Contemporanea of April 30. Following tion."-Daily Telegraph, March 17, 1880. the example of Mr. Gladstone and writ-"Which made the old boots an expressive ing on the Eastern Question and Mr. factor in the character of the man.". Gladstone's attempted solution of it- May Fair, April 5, 1879. "A good digesthe Daily Telegraph, November 30, 1879, tion is always quoted as a factor in the says: "Another delusion dispelled by this composition of happiness." — Pall Mall war is that which apprehends Russia to Gazette, April 29, 1880. "Whether Mr. be a civilizing factor in the East-European Gladstone wishes it or not, he must be problem." Soap and water are also de- its (the new ministry's) vital factor." clared to come under the category of Standard, April 13, 1880. "This country factors: "The Revising Barrister appears is still an important factor in the affairs fully to appreciate the value of soap and of Europe." World, March 24, 1880. water as an important factor in the prog- Fifty years ago the duel was still a recress of civilization." Crabs, lobsters, ognized and important factor in English oysters are "factors," though not of the politics." Globe, March 15, 1880. "A highest order, according to the Standard, few years ago M. Rochefort was a serious September 26, 1882: "Shellfish in the factor in French politics."- Daily News, past, even more than at the present date, March 24, 1880. "The elector who, withoccupied an important place in the history out being actually illiterate, is merely of man's dietary, though, indeed, if we are stupid, is one of the most perplexing to accept without cavil Brillat-Savarin's | factors that the wire-pullers have to reckfamous dictum, ‘Dis-moi ce que tu man-on with.". Daily Telegraph, April 8, ges, et je te dirai qui tu es,' they cannot be 1880. accorded a lofty grade among the factors of civilization."

Nihilism in Russia is also a factor, or it might be said a malefactor. "The desperation of the reckless minority organized against the czar is a serious factor, which cannot be left out of the account." Daily Telegraph, September 22, 1882. "The false prophet of the Soudan is a factor in the situation with which the British government will promptly have to reckon." Pall Mall Gazette, October 24, 1882. A culinary artist who, in a popular penny journal, endeavors to instruct the public on the secrets of gastronomy, informs his readers that "the great factor in the dressing of a salad is good Lucca oil and plenty of it; while another periodical says that "the essential factor of a good pancake is an egg." "A profuse expenditure of the coin of the realm, applied in a practical manner, has been a very powerful factor amongst not a few potent agencies in bringing ignorant, neutral, and apathetic voters to the poll." Globe, March 12, 1882. A fashionable society paper, as journals of that class are absurdly called, declares that "one of the factors of her Majesty's health is a residence in the Highlands." A few further specimens of the abuse of the word in literary composition are selected at random: "Russia has once more become a mighty factor in Europe." - Daily Telegraph, April 26, 1880. "The hostile attitude of Secocoeni is no new factor in the general situation in Africa." Times, March 10, 1879. "The prepossession of the police against prison ers is a factor in any case for the prosecu

Had and Would. The colloquial use of the same contraction I'd for I had and I would has been extended imperceptibly into writing and printing, with results that threaten to supersede would altogether and to replace it most improperly by had. Same of our ablest writers have fallen into this inelegancy, or allowed their printers to do so - among others Mr. Thackeray, who says in "The Virginians," "I had rather have lost an arm," instead of "I would rather have lost an arm; and Mr. Carlyle, who has a doom for Quashee (the negro) which I had rather not contemplate," instead of "would rather not." Instances of this unnecessary corruption of the word are to be found so far back as the days of Shakespeare, and a century later in the usually well written and classical pages of "The Tatler” and "The Spectator."

