1814.]

The Wandering Jew-Fever at Gibraltar.

his Itinerary, calls Magioninicum Magiovinium, and Magintum; for which he assigns several reasons: first, it stands upon a Roman way; secondly, Roman coins have been found there; and, thirdly, there is a great affinity between Madin Bowre and Magintum."

If, Sir, you should deem the above worthy a place in your truly esteemed publication, I, probably, shall take the liberty of troubling you again.

I am, &c.
PHILO-ANTIQUITATIS.

The WANDERING JEW.

To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine,
SIR,

ALTHOUGH I cannot reply directly to the query of your correspondent in this month's Magazine, respecting the origin of the story of the Wandering Jew, yet the following extract from Dr. Percy's introduction to an ancient ballad bearing that name, may not be uninteresting to some of your readers.

"The story of the Wandering Jew is of considerable antiquity: it had obtained full credit in this part of the world before the year 1228, as we learn from Mat, Paris. For in that year, it seems, there came an Armenian archbishop into England to visit the shrines and reliques preserved in our churches, who, being entertained at the monastery of St. Alban's, was asked several questions relating to his country, &c. Among the rest, a monk who sat near him enquired, if he had ever seen or heard of the famous person named Joseph, that was so much talked of, who was present at our Lord's crucifixion, and conversed with him, and who was still alive in coufirmation of the Christian faith? The archbishop answered, that the fact was true: and afterwards, one of his train, who was well known to a servant of the abbot's, interpreting his master's words, told them in French, that his lord knew the person whom they spoke of very well; that he had dined at his table a little while before he left the east: that he had been Pontius Pilate's porter, by name Cartiphalus, who, when they were dragging Jesus out of the door of the judgment hall, struck him with his fist on the back, saying, Go faster, Jesus, go faster;' why dost thou linger? Upon which, Jesus looked upon him with a frown, and said; I indeed am going; but thou

228

shalt tarry till I cone." Soon after he
was converted and haptized by the name
He lives for ever; but at
of Joseph.
the end of every hundred years, falls in-
to an incurable illness, and at length into
a fit of extasy, out of which when he re-
covers, he returns to the same state of
youth he was in when Jesus suffered,
being then about 30 years of age. He
remembers all the circumstances of the
death and resurrection of Christ, the
saints that arose with him; the compos-
ing of the apostles' creed; their preach.
ing and dispersion; and is himself a very
grave and holy person. This is the sub-
stance of Matthew Paris's account, who
was himself a monk of St. Alban's, and
was living at the time the Armenian
bishop made the above relation."

Several histories of the Wandering
Jew may be seen in Calmet's History of
the Bible, and there is an amusing letter
on the subject in the second volume of
the Turkish Spy.
I am, &c.

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight,

Aug. 16, 1814.

VECTUS.

RETURNS of the MORTALITY at GIBRAL
TAR during the FEVER there in 1804
and 1813, and STATE of the WEATHER
in 1811, 1812, and 1813.

To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine,
SIR,

THE inclosed tables relative to the
fever at Gibraltar, I received from a
surgeon who attended the sick at that
place, during the fatal visitation of that
disease in 1804 and 1813. I presume
that they will be interesting to many of
your readers, and shall merely premise
that Dr. Burnett's late publication was
founded on the same observations.
I am, &c.

August 1, 1814.

R.

Regiments.

224

No.

Mortality in Gibraltar by the Fever in 1813.

General Statement of New Cases and Deaths of the Epidemic Disease prevalent in Gibraltar, from 8th September to 4th
December, 1813.

New Cases in

Deaths in

Detail of Military Deaths.

DATE.

[Oct. 1,

YEARS.

1811.

1812.

1813.

S. West,
N. West,
West.

226

Etymology of Poetry, Parson, Physic.

For the New Monthly Magazine.

ETYMOLOGY; or PHILOLOGICAL VENTI-
LATIONS. By HUMFREE TELLFAIR,
M. A.-Part II.

