To omit the k from such words as publick, or the u from such as superiour, is certainly no innovation; it is but ignorance that censures the general practice, under that name.

Monosyllables and English verbs end not with c, but take ck for double c; as, rack, wreck, rock, attack: but, in general, words derived from the learned languages need not the k, and common use discards it; as, Italic, maniac, music, public.

The average Englishman cannot aspirate a K, and never pronounces the Indian A aright unless it is followed by an R, so khat becomes "cot" by a process of which there are many illustrations.

James Buchanan, of whose English Syntax there had been five American editions in 1792, added no k to such words as didactic, critic, classic, of which he made frequent use; and though he wrote honour, labour, and the like, with u, as they are perhaps most generally written now, he inserted no u in error, author, or any of those words in which that letter would now be inconsistent with good taste.

He erred sometimes in his principles, or in their application; as when he adopted the k in such words as rhetorick, and demoniack; or when he inserted the u in such words as governour, warriour, superiour.

And some authors write burlesk and grotesk, preferring k to que. OBS.

[Footnote K: In 1804 Bonaparte sent for the Pope to anoint him as 'Empereur des Français'.