MR GRANT AND GRAMMAR.

Evening Star, Issue 3042, 18 November 1872, Page 2

MR GRANT AND GRAMMAR.

To the Editor.

Sir, —l am glad to see that the persecution which Mr J. G. S. Grant has suffered, and the gross indignity with which he was treated at the .Scott’s anniversary meeting, have alike been forgotten by hm. Notwithstanding his avowal that he should not again write to the Dunedin papers, lie has ventured to resume his old vocations of critic and dominie. He was never very successful in teaching, but not till now could I learn why. His letter in your paper to-night shows that, whatever knowledge he may have of Greek or Latin, his acquaintance with English is limited. In his first sentence there is a grammatical error. 'I he sentence runs thus: —“ An admirer of the ex-Heid Executive put into my hand a copy of a printed paper, containing certain correspondence that passed,” &c. : it ought to have been “that had passed. ” There are various inelegaucies in Mr Grant’s letter. He repeats the adjective “ few ” in two sentences contiguous to each other— “ few lines” and “few word?.” Again, in fuiother sentence, I read “the last clause of the last letter.” Is this elegant 'i Mr Grant’s letter concludes thus : “Before the public gaze of the outside world.” Could there be a public gaze of the inside world ? Any pupil at a djsjfcrict school could tell Mr Grant that in the last scutenpe he has penned a pleonasm.

I never expected to l]nd Mr Grant speaking op writing English with popi.ety. He

has had to labor under great difficulties in acquiring a knowledge of our language. Gaelic was his mother tongue, and this may account for his inability to get his University decree. That Gaelic influences his composition a casual reader may notice. Who but a Highlander would say egregious offences ?

< n Mr Reid’s grammar 1 do not intend to make any remarks ; but I may state that “ whom’’ in the sentence quoted by Mr Grant is not so incorrect as Mr Grant would lead your readers to infer; and “compels” is a Latinism. Any one acquainted with Greek and Latin knows that the verb is often made to acroe with the last substantive. In this sentence, supposing “compels” and not “ compel” was written by Mr Reid, he may have considered both the preceding substantives as one subject. I hope, now that Mr Grant’s temper, after his treatment at the Scott’s anniversary, has calmed down, we shall bo treated to an Octagon oration, and that at the next session of the Otago University may Grant may be found studying English under Professor Sale. I am, Ac., Onlooker. Dunedin, November 16.