When had is followed by the word better, as in the phrase "you had better," it is an improper substitute for would, though 'you had better do so and so" has the small advantage of being more laconic than the synonymous phrase, "It would be better if you did so and so." When had is followed by have, its use is still more ungrammatical. Thus when the Times, March 12, 1879, says, "Sir Wilfrid Lawson had better have kept to his original proposal," it means that "Sir Wilfrid Lawson would have done better to keep, or to have kept, to his original proposal.' So also the Spectator, March 2, 1879, when it wrote, "The motion had better be withdrawn," was guilty of a permissible colloquialism, but was grammatically in

T

S

correct, and should have written, "It would "Which are all items, and important
be better if the motion were withdrawn."
In like manner the Examiner fell into
the prevalent carelessness, when it wrote,
March 2, 1879, "If the University of
London, after an existence of forty years,
cannot produce a competent man, it had
better cease to exist."

items." The Standard offends in the same manner, "Everything obliges us to assume, and to assume with much confidence," and "We say it, and say it advisedly." So also the Morning Advertiser of November 1, 1882, has, "They think, and rightly think, the question of procedure one which especially concerns the dignity of the House of Commons." The Daily Telegraph, November 6, 1882, in expatiating on the beauties and amenities of Hampstead Heath as a recreation ground for London, says that the neigh boring inhabitants " thought, and very properly thought, that cricket ought not to be forbidden."

The style oratorical first prominently introduced by Lord Macaulay in his critical essays has been, and is, imitated_ad nauseam by writers of the present day. It is intended to be forcible, but is only forcibly-feeble at the best. When an orator, in the height of his argument or his passion, omits his adjective and stops the flow of his words to supply it, as in the phrase, "It has been said, and excellently Exaggeration, or attempted intensificawell said," he is perfectly justified in tion of language, especially in the use of strengthening his meaning by an after- epithets, is one of the colloquial or litthought, even though it lead to a sur-erary vices of the age, and is by no plusage of words; but when a writer, who means peculiar to the newspapers. If a can supply the missing epithet in its thing is very good, or exceedingly good, proper place by a stroke of the pen in the it is not sufficient to say so in simple manuscript, writes as if he were making a terms. Very, is but a weak word in the speech, the mannerism, if too often re- requirements of modern times, which inpeated, becomes painful to the reader. sist on the stronger epithets of awfully, or Thus, when the Standard, May 10, 1882, dreadfully, to express a becoming sense writes, " Though direct proof may as yet of the charms either of beauty, health, be wanting, the vast majority of the En-wealth, or mirth. Awfully handsome, glish people will believe, and rightly awfully well, awfully rich, or awfully funbelieve, that the Phoenix Park victims ny, are common colloquialisms. Then were butchered with American knives, "awfully" is varied ad libitum by dreadand their murderers paid with American fully, or even by excruciatingly. A very gold," the two believes are neither neces- funny farce would be but a poor thing in sary nor in good taste; and "the English the parlance of to-day, and must be depeople will rightly believe" would be bet- scribed as "screamingly funny," if it were ter than "believe, and rightly believe." expected to be acceptable to the jaded frequenters of any modern theatre. To burst into tears is no longer a permissible phrase in the language of novelists, nothing less than a flood or a deluge of tears will suffice for their exigencies; while to be applauded, signifies nothing unless the recipient of the public favor be applauded "to the skies."

The Freeman's Journal on the same subject has, "Ireland would welcome with a sense of profound relief the appointment to the chief secretaryship of any English politician except Mr. Forster, because it would be assumed, and naturally assumed, that the appointment of Mr. Forster means a return in a more intense form to the policy of coercion." Why the repetition of assumed? and does the repetition add either to the sense or the elegance of the phrase?

The Pall Mall Gazette possesses a writer or writers with whom this manner. ism appears to be a favorite. Thus, on November 1, 1882, we find in its columns, "The usually apathetic majority of disap. pointed citizens have revolted, and successfully revolted." On October 26, 1882, it has, "The constituency will conclude, and properly conclude." On September 20, 1882, the same journal has two examples of this affectation, "Who do not prepare, and carefully prepare," and

LIVING AGE.

