stinguished functionaries spoke the
French dialect altogether, the gallant Frenchman not having yet
been enabled to master the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.'

What, to begin with, is _the_ French dialect? The Provencal, the Gascon,
the Norman, are tolerably prominent French dialects, but which of them
is preeminently _the_ dialect we will not decide--nor why the diplomatic
gentlemen selected a dialect instead of French itself as a medium of
conversation. It is, however, possible that Comte de Mercier having
heard of little Benjamin's antecedents, talked to him in _argot_ or
thieves' slang. It may be that in the school of Floyd and Benjamin argot
is _the_ dialect.

Again, we learn that the gallant Frenchman spoke 'the French dialect'
because he has not as yet mastered 'the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.'
This is even more puzzling than the dialect-question. Why the
Anglo-Saxon idiom? Suppose Count Mercier wished to say that he was sorry
that his tobacco had been captured by the foe, why should he couch it in
such language as, 'Tha mee ongan hreowan thaet min _tobacco_ on feonda
geweald feran sceolde'--which is the good _old_ Anglo-Saxon idiom.' We
_can_ imagine that thieves' slang would have the place of honor in
Secessia, but why the old Anglo-Saxon idiom should be so esteemed,
puzzled us for a longtime. At last we hit it. The Southrons have long
been told--or told themselves--that they are Normans, while we of the
North are Saxon--and hoping to acquire a little Anglo-Saxon
intelligence, prudently begin by studying the language which they
believe is in common use among our literati.

Seriously, it is not merely to stoop to such small game as the grammar
of a secession newspaper that we notice these amusing mistakes. There
are many persons-we are sorry to say many clergymen among others--here,
even in the free States, who, in attempting to write elegantly, use
words very ridiculously. They say 'dialect' and 'idiom' when they mean
'language;' they use 'donate' for 'give;' 'transpired' for 'happened;'
'paper' for 'newspaper,' and describe various events as taking place in
'our midst'--all because they think that these vulgarisms are really
more correct than the words or terms in common use.

We wish, however, that Anglo-Saxon--joking apart--were more generally
studied. When we remember that the very great majority of good _words_
in English are of Saxon origin, and with them all that is characteristic
either in ou