spearian associations, and my
belief is that what he sold me under that name was an Italian wine of some
sort, bearing a good deal of resemblance to the _vino panto_, of which
Perugia is the head-quarters.

B. D.

This is the same wine which is now named sherry. Falstaff calls it _sherris
sack_, and also _sherris_ only, using in fact both names indiscriminately
(2 _Henry IV._, Act IV. Sc. 3.). For various commentaries regarding it, see
Blount's _Glossographia_; Dr. Venner's _Via recta ad Vitam longam_,
published in 1637; Nares' _Glossary_, &c. Cotgrave, in his _Dictionary_,
makes sack to be derived from _vin sec_, French; and it is called _seck_ in
an article by Bishop Percy, from an old account-book at Worcester, anno
Elizbethae 34.

N. L. J.

* * * * *

IRISH LAW IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

(vol. ix., p. 270.)

What has been mistaken by your correspondent for a piece of Irish
barbarity, was, until the Act 12 Geo. III. c. 20., the usual punishment
awarded by the law to culprits standing mute upon an arraignment of felony
(that is, without speaking at all, or without putting himself upon God and
the country). The judgment in such case was:

"That the man or woman should be remanded to the prison, and laid there
in some low and dark room, where they should lie naked on the bare
earth, without any litter, rushes, or other clothing, and without any
garment about them, but something to cover their privy parts, and that
they should lie upon their backs, their heads uncovered and their feet,
and one arm to be drawn to one quarter of the room with a cord, and the
other arm to another quarter, and in the same manner to be done with
their legs; and there should be laid upon their bodies iron and stone,
so much as they might bear, and more; and the next day following, to
leave three morsels of barley bread without any drink, and the second
day to drink thrice of the water next to the house of the prison
(except running water), without any bread; and this to be their diet
until they were dead. So as, upon the matter, they should die three
manner of ways, by weight, by famine, and by cold. And the reason of
this terrible judgment was because they refused to stand to the common
law of the land."--2 _Inst._ 178, 179.

In the Year-Book of 8 Henry IV. the form of the judgment is _first_ given.
The Marshal of the King's Bench is ord