Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1855-04-26

cords. Hereais q specimen Of the spelling
IN those days. ], is. from q deposition of
Ann 7Smi,h,in 1872, on the matter of witch
ce~fl, sndsis from Mass. Archives, Vol. 1876,
Folio g. e-z. .
-" and further the Deponsn.
Saith. that if She Came sesin she would
kill Her, and su another time Sinre that,
She Sitting in tho Corner, thu. there Came
thing like Grey CAT, and spske Ia Her, g.
said 10 her, that il She would Com IN Her
on the Vely Dav. She would Give Her fine
things. & hr,her this D-ponsn. Saith no,,.
Aon Smith Affirmed to this Above written"
The reader will perceive ths. some pro-
e.ess ha. been made in o',hog,sohy within
the last hundred snd eighIy-,hree wears; and
The greater portion Of il has occurred with
in The las. fifty years. Few Of US are 80
young as no. 10 remember great changes
,hs, have taken place in our own times
and they have invsriably been for the better.
The vocabulary Of our language has won
derfuIly increased by the infusion Of words
and defivstons from oiher langusges; and
those changes were never going on more
rapidly than Of the present. !. is impossi-
BILE to stop the enlargement. or the reforma.
lion Of The absurd inconsistencies Of our
language, SO long as It is spoken by such N
ac'ive and enterprising race. Conservative
criicism. and a per.inscious clinging to ef-
fe'e anomalies, will waste their strength end
temper in vain. individuals may remain be-
hind; bu. the language is p,oeressive.-
Horace lived in golden age of Roman lite
rature; vet he did no, shudder, as some Of
our modern critics do, ., changes in the,
beautiful language, in the use Of which he
was SO skillful. He states q philoloeicsl
fact with regard to every language, as we'll
as his own, when 10 "Ars Poe.ica," :" he says:
"N1ulta renascentur, que jam cecidere, cadentquo
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, 81 polet osus,
Quem penes arbitrium est ct jus ct loquendi.'' -
What our friends, the crilicsl supporters
Of Worcester, would deIigh. in, would be On
absolute end complete petri faction Of the
or.hographv Of our language in its present
f",m, that is. ss Mr.. Worcester gives il; but
which edition would bes, sui. them we ore
no. informed; as M. Worcester embr sces
the privilege in every edition Of making his
or,hogr phv conform more and more 10 Dr..
fWebs'eI's standard This siereoivpe pro.
cess applied to our or.hogr phv, could have
been more constantly accomplished at sny
other period, in The year 1862, for instance,
than q, present. Never in sny year was so
much attention end learning bestowed upon
philologv. and never were so many lmpor,-
an, changes coming into general use - in
the wear 1856; end j. is an imror,an, fac, in
this discussion. the. these chsnqes are uni
verssllv in the direction Of Webs,er's i'm
p,ovements. Dr.. Webster nigh, have v on
mare ,empo'y applause bv perp-,us,,np The
ahsurdnie- then in vogue bu, like a true
photographer, he chose To lead the van Of
reform and 10 commit his reputation TO pos.
,er'v.
We consider ,hs, the comparative merits
of the two dictionaries res, chiefly upon
other grounds. Than simply y Of orth"ersphv,
which is The only topic Brought into di..
cossion by the friends Of Worcester. and
those grounds we have hefote alluded to.
| The fact that the orihoeraphy Of dic,ion-
arv conforms To venerable usage. such US
age ss we have considered. is q verv small
Recommendation; and such a work requires
verv l,,le labor or originality Of inves,isa-
'ion in its preparation. In the presen, un-
settled mode "f spelling few words, and
classes of words. il becomes every one to
adopt such q standard as best conforms 10
the ansl"gies Of the lsnguage,--,o spell like
a gentleman and scholar, and not like an
sutoms,on.s in our own case, we usually
make our spelling cnnfnrm ID The standard
"f Webster but no. invariablv. We gene
ralIv spell Traveller with two is. hecsu.e,
having been accustomed 10 see tina, pe'ling.
! j, looks beierl" nuf eve; although we con
Tess that Wrhs,er's method Of spelling the
word preferable, for tho rrsson tina, words
Of two svllsbles, accented on the first. do
va.ions and custom, which Horace saws il
The arbitrator Of language, mus. in the case
Of this word eventually settle upon Web
s,er's orhogrsphv.
We confess 10 q psriality Of old forms
and venerable customs We never Law
aside an old hs, for = new one, or don a
long.skn'ed cns, m the place Of our rusty.
shor,-skir,ed companion, wi,hou, q feeling
Of regret; A wise man, however. Yields in
the discreet sugges'ions If his halter and
tailor; for sooner or later. fashion is sure IN
be reveneed on US, If we undertake to tn war,
her DEGREES. ss. s.|"z @ -...
We see 90 need Of q conservative gentle
man falling into passion and losing hi- ap-
petite, because Webster spells DE- fense with
sn S, when he himself has been sccus,omed
10 spell j. with c, from his youth up. If|
we will CONSIDER the rest ons for the change,
his better judgmen, mas. approve Of il. The
word.,ec,nes from the, Latin defsnsio, in
F.ench ills defense, and IN some Of its En-
glish deriva'i"ns, a.; de- fensioe, we are obIig-
ed 10 use the original 5. is j, no, be,,es
i ahi L. -