guardians of the poor should make—or else poor-law Guardians' must be used.
e. Sometimes we can get over the difficulty without abandoning the gerund, by some slight change of order.
This incentive can only be supplied by the nation itself taking the matter up seriously.—Lord Roberts.
IF itself's is objected to, omit itself (or shift it to the end), and write nation's.
f. But many types of sentence remain that will have to be completely changed if the gerund is to be recognizable. It will be admitted about most of our examples that the change is not to be regretted. The subject of the gerund is italicized in each, to emphasize its length.
We have to account for the collision of two great fleets, so equal in material strength that the issue was thought doubtful by many careful statisticians, ending in the total destruction of one of them and in the immunity of the other from damage greater than might well be incurred in a mere skirmish.—Times.
For account for...ending write ascertain why...ended. The sentence is radically bad, because the essential construction seems complete at collision—a false scent. That, which is one of the worst literary sins, is the frequent result of long fused participles. It is quite practically possible here for readers to have supposed that they were going to be told why the fleets met, and not why the meeting ended as it did. In the remaining sentences, we shall say when there is false scent, but leave the reader to examine it.
The success of the negotiations depends on the Russian Minister at Tokio being allowed to convince Japan that...—Times.
The compound possessive—Tokio's—is tempting, but perhaps overbold. Insert whether after depends on, and write is for being.
So far from this being the case, the policy...was actually decided upon before...the question...was raised.—Times.
Omit being the case.
We are not without tokens of an openness for this higher truth also, of
