Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/255

Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 197 how much moiw «^uantageous it is to give Two Shillings (or more or less, as the (or any other) Printer may please to charge) for an Abstract, than purchase a True Copy from the Original at Eighteen Pence, under the very considerative Motive of saving the Printer from Prosecution ; and have also been recommended to buy the Abstract, to avoid the Tediousness of the Act itself ; but I would ask any Man, whether, in case of Dispute, or for any other particular Cause, he can be satisfied with LESS THAN THE LETTER OF THE LAW ? when he knows the Liability to Perversion of the true Meaning and Intent of the Act. Where is the Authority that denies the Privilege of printing Acts of Parliament f or, where the Authority that secures the Right to the King's Printer ? Having, during Four Sessions, worked on Acts of Parliament, when in London, I beg Leave to inform all who have been so ridiculously misled, that it is by no Means confined to the King s Printer, but as common to all who can recommend themselves to the Job, as even our own Parish Printing, laying entirely at the Disposal of some individual Influence, and generally claimed by Strength of Interest, and not from Merit, or real Desert and Right. What with King's Printer, Stationer's Hall, and Parish hiflucnce, every fair speculation is put under Contraband. I again advertise the Publication to take place of the Act complete, being a True Copy from the Original, at is. 6d. on Monday next, July 25th, I beg to subscribe myself, A fair Competitor, John Mudge, Printer to the King, and all his loyal Subjects, No. 3, Duke-street, Dock. R. Pearse Chope. 165. Teigngrace Church and Early Consecrations (IX., p. 108, par. 93; p. 173, par. 138.) — Miss Lega-Weekes seems to have run amok over Gratian. The author of the Decvetiim did not live in the 14th century, "<;. 1311 A.D,," but in the 12th century, c. 1144. By birth a Tuscan, he became a Benedictine monk, and was first an inmate of the monastery of Classe, near Ravenna, and afterwards of St. Felix at Bologna, where he completed the DecreUm. He was a text writer and did not write glosses, his aim being to harmonise disagreeing canons. His work was there- fore called by him Concordantia discordantium canomim. In writing it his method was first to propound a thesis and the questions to which it gave rise, and then in answer to those questions to marshal all the authorities he could find for and