"The word proclaimed by the concordant voice of mankind fails not; for in man speaks God."
And to this the great philosopher adds:
"Hence the adage (?), 'Vox Populi vox Dei.'"
The sign of interrogation is Sir William Hamilton's, and he was right to put it; for whatever the psychological connexion between Hesiod's dictum and V. P. V. D. may be, there is surely no historical. "Vox Populi vox Dei" is a different concept, breathing the spirit of a different age.
How far back, then, can the dictum in these very words be traced?
Does it, as Lieber says, originally belong to the election of bishops by the people?
Or was it of Crusade origin?
America begs Europe to give her facts, not speculation, and hopes that Europe will be good enough to comply with her request. Europe has given the serious "V. P. V. D." to America, so she may as well give its history to America too.
Americus.
[As this Query of Americus contains some new illustration of the history of this phrase, we have given it insertion, although the subject has already been discussed in our columns. The writer will, however, find that the earliest known instances of the use of the sayings are, by William of Malmesbury, who, speaking of Odo yielding his consent to be Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 920, says: "Recogitans illud Proverbium, Vox Populi Vox Dei;" and by Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as we learn from Walsingham, took it as his text for the sermon which he preached when Edward III. was called to the throne, from which the people had pulled down Edward II. Americus is farther referred to Mr. G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion (pp. 172, 173., and the accompanying notes) for some interesting remarks upon it. See farther, "N. & Q.," Vol. i., pp. 370. 419. 492.; Vol. iii., pp. 288. 381.]