Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-11-13
MISUSE OF LANGUAGE.

We are thankful TO a friend, who cuts out and
sends US, from Philadelphia paper, the following
10 The Edit0rs ofhe North american and u s. Gazstte
GEsrLEaEN regret extremely the American PRESS
which generally supposed be conducted by those who
dersand the English language, and who certainly ought to
consider 1T as one Of their especial duties preserve the pu
y Of the language adopting Of the yugarisus of the
day, and using words in different from their
real meaning allude particularly the use Of the word
balance TO signify the remainder residue the word hav-
| ing such meaning.
cit is admitted all hands" says the author Of Nuces
Philosophical the Philosophy Of Things as Developed from
the Study Of the Philosophy Of Words learned yau
able, and highly interesting work. that purpose Of words
is to communicate thoughts that is make one and the
thought the time to both the speaker
and heaerto excite in the mind of the hearer the same
thought idea, sensation which the mind of the speak
And if word do this an unnteIgib!e word
This truth which those who write for the public ought to
understand and be guided by Now tried by this rule the
word balance" when used synonym for remainder is
an unnteligibe word ; conveys meaning whatever
to the mind of who has yet become acquainted with
this corruption OF the English language.
In paper the 9th of August appears conmunca-
ton signed GA PRAcrIsISc LAWYER" He may under
stand law, but he does not understand his anguagen
which, speaking the Interruptions Of the judges and stating
the number OF times each judge had interrupted counsel he
says, he balance, sixteen, being made up, &C., the ba-
lance OF the day occupied in hearing Of
breach Of the peace" &C.
Let quote sentence from the elegant historian, Pres
colt Speaking Of the marriages negotiated for the children
Of Ferdinand and Isabella ee I'd vol PIP. 24 34S of Pres
colts Ferdinand and Isabella he says 'Itwas while Charles
the Eighth wasting his time at Naples that the marriages
arranged between the royal houses Of Spain and Austria
by which the weight Of these great Powers thrown into
the scale, and the balance Of Europe THAT the egH
brun the remainder unsettled for the greater part Of the
following century"
Now either the classic Prescott this word incorrectly,
or the writer's for daily papers, and "A Practising Law
yer among hem do not understand the language least
do not write correcty for certainly the word balance
does not convey to the reader and the thought
used by Prescott and used by correspondent which
IS the purpose of words to do. Admitting the distinguished
historian be rgh-and there question about itthen
the word used by Practising Lawyer, by the " PEN
ny-ainers and am sorry to say by respectable ed-
tors Is " an unntelgbe word, and gross and unpardon-
able corruption Of the language. II proper to say that
have not noticed the word used in this perverted
the editorial columns Of any paper known be conducted by
educated men. PERLEY.
Now, although use for which there is no au-
thority is sufficiently met by any one good one
and that of Prescott is excellent-yet it may not
convince; and it would have been well, therefore,
for the etymoogist Of the North american to refer
his readers, for history of the word balance, to
Richardson's or some other good literary diction:
airy. But our own memory, or any body's might
supply still higher authorities than that of the best
OF American historians as, for instance, that in the
Book OF Daniel thou art weighed in the balances
and found wanting - or several passages in Milton:
In even balance down they light
On the firm birthstone, and fill all the plain.
Or, again, this
They pass the planets seven and pass the fx'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidaton talk'd, and that first moved.
Or, once more, when Gabriel and Satan are about
to fight:
The Eternal, TO prevent such horrid fray,
Hung forth in heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Bcwxt Astrea and the Scorpion sign,
Wherein all things created first he weghd,
The pendulous round earth with balanced air
In counterpose.
Or we might cite the TRANSACTIONS Dryden and
Popes) of the passages in Virgil and Homer which
Milton has, in the last instance initiated and en-
bellished: but we will rather take from Pope ORR
gnal verses
Prudence whose glass presents tn approaching jail
Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale,
Where in nice balance, gold with truth she weighs,
And solid pudding against empty prise
Or, thus i'll the same poem:
Imbrown'd with native bronze 10 Henley stands,
His periods weighs and balances his hands.
citation more, and we have done. 1t is from
Cannng's best serious performance, the !" New
Morality" democratic poem which we would
humbly recommend to those OF the latest phioso-
ply of national ethics
Fond hope But Justice sanctifes the prayer,
Justice -hcrc, Satire, strike 'twere sin to spare
Not she in British Courts who takes her stand
The dawdlng balance dangling in her hand,
Adjusting punishmens to fraud and vice,
With scrupulous quirks and hesitation nice
But firm erect, with keen-reverted glance,
The avengng angel Of regenerae France,
Who visits ancient sins modern times,
And Furnishes the Pope for Cgsars crimes
A SCENE OF DEArm-RuFFIAS SocIErIEs.-On Friday
night neighborhood Of Fourth and Catharine
fight took place between parties Of owdies, in the
Of which a pistol fired and young named Roger
Kelly about eighteen years of and represented to be
sober and industrious, received pistol ball under the right
eye, and died in the Of few minutes His mother
who was for reached the bloody short time after