'304
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 8. VL J E 12, 1920.
And, finding ourselves on the territory of the
history and meaning of words, we may perhaps
suggest that Bentham's own use of the word
"utilitarian," which we believe was taught him by
Dumont, was worth mentioning.
The chapters on Bentham, Owen, Cobden and 'Cobbett are very good, as are also the accounts of the heroes of the industrial and social struggle, "though some of the secondary men (Francis Place, for example, who is representative both of a phase of thought and activity and of a stratum of society) -might perhaps have been brought out more distinctly.
The questions which agitated the nineteenth century are merely earlier forms of those whicl occupy us to-day : and to approach them is to begin trenching on the grounds of politics and science which are forbidden grounds to ' N. & Q.' It is, in fact, chiefly for its anecdotes, notes of curiou events and incidents, and its full documentatioi that we would draw our readers' attention to this 'took. We notice that, beginning with Canning Mr. Fay quotes his rhyming despatch from th< version given in our own columns.
JS. P. E. : Tract No. III. : a few Practical Sugges tions. By Logan Pearsall Smith. (Oxford Clarendon Press, Is. 6d. net).
THE letters S.P.E. (in case a reader here and then should not know this) stand for the Society for Pure*-English. The suggestions put forward by Mr. Pearsall Smith concern the naturalization o: foreign words ; alien plurals ; the use of ce and ce and the disappearance of words. His paper is followed by a few interesting notes, by an editoria on the subject of the co-operation of members and fey a discussion of the spelling of " morale ' which we think puts that question satisfactorily to rights.
We have great sympathy with the general aim of the Society, but even in these few pages, there is evidence of a want of practical sense which is a 'little disconcerting. Thus we are told we should avoid the word "fast" for denotation of speed, substituting therefore the word " swift." But we think it perfectly hopeless to try and persuade people to speak of e.g., a " swift train " instead of a "fast train " however "throughly objec- tionable " the latter may be.
The vocabulary of work is, on the whole, the best part of any living vocabulary ; and we would urge that the technical, official or scientific "use of a given word, as well as its idiomatic uses in the vocabulary of any public service, should be given precedence over literary or philological claims when suggestions for improvement are being made.
COWPER'S SUMMER-HOUSE AT OLNEY.
FOR twenty years the house at Olney, Bucks, in which the poet William Cowper lived from 1767 to 1786, has been known as the Cowper and Newton Museum, and the interesting and well arranged collection within its walls is visited each year by numbers of those who cherish the memory of the poet.
A few months ago the opportunity occurred of purchasing the garden in which still stands the summer-house so frequently mentioned in Cowper 's
inimitable letters, and thanks to the generosity of
a number of fnends the trustees have bought and
paid for the freehold. They now have to meet the
cost of restoring the summer-house, a work which
has been reverently carried out, and also have to
provide a fund for the general upkeep of the
Museum. Mr. Thomas Wright, author of the well-
known 'Life of William Cowper,' of which a second
edition is in the press, is the Secretary of the
Museum, and to him at Olney contributions may
be addressed.
to
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ti CORRIGENDA. Ante, p. 235, col. 2, 1. 25, for " towns " read tours. Ante, p. 280, col. 1, 1 19 for " intended " read intrudtd.
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