Perhaps the Cardinal, should this meet his eye, or any one of your readers equally skilled in Roman ecclesiastical archæology, can inform the public whether this may not be the origin of the phrases, "getting oneself into hot water," and "being sent to pot."
J. B. MCC.
British Museum.
"ADMONITION TO THE PARLIAMENT."
(Vol. v., p. 4.)
This is not at all an uncommon book. There are at least three copies in the University Library, Cambridge; one at Trinity College; besides others in other college libraries. There is also one at Lambeth; two in the Bodleian, Oxford; and copies are from time to time occurring at booksellers' for sale. There is not, however, one in the British Museum; and the first edition is exceedingly scarce. MR. PAYNE COLLIER is, I think, mistaken in the dates which he assigns to the Admonition and to Whitgift's Answer. He follows indeed Herbert's Ames, in which reference is made to Strype; but Strype would have furnished materials for a more accurate statement. Whitgift's Answer was first published towards the end of 1572; for the edition of that year does not contain "Certayne notes and properties of Anabaptistes," which Whitgift himself (Defense of the Aunswere, p. 33., and elsewhere) tells us he had introduced into the second edition. But these "notes" do appear in the edition dated 1573, which must therefore be only the second. Moreover, Thomas Norton wrote to Whitgift dissuading him from publishing his Answer. This letter was dated Oct. 20, 1572. In a subsequent letter to Archbishop Parker, dated Jan. 16, 1572 (1573), Norton speaks of his former epistle as having been written "before Mr. Whitgift's book came out." (See Strype; Whitgift, book I. chap. vi.; Parker, book IV. chap. xii.) The date of the Answer thus ascertained, we may the better conjecture the dates of the editions of the Admonition, which MR. COLLIER says he gathers "had been printed four times anterior to" 1572. Whitgift, it would seem, had written, if not published, his reply before more than a single edition of the Admonition was abroad; for he says (Answer, 1573, p. 189.), "After I had ended this confutation of the Admonition, there comes to my hand a new edition of the same, wherein some things be added," &c. He also says (Defense, p. 34.), "the Admonition was published after the Parliament, to the which it was dedicated, was ended ... it was not exhibited in Parliament, as it ought to have been," &c. Further, the Admonition itself, fol. A. viii., says, "immediately after the last Parliament holden at Westminster, begun in Anno 1570, and ended in Anno 1571," &c. This could hardly have been said earlier than 1572. For these reasons (I will not occupy space by alleging more) the Admonition could not, we may gather, have "been printed four times anterior to that year."
A. J. H.
"SIR EDWARD SEAWARD'S NARRATIVE."
(Vol. v., p. 10.)
The following is a copy of a letter addressed by Miss Porter to a relative of mine:—
"Esher, Jan. 30, 1832.
"Madam,—I hasten to express the pleasure with which I answer your favour on the subject of Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative, to the best indeed of my power, but, I regret to say, not as explicitly as I wish. However, with respect to the authenticity of the events, I have no reason to doubt them; the manner of the original MSS. coming into my hands having been precisely what my Preface to the work described.