Notes and Queries, Number 47, September 21, 1850 | Page 3

_the author of "Junius Identified"_; and that I never received the
slightest assistance from Mr. Dubois, or any other person, either in
collecting or arranging the evidence, or in the composition and
correction of the work. After I had completed my undertaking, I wrote
to Mr. Dubois to ask if he would allow me to see the handwriting of Sir
Philip Francis, that I might {259} compare it with the published
fac-similes of the handwriting of Junius; but he refused my request. His
letter alone disproved the notion entertained by R.J. and others, that Mr.
Dubois was in any degree connected with me, or with the authorship of
the work in question.
With regard to the testimony of Lord Campbell, I wrote to his lordship
in February, 1848, requesting his acceptance of a copy of _Junius
Identified_, which I thought he might not have seen; and having called
his attention to my name at the end of the preface, I begged he would,
when opportunity offered, correct his error in having attributed the
work to Mr. Dubois. I was satisfied with his lordship's reply, which was
to the effect that he was ashamed of his mistake, and would take care to
correct it. No new edition of that series of the _Lives of the
Chancellors_, which contains the "Life of Lord Loughborough," has
since been published. The present edition is dated 1847.
R.J. says further, that "the late Mr. George Woodfall always spoke of
the pamphlet as the work of Dubois;" and that Sir Fortunatus Dwarris
states, "the pamphlet is said, I know not with what truth, to have been
prepared under the eye of Sir Philip Francis, it may be through the
agency of Dubois." If Junius Identified be alluded to in these
observations as a _pamphlet_, it would make me doubt whether R.J., or
either of his authorities, ever saw the book. It is an 8vo. vol. The first
edition, containing 380 pages, was published in 1816, at 12s. The
second edition, which included the supplement, exceeded 400 pages,
and was published in 1818, at 14s. The supplement, which contains the
plates of handwriting, was sold separately at 3s. 6d., to complete the
first edition, but this could not have been the pamphlet alluded to in the
preceding extracts. I suspect that when the work is spoken of as a
pamphlet, and this if often done, the parties thus describing it have
known it only through the medium of the critique in the Edinburgh
Review.

Mr. Dubois was the author of the biography of Sir Philip Francis, first
printed in the Monthly Mirror for May and June, 1810, and reprinted in
_Junius Identified_, with acknowledgment of the source from which it
was taken. To this biography the remarks of Sir Fortunatus Dwarris are
strictly applicable, except that it never appeared in the form of a
pamphlet.
JOHN TAYLOR.
30. Upper Gower Street, Sept. 7. 1850.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
Spiders a Cure for Ague (Vol. ii., p. 130.).--Seeing a note on this
subject reminds me that a few years since, a lady in the south of Ireland
was celebrated far and near, amongst her poorer neighbours, for the
cure of this disorder. Her universal remedy was a large house-spider
alive, and enveloped in treacle or preserve. Of course the parties were
carefully kept in ignorance of what the wonderful remedy was.
Whilst I am on the subject of cures, I may as well state that in parts of
the co. Carlow, the blood drawn from a black cat's ear, and rubbed
upon the part affected, is esteemed a certain cure for St. Anthony's fire.
JUNIOR.
_Funeral Superstition._--A few days ago the body of a gentleman in
this neighbourhood was conveyed to the hearse, and while being placed
in it, the door of the house, whether from design or inadvertence I know
not, was closed before the friends came out to take their places in the
coaches. An old lady, who was watching the proceedings, immediately
exclaimed, "God bless me! they have closed the door upon the corpse:
there will be another death in that house before many days are over."
She was fully impressed with this belief, and unhappily this impression
has been confirmed. The funeral was on Saturday, and on the Monday
morning following a young man, resident in the house, was found dead
in bed, having died under the influence of chloroform, which he had
inhaled, self-administered, to relieve the pain of toothache or
tic-douloureux.
Perhaps the superstition may have come before you already; but not

having met with it myself, I thought it might be equally new to others.
H.J.
Sheffield.
* * * * *
_Folk Lore Rhymes._--
"Find odd-leafed ash, and even-leafed clover, And you'll see your true
love before the day's