Q.

Bull; Dun (Vol. ii., p. 143.).

—We certainly do not want the aid of Obadiah Bull and Joe Dun to account for these words. Milton writes, "I affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence of that, which it calls itself." And a bull is, "that which expresses something in opposition to what is intended, wished, or felt;" and so named "from the contrast of humble profession with despotic commands of Papal bulls."

"A dun is one who has dinned another for money or anything."—See Tooke, vol. ii. p. 305.

Q.

Algernon Sidney (Vol. v., p. 447.).

—I do not intend to enter the lists in defence of this "illustrious patriot." The pages of "N. & Q." are not a fit battle ground. But I request you to insert the whole quotation, that your readers may judge with what amount of fairness C. has made his note from Macaulay's History.

"Communications were opened between Barillon, the ambassador of Lewis, and those English politicians who had always professed, and who indeed sincerely felt, the greatest dread and dislike of the French ascendancy. The most upright member of the country party, William Lord Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, did not scruple to concert with a foreign mission schemes for embarrassing his own sovereign. This was the whole extent of Russell's offence. His principles and his fortune alike raised him above all temptations of a sordid kind: but there is too much reason to believe that some of his associates were less scrupulous. It would be unjust to impute to them the extreme wickedness of taking bribes to injure their country. On the contrary, they meant to serve her: but it is impossible to deny that they were mean and indelicate enough to let a foreign prince pay them for serving her. Among those who cannot be acquitted of this degrading charge was one man who is popularly considered as the personification of public spirit, and who, in spite of some great moral and intellectual faults, has a just claim to be called a hero, a philosopher, and a patriot. It is impossible to see without pain such a name in the list of the pensioners of France. Yet it is some consolation to reflect that in our own time a public man would be thought lost to all sense of duty and shame who should not spurn from him a temptation which conquered the virtue and the pride of Algernon Sidney."

History of England, vol. i. p. 228.

ALGERNON HOLT WHITE.