m._, p. 179; _and others_. Better, "This will
be the effect, _if the pupil compose_ frequently." But this sentence is
_fictitious_, and one may doubt whether good authors can be found who use
_compose_ or _composing_ as being intransitive. (3.) "What can be the
reason of the _committee's having delayed_ this business?"--_Murray's Key_,
p. 223. Say, "_Why have the committee_ delayed this business?" (4.) "What
can be the cause of the _parliament's neglecting_ so important a
business?"--_Ib._, p. 195. Say, "_Why does the parliament neglect_ so
important a business?" (5.) "The time of _William's making_ the experiment,
at length arrived."--_Ib._, p. 195. Say, "The time _for William to make_
the experiment, at length arrived." (6.) "I hope this is the last time of
_my acting_ so imprudently."--_Ib._, p. 263. Say, "I hope _I shall never
again act_ so imprudently." (7.) "If I were to give a reason for _their
looking so well_, it would be, that they rise early."--_Ib._, p. 263. Say,
"I should attribute _their healthful appearance_ to their early rising."
(8.) "The tutor said, that diligence and application to study were
necessary to _our becoming_ good scholars."--_Cooper's Gram._, p. 145. Here
is an anomaly in the construction of the noun _scholars_. Say, "The tutor
said, that _diligent application_ to study was necessary to our _success in
learning_." (9.) "The reason of _his having acted_ in the manner he did,
was not fully explained."--_Murray's Key_, p. 263. This author has a very
singular mode of giving "STRENGTH" to weak sentences. The faulty text here
was. "The reason why he _acted_ in the manner he did, was not fully
explained."--_Murray's Exercises_, p. 131. This is much better than the
other, but I should choose to say. "The reason of _his conduct_ was not
fully explained." For, surely, the "one idea or circumstance" of his
"having acted in the manner in _which_ he did act," may be quite as
forcibly named by the one word _conduct_, as by all this verbiage, this
"substantive phrase," or "entire clause," of such cumbrous length.

OBS. 17.--The foregoing observations tend to show, that the government of
possessives by participles, is in general a construction little to be
commended, if at all allowed. I thus narrow down the application of the
principle, but do not hereby determine it to be altogether wrong. There are
other arguments, both for and against the doctrine, which must be taken
into the account, before we can fu