146
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. AUG. 23, 1913.
Without going far afield we can discover in familiar English literature two passages which would seem to put it beyond a doubt that this was no uncommon belief among presumably well-informed English writers in the eighteenth century.
In 'The Citizen of the World' (Letter XVII.) Goldsmith makes his Chinese philosopher declare in 1760, while terms of peace were being arranged, that
"the pretext of the war [between England and France] is about some lands a thousand leagues off, a country cold, desolate, and hideous. . . . .The English had been informed that those countries produced furs in great abundance. From that moment the country became an object of desire."
The article concludes in the vein of the one hundred and twenty-first of the 'Lettres Persanes,' contending that colonies are a source of weakness and even exhaustion to the mother-country. An experienced student of politics, however, may treat Goldsmith's obiter dicta as negligible quantities.
But what shall we say about Burke? Surely the weightiest of political thinkers in his time, whose wisdom in many Indian affairs is to some manifest, treats the Western colony somewhat cavalierly in 'Letters on a Regicide Peace' (Letter I.):—
" When I compare with this great cause of nations .... the dealing in a hundred or two of wild catskins on the other side of the globe, which have often kindled up the flames of war between nations, I stand astonished," &c. (1796).
Twenty years ago a fellow-traveller in an Italian railway carriage questioned the writer of this note as to his nationality, and met the answer . with a stare of be- wilderment, which was soon explained as signifying surprise over relative whiteness of skin and rather Caucasian quality of hair Canada, till that moment, having represented to the ingenuous interlocutor 4C un paese di pelli rossi."
PAUL T. LAFLEUR.
McGill University, Montreal.
" OMNIBI." At 8 S. xii. 346 the occurrence of " omnibi " in The Field of 11 September, 1897, is noted; and at p. 415 an instance of the use of the word by a member of the House of Commons, Mr. Joseph Hume, is referred to.
This quaint plural appears in ' Aus- tralia : comprising New South Wales ; Victoria or Port Philip,' &c., by R. Mont- gomery Martin, printed and published by John Tallis & Co., date of dedication " to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty,"
April, 1853: "Sydney has its omnibi as
Well as London," p. 116. Perhaps the
italics express hesitation, but the heading
of the page is ' Mail Coaches Steamboats
Omnibi of Sydney."
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
GLADSTONIANA : ' GLYNNESE GLOSSARY,' 1851. (See 10 S. vii. 148.) I find that a copy of this privately printed work, in- scribed "W. E. G. Nov. 1851," is at the British Museum, having inserted in it an autograph letter from Mr. Gladstone, appa- rently to a lady correspondent who had drawn his attention to the subject. This is dated 19 Aug., 1882, and affords the in- formation that the Museum copy was for- merly Mr. Gladstone's own; and that " the author was the late Lord Lyttelton, and any one who reads it will trace in it the easy hand and precision of a consummate scholar .... Fifty copies of it were printed by a little sub- scription among us. It would be difficult, I think, now to trace more than six " ;
W. B. H.
AMUSING ETYMOLOGICAL ERROR. Cech emigrants to America have a curious name for the Irish, Vafecnici, egg-men (vejce, an egg). This is on the assumption that Ire- land means Eierland.
FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.
41, Fernwood Avenue, Streatham.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that answers may be sent to them direct-
BUCKNALL. Sir William Bucknall of
Oxhey, Herts, and of London, citizen and
brewer, Was elected Alderman of Bread
Street, 15 Jan., 1667, but discharged
23 April following upon payment of 420?.
fine. He was knighted in Sept., 1670,
and elected M.P. for Liverpool Dec., 1670,
until his death in Nov., 1676, aged 42.
What was his parentage ? Whom did he
marry ? Le Neve is silent upon both points.
His son Sir John succeeded to Oxhey, was knighted by James II. in Feb., 1685/6, served as M.P. for Middlesex Jan., 1696n8, contested that county unsuccessfully at the elections of Feb. and Dec., 1701, and Hertfordshire in 1705, dying about 1711. He married (Lie. Fac. Office), 24 Sept., 1694, Mary, only daughter of Sir John Reade, first baronet of Brockett Hall.
