DIPLOMATIC LETTERS 



every language has something peculiar in 

 its structure, the foregoing observations 

 will apply with little variation to all the 

 European languages. 



In the English let it be remarked, that 

 and And the are more often found than 

 any other words ; h is frequently preced- 

 ed by 10, c, s, and t { y is seldom used 

 in the middle of a word ; the double let- 

 ters II and ss appear frequently at the end 

 of words ; ed, ty, ly, ing, and tion, are very 

 common terminations ; em, in, com, and 

 con, are frequent prepositions ; a, i, and o 

 may stand alone ; o is often followed wrth 

 r; e is much more frequent in the begin- 

 ning and end of words than in the mid- 

 dle ; and in English the e is continually 

 employed, as in yes, yet, her, never, me, 

 toe; he, the, she, they, ye, fee, see, be, ever 

 tpeed, need, deference, excel, excess, &c. 

 Though this will not hold good in Latin, 

 as e and i are equally frequent in the lat- 

 ter, and next to these a and / but o not 

 so common as any of them: and yet in 

 the Spanish and Italian the o occurs very 

 frequently. When you meet with a cha- 

 racter doubled in the middle of a word 

 of four letters, it will be necessary to con- 

 sider what words of four letters are so 

 spelled. It is probable the vowels e or o 

 are these ; as meet, feel, good, book, look, 

 &c. In polysyllables, where a double . 

 character appears in the middle of a 

 word, it is for the most part a consonant ; 

 and if so, the preceding letter is always a 

 vowel. 



Observe also, that i in English never 

 terminates a word, nor a or u, except in 

 flea, sea, you, or thou : again, by compar- 

 ing the frequency of the letters, you will 

 generally find e occurs the oftenest; next 

 9, then a and i; but u and y are- not so 

 often used as some of the consonants, es- 

 pecially s and t. Among the vowels eand 

 9 are often doubled ; the rest scarce ever; 

 and e and y often terminate words ; but y 

 is much less frequent, and consequently 

 easily distinguished. 



To find out one consonant from ano- 

 ther, you must also observe the frequency 

 of d, h, n, r, s, t ; and next to these, c, f, 

 g, I, m, to; in a third rank may be placed 

 *, k, p, and lastly q, x, z. This remark, 

 however, belongs to English ; for in Latin 

 common consonants are the /, r, s, t; next 

 c, /, m, n,- then d,g, h,p, q; and lastly 

 b, x, r. But the difficulty is to come at 

 the knowledge of three or four letters ; 

 therefore, where a word of four letters 

 has the first and fourth the same, it it 

 most likely to be that : to discover which 

 look for another of four letters, beginning 



with the two first, and ending with two 

 others, and it will probably prove to be 

 this,- and more especially if you find ano- 

 ther, with three letters, beginning with 

 the two first ; for in that case it must be 

 the. Now, having found out in any part 

 of the cypher these three words, that, this, 

 and the, place them over the characters 

 which you know to be t, h, a, i, s, e, and 

 then consider what letters are deficient, 

 and what words, from the number of let- 

 ters that composed them, they are most 

 likely to be. You will thus find such 

 ready and surprising intimations from the 

 above six letters previously discovered, 

 that you will soon be in possession of the 

 whole alphabet. 



When words of two letters appear of 

 the same characters, differently placed, it 

 is most likely one is on and the other 

 7io.- so of, and/o?', and/rowi, discover and 

 ascertain each other ; and th are very 

 often used in the beginning of English 

 words, as the, that, this, then, these, their, 

 thirst, &c. &c. * 



Besides these peculiarities, Mr. Falco- 

 ner points out the following, as applica- 

 ble to the English. 



most of the letters. 

 a, e, i, I, o, r, u, y. 

 a, e, h, i, I, o, r, u. 



e, i, o, r, u. 

 most of the letters. 

 a, e, i, I, o, r,u, and sometimes v, 

 a, e, h, i, I, n, o, r, u, y. 

 vowels only, 

 most of the letters. 

 a, e, i, n. 

 vowels only, 

 vowels only, 

 vowels only, 

 most of the letters, 

 a, e, h, i, /, o, ?-, s, sometimes 



t,u,y. 

 only by u, and qu, by a, e, i, . 



e, sometimes h, i, o, u, y. 

 a, c, e, h, i, k, I, m, n, o, p, q, t, u, 



a, e, h, i, o, r, u, w, y. 

 sometimes d, and g, I, m, n, p, 

 sometimes r, s, t, x. 

 vowels only, 

 a, e, h, i, o, r, y. 

 sometimes a or <?. 

 e, sometimes i, o. 

 e, sometimes o. 



It would be two prolix in us to give an 

 equally minute account of the particulari- 

 ties of other languages; but the inquisitive 



