OBS. 15.—­Murray argues at some length, without naming his opponents, that the words which he assumes to be such, are really personal pronouns standing rightfully in the possessive case; and that, “they should not, on the slight pretence of their differing from nouns, be dispossessed of the right and privilege, which, from time immemorial they have enjoyed.”—­Octavo Gram., p. 53.  Churchill as ably shows, that the corresponding terms, which Lowth calls pronominal adjectives, and which Murray and others will have to be pronouns of no case, are justly entitled to the same rank.  “If mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs, be the possessive case; my, thy, her, our, your, their, must be the same.  Whether we say, ‘It is John’s book,’ or, ‘The book is John’s;’ John’s is not less the possessive case in one instance, than it is in the other.  If we say, ‘It is his book,’ or, ‘The book is his;’ ‘It is her book,’ or, ‘The book is hers;’ ‘It is my book,’ or, ‘The book is mine;’ ’It is your book,’ or, ‘The book is yours;’ are not these parallel instances?  Custom has established it as a law, that this case of the pronoun shall drop its original termination, for the sake of euphony, when it precedes the noun that governs it; retaining it only where the noun is understood:  but this certainly makes no alteration in the nature of the word; so that either my is as much a possessive case as mine; or mine and my are equally pronominal adjectives.”—­Churchill’s New Gram., p. 221.  “Mr. Murray considers the phrases, ‘our desire,’ ’your intention,’ ‘their resignation,’ as instances of plural adjectives agreeing with singular nouns; and consequently exceptions to the general (may we not say universal?) rule:  but if they [the words our, your, their,] be, as is attempted to be proved above, the possessive cases of pronouns, no rule is here violated.”—­Ib., p. 224.

OBS. 16.—­One strong argument, touching this much-disputed point of grammar, was incidentally noticed in the observations upon antecedents:  an adjective cannot give person, number, and gender, to a relative pronoun; because, in our language, adjectives do not possess these qualities; nor indeed in any other, except as they take them by immediate agreement with nouns or pronouns in the same clause.  But it is undeniable, that my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, do sometimes stand as antecedents, and give person, number, and gender to relatives, which head other clauses.  For the learner should remember, that, “When a relative pronoun is used, the sentence is divided into two parts; viz. the antecedent sentence, or that which contains the antecedent; and the relative sentence, containing the relative.”—­Nixon’s Parser, p. 123.  We need not here deny, that