_, is expressed by a circumlocution, or by _many
terms_, the sign of the possessive case _is commonly added to the last_
term: as, 'The _king of Great Britain's_ dominions.'"--_Murray's Gram._,
8vo, p. 45. Afterwards he condemns this: "The word in the genitive case is
frequently PLACED IMPROPERLY: as, 'This fact appears from _Dr. Pearson of
Birmingham's_ experiments.' _It_ should be, 'from the experiments of _Dr.
Pearson_ of Birmingham.' "--_Ib._, p. 175. And again he makes it necessary:
"A phrase in which the words are so connected and dependent, as to admit of
no pause before the conclusion, _necessarily requires_ the genitive sign
_at or near_ the end _of the phrase_: as, 'Whose prerogative is it? It is
the _king of Great Britain's_;' 'That is the _duke of Bridgewater's_
canal;' " &c.--_Ib._, p. 276. Is there not contradiction in these
instructions?

[350] A late grammarian tells us: "_In_ nouns ending in _es_ and _ss_, the
other _s_ is not added; as, _Charles'_ hat, _Goodness'_ sake."--_Wilcox's
Gram._, p. 11. He should rather have said, "_To_ nouns ending in _es_ or
_ss_, the other _s_ is not added." But his doctrine is worse than his
syntax; and, what is remarkable, he himself forgets it in the course of a
few minutes, thus: "Decline _Charles_. Nom. _Charles_, Poss. _Charles's_,
Obj. _Charles_."--_Ib._, p. 12. See the like doctrine in Mulligan's recent
work on the "_Structure of Language_," p. 182.

[351] VAUGELAS was a noted French critic, who died in 1650. In Murray's
Grammar, the name is more than once mistaken. On page 359th, of the edition
above cited, it is printed "_Vangelas_"--G. BROWN.

[352] Nixon parses _boy_, as being "in the possessive case, governed by
distress understood;" and _girl's_, as being "coupled by _nor_ to _boy_,"
according to the Rule, "Conjunctions connect the same cases." Thus one word
is written wrong; the other, parsed wrong: and so of _all_ his examples
above.--G. BROWN.

[353] Wells, whose Grammar, in its first edition, divides verbs into
"_transitive, intransitive_, and _passive_;" but whose late edition
absurdly make all passives transitive; says, in his third edition, "A
_transitive verb_ is a verb that _has some noun or pronoun_ for its
object;" (p. 78;) adopts, in his syntax, the old dogma, "Transitive verbs
govern the objective case;" (3d Ed., p. 154;) and to this rule subjoins a
series of remarks, so singularly fit to puzzle or mislead the learner, and
withal so successful