VOL. XLIII. 2190

The introduction of new words into the language, or the formation of new words upon the old Greek and Latin bases, is no difficult process. The difficulty lies in procuring their acceptance. It is almost impossible to force them into favor or into general use if prematurely or unnecessarily compounded. In the "New World of Words," 1678, by Edward Phillips, which borrowed its title from a previous work by Florio, “The World of Words," there is inserted by way of appendix a list of two hundred and forty words, which he declared "to be formed of such affected words from the Latin or Greek as are either to be used warily, and upon occa

"duffer," and "cad are words familiar to aristocratic lips. "Who is that awfully fine filly?" says Fitz-Noodle to his companion at an evening party; "she's dreadfully nicely groomed! As if the fine girl had just been trotted out of the stable, after a careful curry-combing, or rubbing down. Even ladies - but fortunately not gentlewomen-have caught the contagion of vulgarity from their husbands, lovers, or brothers, and defiled their fair lips with what is called fast language, and with words which, if they only knew their meaning and origin, they might blush to pronounce - if blushing were still in fashion.

sion only, or totally to be rejected as barbarous, or illegally compounded and derived." Of these prohibited or partially prohibited words, only eleven have made good their footing in the language during more than two centuries. These eleven. which in our day could not well be dispensed with, and to which it seems strange that any one could ever have objected, are "autograph, aurist, bibliograph, circumstantiate, evangelize, ferocious, holograph, inimical, misanthropist, misogynist, and syllogize." Possibly, during the next two centuries, a few more of the strange words collected by Phillips may force their way into colloquial or literary favor; but there seems to be little chance of the Though new words, however unobjecadoption of the greater part of them, such tionable in their origin, are slow to find as fallaciloquent, speaking deceitfully favor, they are destined to live hereafter or fallaciously; floccification, setting at in the language if they express meanings nought; homodox, of the same opinion; or shades of meanings better or more lubidinity, obscenity; mauricide, a mouse- tersely than the pre-existing terms or killer; nugipolyloquous, speaking much combinations. Of five among such useful about trifles; spurcidical, obscene; lneologisms that have all but established pinarity, fox-like cunning; and alpicide, themselves—namely folk-lore, outcome, a mole-catcher, and others equally egre- funster, criticaster, and disacquainted, gious. It is to be remarked, that very many of the words which met with his approval, and found a place in his "World of Words," have died out, and are wholly unintelligible to the present generation. Who, for instance, could divine that Perre-urigh meant adorned with precious stones or pierreries? or even guess at the signification of passundation?

Of late years, especially since the abolition of what were called the taxes on knowledge, viz., the excise duty on paper and the newspaper stamp, and the consequent establishment of the penny press, many new words have been introduced by the rapid and careless, and also by the semi-educated penmen who cater for the daily and weekly press. A number of old English words current in the United States have been reintroduced into English with the gloss of apparent novelty, but also with the unmistakable stamp of vulgarity broadly impressed upon them. And not alone in the press, but in society. Men of education, some of them moving in high or the highest circles, have condescended to repeat in their daily or customary conversation the language of costermongers and of grooms and jockeys, and to use it as if it were good English. The basest slang of the streets is but too frequently heard among educated people, who ought to know better than to use it, and has invaded the forum and the senate-if it have not yet penetrated into the pulpit. "Bloke,"

only the first has as yet been admitted to the honors of the dictionary. Outcome is in constant use, so constant that it threatens, though without occasion, to supersede entirely its more ancient synonyms, "result" and "issue." Criticaster is as legitimate a word as poetaster, and is much needed for the proper designation of the little presumptuous and often ignorant pretenders to literature and art, who sit in judgment upon their betters, and squeak their praise-and more often their dispraise through the penny trumpets of the time. Funster-founded on the same principle as the recognized word punster is a clear gain to the language, and is much better than "wag," "joker," or "funnyman," with which it is synony. mous. To say that we are disacquainted with a person, to whom we were formerly more or less known, is a better locution than to say that we have "dropped his acquaintance," and will doubtless make good its footing. It is not exactly a new word, but a revival of one that has been obsolete during two or three centuries.

