carry off their six bottles under their belt quietly and comfortably." 1

"The Mountfords felt that they had done their utmost for any guest of theirs when they had procured them this gratification."? "The parliament was assembled; and the king made them plausible speech." 8

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My mind at the time was busy with the matter, and, thinking that the Government was right, I was inclined to defend them as far as my small powers went." 4

Sometimes a plural verb is put with a singular subject, or a singular verb with a plural subject.

"Over his face was the bleach of death, but set upon it was the dark and hard lines of desperate purpose." 5

"The numerous elaborate bills which each government of England has in late years attempted to pass, but generally without success, is the best indication of the needs felt." 6

"Each of the ladies, like two excellent actresses, were perfect in their parts." 118

"To do them justice, neither of the sisters were very much displeased." "

"When a thing or a man are wanted they 10 generally appear." "1 "A harmless substitute for the sacred music which his instrument or skill were unable to achieve." 12

"Isabel or Helena, wife no. 1 or no. 2, are sitting by, buxom, exuberant, ready to be painted." 18

"Neither law nor opinion superadd artificial obstacles to the natural ones. 99 14

1 Scott: Rob Roy, vol. i. chap. xii.

2 Mrs. Oliphant: In Trust, chap. xiv.

3 David Hume: History of England, vol. vi. chap. lxvi.

4 Anthony Trollope: An Autobiography, chap. v.

5 American novel (1896).

1 See page 54.

The Fortnightly Review.

8 Scott: Waverley, vol. ii. chap. xvi.

9 Thackeray: Vanity Fair, chap. xxiii. 10 See page 54.

11 Disraeli: Endymion, chap. lxxviii.

12 Scott: Waverley, vol. i. chap. xxxiv.

13 Thackeray Roundabout Papers; Notes of a Week's Holiday.

:

14 J. S. Mill: The Subjection of Women, chap. i.

"No nation but ourselves have equally1 succeeded in both forms of the higher poetry, epic and tragic." 2

8

"If Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace both hesitate to claim the greater honour in the discovery, it is to the outside reviewer a matter of absolute impossibility to determine who of these two naturalists have laboured the harder or the more honestly, and is the more free from points of attack.” 4

"All this time, what was now, and ever, remarkable in Waldershare were his manners.' "5

When the subject though plural in form is singular in sense, the verb should be singular; when the subject though singular in form is plural in sense, the verb should be plural. Under this rule the following sen

tences are correct:

"Houses, not "housen,' is the correct plural." "The news is entirely satisfactory."

"Positive politics does not concern itself with history.""

"It seemed that to waylay and murder the King and his brother was the shortest and surest way."

"It never was any part of our creed that the great right and blessedness of an Irishman is to do as he likes."8

"The gold and silver collected at the land-offices is sent to the deposit banks; it is there placed to the credit of the government, and thereby becomes the property of the bank.'

The following sentence is incorrect :

9

"Gulliver's Travels' are Swift's most enduring work." 10

1 Is equally in the proper position?

2 De Quincey: Essay on Style.

8 Query as to this pronoun.

4 The [London] Spectator.

Disraeli: Endymion, chap. xxii.

6 Sir George C. Lewis: Observation and Reasoning in Politics, vol. ii. chap. xxiv. sect. xiv.

7 Macaulay: History of England, vol. i. chap. ii.

8 Matthew Arnold: Culture and Anarchy, chap. ii.

9 Daniel Webster: Speech at Niblo's Saloon, New York, March 15, 1837. 10 Student's theme.

A collective noun, when it refers to the collection as a whole, is singular in sense, and therefore requires a singular verb; when it refers to the individual persons or things of the collection, it is plural and requires a plural verb. Under this rule the following sentences are

correct:

"The numerical majority is not always to be ascertained with certainty." 1

"In early times the great majority of the male sex were slaves."2 "He is shy of having an opinion on a new actor or a new singer; for the public do not always agree with the newspapers.' "The populace were now melted into tears." 4

"8

"Mankind have always wandered or settled, agreed or quarrelled, in troops or companies.” 5

"The watch below were busy in hanging out their clothes to dry."

