SPELLING REFORM. 



STEWART, HERBERT. 745 



sonants in eacA, kin?, asA, and piA, and dh and 

 zh ar uzed for the first consonants in the> and 

 azure. Elias Longley, of Cincinnati, who pub- 

 lisht in 1855 the " American Phonetic Diction- 

 ary," designd by Nathaniel Storrs, continues 

 the work of reform. His " Phonetic Edu- 

 cator," a monthly organ of fonografy and 

 spelling reform, is now in its sixth year. A 

 recent number anounced that Bishop William 

 Taylor had decided to uze, in his future mis- 

 sionary work in Africa, English books printed 

 in fonetic spelling with Longley's alfabet. Uth- 

 er missionaris hav alredy employ d fonetic spell- 

 ing for teaching English. In "January, 1884, 

 was established u The Jurnal ov American Or- 

 thoepy," which is printed entirely in fonetic 

 spelling, in an alfabet devized by its editor, 0. 

 W. Larison, of Ringoes, N. J. 



The English Spelling-Reform Association, 

 formd in 1879, comprises an Educational Sec- 

 tion, for the introduction of fonetic spelling 

 into scools as an expeditius means of teaching 

 children to read the present spelling ; a Filo- 

 logical Section, for the introduction of fonetic 

 spelling for filological, literary, and general 

 purposes; and a Progressiv Section, for making 

 progressiv reforms in the ordinary spelling. 

 The prezidents of this Association hav been A. 

 II. Sayce and J. H. Gladstone ; amung the 

 vice-prezidents ar A. Bain, J. Lubbock, W. "W. 

 Hunter, A. J. Mundella, A. Tennyson, and E. 

 B. Tylor. Its offices ar at 8 John St., Adelphi, 

 London, W. 0. The English spelling-reform- 

 ers of four hundred years ago askt only for 

 uniform usage in spelling, but fonetic simplicity 

 was calld for as erly as 1568, when Sir Thomas 

 Smith publisht a book containing a complete 

 fonetic scheme. Uther writers, including Ben 

 Jonson, urged a complete reform, but uniform- 

 ity without simplicity was attained in 1755, 

 when Samuel Johnson, who scouted the idea 

 of making spelling conform to pronunciation, 

 publisht his dictionary. . Yet the calls for a 

 reform from such men as Benjamin Franklin 

 and Noah Webster became more frequent, and 

 sinse 1843 the movement may be said to hav 

 been continuus. From that time to the pres- 

 ent the fonotypy, or fonetic print, which grew 

 out of Isaac Pitman's fonografy, has been con- 

 stantly before the public. Mr. Pitman is stil 

 the chief publisher of reform literature in Eng- 

 land, and his " Phonetic Journal," a weekly 

 devoted to fonografy and spelling reform, com- 

 pleted its forty-third year with 1884, having a 

 circulation of sevnteen thousand. Alexander 

 J. Ellis is anuther veteran reformer. From 

 1843 to 1849 he workt with Mr. Pitman, and 

 in this period wrote "A Plea for Phonetic 

 Spelling," which is the most complete state- 

 ment of the case ever publisht. Recently he 

 has activly aided the reform within the Philo- 

 logical Society, and has prepared papers for the 

 Society's transactions, and varius popular writ- 

 ings and adresses on this subject. The chief 

 obstacl to the movement is rather a disinclina- 

 tion to change than a disputing of the reform- 



ers' arguments. Anuther hindrance is the lack 

 of agreement amung reformers as to how cer- 

 tain sounds shal be represented. Sum wish to 

 ad thirteen new letters to the alfabet, uthers 

 fewer, while stil uthers prefer to uze only the 

 letters and accents with which uther important 

 modern languages ar writn. Much of the en- 

 ergy of the reformers is spent in efforts to de- 

 vize schemes that shal be acceptabl to all, and 

 to win one anuther's adhesion. Indifferent 

 persons, when approach t on the general sub- 

 ject, urge this state of afairs as an excuse for 

 continued indifference. The reformers ar, nev- 

 ertheless, confident of final success. A list of 

 spelling-reform literature may be found in the 

 " Circular of Information," No. 7, 1880, of the 

 Bureau of Education at Washington. 



A simplification of German spelling has 

 gaind considerabl ground. The movement re- 

 ceivd a notabl impetus from Jacob Grimm, but 

 the first important action was the calling, 

 by the Prussian Government in 1876, of a con- 

 ference of leading educators to consider this 

 subject. No definit plan was agreed upon, 

 but a newspaper discussion was arousd, and 

 general atention was drawn to the matter. In 

 the same year a " Society for Simplified Ger- 

 man Spelling" was organized by Dr. F. W. 

 Frikke, of Wiesbaden, who soon also estab- 

 lisht an organ for the society, entitled " Re- 

 form." By a ministerial decree, sum of the 

 changes proposed by the society, such as drop- 

 ping silent h following t, writing singl for 

 dubl letters in certain words, f for ph, etc., 

 wer made obligatory in text-books for the ele- 

 mentary scools of Prussia from April 1, 1880, 

 and for the secondary scools five years later. 

 Most of the uther German governments adopted 

 the same rules, as did the Austrian. There is 

 a second German Spelling - Reform Society, 

 with a periodical, edited by Dr. W. Yietor, of 

 Wiesbaden, amung whose objects ar the use of 

 Roman letters, and of small-letter initials for 

 nouns. It is reported that the Ottoman Porte 

 is forming an academy for the Turkish lan- 

 guage, the main object of which is to carry 

 out a system of spelling reform in the depart- 

 ment of public instruction. 



STEWART, Sir HERBERT, an English soldier, 

 born in 1841 ; died of wounds received in 

 battle, at Gakdul Wells, Egypt Feb. 16, 1885. 

 He entered the military service in 1863, pur- 

 chasing a commission under the old system, 

 and was made a captain in 1868. Ten years 

 later he was graduated at the Staff College, 

 and the next year, 1879, he took part in the 

 Zulu War. As brigade-major of cavalry he 

 distinguished himself, especially in the opera- 

 tions against Sekukuni, and at the close of the 

 war he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

 He als.o became chief of staff and military 

 secretary to Gen. Wolseley. In 1881 he was 

 on special duty in South Africa, and in the 

 Boer War he was assistant-adjutant and quar- 

 termaster - general. The disaster at Majuba 

 Hill threatened to end his career, but the firm 



