owledge very large obligations to Professor Bain's treatise
on "English Composition and Rhetoric," and also to his English
Grammar. I have not always been able to agree with Professor Bain as
to matters of taste; but I find it difficult to express my admiration
for the systematic thoroughness and suggestiveness of his book on
Composition. In particular, Professor Bain's rule on the use of "that"
and "which" (see Rule 8) deserves to be better known.[2] The ambiguity
produced by the confusion between these two forms of the Relative is
not a mere fiction of pedants; it is practically serious. Take, for
instance, the following sentence, which appeared lately in one of our
ablest weekly periodicals: "There are a good many Radical members in
the House _who_ cannot forgive the Prime Minister for being a
Christian." Twenty years hence, who is to say whether the meaning is
"_and they_, i.e. _all the Radical_ members in the House," or "there
are a good many Radical members of the House _that_ cannot &c."?
Professor Bain, apparently admitting no exceptions to his useful rule,
amends many sentences in a manner that seems to me intolerably harsh.
Therefore, while laying due stress on the utility of the rule, I have
endeavoured to point out and explain the exceptions.

The rules are stated as briefly as possible, and are intended not so
much for use by themselves as for reference while the pupil is working
at the exercises. Consequently, there is no attempt to prove the rules
by accumulations of examples. The few examples that are given, are
given not to prove, but to illustrate the rules. The exercises are
intended to be written out and revised, as exercises usually are; but
they may also be used for _viva voce_ instruction. The books being
shut, the pupils, with their written exercises before them, may be
questioned as to the reasons for the several alterations they have
made. Experienced teachers will not require any explanation of the
arrangement or rather non-arrangement of the exercises. They have been
purposely mixed together unclassified to prevent the pupil from
relying upon anything but his own common sense and industry, to show
him what is the fault in each case, and how it is to be amended.
Besides references to the rules, notes are attached to each sentence,
so that the exercises ought not to present any difficulty to a
painstaking boy of twelve or thirteen, provided he has first been
fairly trained in English grammar.