Chapter C: H. P

Brighton, June 27.

LORD MAYOR NOT A PRIVY COUNCILLOR.

(Vol. iii., p. 496.)

This Query, and your answer, involve one or two important questions, which are worth a fuller solution than you have given.

The Lord Mayor is no more a Privy Councillor than he is Archbishop of Canterbury. The title of "Right Honourable," which has given rise to that vulgar error, is in itself a mere courtesy appended to the title of "Lord;" which is also, popularly, though not _legally_, given him: for in all _his own_ acts, he is designated officially as "Mayor" only. The courtesy-title of _Lord_ he shares with the Mayors of Dublin and York, the Lord-Advocate of Scotland, the younger sons of Dukes and Marquises, &c. &c., and all such _Lords_ are styled by courtesy "Right Honourable;" and this style of _Right Honourable_ is also given to Privy Councillors in virtue of their proper official title of "Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council." So, the "Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty." So much for the title. The fact stated in the Editor's answer, of the admission of the Lord Mayor _to the Council Chamber_ after some clamour, on the accession of William IV., is a mistake arising out of the following circumstances. On the demise of the crown, a London Gazette Extraordinary is immediately published, with a proclamation announcing the death of one sovereign and the accession of the other. This proclamation styles itself to be that of the--

"Peers Spiritual and Temporal of the Realm, _assisted_ by those of the late Privy Council, with numbers of _others_, Gentlemen of Quality, with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London."

The proclamation is that of the _Peers_ alone, but _assisted_ by the _others_. The cause of this form is, that the demise of the crown dissolves the Privy Council, and used (till modern times) to dissolve parliaments, and abrogate the commissions of the Judges, and all other public officers; so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were the only subsisting authority. Hence _they_, of necessity, undertook the duty of proclaiming the new king, but they fortified themselves "_with the assistance of_ the principal gentlemen of quality, and of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens." This paper is first signed by the Peers, and then by all who happen to be present, promiscuously. At the accession of William IV., there were about 180 names, of which "J. Crowder, Mayor," stands the 106th. At the accession of Queen Victoria, there were about 160 names, of which "Thomas Kelly, Mayor," is the 111th. And in both cases we find the names of the Aldermen, Sheriffs, Town Clerk, City Remembrancer, and several others,--private citizens, and many altogether private persons, who happened to come to the palace at that time.

It is obvious that all this has nothing to do with the Privy Council, for, in fact, at that moment, no Privy Council exists. But while these things are going on in an outward room of the palace, where everybody is admitted, the new sovereign commands the attendance of the late Privy Council in the council chamber, where the old Privy Councillors are generally (I suppose always) re-sworn of the new council; and _then_ and _there_ are prepared and promulgated several acts of the new sovereign, to which are prefixed the names of the Privy Councillors present. Now, to this _council_ chamber the Lord Mayor is no more admitted than the Town Clerk would be, and to these acts of the council _his name has never appeared_.

All these facts appear in the _London Gazettes_ for the 27th June, 1830, and the 30th June, 1837; and similar proceedings took place in Dublin; though since the Union the practice is at least superfluous.

This establishes the _rationale_ of the case, but there is a precedent that concludes it:--

"On the 27th May, 1768, Mr. Thomas Harley, then Lord Mayor of
London, was sworn of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council!"

--an honour never since conferred on any Mayor or Alderman, and which could not have been conferred on him if he had already been of that body.

C.

DR. ELRINGTON'S EDITIONS OF USSHER'S WORKS.

(Vol. iii., p. 496.)

In reply to your correspondent C. PAINE, JUN. I beg to say that this University has recently requested me to undertake the completion of Ussher's works. Dr. Elrington has left about half the fourteenth volume printed off: but I have found considerable difficulty in ascertaining what he intended to print, or what ought to be printed, in the remaining half. The printed portion contains the archbishop's Theological Lectures, in reply to Bellarmine, never before published.[2] I have found amongst Dr. Elrington's papers a volume of sermons (a MS. of the latter half of the seventeenth century), which are attributed, in the MS. itself, to Ussher; but the authenticity of these sermons is, it appears to me, very doubtful. I therefore hesitate to print them.

[Footnote 2: Elrington's Life of _Ussher_, p. 26.]

I am anxious to find a treatise on the Seventy Weeks, by Ussher, which I have some reason to think once existed in MS. This tract, with another on the question of the Millennium, from Rev. xx. 4., formed the exercises which he performed for the degree of D.D., at the commencement of the University in 1612: and I remember Dr. Elrington telling me (if I did not mistake his meaning), that he intended to print them in the fourteenth volume. My difficulty is, that I cannot find them amongst Ussher's MSS., and I do not know where they are to be had. Some imperfect fragments on the Seventy Weeks are preserved in MS. in Trinity College Library, in Ussher's autograph; but they are far too crude and unfinished for publication.

