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253 On English Preterites a7id Genitives, 253 latter. Yet this construction, as appears from all the remains of Anglosaxon literature, was exceedingly prevalent, and in- deed appears to have been the commoner of the two : and so, as languages are seldom yilling to part with any right, un- less they can get an equivalent, which at the moment they deem preferable, in its stead, this use of the genitive was not given up. All this, I grant, is merely conjectural; and to confirm it would require a diligent examination of the monu- ments of our lanffua^re anterior to the ao^e of Chaucer. Perhaps that examination might convince us that the pecu- liarity in question arose in a totally different way. Though the explanation I have been suggesting appears to me by no means improbable, I propose it with great diffidence : nor should I have brought it forward until I had gone through a good deal more of the requisite investigation, but that I have unintentionally been led by G. C. L.'s remarks to resume this subject prematurely. The foregoing observations will help us to account for the anomalous idioms cited by G. C. L. As we only retained the genitive for one particular construction, and as the cha- racter of our language led us in ninetynine cases out of a hundred to place it immediately before the noun it depended upon, or at least before an adjective connected with that noun, we lost the perception of its meaning in any other position, and fancied it was absolutely necessary for the final s to stand close to the second noun^ even when we could not place it there except by tearing it away from the word to which of right it belonged. Hence Wallis, as appeared in the passage quoted in the last Number, was led to deny that our genitives were anything but possessive adjectives. Thus for example we cannot say, the king's of Eoigland palace^ Alexander s the Great victory ; but make the s shift its place, though in the first example it occasions an ambi- guity, and in the second attaches itself to an adjective, which under all other circumstances is indeclinable. Thus again people more frequently say nobody elses than nobody s else. It is curious to observe the straits and awkwardnesses into which this peculiarity has led us. The Collect for the fourth Sunday after Trinity ends with for Jesns Christ" s sake, our Lord; that for the twenty-fourth Sunday with for Jesus