a basket nowhere," and "there is no more, I don't think," even 

 if they avoid the more common — " there ain't no more, I don't 

 think." And I am sorry to say that, though not in such an 

 aggravated form, the same abuse is becoming so common in 

 England, that you will seldom find one of the younger generation 

 who would not make use of the phrase, "There is no more, I 

 don't think." 



I have before made the remark, that while there is in this country 

 a strong tendency to adopt the new words that may be coined in 

 America, yet that we abstain from adopting the older words that 

 were in use before the inter-communication became such as it is at 

 present. We have escaped, for instance, the word donate, which 

 has almost entirely supplanted the word give in America. To this 

 word, severely as it has been condemned by English, and even more 

 severely by American critics, there is not, in an etymological point 

 of view, any objection; and it does in a few cases avoid the 

 periphrasis of "give as a donation." Yet it is a pretentious and 

 therefore objectionable word, which if it once got a footing in 

 England, would very probably in common speech supersede, as it 

 has done in America, the good old Saxon give. Another vicious 

 expression from which we have escaped is the use of as for that, 

 as in " I think as I will go to Penrith to-morrow," a word which, 

 though here a rank vulgarism, I have heard used in America by 

 graduates of Harvard. 



I notice also in America a habit of applying to inanimate things 

 a phrase which is only apphcable to human beings. Thus in the 

 Scientific American (an admirably conducted periodical by the 

 way, and one of which I desire to speak with all respect) that a 

 tornado "demolished one story of a building, and demoralised 

 another." Fancy speaking of the morals of a building ! Again, 

 the expression high-toned is a favourite one in America, as applied 

 to a man of high honour and character. But now I observe that 

 a tradesman in Washington advertises a stock of " high-toned " 

 boots and shoes. An American might, however, reply, and with 

 justice, that this is not any more objectionable than our use of the 

 word genteel, as similarly applied. I have noticed in America the 



