Minor Queries.
"Imprest" and "Debenture."—When a person fulfilling any employment under any of the Government Boards has occasion to draw "money on account," an "imprest," addressed to the pay-master under that Board, is issued for the required sum; but when the final payment is made upon the "closing of the account," the "debenture" takes the place of the "imprest." Out of what verbal raw material are these words manufactured? I know of no other use of the word "imprest" as a substantive; and though we see "debenture" often enough in railway reports, I cannot perceive the analogy between its meanings in the two cases.
D. V. S.
Home, May 17.
Cosin's MSS.—Basire, in his Brief of the Life, &c. of Bishop Cosin, appended to his Funeral Sermon (Lond. 1673, p. 69.), after noticing several MS. works of Cosin's, some of which have not yet seen the light, adds, "These remains are earnestly recommended to his pious executor's care for publication."
Can any of your correspondents kindly inform me, who are the lineal representatives of Cosin's pious executor? Basire mentions three "imperfect" works of Bishop Cosin's in manuscript: viz. Annales Eccles., Historia Conciliorum, Chronologia Sacra. Is it known what has become of them? They appear to have fallen, with other MSS., into the hands of his executor.
J. Sansom.
Barclay's Argenis.—What are the latest editions of this romance—the best, in Cowper's opinion, ever written, which Coleridge laments as being so little known, and which has been translated, I believe, into all the European languages? What are the principal as well as the latest English translations?
Jartzberg.