506
NOTES AND QUERIES. do* s. i. JUNE 25, 1004.
stated that "Sir James Graham, as Home
Secretary, had Mazzini's letters so opened in
1844." No exception can be taken to the
definition of " grahamize," but the statement
that Sir James Graham had Mazzini's letters
-opened is not quite accurate, though it repre-
sents the common opinion and is accepted
by many historians and writers. In the
'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' s.v. 'Graham,'
we read that in 1844 the detention and
opening of letters at the post office by his
'{Sir James Graham's] warrant raised a storm
of public indignation." In Justin McCarthy's
'History of our Own Times' the charge of
opening Mazzini's letters is brought against
Graham ; and the reference to the subject in
Sir Spencer Walpole's ' History of England '
is indexed as follows, " Graham, Sir J., opens
Mazzini's letters," and " Mazzini, opening of
his letters by Sir J. Graham."
The agitation of 1844 about the opening and detention of letters is now almost for- gotten ; but whatever odium attaches to the opening of Mazzini's letters is still borne by Sir James Graham. A secret committee of the House of Commons, which sat in 1844, reported that Mazzini's letters had been interrupted in the post under a warrant issued by Graham and were sent to the Home Office, whence they were dispatched unopened to the Foreign Office. The warrant for detaining the letters was issued by Graham at the request of his colleague Lord Aberdeen, the Foreign Secretary, and he, not Graham, opened and read Mazzini's letters. But, as is pointed out in the life of Graham in the ^D.N.B.,' " Lord Aberdeen held his tongue,arid allowed the whole storm to burst on Graham." J. A. J. HOUSDEN.
"WiTHERSHiNS." -This is the most repre- sentative way that occurs to me of writing & word which was lately told me as meaning contra clockwise, or from left to right, the opposite of with the sun. I do not find it in Jarnieson's ' Provincial Dictionary.'
Might I venture to guess that the first two syllables correspond to the German wieder ?
T. WILSON.
Harpenden.
[The surmise as to the origin of the word is correct: Anglo-Saxon ioider=a,ga,inst, answers to the German ivieder. ]
PIGEON ENGLISH AT HOME. Another execrable departure is recently noticeable. The promoters of that very excellent idea, a dam across the Thames at Gravesend, peak of "dockizing" the river, instead of .endocking it. I have not seen " dockify " yet, but am in daily anticipation of it ; my hopes
this way are encouraged by the use of the
word " actify " in the Times of 14 June, in
a case where the word enact did not jump to
the writer's mind at the moment. It might
also be questioned whether "barrage" is a
justifiable alternative to dam.
EDWARD SMITH.
MACKLINIANA. Judge Parry, at p. 120 of his excellent monograph on Charles Macklin, reproduces Kirkman's detailed statement of the receipts during the Smock Alley engage- ment of 1763-4, together with Macklin's moiety of the nightly takings. As he con- fesses- his inability to explain on what principle the actor's profits were calculated, it may be as well to point out that the residue was shared equally between Macklin and the manager after 401. had been deducted for the nightly charges of the house. This applies to all save four of the items, viz., 2 and 22 Dec., 20 Jan., and 26 Feb., in which the shillings or the pence (mostly the latter) in Macklin's moieties will not work out. Doubt- less this is due to miscopying on Kirkman's part or to subsequent misprints.
I remark also that in the list of Macklin's
?lays given by Judge Parry at p. 196 ' The rue-Born Irishman,' otherwise 'The Irish Fine Lady,' is spoken of as " not printed." This is incorrect. I have both seen and read a copy, and well remember its blunt satire and strong characterization. In this latter quality it recalled to me Holcrof t at his best, say in ' The Road to Ruin.'
Judge Parry mentions a head of Macklin as Shylock, by Zoffany, in the National Gallery of Ireland. The same collection possesses an admirable full-length portrait of the sturdy old actor as Sir Pertinax MacSycophant, the work of De Wilde. It is probably a replica of the painting in the Garrick Club. W. J. LAWRENCE.
Dublin.
JAGGARD-PRINTED BOOKS. (See 4 th S. iv. 409.) It is a far cry back to 1869, when a query appeared with reference to books printed by William Jaggard and Ed. Blount.
Lengthy lists of the Jaggard press appeared in the Athenceum for 18 January, 1902, and following issues, and for 24 January, 1903. The querist seemed to doubt whether Wm. Jaggard really printed the works he pub- lished. Reference to the Registers of the Stationers' Company should set such sus- picions at rest. WM. JAGGARD.
139, Canning Street, Liverpool.
AMBAN. It is well remarked that the peaceful intervention now in progress for Lhasa rouses an interest in philological
