English writers have rarely fallen into this error; yet a few instances may be found in authors of reputation. "If I draw a catgut or any other cord to a great length between my fingers, I _will_ make it smaller than it was before," &c.---- Goldsmith's Survey of Experimental Philosophy, book 2. chap. 2. In the middle and southern states of America, this error is frequent, both in writing and conversation. "Let us suppose the charter repealed and the bank annihilated; _will_ we be better situated?"----Argument against repealing the charter of the Bank of North America. This is very incorrect; there is hardly a possible case, in which _will_ can be properly employed to ask a question in the first person. "As soon as the diploma is made out, I _will_ have the honor to transmit it to you."----Letter to Count Rochambeau. Is not this _promising_ to have the honor of a communication, an engagement which delicacy forbids? It is impossible for a foreigner to have a just idea of the absurdity of using _will_ in this manner; but a correct English ear revolts at the practice. Dr. Priestley observes very justly, that the form of the auxiliaries, _shall_, _will_, which is generally conditional, viz. _should_ and _would_, is elegantly used to express a slight assertion, with modest diffidence. "The royal power, _it should seem_, might be intrusted in their hands."----Hume's History, vol. 3. p. 383. We say also, "I _would_ not choose any." In these cases, the verbs are not conditional; they modestly declare a fact, and therefore properly belong to the indicative mode. But in the following passage, _should_ is improperly employed: "In judging only from the nature of things, and without the surer aid of divine revelation, one _should_ be apt to embrace the opinion of Diodorus Siculus," &c.---- Warburton's Divine Legation, vol. 2. p. 81. _Should_, in the second and third persons, expresses _duty_, and the idea of the author was, to express an event, under a condition, or a modest declaration; he _should_ have used _would_. "There is not a girl in town, but let her have her will in going to a mask, and she _shall_ dress as a shepherdess."----Spect. No. 9. _Shall_, in this example, expresses _command_, an idea very different from the author's meaning. "Think what reflection _shall_ most probably arise."----Blair, Serm. 9. "A person, highly entertained at a play, _shall_ remember perfectly the impression made on him by a very moving scene."----Nugent's Trans. of Condillac, p. 1. s. 1. I would just remark here, that the errors in the use of the auxiliary verbs before mentioned, are not English; that they are little known among the inhabitants of South Britain, and still less among their descendants in New England. This is a new proof of the force of national customs. I do not remember to have heard once in the course of my life, an improper use of the verbs _will_ and _shall_, among the unmixed English descendants in the eastern states.