fashions in pronunciation; and the Americans have as good a right to
their fashion as we to ours. Fifty years hence, perhaps, our grandsons
will be saying "constitootional," and theirs "constityootional." I
confess that, in point of abstract sonority, I prefer the "yoo" to the
dry "oo;" but that, again, is a pure matter of taste. If Americans
choose to say,

"From morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dooey eve,
A summer's day."

I am perfectly willing that they should do so, reserving always my own
right to say "dyooey." It would not at all surprise me to learn that
Milton said "dooey;" but neither would it lead me to alter the
pronunciation which, as one of the present generation of Englishmen, I
have learnt to prefer.

It is said that when Mr. Daly's company returned to New York, after a
long visit to England, they pronounced "lieutenant" according to the
English fashion, "leftenant," but were called to order by an outburst of
protest. Though, for my own part, I say "leftenant," I heartily
sympathise with the protesters. "Leftenant," though a corruption of
respectable antiquity, is a corruption none the less, and since it has
died out in America, it would be mere snobbery to reintroduce it.

So, too, with questions of accentuation. We say "prim-arily" and
"tem-porarily;" most (or at any rate many) Americans say "primar-ily"
and "temporar-ily." Here there is no question of right or wrong,
refinement or vulgarity. The one accentuation is as good as the other.
It may be argued, indeed, that our accentuation throws into relief the