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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. in. FEB. 11/99.
between Lord Townshend and Sir Rober
Walpole, with the comment :
"John Malcoat's place in my opinion is a much happier situation in life than a first Minister's." Ibid., p. 62.
We thus have it established that, although the usage of any such special term was tentative and varying, "Premier" was ap plied to Walpole, and as early as 1727 ; but it took far longer than "Prime Minister" to come into common use. Before, however, Burns had spoken of Pitt as " yon Premier Youth," George Selwyn had written, on 25 November, 1775, to another Lord Carlisle than the one previously mentioned, a note saying :
"There is certainly no immediate prospect of a
change at home I think that there is more reason
to apprehend a disunion at home from the Premier and the new Secretary [Lord North and Viscount Weymouth] than from any other circumstances whatsoever." Ibid., p. 749.
And on 13 March, 1782, Selwyn further wrote to the peer during the keen political crisis which ended in the fall of Lord North :
" Young Pitt will not be subordinate ; he is not so in his own society. He is at the head of a dozen young people, and it is a corps separate from that of Charles's [Fox] ; so there is another premier at the starting post, who, as yet, has never been shaved." Ibid., p. 593.
This forecast was remarkably fulfilled ; but what is even more interesting is that its fulfilment ultimately secured a definition of the position of Prime Minister, assented to by two of the leading statesmen of the day, and worthy of being placed upon special record. After the bitter dispute between Pitt as Premier and Lord Fitzwilliam as Lord Lieu- tenant of Ireland, there was drawn up in March, 1795, an "explanation settled between Mr. Grattan and Mr. Burke, coming from Lord F[itz william] and the Chancellor " (Lord Loughborough) ; and this document thus commenced :
"They stated that Lord F.'s view was: 'To support in Ireland the English Government, con- sidering Mr. Pitt as the Prime Minister, without whom no material measure as to things or persons is to be concerted or done not setting up a Govern- ment of Departments, but that each department acting under him should meet with its due and honourable support from him." Ibid., p. 722.
This definition of the supreme position of what Lord Carlisle, with the memorandum then in his possession, described as "the King's Prime Minister" (ibid., p. 725), is of constitutional value; and its spirit has cer- tainly been accepted by most Premiers since Pitt. ALFRED F. BOBBINS.
THE CHURCH (1) AT SILCHESTER (9 th S. ii.
101, 158, 277, 429; iii. 11). In his first com-
munication on this question MR. BADDELEY
considers that " the most natural conclusion "
as to the use of the little building at Silchester
is " that it was simply the Court of Justice."
I have pointed out in reply that the Courts of
Justice already existed in the great basilica
hard by, with its apsidal tribunes at either
end, and probably in the adjoining apsidal
chambers in the forum. I have also asked
MR. BADDELEY to cite an example of a court
of justice on as small a scale as the building
under notice ; but this he admits he cannot
do.
MR. BADDELEY now comes to a different conclusion from the former "most natural" one as to the use of the building at Calleva, and says, " It may have been a sort of * secre- tarium senatus,' a municipal residence of some kind, a little guild-hall, a * schola,' or a mili- tary tribunal, or possibly a pagan temple dedicated to some popular deity."
This choice of buildings is such a wide departure from " the Court of Justice " that I must ask MR. BADDELEY to be so good as to refer me to any plan of a residence or of a pagan temple similar to that of the Silchester building, and on the same small scale.
MR. BADDELEY says, "There were many temples in Calleva." I know of but three. He also speaks of the city having had "a large pagan population." This is begging the question. So far as our excavations have proceeded, they have not yielded traces of a iarge population, whether pagan or Christian.
We have as yet found only one building which we think is a church, but it is possible
- hat the circular temple in Insula VII. may
lave been converted into a church. Who can tell?
Concerning the building under discussion, t may be well to recall its size and plan. It stood east and west, and consisted of a nave with western apse 29 J feet long and 10 feet wide, north and south aisles only 5 feet wide, terminating westwards in somewhat wider quasi-transepts, and an external narthex or porch, 24| feet long and 6| feet deep, covering
- he east end.
MR. BADDELEY now admits " it is not that
t fails to conform to the ground plan of a
ihurch of the fourth or fifth century," but he
igain proceeds to beg the question, on the
plea that the church plan and that of "a
mgan basilica-formed building" are often
undistinguishable. Here, again, I fear I must
ask him to enlighten me by citing plans for
- omparison.
As to the search for Christian emblems
