subdued; the name of Christian is less odious to the ears of a Jew; and many of the nation, adhering still to the faith of their forefathers, have ceased to uphold the Talmudical doctrine, that the Gentiles are beasts created for the purpose of administering to the necessities of Israel. They have conceived a respect for our persons, and a still greater for our intellects; an ardent desire is now manifested by the Jews to hold conversation with the missionaries; along the north coast of Africa, in Palestine, and in Poland, they have visited them in crowds; and many, doubtless, have borne away with them the seed which a study of the Scriptures will ripen into conviction.

"As a consequence of this more friendly intercourse between Jew and Gentile, we must mention the kinder feelings entertained by the Hebrews toward a converted brother. We have heard, indeed, from the lips of a proselyte, that he had, even within the last four or five years, observed an improvement in this respect among his own relations; and the same fact is most amply attested by the opinion and experience of Mr. Herschel.

"We wish we could say that this sentiment was universal; but, alas, we know many and lamentable exceptions. There are Jews in all parts of Europe who dare not avow their Christianity, so great is the fear of public reproach or domestic tyranny. In Constantinople, Tunis and Turkey generally, where the Jews have a police, and authority over their own body, conversion is as dangerous as in Ireland itself. Whenever an Hebrew is suspected of wavering in his rabbinical allegiance, he is imprisoned and bastinadoed; and no later than January of this year, a young man in Tunis, who had discovered an inclination to the hated faith, was assaulted so violently by his relations, that he fainted on the spot,' says the missionary, and lingered a few days, when he died.' Nevertheless, conversions even there, as in Ireland, are constantly on the increase; it being still the good pleasure of God that the blood of the martyrs should be the seed of the Church.

"A desire, corresponding to this change of sentiment, is manifested to obtain possession of the word of God; and they eagerly demand copies of the Society's editions of the Old Testament in Hebrew. In the last two years 5400 copies have been sold by Mr. Stockfeldt, in the Rhenish provinces; several thousands on the coast of Africa, by Mr. Ewald; and in Königsberg Mr. Berghfeldt sells copies to the amount of about one hundred pounds annually. In Poland and Jerusalem the missionaries can dispose of all that are sent; and the last report of the Society informs us that a less additional number than twenty thousand copies would be utterly inadequate to the demands of the Israelites in all parts of the world. It is also very observable that the translation in their vernacular dialect has excited the liveliest interest among the long-neglected females of the Hebrew nation. All this indicates a prodigious change; hitherto they have cared little but for the legends of the Talmud and rabbinical preachments; they now betake themselves to the study of Scripture, and will accept the Pentateuch printed and presented by the hands of Christians! This abundant diffusion of the Hebrew Bible has, more than any other cause, contributed to abate prejudice and conciliate affection. Mr. J. D. Marc, in a letter from the Society's station at Offenbach, affirms that the conviction the Jews now have, that the Christians offer them the genuine word of God, and even to the poor gratis, makes an unspeakable impression on them, and begins visibly to melt their hearts.' And even in Poland, the very treasure-house of rabbinism, a missionary can find easy access, and a patient audience for the truths of the Gospel, provided he be well supplied with the word of God in its original tongue. Such efforts are felt and estimated far beyond the VIII.

3 c

sphere of their first action; a kindly sympathy is propagated through all the distant limbs of the Jewish body; and traces of the zeal and growing favour of the Gentiles are discernible even in the remotest countries of the East. According to Dr. Wolff, in his several journals, Bibles and Testaments in Hebrew were found at Ispahan and Cashan, which he himself had given from his own store at Jerusalem; he heard of them also in Balk, Bokhara, and Affghanistan. In the Himalaya mountains, far beyond the limit of the British dominion, he discovered even a Brahmin, surrounded by crowds of his disciples, reading the Gos pel of St. Luke in the Nagree character; this last fact, though not imme diately bearing upon the Jews, well illustrates the efficacy and success of associations combined for the distribution of the Scriptures.

"Efforts like these cannot fail to attain the most important results; for the blindness of Israel is still caused, as it was in the days of our Saviour, by their ignorance of the word of God; 'ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures. A deeper acquaintance with their own holy books is an indispensable preliminary to general conversion; and we must bestir ourselves to multiply facilities by the widest possible circulation of them. The wiser and more Scriptural method of argument now pursued by the missionaries will advance the work; laying aside their reasoning from the Talmud and the Mishna, and perceiving that, with the Jewish people, a right intelligence and belief of the Old Testament is the only foundation for the belief of the New, they have at last adopted toward their Hebrew disputants the method of the inspired apostle; for Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures; openly alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.""

