CANADIAN ENGLISH. 349 



The writer seems to have been pleased with some tune, and he ac- 

 cordingly speaks of "the beauty of its rendition" Musical people 

 do speak in a certain sense of " rendering tunes," but the author of 

 this critique has the honour of originating the idea of a tune being 

 capable of rendition. The unsophisticated reader would be sorely 

 tempted to ask how in all the world could a man surrender a tune ? 

 Doing so implies a measure of coercion. But can a singer be forced 

 to sing, or even, having done so, does he thereby surrender the tune ? 

 By force you may take the notes out of his hand, but how can you 

 take them out of his throat ? 



In England it occasionally happens that great offenders are hanged, 

 but in the States and Canada, criminals are never hanged ; thev are 

 all hung. In England, beef is hung, gates are hung, and curtains are 

 hung, but felons are hanged ; in Canada, felons, beef, gates, and cur- 

 tains, are all treated in the same way. 



But our English is not only wayward and independent, it is also 

 so exceedingly modest, that we are in danger, not only of altering 

 our vernacular, but of forgetting how our bodies are constructed. 

 If we know anything of English conversation or letters, we speedily 

 find out, even if stone-blind, that British men and women have both 

 arms and legs. But in Canada, a stranger who could not see, would 

 find it difficult to discover much about our conformation. lie would 

 learn that both sexes hzd'Umbs of some sort, but from any information 

 which our language would give, he could not tell whether their limbs 

 were used to stand on or hold by. 



Among British domestic fowls there are many styled gallinaceous ; 

 and among these are cocks and hens, male and female. But a blind 

 naturalist could never fancy that we have the same distinctions in 

 Canada. He would, indeed learn that we have hens ; but he would 

 wonder in vain what had become of their mates. That there existed 

 an unknown creature called a rooster, he would early discover, but 

 unless he made particular enquiry, he might return after a year's 

 residence among us, thoroughly convinced that there were no cocks 

 in the province. Still greater, perhaps, would be his surprise, on 

 making the discovery, to learn that in using the old familiar English 

 name for the hero of the barn-yard, he had been using a very im- 

 modest word. This sort of thing is preeminently disgusting, and 

 speaks ill, not merely for the taste, but for the morals of those with 

 whom such a refinement originated. In Canada, such a garment as 

 trowsers is unknown. What do we wear ? Pantaloons is the reply ; 

 or more familiarly pants, with the feminine elegancy pantalets ! 



