When Queen Elizabeth was questioned on the subject of her faith in the
Sacrament, she dexterously avoided giving offence by replying--
"Christ was the word that spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what his word did make it,
That I believe, and take it."
Scarcely less ingenious was the reply of Bishop Hallifax, when Regius
Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge, upon Dr. Parr and the Rev. Joseph
Smith (both resident at Stanmore) applying to him for his judgment on
a literary dispute between them. His response was in the following
official language, by which he dexterously avoided the imputation of
partiality:--
"_Nolo interponere judicium meum._"
His name reminds me that he married a _Cooke_, the daughter of Dr.
William Cooke, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, for whom George
the Third had so great a regard, that he extended it to his children.
The Bishop and his wife being at Cheltenham when the King was there,
and some person asking why his Majesty paid Dr. Hallifax such marked
respect, was answered, "Sir, he married a _Cooke_." This being in the
presence of