286 IIEWETT — PRONOUNS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. [April 9, 



would have sounded nobler thus, * That which that noble lord urged.' 

 Senates themselves, the guardians of British liberty, have degraded 

 us and preferred that to us ; and yet no decree was ever given 

 against us. In the very acts of Parliament, in which the utmost 

 right should be done to everybody, word and thing, we find 

 ourselves often either not used, or used one instead of another. In 

 the first and best prayer children are taught they learn to misuse 

 us. ' Our P'ather which art in Heaven ' should be ' Our Father 

 who art in Heaven ' ; and even a convocation, after long debates, 

 refused to consent to an alteration of it. In our general confession 

 we say, 'Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults,' 

 which ought to be ^ who confess their faults.' What hopes then 

 have we of having justice done us, when the makers of our very 

 prayers and laws, and the most learned in all faculties, seem to be 

 in a confederacy against us, and our enemies themselves must be 

 our Judges? " 



Steele's view is specious, and is not based upon an accurate 

 knowledge of the historical use of the relatives, or he may have had 

 in mind a contemporary fashion in literature which he sought to 

 counteract. If so, it is not clear against whom his shafts were 

 directed. 



In the Sir Roger de Coverley papers in the Spectator, written by 

 Addison and Steele, the relatives which and that occur 531 times ; 

 of these, which is used 353 times, that 178 times. Which is used 

 in restrictive clauses 179 times, or in 53 per cent, of all cases, that 

 161 times, or in 47 per cent, of all cases. Which refers to nouns 

 255 times, that to nouns 129 times. The influence of an anteced- 

 ent modified by demonstrative or an indefinite pronoun, to which 

 in certain instances the choice of the relative may be due, is shown 

 by the fact that zvJiicJi refers to a noun so modified 83 times, equal 

 to 76 per cent, of such cases ; that refers similarly to a noun so 

 modified in 26 cases, equal to 24 per cent, of such cases. That 

 refers to a demonstrative or an indefinite pronoun 39 times, equal 

 to 76^ per cent, of such cases, 7uhich, 12 times, equal to 23^ 

 per cent. We see here a revival or perpetuation of the usage of the 

 earlier centuries. In spite of the great influence ascribed, 

 apparently erroneously, to Addison in re-establishing the use of 

 that, he uses this relative only one-third as often as which. 



In Macaulay's essay on Milton, the relative which occurs 191 

 times, that 7 times, total 198 times. Which refers to noun ante- 



