Royal Registers.

—I have nine volumes of a work published by Bew, Paternoster Row, and which appeared from 1778 to 1784, pretending to give sketches of the characters of public men by his Majesty. Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the writer, and what number of volumes were published?

B.

[This literary curiosity was completed in nine volumes, which are sometimes bound in three. In 1841 Mr. H. G. Bohn advertised a copy with all the names filled up in manuscript, the initials being no doubt sufficiently intelligible at that time. For a notion of the work on its first appearance, see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlviii. p. 130.]

Paul Hoste.

—Paul Hoste, a Jesuit, published early in the seventeenth century a small quarto with diagrams on "Breaking the Line," so much discussed, as being first done in Rodney's action. If any one can give me some account of Paul Hoste and his scientific views on naval architecture, the information will be acceptable to

ÆGROTUS.

[See Chalmers' and Gorton's Biographical Dictionaries; Moreri, Le Grand Dictionnaire, and Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, s.v.]

"Liber Mirabilis."

—Can any of your readers inform me if there be a copy of the Liber Mirabilis in any library in the United Kingdom? It contains a remarkable prediction of St. Cæsario, Bishop of Arles, in the year 542. The work is printed in Gothic characters, and there is a copy in the Royal Library, Paris.

C LERICUS.

Dublin.

[A copy is in the library of the British Museum, consisting of two parts. Part I. is in Latin, and Part II. in French, 4to., 1523.]

Saint Richard, King of England.

—In the Romish Calendar we find, on the 7th February, amongst other saints, "Saint Richard, King of England." Which of our Richards does this refer to? I have never read in history of any of them having been canonized, nor should I have thought any of them at all a likely candidate for that honour; but if such was really the case, I presume that Cœur de Lion must be the man, and that his valour in the Crusades was suffered to outweigh his many other unsaintly qualities.

J. S. WARDEN.

Balica.

[St. Richard was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West Saxons, which it is probable he renounced that he might dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection. About the year 722, on his way to Rome, he died suddenly at Lucca in Italy. See Butler's Lives of the Saints, Feb. 7.]

Saint Irene or St. Erini.

—Can any of your correspondents direct me to where information may be found regarding the Saint Irene or St. Erini, from whom the Grecian island of Santorin takes its name?

Σ.

Bristol Dec. 1. 1851.

[Irene, Empress of Constantinople, A.D.797-802, was one of the most extraordinary women in Byzantine history. The Greeks have placed her among their saints, and celebrate her memory on the 15th of August. Consult Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, and Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xlviii.]