Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/360

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296


NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 B. VL JUSE 12. MM.


DIETS OF THE Swiss CONFEDERATION. In Murray's ' Switzerland,' 19th ed. (London, 1 904) at p. xcix. it is stated :

" At the close of the period of the Keformation, Switzerland was divided into two religious leagues, holding separate Diets, the Catholics at Luzern, the Protestants at Aarau."

But was Aarau ever the seat of a Diet before 1798 ? Muryay (p. 458) says :

" When the armies of the French Revolution took possession of Switzerland in 1798, and destroyed its ancient form of government, Aarau was made for a short time capital of the ' Helvetic Republic.' "

For how long was Luzern the seat of a Diet ?

At p. 456 Murray says :

" From about 1426 to 1712 the Diets of the Swiss Confederation were usually held at Baden.'

Baden was then capital of a county of the same name ; but is now in the canton of Aargau.

'The Swiss Tourist' (London, 1816), at p. 83, says :

" The canton of Zurich is the first of the thirteen Swiss cantons ; it presides at the diets, has the right of convoking them, and receives the letters addressed to the cantons by sovereigns ; but it derives no other advantage from this honorary right."

But by 1816 the " thirteen Swiss cantons " had become twenty-two, so ' The Swiss Tourist ' is hardly up to date. How long was Zurich the Swiss capital ?

At p. 84 ' The Swiss Tourist ' states : " Frauenfeld is the capital of Thurgovia, it would not have been known had not the diets of the Swiss been held here."

When were they so held ?

Berne has been the seat of the Swiss Federal Government and of the Federal Assembly since 1848.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

VOLTAIRE'S 'CANDIDE.,' PART II. Can any reader give information on the date or authenticity of a part ii. of Voltaire's ' Candide ? It does not appear, so far as I can discover, in standard editions of Voltaire, but is included in a very old edition of ' Candide ' that is in my possession. E. T. TROUBRIDGE.

Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, S.W.I.

FRANK BARBER, DR. JOHNSON'S BLACK SERVANT. Can any reader tell me of any books other than Boswell's ' Life of Johnson ' in which I may find any details concerning the above man ? E. LEGGATT.

Chase Side, Enfield.


BARON TAYLOR. This person is compli- mentarily mentioned and his excellent qualities described in Borrow's ' Bible in. Spain ' (cap. xv.), as an authority on art. He certainly was the person appointed by the French Government to whom was en- trusted the selection of pictures at Duxbury Hall, Chorley Lane, bequeathed to King Louis Phillipo I. by Frank Hall Standislu There is no trace of Baron Taylor in the ' D.N.B. ' or elsewhere. "Who was he ?

M. N.

DIOCESAN CALENDARS AND GAZETTES. Now that the date of the earliest ' Clerical 1 Directory ' has virtually been settled, may one ask for the following information, if- only for the purpose of getting the facts or* record : (1) Which diocese, and in what year, started the first Diocesan Calendar ? And (2) which diocese, and in what year, started the monthly periodical entitled The Diocesan: Gazette or Magazine ?

J. CLARE HUDSON.

Thornton Vicarage, Horncastle.

A. H. G. This is A. H. Grant who con- tributed poems to London Society. Ralph Thomas, in his ' Handbook of Fictitious Names ' (1868), says a pseudonymous, work in two volumes has been prepared by this author. Was this book ' The Litera- ture and Curiosities of Dreams,' 2 vols., London, 1865, and published under the pseudonym of Frank Seafield, M.A., a second edition of which appeared in 1869 ? ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

MAJOR JOHN BERNARDI. ' A History of the Life of Major John Bernardi, who departed this Life, Sept. 18, 1736, written by him in Newgate, where he was upwards, of forty years a prisoner,' was published in 1737 in 8vo. Who and what was he ?

I. F.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. , 1. Who was the Chancellor (?) who is men-, tioned in ' The Book- of Lawyers' (? author) who,, after entertaining the Bar at breakfast, and receiving purees from the members, used to ex- claim, with a lisp in his speech, " Oh, custom, custom, what a tyrant thou art." W. H. L.

2. What is the author's name and the title of' the (sacred ?) poem in which these lines occur : This world I deem but a beautiful dream Of shadows that are not what they seem,

Where arise giving dim surmise

Of the that shall meet our waking eyes.

L. W. P. LEWIS.. Solva, Guiseley, near Leeds.