NOTES AND QUERIES.;

Otago Witness, Issue 1320, 17 March 1877, Page 14

NOTES AND QUERIES.;

" The Manager." _ NOTES AND QUERIES.; JOHN BULL. — Referring to the question as to the origin, of the name "John Ball," a correspondent sends as the following extract from the writings of Washington Irving : — " One would think that in personifying itself, a nation would be apt to picture something grand, h«roic, and imposing; but' it is characteristic of the English, and th«ir love for what is blunt, comic, and familiar, -that they have embodied their national oddities iv the figure of a sturdy, corpulent old fellow, with a three-cornered hat, a red waistcoat, leather breeches, and stout, oaken cudgel. Thus they have taken a singular delight in exhibiting their most private foibles in a laughable point of view, and have been so successful in their delineation, that there is scarcely a being in actual existence more absolutely present to the public mind than that eccentric personage, John Bull." W. J., Dunedin, wishes to know if it is lawful for a master to turn away a servant, who agrees to serve for a certain time, on account of ill-health, and if he can make any deductions ' tions from the servant's wages for the time lost? , - , ANSWERS. WILBEAHAM. —P. F. Clayton, Milton, writes : — " Many years ago a poor boy might have been seen standing, shivering with .cold, at the corner of a street in the West End of London. There was a tailor's shop close by, and the boy was called in to warm himself. The tailors — nine in number— questioned- the lad, who stated he had no parents, and no ' settled home. A' subscription was raised for him, eaoh man giving a few coppers, and the i amount was given- to the boy, and he .was ad. vised to go to the Govent Garden Market and buy waiercresses. He did so j- three times that day he bought and sold watercresses. At night he had earned a nice little sum. He continued this some time, and then purchased a barrow and traded in vegetables. Soon he opened a greengrocer's shop, and- gradually rising up, ultimately became on~e' of" the leading fruit merchants of London*. ", In the course i of time, having made a large fortune, he re- } tired from business, and kept his carriage the i crest of which bore the inscription, in, Latin : • 'Nine tailors made me a man.' " M. C.'Ff- "John Bull," the collective name, of , thetEnglish nation, was first used in Arbuth- . not's satire, "The History of " John' l|ull," .; usually published in Swift's works. Inthia ! satire the " French are designated :as Lewis , Baboon, the Dutch as Nicholas Frog, &c. , "The' History of John Bull" was designed to ridicule the Duke of Marlborough. X. Y. Z. — A member of a firm cannot' bind it by deed, unless he have special authority by deed to do so ; but should he execute'such an instrument in the name of his partners he will • be bound by it, though they will not. JOHN FARMER, Naseby.— A vagrant is a wandering beggar or idle person who has no fixed place of abode. The Vagrant Act gives power to any person whatever to apprehend any person offending against the Act.