times the amount given in the earlier volume and will, the surviving editor holds, be the only one that will be finally inquired for. Its purchase is none the less optional. In the case of one word in A, of familiar but unrefined use, we ifind nine columns instead of half a column devotee to it, the new illustrative instances of use including .quotations from the glossary of ^Elfric, ' Piers Plowman,' Wyclif, Chaucer, 'Jack Jugler,' and other authorities, down to Mr. E. Peacock's ' Lin- colnshire Glossary.' In order to make room for this a quotation from ' Punch's Almanack ' under "Arry," occupying three and a half columns, .and similar matters disappear. Many words .are now introduced for the first time. There can be no question that with the scholar the new edition of the first volume is destined to replace the old.
 * said that since the appearance of that volume the

Three. Frenchmen in, Bengal ; or, the Commercial Ruin of the French Settlement* in 1757 Bv 8 C Hill, B'.A. (Longmans & Co.)

IF the present work seems belated, the fault is not with the author. It is taken almost entirely from documents hitherto unpublished, and is, in fact, of high historical interest. When the substantive history of India is written, the present volume will facilitate the task of the historian. At present the heroical actions of Clive and the acquisition of India are, generally speaking, taken on trust, and there is little temptation to the public to listen afresh to a thrice- told tale. There is much, however, that tends to edification in the work, and the Englishman that reads it, what- ever pride he may derive from the deeds of valour -of his forefathers, will have to own them less chivalrous than their antagonists. Times, it must be owned, were difficult. A remarkable work creative of empire so far as England is concerned w-as being accomplished, and there was no time for those to whom it was entrusted to stand shilly- shallying, 4 letting ' I dare not ' wait upon ' I would ' like the poor cat i' th' adage." England was, more- over, at the time of the recorded action, at war \vith France, and we must find what consolation we may in the fact that the repayal of generosity on the part of the French by violence on that of the English was according to the code of war Laws Memoir,' which is one of the documents published is in the British Museum. The letters of Renault and Courtm are from the French -archives, which have been resolutely studied

Renault was the chief of Chandernagore, Law that of Cossimbazar, and Courtin that of Dacca. The volume containing their reports is illustrated with serviceable maps and plans. A study of it will be eminently serviceable to all who seek to understand how, from the competition for Indian possessions between England, France, and Holland, the first issued triumphant. The curse of the French East India was militarism. Civilians such as those now described might have accomplished much, but, through jealousy or some other cause, they were always left in a state of impotence. Whatever might be the result to France, this condition of affairs at least facilitated hugely English progress.

Poems of John Keats. (Frowde.) ON the exquisite India paper and in a miniature shape Mr. Frowde has issued an edition of Keats which may we have tried it be carried in the waistcoat-pocket, and is a mine of delight. Those who seek to give any person of taste and knowledge a present of small cost not value need not travel beyond this little volume.

THE forthcoming section of the ' X.E.D.,' by Dr. Murray, completes the letter 0, and brings the total number of words recorded to date to 175,107. Under " Outputter" will be found the record of a curious concatenation of dictionary blundering, due to the early misprint of this word as " out- parter." The military " overslaugh " has been in use for 130 years, but is now for the first time explained in an English dictionary. The chief verbs are " owe" and "own"; the former shows how a word originally meaning " have " or " possess " has come to mean "to be in debt," i.e., to have less than nothing. " Oyster," with its brood, industry and "astronomies, occupies three and a half columns.

We must call special attention to the following wtices :

ON all communications must be written the name ind address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- ication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

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ANTIQUARY. ' Francis Hawes' will appear next veek.

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