phrase may be found in Swift (Introduction to _Tale of
a Tub_):

"The two principal qualifications (says he) of a fanatic preacher are,
his inward light, and his head full of _maggots_; and the two different
fates of his writings are to be burnt or worm-eaten."

The word _maggot_ is sometimes used for the whim or crotchet itself; thus
Butler:

"To reconcile our late dissenters,
Our brethren though by different venters;
Unite them and their different _maggots_,
As long and short sticks are in faggots."--_Hudibras_, part III. canto 2.

So also it is used by Samuel Wesley (father of the founder of the
Methodists) in his rare and facetious volume entitled _Maggots, or Poems on
several Subjects never before handled_, 12mo., 1685.

WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham.

_"Salus populi," &c._ (Vol. viii., p. 410.).--The saying "Salus populi
supreme lex" is borrowed from the model law of Cicero, in his treatise _de
Legibus_, III. 3. It is made one of the duties of the consuls, the supreme
magistrates, to regard the safety of the state as their highest rule of
conduct:

"Regio imperio duo sunto; iique praeeundo, judicando, consulendo
Praetores, Judices, Consules appellantor. Militiae summum jus habento,
nemini parento: _ollis salus populi suprema lex esto_."

The allusion appears to be to the formula used by the senate for conferring
supreme power on the consuls in cases of emergency: "Dare operam, ne quid
respublica detrimenti caperet." (See Sallust, _Bell. Cat._ c. 29.)

L.

Aristotle regards the safety of the citizens as the great end of law (see
his _Ethics_, b. I. ch. 4.); and Cicero (_de Finibus_, lib. ii. c. 5.) lays
down a similar principle.

B. H. C.

_Theodoro Paleologus_ (Vol. viii., p. 408.).--The inscription referred to
was printed in _Archaeologia_, vol. xviii., and with some account of the
Paleologi to which a Querist was referred in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 280.
(see also pp. 173. 357.). It is astonishing how much will be found in that
"Californian mine," if the most excellent indices of the several volumes
are only consulted. Your correspondent could in the present case have
pointed out the errors of the inscription already in print had the indices
to "N. & Q." attracted him.

J.

_Worm in Books_ (Vol. viii., p. 412).--In reply to ALETHES I beg to
acquaint him that I have tried various means for destroying the worm in old
books and MSS., and the most effectual has been the