Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850 | Page 9

it originally stood in
the first, beginning "The sacred armies," &c.
J. F. M
* * * * *
ALE-DRAPER.--EUGENE ARAM.
(Vol. ii., p. 310.)
Your correspondent D. asks whether the word ale-draper was ever in
"good use." The only place in which I can find it is Bailey's Dictionary,
where it occurs thus:
"Ale-draper (a humorous name), a seller of malt liquors; an
alehouse-keeper or victualler."
The humour, I suppose, consists in applying to one kind of occupation
that which was commonly given to another; in taking draper from the
service of cloth, and pressing it by force into that of ale. That it was
ever considered as a word of respectable standing, can hardly be
imagined. In such writers as Tom Brown it is most likely to occur.
1. With reference to Eugene Aram, D.'s remark about the
over-ingeniousness of his defence has been anticipated by Paley, who
was present at the trial, and said that Aram would not have been hanged
had he less studiously defended himself. That laboured address to the
jury must have employed his thoughts for years. I should like very
much to know whether anyone has ever attempted to verify the
references which he gives to the cases in which he says that bones have
been found. The style of the speech has been much praised, but is
surely not very surprising when it is considered that Johnson had
previously written the Rambler. The composition wants ease.

2. Ever since I began to read about Eugene Aram, and that is some
years ago, I have had a settled opinion that his attainments, and perhaps
his abilities, had been greatly overrated. He was doubtless a man of
considerable mental powers; but we cannot but suspect that had he
acquired all the learning which is attributed to him, he would have
attracted more notice than it was his fortune to obtain.
3. Mr. Scatchard's attempts, and all other attempts, to clear him from
"blood-guilty stain," must be equally futile, for he himself confessed
his guilt while he was in prison.
Some time ago, a dozen years or more, there appeared in the Literary
Gazette, as a communication from a correspondent, an anecdote
concerning Aram, which well deserves to be repeated. During the time
that he was in the school of Lynn, it was the custom for the
head-master, at the termination of every half-year, to invite the parents
of the boys to an entertainment, and all {361} who accepted the
invitation were expected to bring with them the money due on account
of their sons, which, postquam exempta fames epulis, they paid into the
head-master's hands. The master would thus retire to rest with a
considerable sum in his possession. On one of these occasions, after he
had gone to his chamber and supposed that all the family were in bed,
he heard a noise in a passage not far distant, and, going out to see what
was the cause of it, found Aram groping about in the dark, who, on
being asked what he wanted, said that he had been obliged to leave his
room on a necessary occasion, and had missed his way to the place
which he sought. The passage was not one into which he was likely to
wander by mistake, but the master accepted his excuse, and thought no
more of the matter till Aram was arrested for the robbery and murder of
Clarke, when he immediately recollected the circumstance, and
suspected that he had intended on that night to commit another robbery
or murder. I have not the number of the Literary Gazette in which this
statement was given to refer to, but I am sure that I have repeated the
substance of it correctly, and remember that it was inserted as being
worthy of credit. It is another illustration of the fact that the nature of a
man is unchangeable.

Bulwer's novel, which elevates Aram from a school-assistant into a
private gentleman, may have pleased those, if there were such, who
knew nothing of Arum's acts before they began to read it. But all who
knew what Aram was, must be disgusted at the threshold. I regarded
the book, at the time of its appearance, as one of the most
presumptuous falsifications of biography that had ever been attempted.
It is not easy to see why Bulwer might not have made an equally
interesting story, if he had kept Aram in his proper station.
J. S. W.
Stockwell.
* * * * *
ON THE WORD "GRADELY."
Permit me to make a few remarks on the word gradely:--
1. It seems to have no connexion with the Latin noun gradus, Angl.
grade, step.
2. Its first syllable, grade, is both a substantive and an adjective; and
gradely itself both adjective