“A priesthood, such as Baal’s was of old,
    A people, such as never was till now.”—­Cowper.

OBS. 3.—­Of the construction of the verb and collective noun, a late British author gives the following account:  “Collective nouns are substantives which signify many in the singular number.  Collective nouns are of two sorts:  1.  Those which cannot become plural like other substantives; as, nobility, mankind, &c. 2.  Those which can be made plural by the usual rules for a substantive; as, ’A multitude, multitudes; a crowd, crowds;’ &c.  Substantives which imply plurality in the singular number, and consequently have no other plural, generally require a plural verb.  They are cattle, cavalry, clergy, commonalty, gentry, laity, mankind, nobility, peasantry people, populace, public, rabble, &c. [;] as, ’The public are informed.’  Collective nouns which form a regular plural, such as, number, numbers; multitude, multitudes; have, like all other substantives, a singular verb, when they are in the singular number; and a plural verb, when they are in the plural number; as, ’A number of people is assembled; Numbers are assembled.’—­’The fleet was dispersed; a part of it was injured; the several parts are now collected.’”—­ Nixon’s Parser, p. 120.  To this, his main text, the author appends a note, from which the following passages are extracted:  “There are few persons acquainted with Grammar, who may not have noticed, in many authors as well as speakers, an irregularity in supposing collective nouns to have, at one time, a singular meaning, and consequently to require a singular verb; and, at an other time, to have a plural meaning, and therefore to require a plural verb.  This irregularity appears to have arisen from the want of a clear idea of the nature of a collective noun.  This defect the author has endeavoured to supply; and, upon his definition, he has founded the two rules above.  It is allowed on all sides that, hitherto, no satisfactory rules have been produced to enable the pupil to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, when a collective noun should have a singular verb, and when a plural one.  A rule that simply tells its examiner, that when a collective noun in the nominative case conveys the idea of unity, its verb should be singular; and when it implies plurality, its verb should be plural, is of very little value; for such a rule will prove the pupil’s being in the right, whether he should put the verb in the singular or the plural.”—­Ibid.