me any account of this George Alsop, his
preferment, if any, and the time of his death?

He is, I feel persuaded, a different person from the author of _A Character
of Maryland_, 12mo., 1666.

P. B.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_B. L. M._--What is the meaning of the abbreviation B. L. M. in Italian
epistolary correspondence? I have reason to believe that it is used {586}
where some degree of acquaintance exists, but not in addressing an entire
stranger. In a correspondence now before me, one of the writers, an Italian
gentleman, uses it in the subscription to _every one_ of his letters,
_except the first_, thus:

"Ho l'honore d' essere col piu profondo rispetto B. L. M.
Il di Lei Umiliss. Dev. Servo."

"Frattanto la prego di volermi credere nella piu ampla estentione del
termine B. L. M.
Il di Lei Ubb^o. ed Obligato Servitore."

I need not add more examples. There is nothing in Graglia's _Collection of
Italian Letters_ that explains it.

J. W. T.

Dewsbury.

_Member of Parliament electing himself._--In the biographical notices of
the author of an _Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative
in England_, 1849, I find the following curious circumstances:

"The writ for election (of a member for the county of Bute) was
transmitted to the sheriff, Mr. McLeod Bannatine, afterwards Lord
Bannatine. He named the day, and issued his precept for the election.
When the day of election arrived, Mr. Bannatine was the only freeholder
present. As freeholder he voted himself chairman of the meeting; as
sheriff he produced the writ and receipt for election, read the writ
and the oaths against bribery at elections; as sheriff he administered
the oaths of supremacy, &c., to himself as chairman; he signed the
oaths as chairman and as sheriff; as chairman he named the clerk to the
meeting, and called over the roll of freeholders; he proposed the
candidate and declared him elected; he dictated and signed the minutes
of election; as sheriff he made an indenture of election between
himself as sheriff and himself as chairman, and transmitted it to the
crown office."

Can any of your correspondents furnish me with a similar case?

H. M.

Peckham.

"_Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re._"--This rule is strongly recommended by
Lord Chesterfield in one of his letters, as