ive, in the third
person, and not, as Cobbett avers, with an antecedent understood: as, "_Who
is_ in the house? _Who are_ in the house? _Who strikes_ the iron? _Who
strike_ the iron? _Who was_ in the street? _Who were_ in the
street?"--_Cobbett's Gram._, 245. All the interrogative pronouns may be
used in either number, but, in examples like the following, I imagine the
singular to be more proper than the plural: "_What have become_ of our
previous customs?"--_Hunt's Byron_, p. 121. "And _what have become_ of my
resolutions to return to God?"--_Young Christian_, 2d Ed., p. 91. When two
nominatives of different properties come after the verb, the first controls
the agreement, and neither the plural number nor the most worthy person is
always preferred; as, "_Is it I? Is it thou? Is it they_?"

OBS. 20.--The verb after a relative sometimes has the appearance of
disagreeing with its nominative, because the writer and his reader disagree
in their conceptions of its mood. When a relative clause is subjoined to
what is itself subjunctive or conditional, some writers suppose that the
latter verb should be put in the subjunctive mood; as, "If there be any
intrigue _which stand_ separate and independent."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 457.
"The man also would be of considerable use, who should vigilantly attend to
every illegal practice _that were beginning_ to prevail."--_Campbell's
Rhet._, p. 171. But I have elsewhere shown, that relatives, in English, are
not compatible with the subjunctive mood; and it is certain, that no other
mood than the indicative or the potential is commonly used after them. Say
therefore, "If there be any intrigue _which stands_," &c. In assuming to
himself the other text, Murray's says, "_That_ man also would be of
considerable use, who should vigilantly attend to every illegal practice
that _was_ beginning to prevail."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 366. But this seems
too positive. The potential imperfect would be better: viz., "that _might
begin_ to prevail."

OBS. 21.--The termination _st_ or _est_, with which the second person
singular of the verb is formed in the indicative present, and, for the
solemn style, in the imperfect also; and the termination _s_ or _es_, with
which the third person singular is formed in the indicative present, and
only there; are signs of the mood and tense, as well as of the person and
number, of the verb. They are not applicable to a future uncertainty, or to
any mere supposition in wh