In hopes at length to gain the point."
Having no list of the bishops by me, of the above-mentioned date, to which I can refer, I should be glad if any of your correspondents can tell me who these four bishops are. May I ask likewise, if it is known who was the author of this not very refined or elegant composition?
John Branfill Harrison.
Maidstone.
[The four aspirants probably were, 1. Sherlock of Salisbury; 2. Herring of York, the next primate; 3. Mawson of Chichester; 4. Gibson of London.]
Nose of Wax.—In so famous a public document as the Nottingham Declaration of the Nobles, Gentry, and Commons, in November, 1688, against the Papistical inroads of the infatuated King James, I find in the Ninth Resolution that he is accused of "rendering the laws a nose of wax," in order to further arbitrary ends. I have often heard the phrase familiarly in my youthful days; may I ask of you to inform me of its origin? Its import is plain enough,—a silly bugbear, of none effect but to be laughed at.
W. J.
[Nares explains it more correctly as a proverbial phrase for anything very mutable and accommodating; chiefly applied to flexibility of faith. He adds, "It should be noticed, however, that the similitude was originally borrowed from the Roman Catholic writers, who applied it to the Holy Scriptures, on account of their being liable to various interpretations.">[
"Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley!"—I have somewhere heard or read this, or a very similar phrase, ironically expressive of surprise at approbation from an unexpected quarter. I would much like a clue to its source and correct shape.
W. T. M.