The writer then proceeds to state that it is designed to establish an episcopal church in Mount Zion, in which the services of that communion will be conducted in the Hebrew tongue; but as those remarks enter into the question of an establishment and the subject of church Government, we are obliged to omit this portion of his remarks. He then proceeds

"The growing interest manifested for these regions, the larger investment of British capital, and the confluence of British travellers and strangers from all parts of the world, have recently induced the Se. cretary of State for Foreign Affairs to station there a representative of our Sovereign, in the person of a Vice-Consul. This gentleman set sail for Alexandria at the end of last September-his residence will be fixed at Jerusalem, but his jurisdiction will extend to the whole country within the ancient limits of the Holy Land; he is thus accredited, as it were, to the former kingdom of David and the twelve Tribes. The soil and climate of Palestine are singularly adapted to the growth of produce required for the exigencies of Great Britain; the finest cotton may be ob tained in almost unlimited abundance; silk and madder are the staple of the country, and oil-olive is now, as it ever was, the very fatness of the land. Capital and skill are alone required: the presence of a British officer, and the increased security of property which his presence will confer, may invite them from these islands to the cultivation of Palestine ; and the Jews, who will betake themselves to agriculture in no other land, having found, in the English Consul, a mediator between their

* Dr. Henderson says of the Polish Jews;- Comparatively few of the Jews learn any trade, and most of those attempts which have been made to accustom them

people and the Pasha, will probably return in yet greater numbers, and become once more the husbandmen of Judæa and Galilee.

"This appointment has been conceived and executed in the spirit of true wisdom. Though we cannot often commend the noble Lord's official proceedings, we must not withhold our meed of gratitude for the act, nor of praise for the zeal with which he applied himself to great preliminary difficulties, and the ability with which he overcame them. It is truly a national service at all times it would have been expedient, but now it is necessary. To pass over commercial advantages-which the country will best perceive in the experience of them-we may discern a manifest benefit to our political position. We have done a deed which the Jews will regard as an honour to their nation; and have thereby conciliated a body of well-wishers in every people under heaven. Throughout the East they nearly monopolize the concerns of traffic and finance, and maintain a secret but uninterrupted intercourse with their brethren in the West. Thousands visit Jerusalem in every year from all parts of the globe, and carry back to their respective bodies, that intelligence which guides their conduct, and influences their sympathies. So rapid and accurate is their mutual communication, that Frederick the Great confessed the earlier and superior intelligence obtained through the Jews of all affairs of moment. Napoleon knew well the value of a Hebrew alliance; and endeavoured to reproduce, in the capital of France, the spectacle of the ancient Sanhedrim, which, basking in the sunshine of imperial favour, might give laws to the whole body of the Jews throughout the habitable world, and aid him, no doubt, in his audacious plans against Poland and the East. His scheme, it is true, proved abortive; for the mass of the Israelites were by no means inclined to merge their hopes in the destinies of the Empire-exchange Zion for Montmartre, and Jerusalem for Paris. The few liberal unbelievers whom he attracted to his views ruined his projects with the people by their impious flattery; and averted the whole body of the nation by blending, on the 15th of August, the cipher of Napoleon and Josephine with the unutterable name of Jehovah, and elevating the imperial eagle above the representation of the Ark of the Covenant. A misconception, in fact, of the character of the people has vitiated all the attempts of various sovereigns to better their condition; they have sought to amalgamate them with the body of their subjects, not knowing, or not regarding the temper of the Hebrews, and the plain language of Scripture, that the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.'

"That which Napoleon designed in his violence and ambition, thinking 'to destroy nations not a few, we may wisely and legitimately undertake for the maintenance of our Empire. The affairs of the East are lowering on Great Britain-but it is singular and providential that we should, at this moment, have executed a measure, which will almost assure us the co-operation of the Eastern Jews, and kindle, in our behalf, the sympa thies of nearly two millions in the heart of the Russian dominions*. to agricultural habits have proved abortive. Some of those who are in circumstances of affluence possess houses and other immoveable property; but the great mass of the people seem destined to sit loose from every local tie, and are waiting, with anxious expectation for the arrival of the period when, in pursuance of the Divine promise, they shall be restored to, what they still consider, their own land. Their attachment indeed to Palestine is unconquerable.'-Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, 1826.

Look to their present state of suffering in Poland and Russia, where they are driven from place to place, and not permitted to live in the same street where the so-called Christians reside! It not unfrequently happens, that when one or more wealthy Jews have built commodious houses in any part of a town, not hitherto prohibited, this affords a reason for proscribing them; it is immediately enacted

These hopes rest on no airy foundation; but pleasing as they are, we cannot disguise our far greater satisfaction that, in the step just taken, in the appointment just made, England has attained the praise of being the first of the Gentile nations that has ceased' to tread down Jerusalem !' This is, indeed, no more than justice, since she was the first to set the evil and cruel example of banishing the whole people in a body from her inhospitable bosom. France next, and then Spain, aped our unchristian and foolish precedent. Spain may have exceeded us in barbarity; but we invented the oppression, and preceded her in the infliction of it.

