Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/256

 324 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. iv. Oct. 21, m the Devonshire and Pitt ministry. Pitt was dismissed in April, 1757. From April, until the appointment or the ministry of Pitt and Newcastle on the following 29 June, all was "confusion." 2. In a postscript Horace Walpole adds : " I have just heard that your cousin Halifax has resigned, on Pitt's not letting him be secre- tary for the West Indies." Lord Halifax was President of the Board of Trade (1748-1761). In June, 1756, Pitt was powerless to create the separate department which was the object of Halifax's ambition, as he did not come into office (as Secretary of State) until December, 1756. In a letter of Horace Wal- pole to Mann, dated 20 June, 1757 (vol. iii. p. 84), Walpole writes: " Lord Halifax had often and lately been promised to be erected into a Secretary of State for the West Indies. Mr. Pitt says, ' No, I will not part with so much power.' Lord Halifax resigned on Saturday and Lord Dupplin succeeds him." In the following letter to Mann (3 July, 1757). Horace Walpole writes in a postscript: " Lora Dupplin is not as yet first Lord of Trade, there are negotiations for recovering Lord Halifax." As regards the date of the letter to Mon- tagu, 18 June fell in 1757 on Saturday. We know from Walpole himself, in his letter to Mann of 20 June, 1757 (which was a Monday), that Halifax resigned on the previous Satur- day, viz., 18 June, the actual day on which Walpole was writing to Montagu. As the ministerial confusion and Halifax's offer to resign mentioned by Walpole must be referred to June, 1757, the letter under dis- cussion undoubtedly belongs to that year, and should be placed between Nos. 508 and 509 in vol. iii. of Cunningham's edition. The author of the article on Halifax in the ' Dictionary of National Biography' (see ' Dunk, George Montagu, second Earl of Halifax') writes in reference to his reported resignation :— " Walpole states that Halifax twice resigned (in June, 1756, and again in June, 1757), and on both occasions the ground of his resignation was that he had not been promoted to the dignity of Secretary of State for the West Indies." This statement that Halifax twice resigned "in June," and both times on the same ground, is evidently due to the misplacement by Walpole's editors of the above letter to Montagu in which Halifax's resignation is first announced. Helen Toynbee. Garrick's Snuff-box.—Mr. Schomberg's recent query in regard to his silver medal to recall the fact that the amber snuff-box formerly belonging to the famous actor is permanently located under the roof of the club which bears his name. This interesting relic was given by Garrick's widow to my grandfather, and was bequeathed as recorded by my late uncle, Edward Salmon Clarke. His death occurred in 1894, so that the date (1890) upon the title-page of that volume of the 'Diet. Nat. Biog. which treats of the player explains, of course, the absence of any reference to the bequest : but the numerous portraits of Garrick which grace the walls of the club are duly indicated. Cecil Clarke. Authors' Club, S.W. [See 9th S. iv. 227.] Human Strength.—In delving into the Alpine Jownal I find in vol. xii. p. 100 (1884) so remarkable a statement of the muscular strength of the Bhooteas, that extraordinary border tribe of India, that it should be com- mitted to the pages of ' N. & Q.' It appears in an article, by Mr. D. W. Freshfield, on the well-known ascent of Kabru by Mr. W. W. Graham in 1883, and on the criticisms thereon by Himalayan travellers. The particular statement is quoted from the number for 27 July (weekly issue) of the Pioneer of Alla- habad, and comes from a caustic criticism of Mr. Graham's climbs, by one who signed himself " Thirty Years a Wanderer in the Himalayas." The writer says:— " The Bhooteas of the adjacent tracts, many of whom find their way to Darjeeling during the market-days, have been asked whether the summit of Kabru could be reached from Jongri, and they positively state that they would not venture to make the attempt under any circumstances. They are as strong and steady a race of men as any in the world, and certainly where a goat could climb they could. There is a well-authenticated story of a Bhootea woman who, with a grand piano on her back, accomplished a journey of forty-six miles in three days." W. H. Quarrell. William Owen. (See ante, p. 253.) — We have an admirable example of this painter at Gredington, co. Flint, in the portrait of Dr. Andrew Bell, well known as the pioneer of national education, who was an intimate friend of my grandfather, George, the second Lord Kenyon. George T. Kenyon. Booksellers' Blunders.—May I be per- mitted to point out two blunders not unfre- quently to be found in booksellers' catalogues that are apt to offend the susceptibilities of bibliographers ? 1. The Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., the author of with its effigy of David Garrick tempts nle several standard works on ecclesiastical and