Page:A Plea for the Queen's English.djvu/20

 A PLEA FOR

THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH.

1. I have called these " stray notes " "A introdutory.

."

2. I must begin by explaining what I mean by the term. It is one rather familiar and conventional, than strictly accurate. The Queen (God bless her!) is of course no more the proprietor of the English language than any one of us. Nor does she, nor do the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, possess one particle of right to make or unmake a word in the language. But we use the phrase, the Queen's English, in another sense; one not without example in some similar phrases. We speak of the Queen's Highway, not meaning that Her Majesty is possessed of that portion of road, but that it is a high road of the land, as distinguished from by-roads and private roads: open to all of B