We are sincerely glad to see proposals for tie formation of an Anti-Spelling Reform Association. For some time attempts have been made to alter the received mode of spelling our Innguage and thereby to strike dandly blows at its historical character. The prospectus of the new society has not yet been issued, but the promoters have done wisely and well to prefix to their pr liminary advertisement some weighty and admirable sentences from Archbishop Trench's book on "The Study of Words." "I can conceive no method of so effectually defacing and barbarizing our English tongue, no scheme that would go so far to empty it practically at least, and for us, the hoarded wit, wisdom, imagi and history which it contains to cut the vital nerve which connects its present with the past as the introduction of the scheme of phonetic spelling which some have lately been zealously advocating among us."
One thing must be kept in mind, that the most lax system of spelling adopted in the present day is methodical compared with the system, or rather no system, which obtained two or three hundred years ago. There are many striking instances cited by antiquarians and lexicographers to prove the anarchy which prevailed in the world of letters on this important subject. The great writers and statesmen of the reign of Elizabeth were careless to n degree on the subject of orthography, and fang themselves on their readers' merey in this respect as completely as a modern Spanish lady is said to do. We have always been amused by the naive way in which Charles Knight begins one of his numerous biographical sketches of Shakespeare, " the controversies about the greatest poet of England begin ith the spelling of his name." And Disraeli says that Leicester has subscribed his own name eight different ways," and that "the name Villers is spelled fourteen different ways in the deeds of that family." To bring the matter to a comparatively recent date, we believe that a letter is now in existence in which the great Duke of Wellington spelled his name not "Wellesley" but "Wesley." Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, perhaps stung to action by perceiving that his own unlucky name was the peculiar victim of perverse spellers, was the first who endeavoured to introduce a regular system of orthography. He was followed by Bullokar, Gill Butler and others, who aimed more or less directly at introducing a phonetic system, These writers endeavoured to act on certain definite principles and to employ din critical marks, but their ideas fortunately never found favour, and at last the great work of Dr. Johnson appeared, which was conducted on a true principle. He recognized the importance of restoring the old spelling so as to keep in mind the history of the word, and "the sound judgment and practical wisdom which he displayed gave his work at once an authority which it has not even yet entirely lost." It is unscientific in' the extreme to regard merely the sound of a word, or to speak us if a word were only addressed to the ear. A word hus two distinct existences, and addresses appeals to two senses, the sense of hearing and the sense of seeing. Even the radical in a Chinese character has a bearing, though perhaps a remote and a subtle one, on the meaning of the character, but the spelling of a word has a vivid historical interest. It indicates a connection between several ideas that are latent in the word, and above all gives us a hint often of priceless importance as to its pedigree. There are two quarters whence an assault has to be feared. We most protest against the fashion of spelling adopted in that great and influential work, Webster's Dictionary. To quote a recent writer in Notes and Queries, "Tf An us have a particular liking for coming to the defense of travelers in a wagon who might have stayed there forever had not anyone helped them, by all means let them accomplish this eccentric feat, but do let us retain the correct spelling of the words in question."
The next danger is from those who are labouring to revolutionize the spelling of classical names. This practice so inimitably ridiculed by the late Lord Lytton in The Oaztons is not gaining ground very rapidly. We take up @ number of the Contemporary Review and flyd an article on "Pheidias at Oxford," which is perhaps admissible, but mr. Pater, no mean authority, refuses to spell Sicyon or Alcinous with a 'k," and thus protests against the revolution. ary orthography of Mr. Grote. Nobody ever followed the late Mr. Mitford in omitting the "s" from "island," and Mr. Hare and their few followers found it impossible to make their fellow-citizens write " unlooktefor perils." We have only indicated some of the leading lines of this subject, but we hope the efforts of the new society will produce a marked effect in checking a growing evil.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.