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JNU1±JS AJNJJ C^UlJiil±:«. 



47 y 



(Our dedarafious, proclamations, manifestos, &c. (for I 

 ^se^d you quite the marrow of them), are drawn with 

 •great caution, and as little latitude as possible ; and where 

 we ofter most, if you examine, you will find the words 



are subject to two meanings, and sometimes more 



For tlvis we are obliged to the pen of Father Innys, of the 

 Society of Jesus, who is an excellent writer, and has 

 iipon -all occasions been very serviceable to our cause. 



" My good lord, the die is now cast. Our all is at stake. 

 'Tis our cCnier effort. We are to meet in triumph or 

 confusion. Our Sinithfield fires shall again blaze, or our 

 enemies are to tread upon our necks. 



" Exert yourself then ; inflame j'our friends with a 

 zeal to destroy the enemies of our Church and King, and 

 to extirpate hereticks and traitors ; declare to them what 

 they are to do, and what they are to have ; enforce to 

 them their duty both to God and to their Sovereign ; 

 point out the smallness of the danger, and the greatness 

 of their reward ; incite them to repair to the Royal 

 Standard, and swell the righteous number by their pre- 

 eencc ; let them remember that those who are not with 

 us are against us, and will be looked upon as such ; in 

 short, bid them to come, for the Lord hath need of them. 



" Thus, my lord, have I done according to the royal 

 command I have received. I trust, from the ability and 

 fidelity of the messenger, this letter will arrive safe to 

 your hands ; so begging upon my knees your lordship's 

 blessing, I am, my lord. 



Your lordship's 



Most obedient servant 

 And dutiful son, 

 • " Perth, Sept. 1, 1745. 0. S. Patkick Graham." 



Eustace W. Jacob. 



ENGLISH SYNTAX. 



Criticising the language of some notices by 

 Major Reed, not. many days ago, Mr. D' Israeli, in 

 a frequent assembly of tlie House of Commons, 

 pronounced the sentence, " increasing anxietij and 

 dissatisfaction at present pervades all classes of 

 society," to be " a fla2;rant violation of grammar." 

 (Vide The Times, May 12, p. 7. col. 4.) The 

 general laughter of his'hearers, and absence of all 

 contradiction, plainly evince that the grammatical 

 canon implied in this censure met with unanimous 

 ap[)roval. I presume, therefore, it is a generally 

 recognised rule of English syntax, that two nomi- 

 isiatives singular require a verb plural. I am not 

 :a3hained to confess that, although well stept in 

 years, I had not yet attained to a knowledge of 

 this rule ; nay more, that were I not already past 

 wondering at the many strange specimens of phi- 

 lological acumen which I daily hear and read, this 

 piece of pedantry would have struck me with im- 

 measurable astonishment. It has been my fortune, 

 whether good or evil is hard to say, never to have 

 been catechised in a dame's school, nor to have 

 learnt the rudiments of English grammar under 

 the tuition of a governess expert in the institutes 

 of Lindley Murray; but whatever my acquaintance 

 ■with the English tongue, it has been acquired by 

 many years' diligent perusal of its famousest and 



most elegant writers ; from them I thought that I 

 had gleaned such principles as would not leave me 

 altogether to seek for directions in its compo- 

 sition, with regard eitiier to the prevalent usage, 

 or to the logical grounds upon which any given 

 usage is based. It was my belief that I had ga- 

 thered, among other tilings, that, with reference to 

 the construction ridiculed by Mr. D'Israeli, the 

 law and custom was to treat any number of nouns 

 substantive, when representing to the mind's eye 

 a single idea, whether that idea were simple or 

 compound, as capable of the government of a sin- 

 gular verb, or when the ideas were as diverse as 

 the nouns themselves, as capable of the subaudition 

 with each several noun of a singular verb, ex- 

 pressed and in concord with one alone, either the 

 first or last in the series. As, however, Mr. 

 D'Israeli and the body of scholars whom he ad- 

 dressed, appear to be of another opinion, in which 

 it is not unreasonable to conclude that the ma- 

 jority of the readers of " N. & Q." agree, I sh(mld 

 esteem it as a special favour, if any one who may 

 happen to notice these remarks would kindly re- 

 concile the above canon, tacitly understood in 

 Mr. D'Israeli's censure, with the following few out 

 of many passages taken at random from Milton 

 and Shakspeare, which seem to be at variance 

 with it. Before citing them I would just premise, 

 that not even the authority of Shakspeare and 

 Milton, or whatever writer else in high repute 

 with the English student as an arbiter of the jiis 

 et norma loquendi, would exercise one moment's 

 weight with me against the indefeasible preroga- 

 tive of that logic in speech, to whose sovereignty 

 all grammar is, or should be, subordinate ; may I 

 not rather say, of whose laws grammar is merely 

 a technical registry or compendious digest. Thus 

 premonished, let the reader refer to Milton's Para- 

 dise Lost, and in book i. he will find these words : 

 " for the mind and spirit remains invincible." In 

 book ii. these, " descent and fall to us is adverse," 

 — " when the scourge inexorably and the torturing 

 hour calls us to penance," — " on whom we send 

 the weight of all, and our last hope relies" — " hill 

 and vallcij rings." In book iii. these, " but cloud 

 instead and everduring dark surrounds me." In 

 book vi. these, " to whom in heaven supreme 

 kingdom and power and glory appertains" In 

 book vii. these, " great triumph and rejoicing teas 

 in heaven." In book x. these, " go whither fate 

 and inclination strong leads thee," — " thus tuhat 

 thou desirest and what thou fearest, alike destroys 

 all hope of refuge." In book xi. these, " is piety 

 thus and pure devotion paid," — " wherein consists 

 woman's domestic honour and chief praise." In 

 book xii. these, " yet sometimes nations will de- 

 cline so low from virtue, which is reason, that no 

 wrong, but justice and some fatal cause annexed, 

 deprives them of their outward liberty." In Pa- 

 radise Regained, book iii., these, " Judcea now and 



