Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/433

 9* s. IL NOV. 26, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

425

"Commonly we see it incident in artificers to

be enamoured of their own works especially

painters, who, playing with their own conceits, now coveting to draw a glancing eye, then a rolling, now a winking, still mending it, never ending it, till they be caught with it ; and then," &c.

I have since found the use of the same alliteration also in the EIKWV ftao-tkiK-n, 8 15 p. 85, ed. 1648 (p. 115, ed. 1649):

" I had the charity to interpret that most part of my subjects fought against my supposed errors, not my person : and intended to mend me, not to end me.

2. The French proverb "II n'y a que le premier pas qui coute " is almost invariably misquoted by English writers and speakers in its opening words, and twisted into " Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute."

The proper form is the only form recog- nized by Littre', who (s. v. " pas," 28), after explaining its meaning as "le plus difficile en toutes choses est de commencer," goes on :

" Le Cardinal de Polignac, parlant du miracle de Saint Denis, appuyait beaucoup sur ce qu'il y a deux lieues de Paris k Saint Denis. Monseigneur, dit une femme d'esprit, il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute." Condil., 'Art d'Ecr.,' ii. 10.

So in the ' Liaisons Dangereuses ' of Cho- derlos de Laclos, Lettre cxlii. (vol. ii. p. 277, ed. Londres = Paris, 1796) :

" ; J'attendrai jusqu'a cinq heures, et si alors je n'ai pas eu de nouvelles, j irai en chercher moi- meme ; car, surtout en precedes, il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute."

So even in the French of the Italian Casa- nova, e. g., ' Me'moires,' vol. iv. c. xiii. p. 396 (ed. Paris, 1882) :

"Comme il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute

elle la laissa tomber."

Ibid. vol. vi. ch. ix. p. 317 :

"Le reste alia mieux, car il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute."

RICHARD HORTON SMITH. Athenaeum Club.

LFor " Mend or end," see 8 th S. v. 486 ; vi. 11, 277, 437; vii. 18; viii. 512; xii. 477. For "Coute qui covite," or, preferably, " Coute que coute," see 8 th S. ii. 391, 525, under 'Misquoted Proverbs.']

MANN, BRASS ENGRAVER, YORK. (See 7 th S. x. 305.) This note may be supplemented by a reference to the Yorksh. Archceol. Journ., xv. 35, where mention is made of a brass in Normanton Church, 1668, bearing "Tho. Mann, Eboraci, sculp." W. C. B.

OLD POSTAGE STAMPS. Can any one ex- plain what is done with the old penny postage stamps which so many people- children especially collect ? The fancy is not new. I remember it quite five -and -thirty years ago, and probably it was not new then.

From time to time I am reminded that it still goes on, and the following, from the Morning Post of 3 Nov., shows that it is not confined to our own county :

"M. le Chanoine de Roy, the head of the Semi- nary at Liege, has acquainted me with some of the marvellous results obtained by the collection of old postage stamps. Since the movement was started seven years ago 300,000,000 stamps havje been col- lected, which realized 50,000fr. With a portion of this sum the Belgian missionaries have been able to establish and thoroughly organize five Christian villages on the Congo. The collection of stamps is to be continued, and the proceeds will be de- voted to erecting a cathedral at Leopoldsville, in the Congo Free State."

Still, I put the heading of this as a question, What can be done with (old penny or other common) postage stamps ? The answer I get is always, It is for a mission, or a mission school, almost always Roman Catholic, gener- ally in China. I am quite unable to see the connexion between old stamps and a mission- ary school in China, or even in the Congo Free State. It appears from the cutting that it is not the stamps themselves that go to establish the school, but the money got for them. Then why is this money always to be raised by the sale of old stamps, instead of old boots, preserved-meat tins, or other use- less rubbish ? What further strikes me in this statement as to the Congo Mission is the smallness of the sum that does so much. Five Christian villages are established and tho- roughly organized for a part of 2,000^. All the same, who or what are the people who give 2,0001. for 300,000,000 bits of dirty paper; and what do they do with them when they have bought them ? J. K. LAUGHTON.

" CANONICALS." To a correspondent of the British Bee Journal of 22 Oct., p. 414, belongs the honour of being able to subscribe herself " ' Queen Bee,' Hon. Sec. W.D.B.K.A., Third- Class Expert B.B.K.A." She adds, " I must have the pleasure of signing my full canoni- cals for once." ST. SWITHIN.

CATHERINE MARIA FANSHAWE. (See ante, p. 380.) Doubtless by a slip of the pen, this talented lady is called Caroline at the above reference. As this is the second time I have seen her so called I venture to point out the mistake. A volume of her 'Literary Remains' was printed by Pickering in 1876.

A. T. M.

'LE PAIN BENIT DE MONSIEUR L'ABB DE MARIGNY.' This little book of only twenty- three pages was printed in 1673, without any indication of its origin. Seeing the title in a Paris catalogue, I wrote for it, expecting to