Chapter C: Clifton Barry

"_Pay me tribute, or else_----."--In Mr. Bunn's late work, _Old England and New England_, I find this note:

"We all remember the haughty message of the ruler of a certain province
to the governor of a neighbouring one, 'Pay me tribute, or else----;'
and the appropriate reply, 'I owe you none, and if----.'"

Not being of the totality reminiscent, may I beg for enlightenment? The anecdote sounds well, and I am therefore curious to know who the governors and what the provinces?

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

"_A regular Turk._"--We often hear of people bad to manage being "regular Turks." When did the phrase originate? Though not a journal for politics, "N. & Q." will no doubt breathe a wish for the present sultan to be, in the approaching warfare, "a regular Turk."

PRESTONIENSIS.

_Benjamin Rush._--I found the following in an old paper:

"Edinburgh, June 14, 1768. Yesterday Benjamin Rush, of the city of
Philadelphia, A. M., and Gustavus Richard Brown, of Maryland, were
admitted to the honour of a degree of Doctors of Physic, in the
university of this place, after having undergone the usual
examinations, both private and public. The former of whom was also
presented some time before with the freedom of this city."

The Benjamin Rush here referred to subsequently became quite eminent as a physician. He took an active part in the struggle between the American colonies and the mother country, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. One of his sons was the American minister to London a few years since.

Can any of your readers inform me why the freedom of Edinburgh was conferred upon him? In 1768 he could not have been over twenty-five years of age.

INQUIRER.

_Per Centum Sign._--Will you kindly inform me why the symbol % means per centum: viz. 5 %, 10 %, &c.?

JAMES MILLS.

_Burial Service Tradition._--About forty years ago, a young man hung himself. When his body was taken to the church for interment, the clergymen refused reading the burial service over him; his friends took him to another parish, and the clergyman of that place refused also; they then removed him to an adjoining one, and the clergyman received him and buried him. The last clergyman said, if any friend of the deceased had cut off his right hand, and laid it outside the coffin, no clergyman then could refuse legally receiving and burying the corpse. Query, is this true?

May I ask your readers for an answer, as it will oblige many friends. The above happened in Derbyshire.

S. ADAMS, Curate.

_Jean Bart's Descent on Newcastle._--I find no notice, either in Sykes's _Local Records_, or in Richardson's _Local Historian's Table-book_, of the descent made on Newcastle in 1694 by the celebrated Jean Bart, whom the Dutch nicknamed "De Fransch Duyvel." Somewhere or other I have seen it stated that he returned to France with an immense booty. Perhaps some of your north country correspondents can tell us whether any record of his visit exists in the archives of the corporation of Newcastle or elsewhere?

WILLIAM BROCKIE.

Russell Street, South Shields.

_Madame de Stael._--In _Three Months in Northern Germany_, p. 151., 1817, the following, passage occurs among some corrections of the mistakes of Madame de Stael:

"She knew the language imperfectly, read little, and misrepresented the
gossip which she heard, either from carelessness or misunderstanding.
When she censures Fichte, who she says had received no provocation from
Nicolai, for helping Schlegel to write a dull book against him when he
was too old to reply, she must have been ignorant of the fact, that
Nicolai lived and wrote many years after the publication; and that,
whether provoked or not, it is far from dull."

I cannot find any mention of this dispute in Madame de Stael's _De l'Allemagne_, and shall be glad if any of your readers can direct me to the passage in her works, and also to the joint work of Schlegel and Fichte.

R. A.

Ox. and C. Club.

_Honoria, Daughter of Lord Denny._--I should be extremely obliged to any of your correspondents if they could give me the date of the death of Honoria, daughter and heiress of Edward, Lord Denny, who was married to James Hay, afterwards Earl Carlisle, on the 6th of January, 1607. She had issue James, second Earl of Carlisle, who died in 1660. As James Hay, then Baron Hay of Sawley, married his second wife (Lucy, daughter of Henry, Earl of Northumberland) in November 1617, the time of the first Lady Hay's death is fixed between 1607 and 1617.

AUGUSTUS JESSOPP.

N.B.--"Bis dat qui cito dat."

Rectory, Papworth St. Agnes.

_Hospital of John of Jerusalem._--Is there any book or manuscript relating to the proceedings of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, {452} which enters so fully into particulars as to give the names of the members of the society and its officers about the year 1300?