12 SEPTEMBER 1908, Page 18

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:9 SIB,—" The King's

English" (Clarendon Press, 1906, 5s. net) has the following remarks on the above subject :— "A difficult question arises with relatives after than. In the next two examples whom is as manifestly wrong as who is mani- festly intolerable :—‘ Dr. Dillon, than whom no Englishman has a profounder acquaintance with " It was a pleasure to hear Canon Liddon, than whom, in his day, there was no finer preacher.' The only correct solution is to recast the sentences. For instance, whose acquaintance with is unrivalled among Englishmen ; and unsurpassed in his day as a preacher. But perhaps the convenience of than whom is so great that to rule it out amounts to saying that man is made for grammar and not grammar for man."