Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/505

 9<s. vii. JUNE 22, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

497

QUOTATIONS (9 fch S. vi. 489 ; vii. 74, 170). By way of practically illustrating the defini- tion of gratitude now being discussed in your columns, may I (with sincere thanks for the kind replies already received) ask the "chapter and verse" of the following additional dicta, which, so far, have entirely baffled my searching ?

1. "Le divorce est le sacrement de 1'adultere." G. F. Guichard.

2. " Cette longue et cruelle maladie qu'on appelle la vie." Mile, de 1'Espinasse.

3. "Les amis, ces parents cue Ton se fait soi- me'me." Emile (or Eustache) Deschamps.

4. Un seul endroit y mene, et de ce seul endroit Droite et raide est la cote, et le sentier troit.

Chapelin (or Chapelain).

5. " Maxima in minimis natura." Linnaeus. " Natura prsestat in minimis." Linnaeus.

" Rerum natura, nusquam magis quam in mini- mis, tota est." Pliny.

6. " Mourir n'est rien, c'est notre derniere heure." De la Palisse.

7. "Veuve d'un peuple-roi, mais reine encore du monde."

8. "Nemo potest impetrare a papa bullam nun- quam moriendi." Thomas a Kempis.

9. " Un livre est un ami qui ne trompe jamais." Desbarreaux Bernard.

PHILIP NOKTH.

THE ACACIA IN FREEMASONRY (9 th S. vii. 9, 112, 213). The twigs I saw used at a Masonic funeral ceremony I witnessed as a guest, at Montpellier, in the spring of 1872, were those of Lycium barbarum, the Barbary box thorn, or Duke of Argyll's (sic in Loudon's 'A. and F. B.,' iii. 1270) tea tree, the straggling bush-creeper so often seen over garden walls on the south coast. The same twigs were used by the general public at the churches on Palm Sunday in lieu of the more usual box. Rather curiously in this connexion, there is in Loudon's Maga- zine of Natural History, No. 66, Oct., 1836, vol. ix. pp. 528-32, a " Notice of a Congrega- tion of Moths found in the Interior of a Tree of the False Acacia (Robinia pseud- acacia, L.). By J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S."

THOMAS J. JEAKES. Tower House, New Hampton.

A COMPANY OF MINERS (9 th S. vii. 390). In 'Rank and Badges,' by Ottley L. Perry, 1887, p. 140d, is the following :

" The date of formation of the Royal Engineers is 1780 (George III.). This corps had then existed since 1683 as a civil corps. Military Engineer officers were previously called 'Trench Masters.' In 1622 (James I.) Sir William Pelham was ' Trench Master.' (See Haydn's ' Dates.') In 1717 (August 22) the ' Military Artificers ' were placed under the 'Ordnance Department,' &c. The title up to October, 1856, was 'Royal Sappers and Miners'; and, previous to that, 'Royal Military Artificers'

up to March 5, 1813. Between 1704 and 1780, the Military Artificers were recruited from the Royal Artillery. See Scott's 'British Army,' vol iii pp. 333-336, and T. W. J. Conolly's ' History of the Royal Sappers and Miners.'"

Also see ' The British Army : its Regimental Records, Badges, Devices, <fec.,' by Major J. H. Lawrence Archer, 1888, pp. 110-12 :

"According to Clode's 'Military Forces of the Crown, this scientific corps acquired its military character so far back as 25 July, 1683. But it was really not until the promulgation of the Order in Council of 22 August, 1717, that the Engineers became part of the military branch of the Ordnance Department. In 1759, on the reorganization of the corps, the military rank of the Royal Engineers was not. noticed ; yet it appears to have been established on 14 May, 1757, when all were commissioned by the sovereign. It was not, however, until 1788 that a body of non-commissioned officers and men were raised in England by the enlistment of arti- ficers in the employment of the Board of Ord- nance, &c."

In the 'Army List' of 1763, under the heading of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, of which regiment Viscount Ligonier was Colonel Commander -in -Chief and Master- General of Ordnance, the name of William Phillips appears in the list of captains, his commission to that rank bearing date 12 May, 1756. He was promoted to be brevet lieu tenant -colonel 15 August, 1760. It is evident that he was not an officer of Engineers, for in the list which is given, following that of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, his name is not mentioned. The designations of the various ranks in the Engineers in 1763 are of interest. I presume they were the same in 1757 when William Skinner was appointed Chief, 14 May : Chief, with rank as Colonel of Foot ; Director, with rank as Lieutenant- Colonel of Foot ; Sub-Director, with rank as Major of Foot ; Engineer in Ordinary, with rank as Captain of Foot ; Engineer Extra- ordinary, with rank as Captain-Lieutenant of Foot ; Sub-Engineer, with rank as Lieu- tenant of Foot ; Practitioner Engineer, with rank as Ensign of Foot.

Beatson in the 'Political Index' of 1786 mentions that "the Office of Ordnance is divided into two distinct branches, the Civil and the Military ; the latter being subordi- nate, and under the authority of the former." Also in writing of the Master-General of the Ordnance :

" He is deemed the principal officer in the civil branch of the Ordnance ; yet he is always chosen ~rom amongst the first Generals in his Majesty's

jervice He is Colonel in Chief of the Royal

Regiment of Artillery, at present consisting of four >attalions ; and he is invested with a peculiar urisdiction over all his Majesty's engineers employed n the several fortifications in his Majesty's