I shall offer under Rule 6th. But if the inhabitants of any place choose to call their town a creek, a river, a harbour, or a bridge, and to think it officious in other men to pretend to know better, they may do as they please. If between them and their correctors there lie a mutual charge of misnomer, it is for the literary world to determine who is right. Important names are sometimes acquired by mere accident. Those which are totally inappropriate, no reasonable design can have bestowed. Thus a fancied resemblance between the island of Aquidneck, in Narraganset Bay, and that of Rhodes, in the Ægean Sea, has at length given to a state, or republic, which lies chiefly on the main land, the absurd name of Rhode Island; so that now, to distinguish Aquidneck itself, geographers resort to the strange phrase, "the Island of Rhode Island."--Balbi. The official title of this little republic, is, "the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." But this name is not only too long for popular use, but it is doubtful in its construction and meaning. It is capable of being understood in four different ways. 1. A stranger to the fact, would not learn from this phrase, that the "Providence Plantations" are included in the "State of Rhode Island," but would naturally infer the contrary. 2. The phrase, "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," may be supposed to mean "Rhode Island [Plantations] and Providence Plantations." 3. It may be understood to mean "Rhode Island and Providence [i.e., two] Plantations." 4. It may be taken for "Rhode Island" [i.e., as an island,] and the "Providence Plantations." Which, now, of all these did Charles the Second mean, when he gave the colony this name, with his charter, in 1663? It happened that he meant the last; but I doubt whether any man in the state, except perhaps some learned lawyer, can parse the phrase, with any certainty of its true construction and meaning. This old title can never be used, except in law. To write the popular name "Rhodeisland," as Dr. Webster has it in his American Spelling-Book, p. 121, would be some improvement upon it; but to make it Rhodeland, or simply Rhode, would be much more appropriate. As for Rhode Island, it ought to mean nothing but the island; and it is, in fact, an abuse of language to apply it otherwise. In one of his parsing lessons, Sanborn gives us for good English the following tautology: "Rhode Island derived its name from the island of Rhode Island."--Analytical Gram., p. 37. Think of that sentence!
OBS. 11.--On Rules 7th and 8th, concerning Two Capitals for Compounds, I would observe, with a general reference to those compound terms which designate particular places or things, that it is often no easy matter to determine, either from custom or from analogy, whether such common words as may happen to be embraced in them, are to be accounted parts of compound proper names and written with capitals, or to be regarded as appellatives, requiring small letters according to Rule 9th. Again the question may be, whether they ought not to be joined to the foregoing word, according to Rule 6th. Let the numerous examples under these four rules be duly considered: for usage, in respect to each of them, is diverse; so much so, that we not unfrequently find it contradictory, in the very same page, paragraph, or even sentence. Perhaps we may reach some principles of uniformity and consistency, by observing the several different kinds of phrases thus used. 1. We often add an adjective to an old proper name to make a new one, or to serve the purpose of distinction: as, Now York, New Orleans, New England, New Bedford; North America, South America; Upper Canada, Lower Canada; Great Pedee, Little Pedee; East Cambridge, West Cambridge; Troy, West Troy. All names of this class require two capitals: except a few which are joined together; as Northampton, which is sometimes more analogically written North Hampton. 2. We often use the possessive case with some common noun after it; as, Behring's Straits, Baffin's Bay, Cook's Inlet, Van Diemen's Land, Martha's Vineyard, Sacket's Harbour, Glenn's Falls. Names of this class generally have more than one capital; and perhaps all of them should be written so, except such as coalesce; as, Gravesend, Moorestown, the Crowsnest. 3. We sometimes use two common nouns with of between them; as, the Cape of Good Hope, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Shoals, the Lake of the Woods, the Mountains of the Moon. Such nouns are usually written with more than one capital. I would therefore write "the Mount of Olives" in this manner, though it is not commonly found so in the Bible. 4. We often use an adjective and a common noun; as, the Yellow sea, the Indian ocean, the White hills, Crooked lake, the Red river; or, with two capitals, the Yellow Sea, the Indian Ocean, the White Hills, Crooked Lake, the Red River. In this class of names the adjective is the distinctive word, and always has a capital; respecting the other term, usage is divided, but seems rather to favour two capitals. 5. We frequently put an appellative, or common noun, before or after a proper name; as, New York city, Washington street, Plymouth county, Greenwich village. "The Carondelet canal extends from the city of New Orleans to the bayou St. John, connecting lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi river."--Balbi's Geog. This is apposition. In phrases of this kind, the common noun often has a capital, but it seldom absolutely requires it; and in general a small letter is more correct, except in some few instances in which the common noun is regarded as a permanent part of the name; as in Washington City, Jersey City. The words Mount, Cape, Lake, and Bay, are now generally written with capitals when connected with their proper names; as, Mount Hope, Cape Cod, Lake Erie, Casco Bay. But they are not always so written, even in modern books; and in the Bible we read of "mount Horeb, mount Sinai, mount Zion, mount Olivet," and many others, always with a single capital.
OBS. 12.--In modern compound names, the hyphen is now less frequently used than it was a few years ago. They seldom, if ever, need it, unless they are employed as adjectives; and then there is a manifest propriety in inserting it. Thus the phrase, "the New London Bridge," can be understood only of a new bridge in London; and if we intend by it a bridge in New London, we
