As far as I am aware, this is the only instance, either on monuments or in portraits, of a puisne judge being ornamented with this decoration. Can any of your correspondents produce another example? or can they account, from any other cause, for Richard Harpur receiving such a distinction? or may I not rather attribute it to the blunder of the sculptor?
Edward Foss.
Who first thought of Table-turning (Vol. viii., p. 57.).—It is impossible to say who discovered the table-turning experiment, but it undoubtedly had its origin in the United States. It was practised here three years ago, and, although sometimes associated with spirit-rappings, has more frequently served for amusement. On this connexion it may be proper to say that Professor Faraday's theory of unconscious muscular force meets with no concurrence among those who know anything about the subject in this country. It is notorious that large tables have been moved frequently by five or six persons, whose fingers merely touched them, although upon each was seated a stout man, weighing a hundred and fifty or sixty pounds: neither involuntary nor voluntary muscular force could have effected that physical movement, when there was no other purchase on the table than that which could be gained by a pressure of the tips of the fingers.
Philadelphia.
Passage of Thucydides on the Greek Factions (Vol. vii., p. 594.; Vol. viii., pp. 44. 137.).—My attempt to find the passage attributed by Sir A. Alison to Thucydides in the real Thucydides was unsuccessful for the best of reasons, viz. that it does not exist there. He has probably borrowed it from some modern author, who, as it appears to me, has given a loose paraphrase of the words which I cited from Thucyd. III. 82., and has expanded the thought in a manner not uncommon with some writers, by adding the expression about the "sword and poniard." Some other misquotations of Sir A. Alison from the classical writers may be seen in the Edinburgh Review for April last, No. CXCVIII. p. 275.
L.
Origin of "Clipper" as applied to Vessels (Vol. viii., p. 100.).—For many years the fleetest sailing vessels built in the United States were
constructed at Baltimore. They were very sharp, long, low; and their masts were inclined at a much greater angle than usual with those in other vessels. Fast sailing pilot boats and schooners were thus rigged; and in the last war with England, privateers of the Baltimore build were universally famed for their swiftness and superior sailing qualities. "A Baltimore clipper" became the expression among shipbuilders for a vessel of peculiar make; in the construction of which, fleetness was considered of more importance than a carrying capacity. When the attention of naval architects was directed to the construction of swift sailing ships, they were compelled to adopt the clipper shape. Hence the title "Clipper Ship," which has now extended from America to England.