Your former error of this sort was in the omission of a comma; this time you have erred by the insertion of a comma, and in each case a like result is produced. Had there been no comma after the word altogether", the ambiguity would have been avoided, because the words in italics would then have formed part of the last clause of the sentence: but as the italicised clause is isolated by commas, the sentence is as perfect a specimen of this error as ever could have been given. Absurd as would be the sentence, its construction is such, that we may understand you to say, "Some of the European rulers "may be females, when spoken of altogether"; or we may understand you 66 to say, 66 "when spoken of altogether, they may be correctly classified under the "denomination kings""; but, even in this last clause, it is evident that you say one thing and mean another. The con- The differ ence between "may text shows that what you meant, was, be correctly "they may correctly be classified", 46 not and "may correctly be they may be correctly classified". Slight classified". as is the apparent difference here, the real I The Dean calls Her difference is very great. If I say "they may be correctly classified", my words mean that the classification may be made in a correct manner; but if I say, “they 'may correctly be classified", the meaning is, that it is correct to classify them. In the first example, the adverb qualifies the past participle" classified"; in the second, it qualifies the passive verb to "be clas"sified"; or, in other words, the adverb in the former instance describes the thing as being properly done; and, in the latter instance, as being a thing proper to do. One word more before we finish with Majesty a this strange sentence of yours. female! On page 65 I had to ask you why, when speaking of a man, you used the slang word individual". I have here, to ask you a question which is still graver.—Why, when speaking of women, do you apply to them the most debasing of all slang expressions? You speak of the highest person in the land, and that person a lady, and your description of her is one that is equally applicable to a dog!—Her Majesty is a female! I am sure that all who desire Reverting to the error occasioned by a The importcomma in the former part of your sen tence, I may give, as another example of the importance of correct punctuation, an extract from a letter in The Times' of June 19th, 1863; there, simply by the placing of the smallest point, a comma, before, instead of after, one of the smallest words in the language, the word "on", the whole meaning of the sentence is entirely altered, and it is made to express something so horrible that the reader shudders at the mere suggestion of it. The letter is on American affairs, and ance of correct punctuation, "In a fix". The final and the final "months". the writer says, "The loss of life will "hardly fall short of a quarter of a million; "and how many more were better with "the dead than doomed to crawl, on the "mutilated victims of this great national "crime!" He meant to say-" than doomed "to crawl on, the mutilated victims of this "great national crime.” But I must hasten to the conclusion of my letter. You say, "The derivation of the word, as well as the usage of the "great majority of English writers, fix "the spelling the other way", i.e. This (as well as that) fix it! Excuse me, but I must ask you why you write thus, even though by putting the question, I put you "in a fix" to answer it. You speak of "the final 'u' in tenour", and "the final 's' in months". You might just as reasonably speak of the final "A" in the alphabet. These errors are so gross that I cannot forbear reproving you in your own words. Surely it is an evil for a people to be daily "accustomed to read English expressed thus 66 obscurely and ungrammatically: it tends "to confuse thought, and to deprive language of its proper force, and by this means to degrade us as a nation in the rank of "thinkers and speakers." always ing". In your second essay you are loud in Variety not praise of variety in composition; and "charmvariety enough you undoubtedly have given us; but, unfortunately, the variety is not of that description which, in our school days, writing-masters made us describe in our copy-books as "charming". We have found, in your Essays on the Queen's English, errors in the use of pronouns; errors in the use of nouns, both substantive and adjective; errors in the use of verbs and of adverbs; and errors in the use of prepositions. There are errors in composition, and errors in punctuation; errors of ellipsis, and errors of redundancy; specimens of feeble expletives, and specimens of circumlocution; specimens of ambiguity, and specimens of squinting constructions; specimens of slang, and specimens of misquotation of an opponent's words; and, worst of all, a specimen of a misquotation of Scripture. Add to this the following specimens of |