Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 2

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Note 19. Page 283.

A detainer signifies a writ, by means of which a prisoner, once arrested, may be detained at the suit of any other creditor.

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Note 20. Page 285.

The last acts of the kind are those for abolishing Arrest on Mesne Process (see ante, p. 282, note) and amending the Insolvent Laws, (stat. 1 and 2 Vict. c. 110, § 78, and 7 and 8 Vict. c. 96, § 59.)

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Note 21. Page 312.

For a really short-sighted person a concave glass, and for a too long-sighted man a convex glass, is requisite: but simpletons who wear a glass for mere appearance' sake, have one through which they can really see—i. e. a piece of common window-glass. Three-fourths of the young men about town wear the last kind of glass.

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Note 22. Page 316.

Since this was written, Great Britain has, by the demonstration of her irresistible naval and military power, and by the wisdom of her diplomacy, totally changed our relations with China—which has opened to us five of her ports, ceded to us a great island, and entered into a commercial treaty with us!

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Note 23. Page 339.

Hor. Carm. V., iv.

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Note 24. Page 352.

Plowden's Commentaries, 308, a, (Sharrington v. Strotton.)

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Note 25. Page 362.

About the time when this was originally written, there was a person who, chiefly at Windsor, occasioned much surprise and curiosity by the power which he appeared to exercise over horses, by touching, as he alleged, a particular nerve within the mouth.

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Note 26. Page 372.

Per bend Ermine and Pean, two lions rampant combatant, counter-changed, armed and langued Gules; surmounted by three bendlets undee Argent, on each three fleurs-de-lis Azure; on a chief Or, three Titmice volant proper; all within a bordure gobonated Argent and Sable.

Crest.—On a cap of maintenance a Titmouse proper, ducally gorged Or, holding in his beak a woodlouse embowed Azure. Motto—"Je le tiens."

Note.—The Author was favored, on the first appearance of this portion of the work, with several complimentary communications on the subject of Sir Gorgeous Tintack's feats in heraldry: and one gentleman eminent in that science, and to whom the author is indebted for the annexed spirited drawing, has requested the author to annex to the separate edition, as he now does, the two following very curious extracts from old heraldic writers:—the first, supporting the author's ridicule of the prevalent folly of devising complicated coats of arms; and the second being a very remarkable specimen of the extent to which an enthusiast in the science was carried on its behalf.

First—"An other thing that is amisse, as I take it, and hath great neede to be reformed, is the quartering of many markes in one shield, coate, or banner; for sithence it is true that such markes serue to no other vse, but for a commander to lead by, or to be known by, it is of necessitie that the same should be apparent, faire, and easie to be understoode: so that the quartering of many of them together, doth hinder the vse for which they are provided.—As how is it possible for a plaine unlearned man to discover and know a sunder, six or eight—sometimes thirty or forty several marks clustered altogether in one shield or banner, nay, though he had as good skill as Robert Glower, late Somerset that dead is, and the eies of an egle, amongst such a confusion of things, yet should he never be able to decipher the errors that are dalie committed in this one point, nor discover or know one banner or standard from an other, be the same neuer so large?"—Treatise on the True Use of Armes—by Mr. Sampson Erdswicke, [a famous antiquary in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.]

[Secondly.—An extract from the Book of St. Alban's, written late in the fifteenth century, by Dame Juliana Berners, Abbess of St. Alban's]—

"Cain and all his offspring became churls both by the curse of God, and his own father. Seth was made a gentleman, through his father and mother's blessing, from whose loins issued Noah, a gentleman by kind and lineage. Of Noah's sons, Chem became a churl by his father's curse, on account of his gross barbarism towards his father. Japhet and Shem, Noah made gentlemen. From the offspring of gentlemanly Japhet came Abraham, Moyses, and the Prophets, and also the King of the right line of Mary, of whom that only absolute gentleman [one of our oldest dramatists speaks of our Saviour in an earnest sense as "the first true gentleman that ever lived"] Jesus was borne; perfite God and perfite man according to his manhood, King of the land of Juda, and the Jewes, and gentleman by his Mother Mary, princess of coate Armour."

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Note 27. Page 374.

I vehemently suspect myself guilty of a slight anachronism here; this ancient and illustrious monarchy having been mediatized by the congress of Vienna in 1815—its territories now forming part of the parish of Hahnroost, in the kingdom of –.

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Note 28. Page 399.

Ante, p. 265.

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Note 29. Page 415.

Μήδεια, 1036-9. Anglicé: Alas, alas, my children! why do you fondly fix your eyes upon me? Why beams upon me that last smile of yours? Oh, woe! woe! is me! What shall I do? For now that I have seen the bright eyes of my little ones, my heart is broken!

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Note 30. Page 415.

Ezek. xii. 18.

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Note 31. Page 453.

Since this work was published, a very important statute (6 and 7 Vict. c. 85) was passed, in the year 1843, for removing the incompetency to give evidence, by reason of any crime, or interest.

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Note 32. Page 456.

When once a man's necessities have compelled him to subscribe his name to the three magical letters "I. O. U.," he is liable for the sum specified in it to any one simply producing it, though it be addressed to no one, and no proof be given that "U" means the plaintiff, (see Curtis v. Rickards, Manning and Grainger, 46; and Douglas v. Hone, 12 Adolphus and Ellis, 641,) unless the defendant be able to adduce clear evidence impeaching the plaintiff's right to recover.

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Note 33. Page 461.

The late venerable and gifted Lord Stowell, in the case of Evans v. Evans, 1 Consistory Reports, p. 36.

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Note 34. Page 466.

Some have imagined this to be an allusion to a disclosure pretended by M. Thiers, a few years ago, after the death of Lord Holland, to have been made to him by that nobleman, of what had passed at a Cabinet council!!