It is doubtful whether the word endorse, borrowed from the language of commerce, and originally signifying to write one's name on the back of a bill of exchange, is a gain to the language, in the sense in which in our day it is too commonly employed. I endorse that statement, I endorse that opinion, are not better than to say, I agree in that opinion, or I confirm that statement, though perhaps

more consistent with the train of thought | haughtily independent American workamong a "nation of shopkeepers." man recognizes no "master" in his emThe English language still waits for ployer, but calls him his "boss," and many new words and will receive them thinks that "master" is a word only fit to as the time rolls on. Among the most be used by negroes in a state of slavery; urgent of them is a synonym for "whole- which in their new state of freedom even sale" in the uncommercial sense. To the negroes are beginning to repudiate. speak of wholesale objections, wholesale A boss signifies not so much a "master" robberies, or wholesale murders, is to in the strict sense of the word, but an employ a word that labors under the overseer, a director, a manager, and the double disadvantage of inadequacy and verb to "boss" means to superintend, to vulgarity. The French phrase en gros is manage, to control, or be responsible for something, though not much better. It the labor of the workmen and the proper should be stated, however, that the En- completion of their work. The word has glish language is not alone in the abuse of been partially adopted by the English this commercial word as applied to mat- newspapers, one of which informed its ters entirely non-commercial, and in no readers through the medium of its ubiqway pertaining to the shop. But doubt uitous and omniscient London corresponless if a word were coined for such an dent, that it was well known that Mr. epithet as "wholesale murder," it would Joseph Chamberlain, the president of the not be generally or even partially accept- Board of Trade, "was the boss of the ed. Many new words, or words long Birmingham Caucus." The St. James's since obsolete in England, come back to Gazette of November 11, 1882, in an article us from the United States, that retain very on American politics, and the results upon many Shakespearian and sixteenth and the state of parties of the recent elections seventeenth-century expressions that of State functionaries, and the pernicious have long disappeared from the literary system of exacting an annual contribution language of the nineteenth, and are grad- from any official, high or low, who owes ually finding their way into currency his place to the organization of either the mainly through the instrumentality of new Republican or Democratic party, the newspapers. Of words entirely new says: Among the proximate causes of to English proper, which have recently the reaction against the Republican party come into favor, are skedaddle, boss, in America, the scandalous persistence of ranche, bogus, caucus, and vamose. the leaders in keeping up the system of Among political) phrases, derived from political assessments on public officers the vernacular of wild and uncultivated must be reckoned as the chief. The materritory, are log-rolling, wire-pulling, and chine theory on the subject is simple axe-grinding; and of new combinations enough. The office-holders owe their of old words, and of more or less justifi- places to their party; therefore they ought able innovations upon the old rules of to contribute from their pay to the cam grammatical construction, are to collide, paign funds. Control of these funds gives instead of to come into collision; burgle, the bosses their chief power. . . . The instead of to commit a burglary; and to machine methods have failed this time. telescope applied to railway accidents But that, the bosses will say to the reformwhen the force of a collision causes the ers, is because you chose to be disgusted cars or carriages to run or fit into each with them. You thwarted us, no doubt; other, like the lengthening and conse- but you have still to show that you can quently shortening slides of a telescope. lead on the lines of purity, the masses that Of them, collide must be accepted as a we controlled by corruption." "Boss" clear gain; burgle will pass master, among in this passage is correctly used as an comic writers especially, and will doubt- American word for a purely American less, though wholly irregular, succeed in practice, though it is to be hoped neither establishing itself at first in jest, and the word nor the thing will ever become afterwards in earnest; while to tele- naturalized in this country. "Boss," or scope," in the sense in which it has lately "to boss," was, according to some philolobecome popular, is so useful in avoiding gists, originally introduced into the New a periphrasis, and so picturesque besides, World by Irish or Scottish immigrants, that it promises to become indispensable. from the Gaelic bos, the hand. But this The American word "boss" supplies is erroneous. The word is derived from in some respects a deficiency or corrects the Dutch settlers who first colonized an inaccuracy in its nearly synonymous New Amsterdam, first called New York word "master." The very free and by the English when the colony changed

the Atlantic Monthly, speaking of the press in that country, condemns in very forcible terms "its insidious blood-poisoning at the well of English undefiled;" "its malign infatuation for coarseness and slang; its corrupt and mongrel vocabulary;" "its vampire persistency;" and "its salacious flavoring of scandal." These are hard words, but it cannot be said that they are wholly unmerited.

