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have been omitted as redundant. In the fourth the word "was" should have followed "who," and the word “but" preceded "Hume:" or the sentence might have been formed thus:

"How fortunate then was James Naylor, who, desirous of entering Bristol on an ass, was unable, Hume informs us, to procure one in the whole town."

And yet this is the writer who, while penning these blunders, talks with such insufferable flippancy of the "acme of taste," and of "finished compositions."

"When on the eve of departure he desired his wife, who was at the time pregnant, that if she brought him a son, to place a tower on the church."-THORPE. Northern Mythology.

In this example the word that is superfluous, the sentence being complete without it.

Under this head may be classed the following samples from Sir A. Alison:

"The conduct of the king and cabinet evinced that vacillation which, as it is the invariable mark of weakness in presence of danger, so it is the usual precursor of the greatest public calamities."— History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon.

"It is owing to his advice that the general plan of the campaign, afterwards so admirably carried into execution by Barclay, is to be ascribed."- History of Europe.

In the latter example the word " owing" is redundant. To make sense of it, the sentence should conclude with "was adopted," instead of "is to be ascribed."

"It has been already mentioned how Sir Home Popham proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Ayres, and the disastrous issue of that expedition."-Ibid.

It is by no means clear whether the writer intended the word "issue," in this phrase, as a nominative or an objective. As the sentence stands, the beginning and the end of it are grammatically irreconcilable. If the first part

be retained, it should conclude thus:

"It has been already mentioned how Sir Home Popham proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Ayres, and how that expedition had a disastrous issue."

If the latter part be retained, the phrase should commence as follows:

"I have already mentioned how Sir Home Popham proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Ayres, and the disastrous issue of that expedition."

Verb without a Nominative.

I have met with an instance of this fault in Taylor's "Notes from Books :"

"Wherein then is to consist the freedom of his heart? We answer, in self-government upon a large scale-in so dealing with his years and months as shall impart a certain orderly liberty to his days and hours."

In this phrase the preposition "to" should have been put in the place of " shall," or "such a manner" been employed for "so."

How can "so" be the nominative to "shall impart "?

Preposition repeated.

"Alphonsus ordered a great fire to be prepared, into which, after his majesty and the public had joined in prayer for heavenly assistance in this ordeal, both the rivals were thrown into the flames."-D'ISRAELI. Curiosities.

Here the writer should have stopped at the word "thrown."

"To the 365 days in the year he has prefixed to each an epistle dedicatory.”—Ibid.

This should have been:

"To each of the 365 days in the year he has prefixed an epistle dedicatory."

"It is to this last new feature in the supposed Game Laws to which we intend to confine our notice."-SYDNEY SMITH. Essays.

"From sheer necessity Congress was driven to lay on a great variety of new taxes on exciseable articles."-ALISON. History of Europe.

"The eating in of usury into the vitals of the state.”—Ibid.

These samples speak for themselves.

Improper use of the Pronouns.

"I strike the harp in praise of Bragela, she that I left in the isle of mist."-MACPHERSON. Ossian.

"Let me awake the king of Morven, he that smiles in danger; he that is like the sun of Heaven rising in a storm." -Ibid.

In these phrases the pronouns should be in the

same case the objective-as the nouns to which they refer.

Here are other instances requiring the objective

case:

"Let me see who do I know among them." -SOUTHEY. The Doctor.

"Between Alaric Watts and I no such event ever occurred to be lamented now."-JERDAN. Autobiography.

"The cherished plan of publication between Sir J. Leicester and I was thus announced."—Ibid.

In the following the pronouns should be in the nominative case:

"What should we gain by it but that we should speedily become as poor as them."—ALISON. Essay on Macaulay.

"The very scullion who cleans the brasses in the kitchen becomes of more consideration and importance than him."FRANKLIN. Essays.

"Robert is there, the very out-come of him, and indeed of many generations of such as him."-CARLYLE. Heroes and Hero Worship.

"Sir Thomas More in general so writes it, although not many others so late as him."-TRENCH. English Past and Present.

Some writers affect to think that in such phrases "than" and "as" may be regarded as prepositions, and the pronouns as being correctly put in the objective case. This view of the matter, however, is confined to two or three writers; and so long as it is, we are bound to hold it as

erroneous.

It is a curious circumstance that one of the few errors of style in Cobbett's English Gram

mar, arises from the misuse of what he calls "the poor, oppressed little pronoun it," against which misuse he is always cautioning his "dear James." This affords a fresh illustration of the fact, that it is easier to preach than to practise; a disadvantage to which we are all more or less subject. Cobbett, in Letter xvii., inculcates the cautious use of "it" in these words:

"Never put an 'it' upon paper, without thinking well what you are about. When I see many its in a page, I always tremble for the writer."

And in Letter xxi. he employs this same it as the nominative to a verb, which has its nominative already in the word "logic."

"The logic, though the religious zeal of its pious, sincere, and benevolent author has led him into the very great error of taking his examples of self-evident propositions from amongst those, many of which great numbers of men think not to be self-evident, it is a work wherein profound learning is conveyed in a style the most simple, and in a manner the most pleasing."

Dr. Blair, in a couple of places, employs the words "they are" instead "it is," thus:

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They are the ardent sentiments of honour, virtue, magnanimity, and public spirit, that only can kindle the fire of genius."-Lectures.

"They are the wretched attempts towards an art of this kind, which have so often disgraced oratory."-Ibid.

This use of "they are," instead of "it is," so contrary to grammar and usage, sounds very strange. It looks as if Blair had been aiming

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