Many adjectives are formed from proper nouns by adding an apostrophe and the letter s, except when the word ends in s, in which case the final s is usually omitted for the sake of euphony.  This, however, was not generally adopted by old writers.  It is not observed in the earliest translations of the Bible into the english language.  It is now in common practice.  Thus, Montgomery’s monument in front of St. Paul’s church; Washington’s funeral; Shay’s rebelion; England’s bitterest foes; Hamlet’s father’s ghost; Peter’s wife’s mother; Todd’s, Walker’s, Johnson’s dictionary; Winchell’s Watts’ hymns; Pond’s Murray’s grammar.  No body would suppose that the “relation of property or possession” was expressed in these cases, as our grammar books tell us, but that the terms employed are used to define certain objects, about which we are speaking.  They possess the true character and use of adjectives, and as such let them be regarded.  It must be as false as frivolous to say that Montgomery, who nobly fell at the siege of Quebec, owns the monument erected over his remains, which were conveyed to New-York many years after his death; or that St. Paul owns or possesses the church beneath which they were deposited; that Hamlet owned his father, and his father his ghost; that Todd owns Walker, and Walker owns Johnson, and Johnson his dictionary which may have had a hundred owners, and never been the property of its author, but printed fifty years after his death.  These words, I repeat, are merely definitive terms, and like others serve to point out or specify particular objects which may thus be better known.

Words, however, in common use form adjectives the same as other words; as, Russia iron, China ships, India silks, Vermont cheese, Orange county butter, New-York flour, Carolina potatoes.  Morocco leather was first manufactured in a city of Africa called by that name, but it is now made in almost every town in our country.  The same may be said of Leghorn hats, Russia binding, French shoes, and China ware.  Although made in our own country we still retain the words, morocco, leghorn, russia, french, and china, to define the fashion, kind, or quality of articles to which we allude.  Much china ware is made in Liverpool, which, to distinguish it from the real, is called liverpool china.  Many french shoes are made in Lynn, and many Roxbury russets, Newton pippins, and Rhode-Island greenings, grow in Vermont.

It may not be improper here to notice the adjectives derived from pronouns, which retain so much of their character as relates to the persons who employ them.  These are my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, their, whose.  This is my book, that is your pen, this is his knife, and that is her letter.  Some of these, like other words, vary their ending when standing alone; as, two apples are your_s_, three her_s_, six their_s_, five