_Christian Names_ (Vol. vii., pp. 406. 488. 626.).--The earliest instance I have yet met with, of an individual with two Christian names, occurs in the compulsory cession of the Abbey of Vale Royal to King Henry VIII.; the deed conveying which is still extant in the Augmentation Office. It is in Latin, and signed by John Harwood the Abbot, Alexander Sedon the Prior, _William Brenck Harrysun_, and twelve other monks of the Abbey. Vale Royal Abbey is now the seat of Lord Delamere, into whose family it came by purchase in 1616, from the descendant of Sir Thomas Holcroft, the original grantee from the crown. T. HUGHES. Chester. I send you a much earlier instance of two Christian names than any that has hitherto been given in your pages. Henry Prince of Wales, son of King Henry IV., was baptized by the names Henry Frederick. Vide Camden's _Remains_, 4to., 1605. I have not a reference to the page. C. DE D. _Abigail_ (Vol. iv., pp. 424., &c.; Vol. viii., p. 653.).--Your recent correspondents on this subject do not appear to have met with the passage in which I mentioned, that since putting the question, I had found that a waiting-maid in Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of _The Scornful Lady_ was named Abigail; and that, as the play appeared to have been a favourite one, the application of the name to the class generally was probably owing to it. In the absence of any proof of its having been previously used in this sense, I still continue to think that this conjecture was well founded. Considering the terms on which Dean Swift was with the Mashams, he was the last person in the world to have used such a term, unless it had been so long in familiar use as to be deprived of all appearance of personal allusion to them. J. S. WARDEN. "_Begging the question_" (Vol. viii., p. 640.).--This phrase is identical with that of "petitio principii," a figure of speech well known both to logicians and mathematicians, _i. e._ assuming a point as proved, and reasoning upon it as such, which has in fact not been proved. J. S. WARDEN. _Russian Emperors_ (Vol. ix., p. 222.).--I am informed by a late resident in Russia that the rumour to which MR. CROSFIELD refers has no foundation. I am farther informed, however, that after a twenty-five years' reign the monarch has even more absolute and despotic authority than before the lapse of that time. I hope this subject may be well ventilated, as considerable misapprehension exists about it. JOHN SCRIBE.