ROBERT CROWLEY.
"Be pleased to observe," says Herbert, "that, though 'The Supper of the Lorde' and 'The Vision of Piers Plowman' are inserted among the rest of his writings, he wrote only the prefixes to them" (vol. ii. p. 278.). Farther on he gives the title of the book, and adds, "Though this treatise is anonymous, Will. Tindall is allowed to have been the author; Crowley wrote only the preface." It was originally printed at Nornberg, and dated as above [the same date as that given by "C.H.," No. 21. p. 332.]. "Bearing no printer's name, nor date of printing, I have placed it to Crowley, being a printer, as having the justest claim to it" (p. 762.). There is a copy in the Lambeth Library, No. 553. p. 249. in my "List," of which I have said (on what grounds I do not now know), "This must be a different edition from that noticed by Herbert (ii. 762.) and Dibdin (iv. 334. No. 2427.)." I have not Dibdin's work at hand to refer to, but as I see nothing in Herbert on which I could ground such a statement, I suppose that something may be found in Dibdin's account; though probably it may be only my mistake or his. As to foreign editions, I always feel very suspicious of their existence; and though I do not remember this book in particular, or know why I supposed it to differ from the edition ascribed to Crowley, yet I feel pretty confident that it bore no mark of "Nornberg." According to my description it had four pairs of [Symbol: pointing hands] on the title, and contained E iv., in eights, which should be thirty six leaves.
S.R. MAITLAND.
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
John Ross Mackay (No. 8. p. 125.).—In reply to the Query of your correspondent "D.," I beg to forward the following quotation from Sir N.W. Wraxall's Historical Memoirs of his Own Time, 3rd edition. Speaking of the peace of Fontainbleau, he says,—
"John Ross Mackay, who had been private secretary to the Earl of Bute, and afterwards during seventeen years was treasurer of the ordnance, a man with whom I was personally acquainted, frequently avowed the fact. He lived to a very advanced age, sat in several parliaments, and only died, I believe in 1796. A gentleman of high professional rank, and of unimpeached veracity, who is still alive, told me, that dining at the late Earl of Besborough's, in Cavendish Square, in the year 1790, where only four persons were present, including himself, Ross Mackay, who was one of the number, gave them the most ample information upon the subject. Lord Besborough having called after dinner for a bottle of champagne, a wine to which Mackay was partial, and the conversation turning on the means of governing the House of Commons, Mackay said, that, 'money formed, after all, the only effectual and certain method.' 'The peace of 1763,' continued he, 'was carried through and approved by a pecuniary distribution. Nothing else could have surmounted the difficulty. I was myself the channel through which the money passed. With my own hand I secured above one hundred and twenty votes on that most important question to ministers. Eighty thousand pounds were set apart for the purpose. Forty members of the House of Commons received from me a thousand pounds each. To eighty others, I paid five hundred pounds apiece.'"
DAVID STEWARD.
Godalming, March 19. 1850.