masters by coming into possession of the | Morning Chronicle, with other now forBritish government. Baas in the Dutch gotten masters of style, who were both language signifies a master, or the fore- scholars and politicians, were connected man of a workshop. Perhaps even the with the daily press of the metropolis, English-speaking population of the States, the paucity as well as the purity of their if they had known that "boss" was no contributions excited general attention other than Dutch for master, might in and admiration; but in our day the very their republican pride have repudiated multiplicity of leading articles deprives the word and invented another. them of the notice which they might othThe constant and rapidly increasing in-erwise receive. Not that the chief lights tercourse between Great Britain and the of our daily literature do anything to deUnited States, the growing influence and teriorate or vulgarize the language. That enterprise of American newspapers, and unhappy task remains to the third-rate the consequent circulation in this country writers, who allow their slight stock of of the most important among them, to- good English to be diluted with the infegether with the ample quotations which rior vernacular verbiage that reacts upon are made from them in the. London and us from the United States, where the Enprovincial press, tend, imperceptibly per-glish of the farm, the workshop, or the haps, but very effectually, to Americanize counter is considered, with true republithe style as well as the language of news- can equality, to be quite good enough for paper writers in this country, especially the senate, the pulpit, or the press. The of those who do not stand in the foremost evils of this ultra-plebeian style of writrank of scholarship. Fifty, or even forty, ing are beginning to be felt in the United years ago what are called "leading arti-States themselves. A recent writer in cles were much fewer and better written than they are now. One really good leading article was considered sufficient editorial comment for one day, but at the present time it seems to be a rule with all the principal journals of the metropolis to publish at least four such articles every morning, even though the subjects really worthy of comment do not amount to half the number. The provincial journals too often follow the unnecessary example, and But language always deteriorates when instead of filling their columns with news, the morals of a people become depraved, which their readers require, fill them with when the growth of political corruption stale opinions and vapid commentaries hardens the heart and dulls the conscience which nobody cares about. So careless of a nation; when men, and worse still and slipshod, for the most part, is the when women, lose the feeling and the style of these articles, that cultivated and habit of reverence, and when the cynical busy men are often compelled to pass sneer or the senseless ridicule of the high them over unread. A learned man, who and low vulgar are fashionable. When filled the position of sub-editor to the honest love is designated as "spoons Morning Advertiser, was, a few years and spooniness, when disinterested friendago, called to account by the committee ship which does not value friendship for of management, composed of licensed its own priceless self, but for what real or victuallers, for inserting a paragraph of supposed advantage it may bring to the news one day which had appeared in its person who pretends to feel it, is decolumns on the day previous. The sub-clared to be folly the language in which editor denied the fact. The indignant committee thereupon produced the paragraph in question which had been quoted and commented upon in a "leading" article and asked for an explanation. "I never read the leading articles," replied the peccant sub-editor; "I have too much regard for pure English to run the risk of contamination."

When, about forty years ago, Albany Fonblanque of the Examiner, John Black, Charles Buller, and W. J. Fox of the

such sentiments are uttered is already in course of putrefaction. And when the lives of the great multitude of men and women, and even of children, are wholly engrossed with the care and struggles necessary to surmount the difficulties and soften the hardships of merely animal existence, and when consequently little time or taste is left them for intellectual enjoyment or mutual improvement, the deterioration of language receives an im petus which gradually hastens the unde