"_as the case now appears_;" and one
of these plain modes of expression would have been much preferable, because
the _as_ is here evidently nothing but a conjunction.

OBS. 12.--"The diversity of sentiment on this subject," says L. Murray,
"and the respectability of the different opponents, will naturally induce
_the readers_ to pause and reflect, before they decide."--_Octavo Gram._,
p. 147. The equivalent expressions by means of which he proposes to evade
at last the dilemma, are the following: "The arguments advanced were nearly
such as follow;"--"The arguments advanced were nearly of the following
nature;"--"The following are nearly the arguments which were advanced;"--
"The arguments advanced were nearly those which follow:"--"These, or nearly
these, were the arguments advanced;"--"The positions were such as appear
incontrovertible;"--"It appears that the positions were incontrovertible;"
--"That the positions were incontrovertible, is apparent;"--"The positions
were apparently incontrovertible;"--"In appearance, the positions were
incontrovertible."--_Ibid._ If to shun the expression will serve our turn,
surely here are ways enough! But to those who "pause and reflect" with the
intention _to decide_, I would commend the following example:
"Reconciliation was offered, on conditions as moderate as _were_ consistent
with a permanent union."--_Murray's Key_, under Rule 1. Here Murray
supposes "_was_" to be wrong, and accordingly changes it to "_were_," by
the Rule, "A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and
person." But the amendment is a pointed rejection of Campbell's "impersonal
verb," or verb which "has no nominative;" and if the singular is not right
here, the rhetorician's respectable authority vouches only for a catalogue
of errors. Again, if this verb must be _were_ in order to agree with its
nominative, it is still not clear that _as_, is, or ought to be, the
nominative; because the meaning may perhaps be better expressed thus:--"on
conditions as moderate _as any that were_ consistent with a permanent
union."

OBS. 13.--A late writer expresses his decision of the foregoing question
thus: "Of all the different opinions on a grammatical subject, which have
arisen in the literary world, there scarcely appears one more indefensible
than that of supposing _as follows_ to be an impersonal verb, and to be
correctly used in such sentences as this. 'The conditions were _as
follows_.' Nay, we are told t