(Continued from Vol. I. p. 342.) AFTER having sifted, or rather winnowed, in some degree, the rudiments of general literature, and having respectfully addressed the two celebrated universities of this land, as the great focuses of learning and true wisdom, I come now to notice, etymologically, the names of some of the arts and sciences cultivated in those seminaries, such as poetry, physic, law, &c.; and it may appear odd that so little notice seems to have been taken of the extreme latitude or extensiveness of some of their significations. A poet, woning, for instance, is literally the maker of something, so that poetry must mean a thing made; and pray, in this sense, what is there that is not poetry? If, then, the tailor and the cordwainer are the poets of my coat and shoes, then, whenever they may need alteration, the botcher and the cobler will be the proper critics. Now, might not music, from the muse, have served as a better title for this, than for the sister art which it does express? However, it is no matter; a poet is a name sanctioned by use, and it leads to no ill

results.

66

I am here strongly tempted to notice, by the bye, the still more ridiculous generalism or anythingism of the expression, person of a parish," which word, somehow or other, perhaps through the vulgarity of sots in alehouses, by changing the e into an a, is always pronounced parson; and this leads, through its awkward disagreeableness of sound, to extensively-ill results, by lessening the reverence of the lower ranks for their spiritual guides, whom their dearest in terests require them to respect and venerate. Aye, but the notable reason, forsooth, is, that he is the person visibly representing the benefice he holds. But is not the king as truly a visible representative of his kingdom, the colonel of his regiment, and the cobler of his stall, &c. &c.? and yet surely we should not call them the persons or parsons of their respective possessions? Let me observe, then, that this vulgarism ought to be removed; and that such an unmeaning, or all-meaning title should be changed into pastor, or something more respectable though the present name might very well suit those who desert or renounce the clerical character, as, for instance, Parson Kidgell, Parson Wakefield, or Par

[Oct. 1,

son Horne. Would I could say that the
clergy had been disrespectfully treated
by the vulgar only; but have they not
lately been contemptuously spoken of
and vilified, even in that house of par-
liament from which they are unconstitu-
tionally excluded, and therefore pre-
vented from defending themselves and
their sacred office? and was not this
during an unconstitutional debate (in
February and March, 1813) about whe
ther the constitution shall remain unim
paired or not, which surely is virtually
(not virtuously) the same thing as de
bating, whether the king shall reign
not? But lest I should become too seri
ous, I shall defer other weighty matter
I could urge on such a subject to a mot
adequate occasion; merely observing fu
ther in this place, that these things ten
to verify and render prophetic that famo
(or infamous) saying of the last-me
tioned apostate, that "the infectio
hand of a bishop had been waved on
him.”

i

But to return to my proper subjec A similar generality of meaning attach to the word physic, as derived from nature. But why nature? Is not confounding it with physics, (a word a found in Johnson,) or physiology, natural philosophy? Every genuine s ence depends on Nature-astronom mathematics, hydrostatics, projectiles every thing of this sort must be found on nature. Music depends on the a and the nature of sounds; and cook on the palate, and the nature of tasti yet we call neither of these physic. P sic, indeed, comes in aid of injured decayed nature; though sometim through the blunder of the practition it may go directly contrary to it; sin therefore, it should not be identified w it, medicine would surely have been m proper for its general appellation.

Let me here just mention, that Funnygreek (aware, perhaps, of this propriety) derives physic from the bu phiz, or phyz; for so Johnson own should be spelt, as a contraction of p siognomy. The phyz, we know, is grand diagnostic or discoverer of state of the constitution; and as J son spells the word physick with a k reason may be, that it principally reg the phyz when sickly, or indicative disease. Physiognomy also plainly p out the gnomon or nose, that prob which is the index of the face, which, by synecdoche, might be for the face itself; whence come, perh the words prognosis, diagnosis, &c.;

we know that the science itself is sometimes styled nosology. This, however, I only hint, as a dose of criticism prescribed by the learned doctor, and which the reader inay swallow, or not, just as he thinks proper.

