her best influences with her ally to prevent Syria retrograding in civilization, more especially in its present toleration towards foreign Christians. As for the natives, we do not augur much benefit for them by the transfer to their old masters; for whether under Turks or Egyptians they have long drunk to the dregs the bitter cup of bondage and oppression. England having been foremost in restoring them to Turkey, ought to exert itself for their more humane and equitable treatment. The toils of war are thickening around us in India. By our ill-advised and too often selfish or ambitious policy, in interfering with the Asiatic powers, we are in a state of actual or latent hostility in the North and East and West of our vast frontier; and our late brilliant conquests in Central Asia have been followed by severe reverses, the issue of which may be very hazardous; especially in the state of our relations with China, whose coasts we are blockading, having stationed a naval force at the mouth of the river of Canton, and sent an armament to take possession of the Island of Chusan, the key to Pekin. Whatever may be the results, we have a very strong feeling that our affairs in the East are mixed up with much unrighteousness, especially in our quarrel with China for seizing and destroying the contraband opium. It may please God to bring good out of evil, and even to open China to European civilization and Christian intercourse; and such we pray may be the issue; but this will be God's mercy, not man's project. The state of the Idolatry question in India is far from satisfactory. Much has, doubtless, been achieved; but more remains to be accomplished. The former should excite our gratitude and praise to God; the latter calls for renewed vigilance, enlarged exertion, and more fervent prayer. The details are so involved, that British Christians are not generally aware of what has been effected, or what is still required. We may briefly sum up the particulars as follows. First, what has been accomplished. At home we have the complete, reiterated, acknowledgment of the principle; and this alone required the labour of years to gain. But beyond this, repeated orders have been sent out to India to carry the principle into effect; and in particular the dispatch of 1833 was precise, specific, and unequivocal. India, the Governor-General and Council profess to use their best endeavours to carry into effect the orders from home. So much generally. Specially, In in regard to the three Presidencies, we have in Bengal, blessed be God, the complete abolition of the Pilgrim tax; in Madras, we have nothing, absolutely nothing; in Bombay we have (so far as we can ascertain) the abolition of honours paid by European troops, &c. at certain processions, and the withdrawal from the management of Pagan affairs, recommended but not confirmed by the supreme government. We rejoice at these buddings of hope. But much remains to be effected. At home the question must be pressed upon parliament, upon the India house, upon her Majesty's government, and upon the country; till the measures already ordered, and whatever more may be necessary, shall be really, speedily, and fully carried out. In India it is required that what has been promised shall be honestly, fearlessly, and completely fulfilled. At Bengal, some minute particulars; but especially, to give up Juggernaut altogether to na tive management, so that Christian hands may be undefiled. At Madras, to return, as regards military honours at processions, to the position in which Sir R. O'Callaghan and Sir P. Maitland's orders placed matters, and to follow out the Directors' principles of 1833 in terms of that dispatch. At Bombay, to abolish whatever yet remains of the old system. We doubt not the Queen's ministers wish to have the question settled, in order to be saved the clamour of parliamentary petitioning; but Sir J. Hobhouse's last speech, in August, was very mischievous; and Lord Melbourne echoed it,— amidst the usual professions of wishing to satisfy the reasonable demands of the country, and the like. In India, the authorities are reluctant labourers in this good work; and, from Lord Auckland downwards, will, we fear, obstruct and retard its progress to the utmost. The communications from India afford melancholy proof of this being the real state of mind among the higher authorities. The local officers of government throughout the provinces are, for the most part, favourable to the entire emancipation of Europeans from all participation in the affairs of the native idolatry. The Indian foreign govern-ment (under some supposed pledge to indemnify the injured, and to serve a religion of heathenism) has, under orders, doubtless, from home, agreed to pay Jugger. naut alone 60,0001. sterling per annum. We have seen a letter, in which the writer, whose testimony is unimpeach able, says, Juggernaut was exhibited on the 1st July last (1840). The Rajah and Priests have made an extraordinary effort this year. The idols were decked with unusual grandeur, and Juggernaut had his superb golden arms weighing ten pounds each. Two wretched men, and since then nine more, sacrificed themselves under the wheels of a car." [Dr. Buchanan did not see more.] "Though government have renounced the Pilgrim Tax, they have agreed to give the, Temple 47,000 rupees-a sum more than sufficient to support the idol in all his glory, and to perpetuate idolatry here for ever." And this letter is dated only 7th July last! tioned as being so strongly panegyrised by Dr. Adam Thomson, the originator of the present agitation; and recommended by him for general distribution by the Scotch Bible-printing Board. A writer in the Patriot Newspaper, under the signature " Experience," has requested any possessor of Dr. Blayney's folio edition of 1769, to compare with it this specimen sheet. One of our correspondents has taken the trouble to do so, and has sent us the result of his collation. What the promised "School Bible" will be, with its "many important corrections" made by a Scottish divine, we cannot tell; but taking the 4to Family Bible as a sample, it will be ill adapted for general circulation. The variations from Dr. Blayney, 1769, in this single specimen sheet, that is, from Genesis i. to x. 9, our correspondent calculates at twenty-eight. Supposing the book will consist of about 1000 pages, at 8 pages a sheet, there will be 125 sheets; and these multiplied by twenty-eight (the number of alterations in the specimen sheet) will show an amount of 3500 variations from the generally received standard edition. Six of these are not mere alterations, but actual errors; namely, Nos. 7, 8, 17, 24, 27, 28, of the list. At six errors a sheet there will be upwards of 750 positive errors in the volume; and this is doing the printer no injustice, as most probably he would endeavour to make the specimen sheet as perfect as possible. The following is the collation : Blaney 1769. 