OBS. 6.—­I have before observed that some of the grammarians who were contemporary with Johnson, did not adopt his practice respecting the k or the u, in publick, critick, errour, superiour, &c.  And indeed I am not sure there were any who did.  Dr. Johnson was born in 1709, and he died in 1784.  But Brightland’s Grammar, which was written during the reign of Queen Anne, who died in 1714, in treating of the letter C, says, “If in any Word the harder Sound precedes (e), (i), or (y), (k) is either added or put in its Place; as, Skill, Skin, Publick:  And tho’ the additional (k) in the foregoing Word be an old Way of Spelling, yet it is now very justly left off, as being a superfluous Letter; for (c) at the End is always hard.”—­Seventh Edition, Lond., 1746, p. 37.

OBS. 7.—­The three grammars of Ash, Priestley, and Lowth, all appeared, in their first editions, about one time; all, if I mistake not, in the year 1763; and none of these learned doctors, it would seem, used the mode of spelling now in question.  In Ash, of 1799, we have such orthography as this:  “Italics, public, domestic, our traffic, music, quick; error, superior, warrior, authors, honour, humour, favour, behaviour.”  In Priestley, of 1772:  “Iambics, dactyls, dactylic, anapaestic, monosyllabic, electric, public, critic; author, emperor’s, superior; favour, labours, neighbours, laboured, vigour, endeavour; meagre, hillock, bailiwick, bishoprick, control, travelling.”  In Lowth, of 1799:  “Comic, critic, characteristic, domestic; author, favor, favored, endeavored, alledging, foretells.”  Now all these are words in the spelling of which Johnson and Webster contradict each other; and if they are not all right, surely they would not, on the whole, be made more nearly right, by being conformed to either of these authorities exclusively.  For THE BEST USAGE is the ultimate rule of grammar.

OBS. 8.—­The old British Grammar, written before the American Revolution, and even before “the learned Mr. Samuel Johnson” was doctorated, though it thus respectfully quotes that great scholar, does not follow him in the spelling of which I am treating.  On the contrary, it abounds with examples of words ending in ic and or, and not in ick and our, as he wrote them; and I am confident, that, from that time to this, the former orthography has continued to be more common than his.  Walker, the orthoepist, who died in 1807, yielded the point respecting the k, and ended about four hundred and fifty words with c in his Rhyming Dictionary; but he thought it more of an innovation than it really was.  In his Pronouncing Dictionary, he says, “It has been a custom, within these twenty years, to omit the k at the end of words, when preceded by c.  This has introduced a novelty into the language, which is that of ending a word with an unusual letter,”