Judging by the character of the handwriting, I would say that the above-mentioned lines were written not later than the time of Edward I.; and as many of the vellum leaves of this book have been sadly disfigured, as well by the pressure of lips as by tincture of galls, I am inclined to think that official oaths were formerly taken in the Court of Exchequer of Ireland by presenting the book when opened to the person about to be sworn in the manner at this day used (as we are informed by Honoré de Mareville) in the Ecclesiastical Court at Guernsey. It appears by an entry in one of the Order Books of the Exchequer, deposited in the Exchequer Record Office, Four Courts, Dublin, that in James I.'s time the oath of allegiance was taken upon bended knee. The entry to which I refer is in the following words: "_Easter Term, Wednesday, 22nd April, 1618._--Memorandum: This day at first sitting of the court, the lord threasurer, vice threasurer, and all the barons being present on the bench, the lord chauncellor came hither and presented before them Thomas Hibbotts, esq., with his Majesty's letters patents of the office of chauncellor of this court to him graunted, to hold and execute the said office during his naturall life, which being read the said lord chauncellor first ministred unto him the oath of the King's supremacy, which hee tooke kneeling on his knee, and presently after ministred unto him the oath ordayned for the said officer, as the same is contayned of record in the redd booke of this court; all which being donn the said lord chauncellor placed him on the bench on the right hand of the lord threasurer, and then departed this court." JAMES F. FERGUSON. Dublin. * * * * * PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. _Splitting Paper for Photographic Purposes._--If the real and practical mode of effecting this were disclosed, it would be (in many cases) a valuable aid to the photographer. I have had many negative calotypes ruined by red stains on the back (but not affecting the impressed side of the paper); which, could the paper {62} have been split, would in all probability have been available, and printed well. I was sorry to see in "N. & Q" (Vol. iii., p. 604.) an article under this head which went the round of the papers several months ago. Anything more impracticable and ridiculously absurd than the directions there given can hardly be imagined: "cylinders of amber!" or "cylinders of _metallic_ amalgam!!" "excited in the usual manner," &c. I presume _electrical_ excitation is intended. Though, how cylinders of _metal_ are to receive electrical _excitation_, and to have sufficient attractive power over a sheet of paper as to rend it asunder, would be a problem which I believe even a Faraday could not solve: neither would excited glass cylinders effect the object any better; or if they could, it would be erecting a wheel to break a fly upon.