Notes and Queries, Number 36, July 6, 1850 | Page 6

annotator on the _Commentaries of
Blackstone_, that, "no inconsiderable pains have been bestowed in
analysing the word 'Parliament;'" and after adducing several amusing
instances of the attempts that have been made (and those too by men of
the most recondite learning) to arrive at its true radical properties, he
concludes his remarks by observing that
"'Parliament' imported originally nothing more than a council or
conference, and that the termination '_ment_,' in parliament, has no
more signification than it has in _impeachment_, _engagement_,
_imprisonment_, _hereditament_, and ten thouand others of the same
nature."
He admits, however, that the civilians have, in deriving testament from
_testari mentem_, imparted a greater significance to the termination
"ment." Amidst such diversity of opinion, I am emboldened to offer a
solution of the word "Parliament," which, from its novelty alone, if
possessing no better qualification, may perhaps recommend itself to the
consideration of your readers. In my humble judgment, all former
etymologists of the word appear to have stumbled _in limine_, for I
would suggest that its compounds are "_palam_" and "mens."

With the Romans there existed a law that in certain cases the verdict of
the jury might be given CLAM VEL PALAM, viz., privily or _openly_,
or in other words, by tablet or _ballot_, or by voices. Now as the
essence of a Parliament or council of the people was its representative
character, and as secrecy would be inconsistent with such a character, it
was doubtless a _sine quâ non_ that its proceedings should be
conducted "_palam_," in an open manner. The absence of the letter
"_r_" may possibly be objected to, but a moment's reflection will cast it
into the shade, the classical pronunciation of the word palam being the
same as if spelt _PARlam_; and the illiterate state of this country when
the word Parliament was first introduced would easily account for a
phonetic style of orthography. The words enumerated by Blackstone's
annotator are purely of English composition, and have no
correspondent in the dead languages; whilst _testament_, _sacrament_,
_parliament_, and many others, are Latin words Anglicised by
dropping the termination "_um_"--a great distinction as regards the
relative value of words, which the learned annotator seems to have
overlooked. "_Mentum_" is doubtless the offspring of "_mens_",
signifying the mind, thought, deliberation, opinion; and as we find
"_palam populo_" to mean "_in the sight of the people_," so, without
any great stretch of imagination, may we interpret "_palam mente_"
into "_freedom of thought or of deliberation_" or "_an open expression
of opinion_:" the essential qualities of a representative system, and
which our ancestors have been careful to hand down to posterity in a
word, viz., Parliament.
FRANCISCUS.
* * * * *
"INCIDIS IN SCYLLAM, CUPIENS VITARE CHARYBDIM."
I should be sorry to see this fine old proverb in metaphor passed over
with no better notice than that which seems to have been assigned to it
in Boswell's Johnson.
Erasmophilos, a correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1774,
quotes a passage from Dr. Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, vol. ii. p. 151.,

which supplies the following particulars, viz.:--
1. That the line was first discovered by Galeottus Martius of Narni,
A.D. 1476.
2. That it is in lib. v. 301. of the "Alexandreis," a poem in ten books, by
Philippe Gualtier (commonly called "de Chatillon," though in reality a
native of Lille, in Flanders).
3. That the context of the passage in which it occurs is as follows:--
"-- Quo tendis inertem Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem. Incidis in Scyllam,
cupiens vitare Charybdim."
where the poet apostrophises Darius, who, while {86} flying from
Alexander, fell into the lands of Bessus. (See _Selections from Gent.
Mag_. vol. ii. p. 199. London, 1814.)
C. FORBES.
This celebrated Latin verse, which has become proverbial, has a very
obscure authority, probably not known to many of your readers. It is
from Gualtier de Lille, as has been remarked by Galeottus Martius and
Paquier in their researches. This Gualtier flourished in the thirteenth
century. The verse is extracted from a poem in ten books, called the
"Alexandriad," and it is the 301st of the 5th book; it relates to the fate
of Darius, who, flying from Alexander, fell into the hands of Bessus. It
runs thus:--
"-- Quo flectis inertem Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis,
Quem fugias; hostes incurris dum fugis hostem; _Incidis in Scyllam,
cupiens vitare Charybdim_"
As honest JOHN BUNYAN, to his only bit of Latin which he quotes,
places a marginal note: "The Latin which I borrow,"--a very honest
way; so I I beg to say that I never saw this "Alexandriad," and that the
above is an excerpt from _Menagiana_, pub. 1715, edited by Bertrand

de la Monnoie, wherein may also be found much curious reading and