"If that but this blow

"Might be the be-all and the end-all here,”

then indeed we should despair. For no one who surveys the states of Europe, can doubt the power of Buonaparte to strike that blow. But it is not so that the "inconquerable mind "and freedom's holy flame" are to be extinguished. That the Spaniards have done any thing against a foreign tyrant, situated as they were, is their glory; that they have been unable to do more, is the chastisement they suffer for having so long willingly submitted to subjugation under their own princes; and the advocates of liberty, if they were dexterous, instead of urging domestic tyranny to diminish our horror of foreign subjugation, should rather extol civil liberty as the best security for national independence; and they might add to that reflection, this, that to suppose that a people subjugated for centuries, would, at the very first summons of liberty, understand and answer her call, is to undervalue the worth of education and culture. It is not in the order of nature, though it may be of grace, to reward equally, those who come in at the eleventh hour, and those who had toiled through the heat of the day.

Spain, therefore, both in her actual physical powers, and in her moral fitness to resist the tyranny of France, certainly stands far below this country; yet, at this hour, there is no country in Europe which approaches Spain so nearly as Spain approaches Great Britain. Two nations still survive, the one in deep adversity, and the other in high prosperity, though in imminent peril, to bid defiance to the most frightful tyranny that ever menaced mankind. Their cause is one; and if the more prosperous ally could willingly abandon her unhappier associate, she would merit to sink under equal calamities, and her fall would not be dignified by an equal portion of glory.

276

AN ORTHOEPICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; OR AN ESSAY ON THE NATURE OF ITS SIMPLE AND COMBINED SOUNDS, AND THE INADEQUACY OF ATTEMPTING TO EXPLAIN THEM BY MEANS OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET. THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED AND EXEMPLIFIED BY THE

USE OF A NEW ORTHOEPICAL ALPHABET, OR UNIVERSAL CHARACTER. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A MINUTE AND COPIOUS ANALYSIS OF THE DIALECT OF BEDFORDSHIRE. BY

T. BATCHELOR.-pp. 164. Didier and Tebbert. London. 1809.

"Turpe est difficiles habere nugas,

"Et stultus labor est ineptiarum,—”

may be strictly applied to this volume. The common English alphabet is quite sufficient to portray the sounds of the English language to every person's eye, who has learned to speak before he has learned to read and write; and if it be necessary to correct a provincial pronunciation, the only effectual way of doing it is viva voce. The invention of an alpha-、 bet to give the true sound of every consonant and vowel, to those who have never heard the language spoken, is impossible, as those sounds can only be given by referring to other sounds equally unknown to the learner. The only attempt of this kind that had any prospect of being really efficient, is that of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, to express the sounds of some of the Greek letters by the cries of different animals; yet even this plan, though satisfactory as far as it goes, must be very limited in its operation. It is true, that Mr. Batchelor has tried to establish some general criterion, by giving plates of the different organs of speech, and the different configurations of them in utterance; but it is totally impossible for any one to avail himself of these, unless the professor was by to assist in the operation.

We are at a loss to comprehend what Mr. Batchelor can

mean by saying, "that if this plan was adopted by all the "literati of Europe, there is no written language to overturn, "nor old books to render useless," when he has just before given Dyudyiz as the proper way of spelling Judges, and Tyurty as the orthography of Church.

If it were really necessary to establish a correct pronunciation of every letter with the least possible inconvenience, the vowel points of the Hebrew, which mark fifteen different vowel sounds, would be most eligible for the vowels; and the Dagesh of the Hebrew, or the diacritical points of the Arabic, for the consonants; but how would even this avail, without reference to other known alphabetical combinations for the proper pronunciation ?

Thus much for the general plan. We shall now proceed to notice some of the particular observations; in which it will appear, that among other causes of error, Mr. B. is often led astray by his own adoption of a vicious pronunciation.

