354 CANADIAN ENGLISH. 



when they mend or repair the same wheel, they will find no in- 

 convenience in using one of the latter terms as equally apt and less 

 ambiguous. And so also when they make a guess at some fact be- 

 yond their certain knowledge they will say so ; but when they speak 

 of what they actually do know, they will state it as a fact, and not 

 guess about it. 



An amusing illustration of the mauner in which such misuse of 

 words can obscure the sense of their true meaning even in the minds 

 of educated men, is furnished by a critical comment in the " Shakes- 

 pear's Scholar," of Richard Grant White, A.M.,* on the following 

 passage in " Richard III." Act IV, Scene IV : — 



Stanley. Richmond is on the seas. 

 K. Richard. There let him sink — and be the seas on him. 



White livered runnagate ; — what doth he there ? 

 Stanley. I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess. 



K. Richard. Well, as you guess ? 



A better illustration of the correct use of the word could no where 

 be found. Stanley says he does not know, he only guesses ; and the 

 king replies ; well tell me what your guess or suspicion is. But hear 

 the American critic: — " If there be two words for the use of which, 

 more than any others, our English cousins twit us, they are ' well,' 

 as an interrogative exclamation, and ' guess.' Milton uses both, as 

 Shakespear also frequently does, and exactly in the way in which 

 they are used in America ; and here Ave have them both in half a 

 line. Like most of those words and phrases which it pleases John 

 Bull to call Americanisms, they are English of the purest and best, 

 which have lived here while they have died out in the mother 

 country." To such " English of the purest and best /" are we fast 

 hastening, if some check is not put on the present tendencies of our 

 colloquial speech, and the style adopted in our periodical literature. 



It may be assumed that enough has now been said to shew the 

 truth of the complaint with which this paper began. How then is 

 the evil to be remedied? One or two suggestions occur to me 

 which may not seem unworthy of some attention, as means calculated 

 to check in some degree this growing evil. The first is that, educated 

 men in private stations should carefully guard against the errors 

 indicated, and others germane to them, and use their influence to 

 check them when introduced. The second is, that our common school 

 teachers should not only do likewise, but should correct the children 

 under their care, whenever they utter slang or corrupt English, not 



* Shakespear's Scholar ; being historical and critical studios of his text, characters and 

 commentators, &c. By R. G. White, A-M. Appleton A Co., New York; 1854. 



