his favourite town would never have to be written as it was too often, he feared pronounced, Astins or Astings. He advised his audience to keep both the aspirate and the nasal g in the English language, the latter being the only nasal sound in that language, whilst a number of them might be found in the French language. Then there was the "ch", in speaking of which he must again find fault with our alphabet makers, whoever they might be, for they had given us the character, but not the sound. The Scotch had it, whilst we gave to it the sound of k, as in chord, charcter, &c. Like the sh it had a simple sound, and ought not therefore to be made up of two characters. Passing to SH, Mr. Stewart jocularly remarked that it was still his disposition to find fault. He objected to the employment of a double character to represent a single sound. He directed attention to Pitman's Phonography, a work which he described as being highly philosophical, and as containing in its extended alphabet the true elements of sound. The sh was used either as a prefix or a terminal, it being never employed in the middle of a verbal root or root-word. It was purely Saxon, and was very expressive, as in those (illegible text) words splash, rush, gnash, josh, &c. But still he contended that it was a simple sound, and ought to be represented by a simple character. Passing to another member of the H family, the lecturer observed that we had two th's, althoguh he supposed we were to proud to acknowledge it. It was notorious that the th in thin and thine were materially different, and this reminded him of the inadequacy of our own alphabet to represent the true sounds, and of the energetic attempt to bring into general use of a system of phonetic spelling. The last of H's associations was w, and here again, the lecturer said he was disposed to find fault with the alphabet makers for putting, as it were, the cart before the horse. It was evident that in all the words beginning with wh the sound was that of hw. The latter was the form in which the Saxons used it, and it was the one which ought to be observed by us. He delighted in such old Saxon words as whisper and whistle, and intimated a desire that their expressive pronunciation would not be corrupted. After further remarks in which he spoke of the general excellence of the English language, and of its use in Australia, America and many other parts, the lecturer brought his theme to a close amidst the applause of the audience, supplemented by a vote of thanks.
Mnemonics
At the Music Hall, on the 23rd of February, in connection with the Hastings Mechanics’ Institution, Mr. Stokes gave what might be described as both a lecture and an entertainment on memory. He was assisted by three gentlemen from among the pupils in this district [who] had recently attended Mr. Stokes's classes. In commencing his explanations Mr. Stokes -