In page 9, we are told that the o in rogue and broke, &c. is different from that heard in the words, tone, moan. This, we confess, is a piece of information entirely new to us, and reminds us of a ridiculous circumstance that happened at Southampton a few years since. A gentleman from the North went thither, with an intent to canvass the town, and desired a person to get him an account of the number of votes: now it happens, that as Southampton has a great trade in port wine, almost every house has large vaults under it, many of which are let to the wine-merchants; and the agent, deceived by his northern pronunciation, took him for a person who meant to speculate in wine, and instead of a list of the votes, got him a list of the vaults in the town.

What sort of company must our author have kept, when he thinks it necessary to say, that the longer sound of a, as in had, sometimes receives a tinge of the o, as in the word order, and in the following examples, order for ardor, hord for hard, gorden for garden, cords for cards. We have never

been fortunate enough to hear such sounds from any persons, except London carmen and coalheavers.

1

The following remark, experience has shown to be perfectly unfounded.

"A foreigner residing in England has constantly as good an tr opportunity of learning to speak English as any of the natives had in their infancy; and an equal degree of attention to the subject would insure success without any written instructions.” That written instructions would not facilitate the acquirement, we readily admit; but that it ever was acquired by an adult foreigner, we cannot admit. A perfect knowledge of the minutiæ of a language, whether in meaning or enunciation, can never be attained but in very early youth. To use the words of the learned and accurate author of the Essay on the Harmony of Language, though I am almost ashamed to introduce him in such company; "There is a feeling and perception of meaning, independent of reasoning, and often incommunicable by direct instruction, through which, for example, English children of five years old never mistake the difference between shall and will, which learned doctors of Paris, and even of Edinborough and Dublin, cannot be taught to comprehend."

The following passage is curious: "Some people believe "the trouble of crossing a t and dotting an i may well be "spared in common writing, as a neglect of it is seldom "attended with any obscurity." These people must be as great economists of their trouble as a certain miser was of his ink, who calculated how much ink he had saved in his lifetime by the same omission.

As a proof that Mr. Batchelor gives a vicious pronunciation of his own, for the proper pronunciation of the English language, we produce two detached quotations from pp. 47 and 91. "The English ch or tch sounds ty; for orchard, “ riches, &c. sound ort-yard, rit-yes, &c.” "I conceive it "has been clearly proved that the English j is dy, ch is ty,

" and sh is sy; consequently if the long u is accurately ar❝ticulated after d, t, and s, the word duel is similar to jewel, "tune is choon, and suit is the same as shoot."

As a farther proof, if any were necessary, of Mr. B.'s abilities as an orthoëpist, take the following extract:

"When (y) ends one word and begins the next, it affords an opportunity of giving an additional proof of its nature, as in the "following sentences. I wis you would. Are the fis your own? "In these instances it will be perceived that the omission of h in "wish and fish is so far supplied by the following initial y, that the "defect would not be perceived in common conversation."

What aures irreligiose these conversers must have! But to proceed with the quotation :

"In the following instances it will be obvious, that the contact of "contiguous words presents instantly the idea of usher, glazier, "notcher, badger, and ledger; especially if the accent be laid 66 on the words that precede your: Tell us your will. Glaze "your windows. 'Tis not your horse. So bad yourself. He "led your nag.”

Of such incomparable absurdity we can only say, Risum teneatis, amici ?

Mr. B. concludes his work by a list of provincial words and phrases, of which he gives the proper explanation; but, like some of the commentators on Shakspeare, he cites many words and phrases as provincial, that are now in general use. For instance; Close for a small inclosed field: this is even a forensic term: to break a person's close, claustrum frangere, is the legal definition of a trespass. Copse is used every where for small wood, originally spelled coppice; though a fanciful etymologist might perhaps derive it from the Greek word x↓w, as copse usually means underwood that is cut periodically for poles or fire-wood. And surely that ear must be very fastidious, that rejects as provincial such very general phrases as -It rains hard, for it rains fast. It will soon clear up, for The shower will soon be over; cum multis aliis.