's Poems_, p. 38.

OBS. 15.--Dr. Webster's ninth rule is this: "When the nominative consists
of several words, and the last of the names is in the plural number, the
verb is commonly in the plural also; as, 'A part of the exports _consist_
of raw silk.' 'The number of oysters _increase_.' GOLDSMITH. 'Such as the
train of our ideas _have lodged_ in our memories.' LOCKE. 'The greater part
of philosophers _have acknowledged_ the excellence of this government.'
ANACHARSIS."--_Philos. Gram._, p. 146; _Impr. Gram._, 100. The last of
these examples Murray omits; the second he changes thus: "A number of men
and women _were_ present." But all of them his reasoning condemns as
ungrammatical. He thinks them wrong, upon the principle, that the verbs,
being plural, do not agree with the first nouns only. Webster, on the
contrary, judges them all to be right; and, upon this same principle,
conceives that his rule must be so too. He did not retract or alter the
doctrine after he saw the criticism, but republished it verbatim, in his
"Improved Grammar," of 1831. Both err, and neither convinces the other.

OBS. 16.--In this instance, as Webster and Murray both teach erroneously,
whoever follows either, will be led into many mistakes. The fact is, that
some of the foregoing examples, though perhaps not all, are perfectly
right; and hundreds more, of a similar character, might be quoted, which no
true grammarian would presume to condemn. But what have these to do with
the monstrous absurdity of supposing objective adjuncts to be "parts of the
actual nominative?" The words, "_part," "number," "train_" and the like,
are _collective nouns_; and, as such, they often have plural verbs in
agreement with them. To say, "A _number_ of men and women _were_ present,"
is as correct as to say, "A very great _number_ of our words _are_ plainly
derived from the Latin."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 86. Murray's criticism,
therefore, since it does not exempt these examples from the censure justly
laid upon Webster's rule, will certainly mislead the learner. And again the
rule, being utterly wrong in principle, will justify blunders like these:
"The truth of the narratives _have_ never been disputed;"--"The virtue of
these men and women _are_ indeed exemplary."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 148. In
one of his notes, Murray suggests, that the article _an_ or _a_ before a
collective noun must confine the verb to the singular number; as, "_A great
number_ of men and women _wa