STYLE.--It is not every understanding that can judge of matter; but every ear can and does judge, more or less, of style; and were I either to speak or write to the public, I should prefer moderate matter, adorned with all the beauties and elegancies of style, to the strongest matter in the world, ill worded and ill delivered. Your business is, negotiation abroad, and oratory in the House of Commons at home. What figure can you make in either case, if your style be inelegant, I do not say bad? Imagine yourself writing an office-letter to a secretary of state, which letter is to be read by the whole cabinet council, and very possibly afterward, laid before parliament; any one barbarism, solecism, or vulgarism in it would, in a very few days, circulate through the whole kingdom, to your disgrace and ridicule. For instance; I will suppose you had written the following letter from The Hague to the secretary of state at London, and leave you to suppose the consequences of it: “MY LORD,--I _had_, last night, the honor of your lordship’s letter, of the 24th; and will _set about doing_ the orders contained _therein_; and _if so be_ that I can get that affair done by the next post, I will not fail _for to_ give your lordship an account of it by _next post_. I have told the French minister _as how_, _that if_ that affair be not soon concluded, your lordship would think it _all long of him_; and that he must have neglected _for to_ have wrote to his court about it. I must beg leave to put your lordship in mind, _as how_, that I am now full three quarters in arrear; and if _so be_ that I do not very soon receive at least one half year, I shall _cut a very bad figure_; for _this here_ place is very dear. I shall be _vastly beholden_ to your lordship for _that there_ mark of your favor; and so I _rest_, or _remain_, Yours,” etc. You will tell me, possibly, that this is a _caricatura_ of an illiberal and inelegant style; I will admit it; but assure you, at the same time, that a dispatch with less than half these faults would blow you up forever. It is by no means sufficient to be free from faults in speaking and writing; you must do both correctly and elegantly. [_Same date._] MISPRONUNCIATION AND MISUSE OF WORDS.--A person of the House of Commons, speaking two years ago upon naval affairs, asserted, that we had then the finest navy _upon the face of the yearth_. This happy mixture of blunder and vulgarism, you may easily imagine, was matter of immediate ridicule; but I can assure you that it continues so still, and will be remembered as long as he lives and speaks. Another, speaking in defence of a gentleman, upon whom a censure was moved, happily said that he thought that gentleman was more _liable_ to be thanked and rewarded, than censured. You know, I presume, that _liable_ can never be used in a good sense. [_Same date._]