Mr. Marsh has long ago pointed out that our best-loved bywords, and those parts of the Bible most on our lips in every-day life, are almost purely Teutonic. I go A step farther and would remark, that the same holds good, as regards the great watchwords of English history; such as ‘Short rede, good rede, slay ye the Bishop;’ ‘when Adam dalf and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?’ ‘bastard slips shall not thrive;’ ‘this man hath got the sow by the right ear;’ ‘turn or burn;’ ‘the word Calais will be found graven on my heart after death;’ ‘stone dead hath no fellow;’ ‘put your trust in God, but keep your powder dry;’ ‘change kings, and we will fight you again;’ ‘we'll sink or swim together;’ ‘the French run, then I die happy;’ ‘a Church without a Gospel, a King above the Law;’ ‘the wooden walls of Old England;’ ‘what will they say in England if we get beaten?’ ‘the schoolmaster is abroad in the land;’ ‘the Queen has done it all;’ ‘the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill;’ ‘blood is thicker than water;’ ‘rest and be thankful;’ ‘are they not your own flesh and blood?’[1]
- ↑ Lord Thurlow in 1789 knew very well what he was about, when he couched in good Saxon his famous adjuration, which he meant to be a household word in the mouths of English squires and parsons. The pithy comments of Pitt, Burke, and Wilkes on Thurlow's blasphemy are well known. The Irish leaders in 1873 are wise in talking of ‘Home Rule,’ rather than of ‘Domestic Legislation;’ though the former bears an unlucky resemblance to ‘Rome Rule.’ Mr. Tadpole and Mr. Taper knew the value of a good cry.
