30
NOTES AND QUEEIES. [ii s. xn. JULY 10, 1915.
' EXCEBPTA LEGATIONUM.' Gibbon, in
chap. x. of the ' Decline and Fall,' note 53,
refers, for an instance of the firmness of a
Roman general, to the ' Excerpta Lega-
tionum,' p. 23. What is this work ? I
can find no further light in Gibbon, and a
search in the Catalogue of the British
Museum Library has yielded no result.
ABABA.
MBS. BABBETT, NEE TYEBS. Mrs. Barrett, nee Tyers, was a daughter of Jonathan Tyers the younger, eldest son of Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens. On 27 May, 1779, Miss Tyers married Bryant Barrett, who succeeded to the proprietorship of the famous pleasure -gardens on the death of his father-in-law on 21 March, 1792, and who survived until 15 Feb., 1809. The Gentleman's Magazine gives his name as Thomas Barrett in his obituary notice. Mrs. Barrett is said to have been alive in 1830. When did she die, and what was her Christian name ? HOBACE BLEACKLEY.
MBS. JOHN PHILIP KEMBLE, NEE HOPKINS. Previous to her marriage with Kemble, Priscilla Hopkins had been the wife of William Brereton, actor. In what year did she marry her first husband ? It was circa 1778. HOBACE BLEACKLEY.
MABG ABET SCOTT, JETAT. 125. As long ago as 1851 there was a paragraph in <N. & Q.' (1 S. iv. 230), giving an inscription from a tomb at Dalkeith. A Margaret Scott was said to be buried there, aged 125 at her death on 9 Feb., 1738. Has any one chanced to make a note on the identity of this person ? Was she of a well-known family ? Palmer's ' Epitaphs,' &c., 1869, quotes the epitaph as from the churchyard at Dunkeld, and so far inquiry from the Registers has not verified the fact of this aged widow's burial at Dalkeith. L. M. M.
' REVELATIONS OF PETEB BBOWN.' I am
anxious to trace a book of the above title. It is quoted in an article in Longman's Magazine of March, 1886, and -described by the author (Mr. Overton) as a " modern book, but now out of print."
Mr. Overton gives a quotation from a poem entitled ' St. John's of Shottesbrook : a Berkshire Legend,' and the paper itself is descriptive of " Life in a Village in the Olden Time." The book cannot be traced in any catalogue. It may have been printed privately and published locally.
ROBEBT RAYNEB. Herne Hill, S.E.
THE " DOMINION " OI CANADA.
(11 S. xi. 418.)
IN the passage quoted " Dominion " is called " that somewhat unusual word." Is it possible that Englishmen had never heard of the "Old (or Ancient) Dominion" a name that has been applied in this country to Virginia for two centuries ?
The story of the origin of the " Dominion of Canada " is not only preposterous on its face, but can be shown to be without foundation. In his * Tercentenary History of Canada ' (1908), Frank B. Tracy says :
" In some respects, however, the hopes of some of the Canadian leaders, particularly John A. Mac- donald, were not carried out. Macdonald un- doubtedly looked for a Kingdom of Canada. In fact, the phrase ' Kingdom of Canada ' occurs in all the first documents. This did not mean an inde- pendent kingdom, but an auxiliary kingdom, some- what like that of the German states, with the monarch of England as its head." III. 936-7.
In his ' Canada under British Rule, 1760- 1900 ' (1900), the late Sir John G. Bourinot remarked :
"It passed -the two houses with very little dis- cussion, and the royal assent was given to it on the 29th of March of the same year as ' The British North America Act, 1867.' It is interesting to know that in the original draft of the bill the united provinces were called the ' Kingdom of Canada ' ; and the writer had it from Sir John Macdonald himself that this amendment did not emanate from the colonial delegates, but from the imperial ministry, one of whose members was afraid of wounding the susceptibilities of United States statesmen." P. 215.
It would be curious to know who the " United States statesmen " were whose susceptibilities were thought in danger of being wounded. The Bill was read for the first time in the House of Lords on 12 Feb., 1867, and at its second reading on 19 Febru- ary the Earl of Carnarvon made a speech in which occurs this passage :
" Having thus stated the main provisions of this measure, I have only to add the designation of this new State to which we are about to give a distinct life and organization. It may seem a trifling question ; but it has, in truth, been one neither unimportant nor free from difficulties. To the representatives of the Maritime Provinces belongs the credit of waiving local rights and pretensions ; and they have felt the advantage of accepting a name not less familiar to the English labourer and artizan than it is distinguished by honourable traditions. Her Majesty has been pleased to express her approval of the name, and henceforth the United Provinces will be known as the * Dominion of Canada' a designation which is a graceful
