r_ [Quilp
and Swiveller] _backs were turned, little Jacob thawed, and resumed his
crying from the point where Quilp had frozen him._"--Vol. i. pp. 207-9.

J. B. COLMAN.

_To Pose._--In Vol. ii., p. 522., your correspondent F. R. A. points out
some passages in which the word "posing" appears to be used in a sense
equivalent to "parsing." Neither the etymology nor the exact meaning of the
word "to pose," are easy to determine. It seems to be abbreviated from the
old verb "to appose;" which meant, to set a task, to subject to an
examination or interrogatory; and hence to perplex, to embarrass, to
puzzle. The latter is the common meaning of the word _to pose_; thus in
Crabbe's _Parish Register_:--

"Then by what name th' unwelcome guest to call,
Was long a question, and _it posed them all_."

Hence, too, the common expression, that a question which it is difficult to
answer, or an argument which seems to decide the controversy, is a _poser_.
The word "posing" in the passages cited by F. R. A. may refer to the
examination of the pupil by the teacher of grammar. Thus, Fuller, in his
_Worthies_, art. Norfolk, says that--

"The University appointed Dr. Cranmer, afterwards Archbishop of
Canterbury, to be the _poser-general_ of all candidates in divinity."

Roquefort, _Gloss. de la Langue Romaine_, has "apponer, appliquer, poser,
plaier." See Richardson in _appose_ and _pose_.

L.

_Culprits torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 480.).--In reply to MR. JACKSON'S
question respecting culprits torn by horses, I beg to inform him that
Robert Francois Damiens was the last criminal thus executed in France. He
suffered on the 28th March, 1757, for an attempt on the life of Louis XV.
The awful penalty of the law was carried out in complete conformity with
the savage precedents of former centuries. Not one of the preparatory
barbarities of question, ordinary and extraordinary, or of the accompanying
atrocities of red-hot pincers, melted lead, and boiling oil, was omitted.
The agony of the wretched man lasted for an hour and a half, and was
witnessed, as Mercier informs us, by all the best company in Paris.

The men amused their leisure with cards, while waiting, as he says, for the
boiling oil; and the women were the last to turn their eyes from the
hideous spectacle. Your correspondent may be glad to be informed that the
same punishment was inflicted on Poltrot de Mere for the murder of the Duke
of Guise, in 1563; on