227

to be wanting, when, at first, the da-
mages were laid at 40,000l. against four
printers or publishers, though prudence,
or a sense of shame, did afterwards lower
them to only 10,000l., to be paid by two or
three authors, who, though rich in learn-
ing, virtue, and public spirit, were pro-
verbially poor in pocket! Now, as I re-
member, that in the life of Wakefield,*
the libel of which he was convicted is
so extenuated and frittered away, as to
be made into no crime at all; so I hope
I shall incur no offence, either legal or
moral, if I endeavour to extenuate the
imputed guilt of those who were the real
defendants in the above-cited cause, viz,
the authors of the Anti-Jacobin Review.
Defendants, it seems, had asserted, that
in consequence of the universal holy espi-
onage established among papists, the
plaintiff must have known of the popish
insurrection before it broke out in 1803,
which knowledge plaintiff did not deny;
but then they unluckily go on to say,
that "the present administration are
convinced of his treachery, in not put-
ting Government on their guard." Here
it appears to me, as a plain man, that
if there was any fault at all, it was in
the reviewers, or in the government, for
expecting impossibilities. How could
they suppose that Dr. Troy, a popish
bishop, would be guilty of treachery
towards his lawful prince, the pope of
Rome, by betraying such a secret? He
seems to have acted in the best manner
he was able; he could not serve two
masters; he naturally, therefore, served
him who was the favourite, and to whom
he was under the strongest obligations.
This, then, when rightly and dispassion-
ately considered, turns out, instead of a
libel, to be a real panegyric, since it re-
presents plaintiff as being an honest con-
scientious Romanist, whom even pro-
testants, like myself, must applaud; and
yet the indictment charges defendants
with "maliciously intending to deprive
the plaintiff of his good name, fame,
character, and reputation, and to bring
him into great infamy and disgrace!!!"
I own I can see nothing like infamy or
disgrace in the whole affair. The learned

But what shall we say of law? This surely, at least, may bid defiance to every attempt at analysis or derivation. Yet it may not be impossible to form some shrewd conjecture respecting its probable origin. Let us consider :Law and Flaw, like Lloyd and Floyd, seem to be so perfectly analogous, that if not exactly identified, they must at least have originated the one from the other. Now chance is allowed to predominate in the law, as appears from the favourite toast of its professors, "The glorious uncertainty of the law;" (and may not chancery be derived from hence?) besides which, as flaws are often said to be fatal to a cause, there appears also to be a fatality attending it. A flaw is, I presume, generally speaking, occasioned by some blunder or omission of a clerk in office, and the natural offspring of flaw is nonsuit; as was the case in a legal triumph of the notorious Parson Horne, of patriotic memory, to which Foote is supposed to allude in his "Lame Lover," where he says something about being as merry and joyful as defendant when plaintiff was nonsuited for leaving out an s." But does not this imply that plaintiff had the merits, and must have succeeded if the s had not been omitted? Here I own something seems to be wrong. In the republic of letters it is far other wise. If any flaw or omission has taken place, all the critics are on the alert to set it right-whereas, in the other case, an honest man must suffer, and the ends of justice be defeated, because, though all the legal critics, the judge, counsel, and jury, are well satisfied about the faw, all of them yet refuse to amend it! Now, on the other hand, let us suppose a defendant who, while engaged in come innocent, or perhaps highly meritorious pursuit, shall, by a slip of the tongue or pen, through human frailty and imperfection, offend against the strict letter of those laws, which partake of human imperfection themselves, then surely Messrs. Flaw and Nonsuit might be most admirably employed in rescuing an unintentional delinquent from the fangs of his merciless opponents? Of this I do not know that I could bring an instance more in point than the famous cause, Troy v. Symonds, in 1805; and here a merciless spirit could not be said

* When sentence had been passed upon him by Sir Nash Grose, W. chose to pun, and said it was very gross indeed. When James II. sent commissioners to expel the president and fellows of Magdalen College, and put in papists, because the fellows, with the excellent Bishop Hough at their head, modestly defended their own rights, one of the commissioners said, “We don't come here to be huff'd,"