In the printed catalogue there is this note: "Neotricus quidam hos scripsit versiculos, ex alio forsan Codice depromptos." [omega]. [phi]. I have not seen the following amongst your deprecatory rhymes. It may come in with another batch. The nature of the punishment is somewhat different from that usually selected, and savours of Spain: "Si quisquis furetur This little libellum, Per Phoebum, per Jovem, I'll kill him, I'll fell him! In ventum illius I'll stick my scalpellum, And teach him to steal My little libellum." RUBI. In a Gesner's _Thesaurus_ I have the following label of the date 1762: "Ex Caroli Ferd. Hommelii Bibliotheca. "Intra quatuordecim dies comodatum ni reddideris, neq' belle custodieris, alio tempore, Non habeo, dicam." L. _Humbug_ (Vol. vii., pp. 550. 631.).--I do not remember any earlier use of this word than in Fielding's _Amelia_, 1751. Its origin is involved in obscurity: but may it not be a corruption of the Latin _ambages_, or the singular ablative _ambage_? which signifies _quibbling, subterfuge_, and that kind of conduct which is generally supposed to constitute _humbug_. It is very possible that it may have been pedantically introduced in the seventeenth century. May, in his translation of Lucan, uses the word _ambages_ as an English word. H. T. RILEY. A severe instance of the use of the term "humbug" occurred in a court of justice. A female in giving her evidence repeatedly used this term. In her severe cross-examination, the counsel (a very plain, if not an ugly person) observed she had frequently used the term humbug, and desired to know what she meant by it, and to {65} have an explanation; to which she replied, "Why, Sir, if I was to say you were a very handsome man, would you not think I was humbugging you?" The counsel sat down perfectly satisfied. G. H. J. _Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway Travelling_ (Vol. viii., p. 34.).--The passage in Daniel alluded to is probably the following:--"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased," chap. xii. v. 4. MR. CRAIG should send to your pages the exact words of Newton and Voltaire, with references to the books in which the passages may be found. JOHN BRUCE. _Engine-a-verge_ (Vol. vii., p. 619.).--Is not this what we term a garden engine? The French _vergier_ (_viridarium_) is doubtless so named, quia _virga_ definita; and we have the old English word _verge_, a garden, from the same source. H. C. K. ---- Rectory, Hereford. _"Populus vult decipi," &c._ (Vol. vii., p. 572.).--The origin of this phrase is found in Thuanus, lib. xvii. A.D. 1556. See Jackson's _Works_, book iii. ch. 32. s. 9. _note_. C. P. E.