We have a constant flow of correspondence, and we are afraid the
writers must think us unpractical, incompetent, or neglectful, because
we give their inquiries no place in our tracts; they may naturally
think that it is our business to pass judgement on any linguistic
question that troubles them; but most of these queries would be
satisfactorily answered by reference to the _O. E. D._, which we do
not undertake to reprint; in other cases, where we are urged to
protest against the common abuse of some word or phrase, we do not
think (as we have before explained) that it is worth while to treat
any such detail without full illustration, and this our correspondents
do not supply. We propose now to demonstrate the situation by dealing
with a small selection of these abused words, which may serve as
examples.
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