instead of suspect. To suppose, think, imagine. A very common corruption.
In most parts of the world people expect things that are to come. But in Pennsylvania, more particularly in the metropolis, we expect things that are past. One man tells another, he expects he had a very pleasant ride, &c. ...... I have heard a wise man in Gotham say, he expected Alexander, the Macedonian, was the greatest conqueror of antiquity.--Port Folio, 1809.
Nor is it confined to ourselves. It is not only provincial in England, but we are even startled at meeting with it in the London Athenæum. In an article on the Penny Cyclopedia, a writer says:
The most sustained departments are those of mathematics, classical literature, astronomy, geography, topography, geology, materia medica, and agriculture. In the articles on these subjects we expect that one hand has written or one head has guided the whole series, and thus completeness has been obtained.--Athen. No. 858.