always
decide the controversy.

"There are authorities to which all men will submit; they are superior
to the opinions and caprices of the great, and to the negligence and
ignorance of the multitude. The authority of individuals is always
liable to be called in question; but the unanimous consent of a nation,
and a fixed principle interwoven with the very construction of a
language, coeval and coextensive with it, are like the common laws of a
land, or the immutable rules of morality, the propriety of which every
man, however refractory, is forced to acknowledge, and to which most men
will readily submit."

Here is the doctrine of majorities, and it will be seen that Webster's
conception of usage is not the usage of the most cultivated, but the
general usage of a people. It was the democratic principle carried to
its utmost length, and yet the notion of an inhering law was quite as
strongly held. Our interest in this portion of his work is in the
examples which he gives of the usage of his day. He points out a number
of instances in which the different sections of the Union were at
variance, and some of these characteristics have certainly disappeared.
Webster's memoranda may be taken with some confidence, for he was a
minute observer, and his opportunities of comparison were excellent.

In the Eastern States he finds a good many people saying _motive_; in
the Middle States some who say _prejudice_. _E_ before _r_ is often
pronounced like _a_, as _marcy_ for _mercy_, an error which he refers
rather illogically to the practice of calling the letter _r ar_, so that
in his Spelling-Book he writes its sound _er_; "in a few instances," he
says, "this pronunciation is become general among polite speakers, as
_clerk_, _sergeant_, etc." In calling attention to the New England
custom of preferring the sound of _i_ short or _e_ before the diphthong
_ow_, as in _kiow_ for _cow_, Webster gravely refers the disagreeable
peculiarity "to the nature of their government and a distribution of
their property." Let the reader reflect a moment before he reads
Webster's philosophical explanation, and see if his own cogitations lead
him in the right direction. "It is an undoubted fact that the drawling
nasal manner of speaking in New England arises almost solely from these
causes. People of large fortunes, who pride themselves on family
distinctions, possess a certain boldness, dignity, and independence in
their manners, which give a corre