of New York,”—­“The land of Canaan,”—­“The island of Cuba,”—­“The peninsula of Yucatan.”  Yet in some instances, even of this kind, the immediate apposition is preferred; as, “That the city Sepphoris should be subordinate to the city Tiberias.”—­Life of Josephus, p. 142.  In the following sentence, the preposition of is at least needless:  “The law delighteth herself in the number of twelve; and the number of twelve is much respected in holy writ.”—­Coke, on Juries.  Two or three late grammarians, supposing of always to indicate a possessive relation between one thing and an other, contend that it is no less improper, to say, “The city of London, the city of New Haven, the month of March, the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, the towns of Exeter and Dover,” than to say, “King of Solomon, Titus of the Roman Emperor, Paul of the apostle, or, Cicero of the orator.”—­See Barrett’s Gram., p. 101; Emmons’s, 16.  I cannot but think there is some mistake in their mode of finding out what is proper or improper in grammar.  Emmons scarcely achieved two pages more, before he forgot his criticism, and adopted the phrase, “in the city of New Haven.”—­Gram., p. 19.

OBS. 17.—­When an object acquires a new name or character from the action of a verb, the new appellation is put in apposition with the object of the active verb, and in the nominative after the passive:  as, “They named the child John;”—­“The child was named John.”—­“They elected him president;”—­“He was elected president.”  After the active verb, the acquired name must be parsed by Rule 3d; after the passive, by Rule 6th.  In the following example, the pronominal adjective some, or the noun men understood after it, is the direct object of the verb gave, and the nouns expressed are in apposition with it:  “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”—­Ephesians, iv, 11.  That is, “He bestowed some [men] as apostles; and some as prophets; and some as evangelists; and some as pastors and teachers.”  The common reader might easily mistake the meaning and construction of this text in two different ways; for he might take some to be either a dative case, meaning to some persons, or an adjective to the nouns which are here expressed.  The punctuation, however, is calculated to show that the nouns are in apposition with some, or some men, in what the Latins call the accusative, case.  But the version ought to be amended by the insertion of as, which would here be an express sign of the apposition intended.