county
butter, New-York flour, Carolina potatoes. Morocco leather was first
manufactured in a city of Africa called by that name, but it is now made
in almost every town in our country. The same may be said of Leghorn
hats, Russia binding, French shoes, and China ware. Although made in our
own country we still retain the words, morocco, leghorn, russia, french,
and china, to define the fashion, kind, or quality of articles to which
we allude. Much china ware is made in Liverpool, which, to distinguish
it from the real, is called liverpool china. Many french shoes are made
in Lynn, and many Roxbury russets, Newton pippins, and Rhode-Island
greenings, grow in Vermont.

It may not be improper here to notice the adjectives derived from
pronouns, which retain so much of their character as relates to the
persons who employ them. These are _my_, _thy_, _his_, _her_, _its_,
_our_, _your_, _their_, _whose_. This is _my_ book, that is _your_ pen,
this is _his_ knife, and that is _her_ letter. Some of these, like other
words, vary their ending when standing alone; as, two apples are
your_s_, three her_s_, six their_s_, five our_s_, and the rest mine.
_His_ does not alter in popular use. Hence the reason why you hear it so
often, in common conversation, when standing without the noun expressed,
pronounced as if written _hisen_. The word _other_, and some others,
come under the same remark. When the nouns specified are expressed, they
take the regular termination; as, give me these Baldwin apples, and a
few others--a few other apples.

* * * * *

There is a class of small words which from the frequency of their use
have, like pronouns, lost their primitive character, and are now
preserved only as adjectives. Let us examine a few of them by
endeavoring to ferret out their true meaning and application in the
expression of ideas. We will begin with the old articles, _a_, _an_, and
_the_, by testing the truth and propriety of the duty commonly assigned
to them in our grammars.

The standard grammar asserts that "an article is a word prefixed to
substantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification
extends; as, "a garden, an eagle, the woman." Skepticism in grammar is
no crime, so we will not hesitate to call in question the correctness of
this "best of all grammars beyond all comparison." Let us consider the
very examples given. They were doubtless the best that could be found.
Does