Ocean will foon be publiihed), and in- 
formed that I was a clergyman (or, as 
they term it in Otaheite, a man of God), 
the boy came up to me from the lower 
part of the room, gave me his hand, and, 
after fome converfation, expreffed a ftrong 
defire to learn to read and write, and to 
become a Chriftian, or, as he expreffed it, 
to be able to-underfiand and. do what the 
men with the white and black gowns are 
always acvifing the people from the pul. ' 
pits on Sundays. He has been nine 
months in Lendon, and is, I believe, the 
only Otaheitan in England. He is about 
thirteen years of age ; is named “ Potto,” 
but not baptized ; and feems to poffe& not 
only an amiable difpofiticn, but to be ca- 
pabie of high mental improvement. 
I am, Sir, your’s, &c. 
James HALL. 
—e 7 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
BSERVING that you admit remarks 
upon the Englith language among 
the topics of correfpordence in your Ma- 
gazine, I requeft your infertion of fome 
ftrictures upon an impropriety in the ule 
of a werd, which I have noticed in feve- 
ral late writers. It confifts in the omif- 
fion of as after the verb confider, when 
ufed in the fenfe of ta regard, or look- 
upox: thus:—* Refufing a challenge is 
contidered (as) a difgrace only by the vo- 
taries of falfe honour’—!* I confider war 
(as) one of the greate% of human cala- 
mities”—‘* Alfred may be confidered (as) 
a model of a perfe& king.” | 
I believe there is no example in any of 
the writers of the pureft age of Englith 
literature, of the omiffion of as after con- 
fider when employed in the manner above 
tiated; at leaft I can affert, that on turn- 
Ing over a few pages of Addifon for au- 
thorities, I foom met witha number of 
inftances in confirmation of the infertion 
of the conjunction, without one for its 
omiflion. I was difappointed on confult- 
Ing Johnfon upon the point, fince that 
-dexisograpber has ftrangely omitted, 
among ihe fenfes of the neuter verb to con- 
Jider, shat which is here in queftion, 
Mour’ 35 Soe!) Ne NN, 
Mr. T. brought him to Port Jackion, from 
whence he obtained a paflage to England. — 
Mr, Turnbull defcribes him as a boy of quick 
conception, and it appears that he has a tafte 
for drawing ; fome {pecimens of which are in 
poffefficn of the publication. We have an- 
nounced Mr. Turnbull’s intended publication 
in the Varicties. 
The Verb Confider.—-On Surnames. 
[May }, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, - 
HE obfervations I met within a fore: 
»mer Number of your Magazine, re- 
Jating to furnames,. have induced me to 
fend you the following remarks. . > 
Camden informs us ( ‘* Remains,” edit. 
1674, p. 131); that they were ufed in no 
nation anciently but among the Romans, 
and even with them to no great extent till 
after the league of union with the Sabines. 
** The Hebrews (he fays), keeping memo- 
ry of theirtribe, ufed in their genealogies, 
inftead of furnames, the name of their fa- 
ther with Bez, that is, fon, as Melchi- 
Ben-Addi, Addi-Ben-Cofam, - Cofom- 
Ben-Elmadam, - &c. So the Grecians : 
Inaeos re Aaoaag, Icarus the fon of Dx- 
dalus, &c.”? Pelides, for Achilles, as the 
fon of Peleus, will be recollegted by every 
{chool-boy converfant with Homer. This, 
indeed, appears to have been the mof pre- 
valent fafhion among the different nations 
of the world ; and Camden has illuftrated 
the point not only from the Saxon and the 
‘Britifh, but even from the Arabian wri- 
ters ; and Jahnfox and Peter/oz, it will be 
found, are at,this day as common in Hol- 
ftein as in England, > ne 
‘The. general introduction of thefe 
names into Europe mutt certainly~be re- 
ferred. to the tenth century ; and they ap- . 
pear to have firft multiplied to the greatef 
extent in France and Italy ; though £ be- 
lieve in the former country children did’ 
not regularly affumé the furnames of their 
fathers till the thirteenth century, About 
the eleventh century we find them adepted 
by the Spaniards, and not generally by the 
Germans till the fifteenth ; and thouga ~ 
they were ufed in Venice as early as in 
France, yet there, as well as probably in 
other countries, they were confined for a 
long time to the grandees. Both among 
the early and the later Saxons, the names 
of men were very fimple in their form, 
and if they exprefled any thing, theic 
meaning was ufually confined to the qua- 
lities, birth, or a&tions, of thofe to whom 
they appertained. One of our monarchs 
was called Hardi-Cnut, from his boldnets ; 
and another had the epithet of Harefoot, 
from his fwiftnefs. In this country — 
have little doubt they were of Norman 
oligin; and though perhaps firt ufed in 
the reign of Edward the Confeffor, whole 
fondnels for every thing of French ex- 
tration has frequently been commented 
upon by our hiftorians; yet I am of opi- 
nion that very fex, if any, inflances can 
now be found. Edward afcended the ~ 
‘Enughifa 
