ach University. By such persons the
pronunciation of the schools cannot fail to be represented. 4. Every one on
entering the University is expected at least to know his own language. 5.
There is no instruction, as far as I know (however much the fact may be to
be regretted), ever given in English at either University. 6. There is a
perpetual change of about a third of the members every year, few remaining
above three years. Now can any one, who candidly considers these facts,
doubt that a usage in pronouncing a particular word at _either_ University
if generally prevalent, is very strong evidence that the same usage is
generally prevalent throughout England; but if any one does entertain such
a doubt, surely it must be done away, when he finds that the same usage
prevails at _both_ Universities; though there exists such a degree of
rivalry between them as would prevent the one from adopting from the other
any usage which was liable to any the least doubt, and though there is no
communication between them that could account for the same usage prevailing
in both.

MR. CROSSLEY appeals to the Prayer Book as a decisive authority, and
instances "an _humble_," &c. If any one will examine the Prayer Book, he
will find that it is no authority at all; as "an" is at least as often used
erroneously before _h_ as not. In reading over the first sixty-eight
Psalms, I found the following instances--Ps. xxvii. 3. and Ps. xxxiii. 15.,
"An host of men;" Ps. xlvii. 4. and Ps. lxi. 5., "An heritage;" Ps. xlix.
18., "An happy man," Ps. lv. 5., "An horrible dread;" Ps. lxviii. 15., "An
high hill." And in the same Psalms I only found _one_ instance of _a_
before _h_, viz. in Ps. xxxiii. 16., "A horse;" and in this case the Bible
version has "An horse." In the first Lesson for the 19th Sunday after
Trinity, Dan. iii. 4., "An herald," and 27., "An hair of their head,"
occur; and in the next chapter (iv. 13.), "An holy one." It is plain from
these instances (and doubtless many others may be found), that the use of
"an" before _h_, in the Bible or Prayer Book, can afford no test whatever
whether the _h_ ought to be sounded or not.

S. G. C.

After the sensible Note of your correspondent E. H., it is perhaps hardly
necessary to say more on the subject of aspirated and mute _h_. If these
remarks, therefore, seem superfluous, they may easily be suppressed, and
that too without any offence to the writer. {395}

It is very dangerous to dogmatise on