at it is in
contemplation to have him do so. _The difference of meaning certainly
exists_; but it would seem more judicious to treat _the latter_ as an
improper mode of speaking. What can be more uncouth than to say, 'What do
you think of _me_ going to Niagara?' We should say _my_ going,
notwithstanding the ambiguity. We ought, _therefore_, to introduce
something explanatory; as, 'What do you think _of the propriety_ of my
going to Niagara?"--_Analytic Gram._, p. 227. The propriety of a past
action is as proper a subject of remark as that of a future one; the
explanatory phrase here introduced has therefore nothing to do with
Priestley's distinction, or with the alleged ambiguity. Nor does the
uncouthness of an objective pronoun with the leading word in sense
improperly taken as an adjunct, prove that a participle may properly take
to itself a possessive adjunct, and still retain the active nature of a
participle.

[423] The following is an example, but it is not very intelligible, nor
would it be at all amended, if the pronoun were put in the possessive case:
"I sympathize with my sable brethren, when I hear of _them being spared_
even one lash of the cart-whip."--REV. DR. THOMPSON: _Garrison, on
Colonization_, p. 80. And this is an other, in which the possessive pronoun
would not be better: "But, if the slaves wish, to return to slavery, let
them do so; not an abolitionist will turn out to stop _them going_
back."--_Antislavery Reporter_, Vol. IV, p. 223. Yet it might be more
accurate to say--"to stop them _from_ going back." In the following example
from the pen of Priestley, the objective is correctly used with _as_, where
some would be apt to adopt the possessive: "It gives us an idea of _him_,
as being the only person to whom it can be applied."--_Priestley's Gram._,
p. 151. Is not this better English than to say, "of _his_ being the only
person?" The following is from the pen of a good scholar: "This made me
remember the discourse we had together, at my house, about _me drawing_
constitutions, not as proposals, but as if fixed to the hand."--WILLIAM
PENN: _Letter to Algernon Sidney_, Oct. 13th, 1681. Here, if _me_ is
objectionable, _my_ without _of_ would be no less so. It might be better
grammar to say, "about _my drawing of_ constitutions."

[424] Sometimes the passive form is adopted, when there is no real need of
it, and when perhaps the active would be better, because it is simpler; as,
"Those portions of t