RULE XV.—FINITE VERBS.
When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number: as, "The council were divided."—"The college of cardinals are the electors of the pope."—Murray's Key, p. 176. "Quintus Curtius relates, that a number of them were drowned in the river Lycus."—Home's Art of Thinking, p. 125.
"Yon host come learn'd in academic rules."
—Rowe's Lucan, vii, 401.
"While heaven's high host on hallelujahs live."
—Young's N. Th., iv, 378.