The following sentences are incorrect:

"The congregation was free to go their way."

"There was also a number of cousins, who were about the same

"Yes; what is called, in the jargon of the publicists, the political problem and the social problem, the people of the United States does appear to me to have solved, or fortune has solved it for them, with undeniable success." "10

1 Henry Hallam: Constitutional History.

2 J. S. Mill: The Subjection of Women, chap. i.

8 William Hazlitt: The Round Table, No. xlvi.; On Commonplace Critics.

4 Hume History of England, vol. vi. chap. lxviii.

Adam Ferguson: Essay on the History of Civil Society, sect. iii.

6 W. Clark Russell: The Sailor's Sweetheart, chap. xi.

'Anthony Trollope: Barchester Towers, chap. vi.

8 Disraeli Endymion, chap. lii.

9 Two problems or one?

10 Matthew Arnold: A Word about America. The Nineteenth Century, February, 1885, p. 222.

VIII. Can is often used where may is the proper word.

"Can I trouble you to pass me the butter?"

"Courses 1, 2, 3 and 4 are graded courses of which no two can be taken together." 1

Shall or will?

IX. No solecisms are more frequent than those which consist in the misuse of shall and will. A person who has not been trained to make the proper distinctions between shall and will, should and would, never can be sure of using them correctly; but he will make few mistakes if he fixes firmly in his mind that I (or we) shall, you will, he (or they) will, express simple futurity, and that I (or we) will, you shall, he (or they) shall, imply volition on the part of the speaker.

Some writers hold that shall was the original form of the future, that on grounds of courtesy it was changed in the second and the third person to will, and that, whenever courtesy permits, shall is to be preferred to will. It is doubtful whether this be the true history of the distinction between shall and will; but at all events the doctrine of courtesy furnishes a rough-and-ready rule for choice between the two.

In "I shall," shall is not discourteous, for the matter is in the hands of the person speaking, who cannot be discourteous to himself; shall is, then, in the first person, the proper auxiliary to express simple futurity. In "you shall," "he shall," "they shall," shall, disregarding the feelings of the person or persons spoken to or spoken of, expresses compulsion; will is, then, in the second and the third person, the proper word to express simple futurity.

1 Catalogue of an American university.

As in the second and the third person will is the proper auxiliary to express simple futurity, errors in the second and the third person are rare; for the common error is the use of will where shall is the proper word. As in the first person shall is the proper word to express simple futurity, the first person is that in which errors are most frequent.

The interrogative forms to express futurity are: "shall Shall I?" and I?" "shall you?" "will he?" "( shall you?" manifestly imply no compulsion. "Shall he?" does imply compulsion: "will he?" is therefore cor

rect.

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66

The interrogative forms to express volition on the part of the person represented by the subject of the verb are: will you ?" "will he?" Will I?" would mean "is it my intention?"-an absurd question unless it echoes the question of another person.

Examples of the correct use of shall and will are:

"I will resign it; for ever I will resign it: and the resignation must be good, because I will never marry at all. I will make it over to my sister, and her heirs for ever. I shall have no heirs but my brother and her; and I will receive, as of my father's bounty, such an annuity . . as he shall be pleased to grant me.'"1

...

“Well, we shall all miss you quite as much as you will miss us,' said the master." 2

"But as to Ravenswood

he has kept no terms with me — I'll keep none with him — if I can win this girl from him, I will win her.' 'Win her? 'sblood, you shall win her.'" 8

-

"But she shall have him; I will make her happy if I break her heart for it.'" 4

666 Your father, mother, and I will divide the pleasure, and the

Samuel Richardson: Clarissa Harlowe, vol. i. letter lx.

2 Thomas Hughes: Tom Brown at Rugby, part ii. chap. viii.

8 Scott: The Bride of Lammermoor, vol. i. chap. xxi.

4 George Colman: The Jealous Wife, act ii. scene i.