agreement by the common rule; as,

"A _priesthood_, such _as_ Baal's _was_ of old,
A _people_, such _as_ never _was_ till now."--_Cowper_.

OBS. 3.--Of the construction of the verb and collective noun, a late
British author gives the following account: "Collective nouns are
substantives _which_ signify _many in the singular number_. Collective
nouns are of two sorts: 1. Those which cannot become plural like other
substantives; as, nobility, mankind, &c. 2. Those which can be made plural
by the usual rules for a substantive; as, 'A multitude, multitudes; a
crowd, crowds;' &c. Substantives which imply plurality in the singular
number, and consequently have no other plural, generally require a plural
verb. They are cattle, cavalry, clergy, commonalty, gentry, laity, mankind,
nobility, peasantry people, populace, public, rabble, &c. [;] as, 'The
public _are_ informed.' Collective nouns which form a regular plural, such
as, number, numbers; multitude, multitudes; have, like all other
substantives, a singular verb, when they are in the singular number; and a
plural verb, when they are in the plural number; as, 'A number of people
_is_ assembled; Numbers _are_ assembled.'--'The fleet _was_ dispersed; a
_part_ of it _was_ injured; the several _parts are_ now collected.'"--
_Nixon's Parser_, p. 120. To this, his main text, the author appends a
note, from which the following passages are extracted: "There are few
persons acquainted with Grammar, who may not have noticed, in many authors
as well as speakers, an irregularity in supposing collective nouns to have,
at one time, a singular meaning, and consequently to require a singular
verb; and, at an other time, to have a plural meaning, and therefore to
require a plural verb. This irregularity appears to have arisen from the
want of a clear idea of the nature of a collective noun. This defect the
author has endeavoured to supply; and, upon his definition, he has founded
the two rules above. It is allowed on all sides that, hitherto, no
satisfactory rules have been produced to enable the pupil to ascertain,
with any degree of certainty, when a collective noun should have a singular
verb, and when a plural one. A rule that simply tells its examiner, that
when a collective noun in the nominative case conveys the idea of unity,
its verb should be singular; and when it implies plurality, its verb should
be plural, is of very little value; for such a rule will prove the _pupil's