Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/478

 398 NOTES AND QUERIES, to* s. vi. NOV. 17,1900. was made bv Hume's insistence on the introduction of retrenchment. 'Peace' is professed by all. ' Reform' is vacme ; and the democratic forces are rather favourable to obtaining monev's worth for expenditure than to retrenchment. For example, manvdesire to see the adoption of a universal system of Old - Ape Pensions, which would necessarily involve an enormous increase in national expend! tnre. All arc favourable to a frreat increase of the Home Office Inspectorates, and to many other developments of expenditure." Later, this plaved-out party poll-lure had a variant when Cobden, soon after his return from North America, whither he went in 1835. published a remarkable pamphlet, en- titled "England, Ireland, and America, by a Manchester Manufacturer," which attracted considerable attention at the time, and first brought its author into public notice beyond the limits of his own district. In it he advocated " Peace, Non - intervention, Re- trenchment, and Free Trade." J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL. SURNAMES FROM SlNOLE LETTERS (9th 8. vi. 264).—It is a pity MR. HENRY HARRISON did not oomnlete his alphabetionl jeu rf:'esprit. He might .have gone from V — Veacock to W—Toovey. X=Eggs. Y=Wye. Z^Tzzard (an old name for the letter). All these names are to be found in Lower's ' Patronymica Britannica." though they do not receive a literal explanation. ST. SWITHIN. Another tailor, in the Strand, describes himself as" Sam W." FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Brixton Hill. Bowditch ('Suffolk Names') eives as instances of these Dee. Kay, Pee, Tee, Wye, and Wyman, some of which are much more likely to have had another source. I am con- nected with a family bearing the name of Geeson. The ff is hard. This seems to point to another derivation in this case also. C. C. B. If MR. HARRISON wishes better authority than a newspaper correspondent on uni- and bi- literal proper names in France he will find abundance of evidence in each volume of the TntermMiaire from the thirty - fifth to the fortv-first. See the indexes, »wft tit. 'Noms sVcrivant avec Une ou Deux T/ettres.' An analysis of these articles might prove an amusing pendant to the whimsical note he sends you. Q. V. " SAVE THE FACE OF (TO) " (9th S. vi. 308).—I do not know whether the Times phrase quoted hv ALIQPIS, " To save the face of the palace clique," refers to Chinese affairs, but the ex- pression seems to be of Chinese origin. In that most interesting book ' Chinese Charac- teristics,' by Arthur Smith (1897), there is a whole chapter on " Face." It is there shown that it is a principle with "the heathen Chinee " to save appearances—or, as he puts it, to "save face"—at anv cost. "To be accused of a fault is to 'lose face," and the fault must be denied, whatever the evidence, in order to ' save face.'" C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. Bath. Does this not simply mean to screen or protect? But for the action of the peace commissioners the face of the palace clique mieht get damaged and be rendered unfit for public inspection. The commissioners will act as a blind and prevent such untoward results. The palace clique would arniear to have more caution than courage, risking the abandonment of true devotion rather than stand the strain of direct criticism. The great Montrose deprecated such a policy on the part of hia mistress, the State, when he gave warning in these explicit terms :— But Vainst mv Battery if I find Thou shun'st the Prize so sore, As that thou set'st me up a Blind, I '11 never love thee more. THOMAS BAYNE. This and its converse, to "lose face," are common expressions in "pidgin English." If a Chinaman, of whatever standing, suffers in reputation or position by punishment, repri- mand, or slights before inferiors. *c., in the words of himself and his friends he "loses face." As to the first expression, a little epi- sode that I witnessed years ago may explain it. A friend of mine was kicking (figuratively) his "bov " out of the house, on an accusation of stealing, before his coolies, when thp accused turned on his master and threatened to get "plenty dollah" out of him at the court for libel. Mv "bov," who was present, observed to me. " He makee save face," waiv- ing alto 'ether the question of guilt or inno- cence. H. P. L. This is a Chinese phrase having one or two meanings which are not very clear to the Occidental, and I cannot do better than refer AT.IQUTS to chap. iv. of ' Chinese Character- istics," by Arthur Smith. HAROLD SPACKMAN. HERALDIC (9th S. vi. 350).—The arms of Oouldsraith of Nantwich are. Gules, on a fesse or, between three martlets arg., as many fleur-de-lys azure : of Hucks, Arg., a chevron between three owls azure (this quartering is. or may be, borne by Lord Aldenham); of