"Fairfax, Baron, Charles Snowdon Fairfax, 1627, Baron Fairfax, of Cameron; suc. his grandfather, Thomas, ninth baron, 1846. His lordship resides at Woodburne, in Maryland, United States."
Fairfax is not a Scotch name. And I can find no trace of any person of that family taking a part in Scotch affairs. Cameron is, I suppose, the parish of that name in the east of Fife.
I wish to ask, 1st. For what services, or under what circumstances, the barony was created?
2ndly. When did the family cease to possess land or other property in Scotland, if they ever held any?
3rdly. Is the present peer a citizen or subject of the United States? If so, is he known and addressed as Lord Fairfax, or how?
4thly. Has he, or has any of his ancestors, since the recognition of the United States as a nation, ever used or applied for permission to exercise the functions of a peer of Scotland, e.g. in the election of representative peers?
5thly. If he be a subject of the United States, and have taken, expressly or by implication, the oath of citizenship (which pointedly renounces allegiance to our sovereign), how is it that his name is retained on the roll of a body whose first duty it is to guard the throne, and whose existence is a denial of the first proposition in the constitution of his country?
Perhaps Uneda, W. W., or some other of your Philadelphia correspondents, will be good enough to notice the third of these Queries.
W. H. M.
Tailless Cats.—A writer in the New York Literary World of Feb. 7, 1852, makes mention of a breed of cats destitute of tails, which are found in the Isle of Man. Perhaps some generous Manx correspondent will say whether this is a fact or a Jonathan.