Notes and Queries | Page 7

them for the furtherance of that object.
W. D.
* * * * *
MINOR NOTES.
_Numerals._--For the old Indian forms, see Prinsep's _Journal Asiatic
Soc. Bengal_, 1838, p. 348. The prospectus of _Brugsh, Numerorum
apud Egyptios Demoticorum Doctrina_, Berlin, promises to give from
papyri and inscriptions not only the figures, but the forms of operation.
Probably the system assumed its present form by the meeting of the
Indian and Egyptian traders at some emporium near the mouth of the
Indus. Peacock seems to give undue weight to the fact, that the
Tibetans have a copious nomenclature for high numbers: their
arithmetic, doubtless, came with their alphabet, and the Buddhist
legends from India.
F.Q.
_Junnius and Sir Philip Francis._--A few years ago, an aged intelligent
person named Garner was living at Belgrave, near Leicester. I have
heard him say that, when he was a farm bailiff to Lord Thanet, at
Sevenoaks, in Kent, Sir Philip Francis was a frequent visitor there, and
had a private room set apart for literary occupation. On one occasion,
when he (Mr. Garner) was riding over the farm with Sir Philip Francis,
the former alluded to one of the replies to Junius, by a clergyman who
had been the subject of the "Great Unknown's" anonymous attacks,
adding, "They say, Sir Philip, you are Junius." Sir Philip did not deny
that he was the man, but simply smiled at the remark. This, and other
circumstances coupled with the fact of Sir Philip's frequent visits to the
house of so noted a politician as Lord Thanet, rendered Mr. Garner a
firm believer in the identity of Sir Philip and Junius to the end of his
days.
JAYTEE.
Jews under the Commonwealth (Vol. i., pp. 401. 474.; vol ii., p.
25.).--There is a confirmation of the story of the Jews being in treaty
for St. Paul's and the Oxford Library in a passage in Carte's _Letters_, i.

276, April 2, 1649:--
"They are about demolishing and selling cathedral churches. I hear
Norwich is designed already, and that the Jews proffer 600,000l. for
Paul's and Oxford Library, and may have them for 200,000l. more."
CH.
"_Is anything but," &c._--As your work seems adapted, amongst other
subjects, to check the introduction into our language of undesirable
words, phrases, and forms of speech, I would call the attention of your
readers to the modern phrases, "is anything but," and the like, which
have lately crept into use, and will be found, in many (otherwise)
well-written books.
I read the phrase "is anything but," for the first time, in Napier's
_Peninsular War_; where it struck me as being so much beneath the
dignity of historical composition, and at the same time asserting an
impossibility, that I meditated calling the author's attention to it. The
not unfrequent use of the same phrase by other writers, since that time,
has by no means reconciled me to its use.
In the Edinburgh Review for January last (1850) I find the following
sentence:--"But as pains have been taken to fix the blame upon any one
except the parties culpable;" and in the July number of the same Review
(p. 90.) occurs the sentence, "any impulse rather than that of
patriotism," &c.
Now, a "thing," or "person," or "impulse,"--though it may not be the
"thing," or "person," or "impulse" charged as the agent,--must yet be
some certain and specific thing, or party, or impulse, {295} if existing
as an agent at all in the matter; and cannot be "any thing," or "any
party," or "any impulse," in the indefinite sense intended in these
phrases. Moreover, there seems no difficulty in expressing, in a simple
and direct manner, that the agent was a very different, or opposite, or
dissimilar "thing," or "person," or "impulse" from that supposed.
I wish some persons of competent authority in the science of our

language (and many such there are who write in your pages) would
take up this subject, with a view to preserve the purity of it; and would
also, for the future, exercise a watchful vigilance over the use, for the
first time, of any incorrect, or low words or phrases, in composition;
and so endeavour to confine them to the vulgar, or to those who ape the
vulgar in their style.
P.H.F.
_Fastitocalon._--_Fastitocalon. Cod. Exon._ fol. 96. b. p. 360. 18. read
[Greek: Aspido ... chelonae]. Tychsen, _Physiologus Syrus_, cap. xxx.:
did the digamma get to Crediton by way of Cricklade?
F.Q.
* * * * *
QUERIES
BISHOP COSIN'S CONFERENCE.
Basire in his _Dead Man's Real Speech_ (pp. 59, 60.), amongst other
"notable instances" of Bishop Cosin's zeal and constancy in defence of
the Church of England, mentions
"A solemn conference both by word and writing betwixt him and the
Prior of the English Benedictines at Paris, supposed to be