1 Gen. i. 10 Earth; 2 3 4 We have entered at great length, in our December Number, into the much agitated question respecting the restric tion of the printing of Bibles to the Universities and the Queen's printer. The agitators threaten to deluge parliament with petitions, or rather remonstrances, next Session, demanding that every man shall be allowed to print Bibles, and they propose beginning with breaking the law in order to try its strength; in the full expectation that nothing can withstand the clamour and pressure which are to be brought to bear upon the subject. It is a question which every clergyman,every member of the Church, and, we will equally add, every Dissenter who loves truth and the best interests of religion better than party, ought to make himself master of, in order to know how to act in the forthcoming time of exigency. We trust and believe that, when the matter comes to be publicly understood, it will be clearly seen that restriction is necessary, in order to secure the accuracy and good printing of our vernacular Bibles; that the nation being the proprietor of the authorised version-a ground which the Dissenter may take-and, we should add, the Church being its conservator-the legislature has a good right to impose such restrictions as it considers necessary for that purpose; and that, in point of fact, the present system works well, as regards accuracy, cheapness, and execution. We have disclaimed the notion that the restriction is for interested pur. poses; the sole object ought to be to supply Bibles as cheaply and accurately as possible-neither of which, do we believe, would be accomplished by 17 throwing open the trade in Bibles. But we will not recapitulate what we have said more at large in our December Number. In the postscript to our pa per, we shewed practically what has already been the effect, as respects those momentous objects, accuracy and uniformity, in the instance of the first Scotch Testament under the new system which has fallen into our hands. A specimen sheet has been circulated of the "Family Bible," which we menCHRIST. OBSERV. APP. 7 ii. 16 eat: 19 air; Adam 20 field; 21 ¶ And "Family Bible" 1840. thereof; 23 Man. iii. 1 subtil 5 opened, 16 conception;-conception: 10 11 9 And 12 13 iv. 8 And 14 9 And -And And And And -But 18 V 3 And 19 vi. 5 And 20 8 But 9 man and -man, and 22 14 ¶ Make -Make gopherwood-gopher-wood -sort x. 1 Noah, 5 M 4 Elishah, -Elisha, 7 Sabtechah: -Sabtecha: Dr. Dickenson, the chaplain of the archbishop of Dublin, is the new Irish bishop. A ministerial newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, says, respecting this appointment: "His claims are his talents and his virtues. He is one of a class of clergymen, uncommon in England, and still more rare in Ireland, who belong to no faction or clique. He has shewn his politics only by the support of every liberal measure and of every useful institution. He was an open and strenuous advocate for the comprehensive system of education introduced by the Education Board at its commencement." We have no wish to enter into any controversy upon such a subject; but there is in all societies the faction of the no faction; for eclectics are a "clique' as much as non-eclectics; and the zea-c lous part taken by Dr. Dickenson, in regard to the National Education question, and some other matters which we will not enter into, does not enable us to partake of the unmingled satisfaction of the Morning Chronicle. We greatly lament the decease of another Irish church dignitary, Dr. Murray, dean of Ardagh, the very antipodes of the new bishop in many matters doctrinal and ecclesiastical, and especially in regard to the Education question, and the duties of the Irish clergy in reference to Romanism. We might not consider all his proceedings perfectly well-judged; but he was a holy, a zealous, and an exemplary servant of his divine Lord, and a great blessing to his church. It is very gratifying to the old friends of the abolition of Slavery, to learn the blessed results of that great act of jnstice and humanity-results which they predicted: but which many were slow to credit. We have great pleasure in extracting the following statements on this subject, from an interesting volume from the pen of Mr. G. J. Gurney, whose testimony is in every respect unimpeachable. He says: "1. The emancipated negroes are working well on the estates of their old masters. The existing instances of a contrary description must be ascribed to causes which class under slavery, and not under freedom. "2. An increased quantity of work thrown upon the market is, of course, followed by the cheapening of labour. Remember A. B.'s declaration, that he had rather, for the profit's sake, make sixty tierces of coffee under freedom, than one hundred and twenty under slavery.' "3. Real property has risen, and is ising in value. In the towns, the enhancement and improvement of property are very extraordinary. In the country, the value of the slaves, to say the least of it, is already transferred to the land. "4. The personal comforts of the labouring population under freedom are multiplied tenfold. "5. Lastly, the moral and religious improvement of this people under freedom, is more than equal to the increase of their comforts. Under this head there are three points deserving respectively of a distinct place in our memories. First, the rapid increase and vast extent of elementary and Christian education-schools for infants, young persons, and adults, multiplying in every direction. Secondly, the gradual but decided diminution of crime, amounting in many country districts almost to its extinction. Thirdly, the happy change of the general and almost universal practice of concubinage, for the equally geneal adoption of marriage. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. W. J.; H. M.; P. P. P.; J. R.; M. L.; G. E. O.; ПICTIS; Liturgicus; P.; H. L. M.; F. S.; E. A.; H. M. P.; A Minister of the Church of England; R. H. S.; and J. P.; are under consideration. To several correspondents,who have addressed us in consequence of our remarks respecting Societies for supplying cast-off clothing to clergymen and their families, we reply that we were aware that several individuals have been long engaged in so doing, and we offered no opinion as to matters of private charity; but we were not aware of there being any regular Society, supported by subscriptions for that purpose. We are now informed that such a Society exists in Birmingham (and three correspondents have sent us copies of some of its printed Reports) and that cast-off clothing is also received at the Office of the Poor Pious Clergy Society, and elsewhere. We state the facts as requested: and we feel confident the relief is administered with all possible kindness and delicacy; and the expressions of gratitude in the Reports are affecting and overwhelming; but nothing can reconcile us to the institution of societies for such a purpose. If, however, they are required, they do not degrade the clergy; it is the nation that is degraded by allowing such afflicting poverty to be found among those who minister at its altars. |