The _Bibliotheca Theologica_, a work on the same plan as Cave's _Scriptores Ecclesiastici_, exists in MS. in the Bodleian Library, and a copy from the Bodleian MS. is in Dublin. This work has not been included in Dr. Elrington's edition; and I remember his discussing the subject with me, and deciding not to print it. His reasons were these:--1. It is an unfinished work, which the archbishop did not live to complete. 2. It is full of errors, which our present increased materials and knowledge of the subject would easily enable us to correct; but the correction of them would swell the work to a considerable extent. 3. The work was used, and is frequently quoted by Cave, who seems to have published the most valuable parts of it. Its publication, therefore, would not add anything to our knowledge, whilst it would probably detract, however unfairly, from the archbishop's reputation: for the public seldom make allowances for an unfinished work. 4. It would probably make _three_, if not _four_ volumes; and Dr. Elrington did not think its publication of sufficient importance to warrant so great an addition to the cost and bulk of the Works.

The _System of Theology_ having been disclaimed by Ussher himself (although it is quoted as his by the Committee of the Privy Council in their decision of the "Gorham Case"), has not been included by Dr. Elrington in the collection of Ussher's works.

I shall be much obliged to MR. PAYNE, or to any other of your correspondents, if he will give me any information respecting the treatises on the Seventy Weeks and on the Millennium, or any other advice which may assist me in the completion of the fourteenth volume.

I may add, that it is my intention, with the able assistance of my learned friend Dr. Reeves, of Ballymena, to print a complete index to Ussher's Works, which will be compiled by Dr. Reeves, and is now in active preparation. The references to the more important works, such as the _Primordia_, and _Annals_, will be so contrived as to be applicable to the old editions, as well as to Dr. Elrington's edition. This Index will form the seventeenth volume of the Works.

JAMES H. TODD.

Trinity Coll., Dublin, June 21. 1851.

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Mind your P's and Q's_ (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 357. 463. 523.).--I have always thought that the phrase "Mind your P's and Q's" was derived from the school-room or the printing-office. The forms of the small "p" and "q" in the Roman type, have always been puzzling to the child and the printer's apprentice. In the one, the down-ward stroke is on the left of the oval; in the other, on the right. Now, when the types are reversed, as they are when in the process of distribution they are returned by the compositor to his case, the mind of the young printer is puzzled to distinguish the "p" from the "q." In sorting _pie_, or a mixed heap of letters, where the "p" and the "q" are not in connexion with any other letters forming a word, I think it would be almost impossible for an inexperienced person to say which is which upon the instant. "Mind your _p_'s and _q_'s"--I write it thus, and not "Mind your P's and Q's"--has a higher philosophy than mind your _toupées_ and your _queues_, which are things essentially different, and impossible to be mistaken. It means, have regard to small differences; do not be deceived by apparent resemblances; learn to discriminate between things essentially distinct, but which look the same; be observant; be cautious.

CHARLES KNIGHT.

_Serius Seriadesque_ (Vol. iii., p. 494.).--Il Serio, a tributary to the Adda, which falls into the Po. Il Serio is, like the Po, remarkable for the quantity of foam floating upon it, and also for disappearing under ground, through part of its course.

DE CAMERA.

_Catharine Barton_ (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 434.).--A correspondent has asked what was the maiden name of this lady, the widow, as he calls her, of Colonel Barton. I have a note of Charles Montagu, writing of her as "the beautiful, witty, and accomplished Catharine Barton," and have marked her as the daughter of Major Barton, but cannot find my authority. What follows is hardly likely to be of use to your correspondent, though it may, possibly, suggest to him a channel of inquiry. The Rev. Alexander Chalmers married Catharine Ekins, a niece of Mr. Conduitt, to whose daughter he was guardian after her father's death. Mrs. Chalmers had a brother who was rector or vicar of Barton, Northamptonshire. Alexander Chalmers was rector of St. Katharine Coleman, London, and of Burstow, Surrey; clerk of St. Andrew's, Holborn; chaplain to the forces at Gibraltar and Port Mahon: he died in 1745, and was buried in St. Katharine's: his wife was of the family of Ekins, of Rushden, in Northamptonshire. On August 12, 1743, Alexander Chalmers writes, "This will be delivered you by my cousin Lieut. Mathew Barton," probably his wife's cousin: in another letter he speaks of Miss Conduitt as his wife's cousin. Mr. Conduitt died 23rd of May, 1737, and his widow's "unexpected death" seems to be alluded to in a letter in 1740.

DE CAMERA.

_Alterius Orbis Papa_ (Vol. iii., p. 497.).--This was not, as A.B.'s informant thinks, a title of honour bestowed by any Supreme Pontiff upon any Archbishop of Canterbury, but a mere verbal compliment passed by Pope Urban II. upon St. Anselm, when the latter went to consult the former at Rome. The words are those of Gervase, the monk of Canterbury, who tells us:

"Tantam ejus gratiam habuit, ut eum (Anselmum) alterius orbis
papam vocaret (Urbanus papa)."--Ed. _Twysden_, ii. 1327.

Eadmer, who was with the archbishop when he went to Italy, gives the following as the Pope's expressions:

"Cumque illum, utpote hominem cunctis liberalium artium
disciplinis innutritum, pro magistro teneamus et quasi comparem,
velut alterius orbis Apostolicum et Patriarcham jure venerandum
censeamus."--_AA. SS. Aprilis_, t. ii. 886.