Duke of Marlborough.—The Annual Register for the year 1758 (pp. 121-127.) contains an account of the circumstances connected with the trial of one Barnard, son of a surveyor in Abingdon Buildings, Westminster, on a charge of sending letters to the Duke of Marlborough, threatening his life by means "too fatal to be eluded by the power of physic," unless his grace "procured him a genteel support for his life." The incidents are truly remarkable, pointing most suspiciously toward Barnard; but he escaped. Can any of your readers refer me to where I can find any further account or elucidation of this affair?
Buriensis.
"M. or N."—Of what words are "M. or N." the initials? Vide the answers to be given in the Church Catechism, and some of the occasional offices in he liturgy.
J.C.
[It has been suggested that "M. or N." originated in a misreading of "NOM," a contraction for "nomen." This is certainly an ingenious explanation, though not a satisfactory one.]
Song of the Bees.—Who was the author of the lines under this title beginning,
"We watch for the light of the moon to break
and colour the grey eastern sky
With its blended hues of saffron and lake," &c.
I have always understood them to be Dr. Aikin's, but latterly that has been contradicted.