"It is matter for very serious reflection that the Christians themselves have cast innumerable stumbling-blocks in the way of Hebrew conversion. To pass over the weak and ignorant methods that men have adopted to persuade the Jews-let us ask whether the Christians have ever afforded to this people an opportunity of testing the divine counsel, by their fruits ye shall know them? What is the record of the Christian periods of the second dispersion ?-A history of insolence, plunder, and blood that fills even now the heart of every thinking man with indignation and shame! Was this the religion of the true Messiah? Could this be in their eyes the fulfilment of those glorious prophecies that promised security and joy in his happy days; when his officers should be peace and his exactors righteousness; What, too, have they witnessed in the worship and doctrine of Christian states? The idolatry of the Greek and Latin Churches, under which the Hebrews have almost universally lived, the mummeries of their ritual, and the hypocrisy of their precepts, have shocked and averted the Jewish mind. We oftentimes express our surprise at the stubborn resistance they oppose to the reception of Christianity; but Christianity in their view is synonymous with image-worship, and its doctrines with persecution; they believe that, in embracing the dominant faith, they must violate the two first commandments of the Decalogue, and abandon that witness, which they have nobly maintained for 1800 years, to the unity of the God of Israel."

"It well imports us to have a care that we no longer persecute or mislead this once-loved nation; they are a people chastened, but not utterly cast off; in all their affliction He was afflicted.' For the oppression of this people there is no warranty in Scripture; nay, the reverse; their oppressors are menaced with stern judgments; 'I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Sion with a great jealousy, and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.' This is the language of the prophet Zechariah; and we may trace, in the pages of history, the vestiges of this never-slumbering Providence. No sooner had England given shelter to the Jews, under Cromwell and Charles, than she started forward in a commercial career of unrivalled and uninterrupted prosperity; Holland, embracing the principles of the Reformation, threw off the yoke of Philip, opened her cities to the Hebrew people, and obtained an importance far beyond her natural advantages; while Spain, in her furious and bloody expulsion of the race, sealed her own condemnation. How deep a wound,' says Mr. Milman, was inflicted on the national prosperity by this act of the "most Christian Sovereign," cannot easily be calculated, but it may be reckoned among the most effective causes of the decline of Spanish greatness.'

that no Jew must live in that part of the city, and they are forthwith driven from their houses, without any compensation for their loss being given them'

they are oppressed on every side, yet dare not complain; robbed and defrauded, yet obtain no redress'......in the walk of social life, insult, and contempt, meet them at every turning.'-Herschel's Sketch, p. 7.

"We cordially rejoice that we possess the favourable testimony of the Children of Israel to the justice, respect and kindness they enjoy in this land; but our efforts should the more be directed to promote their temporal and eternal welfare. They forget,' says the good Archbishop Leighton, a main point of the Church's glory, who pray not daily for the conversion of the Jews.' We must learn to behold this nation with the eyes of reverence and affection; we must honour in them the remnant of a people which produced poets like Isaiah and Joel; kings like David and Josiah ; and ministers like Joseph, Daniel, and Nehemiah; but above all, as that chosen race of men, of whom the Saviour of the world came according to the flesh. Though a people deep in their sentiments of hatred, they are accessible, even when beguiled by neological delusions, to those who address them on their national glory; and many persons living can attest the gratitude of the Hebrews, as of oldt, to those who seek the welfare of their nation. They are not less concerned than ourselves to observe the present religious aspect of Europe, and the awful advances of Popery. Doubtless the great and good prince, alike Christian and Protestant, who now sits on the throne of Prussia, will find that his affection and shelter to the Israelitish people will procure him, in the hour of conflict, no insignificant or insincere allies, knowing as they do, that Protestantism, which delivered its followers from error, has delivered also the Hebrews from insolence and oppression. Nor are our interests in less fearful jeopardy; both as a Church and as a nation, we have much to hope for in the welfare of the people of Israel; and-since prosperity is to be the portion of those who pray for the peace of the Holy CityYe that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

II.-General Observations and Illustrations of the Malagasy Language. By the Rev. J. J. Freemant.

[From Ellis's "History of Madagascar."]

The language of Madagascar belongs unquestionably to the family, or class of languages frequently denominated Malayan, but to which the term Polynesian appears far more appropriate, and has accordingly been applied to it by Mr. Marsden, in the Introduction to his Malayan Grammar, 1812. The Missionaries in the South Sea Islands have long been accustomed to designate all those dialects found in the Polynesian countries, by the generic appellation "Polynesian."

The fact of some close and important mutual relation subsisting between the dialects spoken through a vast extent of intertropical country in the Eastern seas, had been remarked by Cook and other voyagers; and from the commercial and political ascendancy formerly held by the Malays in those parts, the name "Malayan" was accorded

We have now before us the Jewish Almanac for the present year, in which the era of the expulsion from this kingdom is very significantly marked.

For he loveth our nation, and hath built us a Synagogue.' Luke vii. 2—5. We have much pleasure in giving insertion to the following very intelligent paper on the Malagasy language. The comparative tables will tend to complete the plan (which was commenced some time back in the Observer) of forming compara. tive tables of all the languages and dialects in the East.-ED.