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work presents one advantage to the translator, from the number of treatises already rendered into Latin by the learned of various countries. (See Wolfii Bibliothec. Heb., part i. pp. 840-847.) Our Universities have learned men enough competent to the task, and it would not be easy to find work on which their time and learning could be more profitably bestowed, or which would be more calculated to raise the credit of our Universities all over the world. No foreign University has yet given the world a translation of a Code of Jewish law; the field is still open to our It is, therefore, much to be desired, that those who have the leisure and the learning would speedily undertake a work, which would not be confined to the libraries of the professedly learned, but would be read by all studious persons, as the subject of Jewish law is not abstruse, but of every-day importance. An University translation would, of course, be preferable, from the additional authority which it would possess.

sons.

CHURCH IN INDIA.

By the Act of last session, authority was given for his Majesty to erect two new bishoprics at Madras and Bombay; the salaries for which were to be supplied from the sums appropriated, by a former charter, for the archdeaconries of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay; the archdeacons of those stations, on future appointments, receiving only a very reduced salary in addition to their chaplaincy. Mr. Grant proposed, by this arrangement, to increase the episcopal strength in India, and to raise each presidency into a distinct bishopric, without making any increased charge on the revenues of the India Company.

Although this arrangement was very far less liberal than the peculiar circumstances of India demand, yet it has been received with thankfulness, as the advantages to be gained by the erection of two new bishoprics will be great indeed, both for the clergy and for the due maintenance and effectual propagation of Christianity. But it is evident, that before this arrangement can be completed, all the three present archdeacons must be removed, their salaries being required for the salaries of the two new bishops. And it is said, Mr. Grant contemplated that the archdeacon of Calcutta, Mr. Corrie, would be retiring on the allowed pension; the archdeaconry of Bombay being vacant by the recent death of Dr. Hawtayne; in which case, the remaining archdeacon, Mr. Robinson, of Madras, was reported as likely to be named as one of the new bishops. It was found, however, that Bombay was filled by Bishop Wilson having collated Mr. Carr to the vacancy; and that Mr. Corrie did not wish immediately to return to England.

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The authority, therefore, given by the late Act for the erection of the new Indian bishoprics, it is feared, cannot be available at present; and the vast diocese of Calcutta must still remain under the control of one individual. Perhaps the India Company may not now be legally empowered, by the present Act, to make the grants of money necessary for the additional bishoprics, even if they were disposed so to do. And if the government should propose to confer on an archdeacon one of the bishoprics, it is not clear that they would have the power of remunerating him by continuing to him even his present salary, which the Act certainly contemplates being paid to him only as archdeacon. And even if these legal difficulties were overcome, how, in this state of things, is the second bishopric to be provided for?

The only certain means, it would appear, of fulfilling the intentions of the legislature, is by a new Act, empowering the Board of Control to order the necessary salaries of the two new bishops to be paid from the revenues of the Company, in addition to the payment to the present archdeacons of their full salaries, until such vacancies shall occur in the archdeaconries as will enable the Board to complete the arrangements and provisions of the Charter.

G. B.

HISTORICAL NOTICES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND.

Second Class. — ANGLO-SAXON SPECIMENS.

NO. IV. ST. BENET'S AND STOW CHURCHES.

To the Editor of the British Magazine.

SIR, Since the publication of the remarks on, and illustrations of, the Towers of the two Bartons, we have been favoured with communications from three correspondents on the subject of Christian Architecture, expressing their approbation of the previous essays, and urging a continuance. That inquiries of this kind are adapted to the clergy, and calculated to afford them rational amusement and useful information, will not be likely to be doubted or disputed; for they embrace facts and reflections intimately connected with clerical studies and duties, and also with the progress and epochs of the arts, customs, and civilization of

our ancestors.

Having shewn and described some specimens of Anglo-Roman and Anglo-Saxon Christian architecture, it may be necessary to advert to and bring forward further evidence respecting the latter. One of our clerical correspondents, evidently zealously attached to this study, and familiar with the subject, thus writes:

"I had so wholly despaired of seeing the subject of Saxon architecture

treated practically, and apart from theory, that I read your observations upon the churches of Earl's-Barton and Barton-upon-Humber with more than usual attention and satisfaction. I can vouch for the correctness of the sketches, and the perfectly correct idea they give of the buildings; and it is by such views only that the striking peculiarities of the Saxon style can be made intelligible, and its total distinctness from the subsequent Norman be clearly proved. As very few really Saxon churches are known to exist, those few it would be highly desirable to give sketches of, both as valuable specimens of the same style, and curious relics of their ecclesiastical structures.

"In a very extensive tour I once took, among some hundreds of churches, I was very anxious to discover some additional remains of Saxon buildings, to group with those already known. I thus hoped to see a variety of specimens in architectural details as well as the whole design, to mark the real Saxon style, and contra-distinguish it from that introduced by, and belonging to, the Normans. I found, however, but few, and one certainly where I should least have expected it-viz., in the town of Cambridge. The tower of St. Bene't or Benedict, is a rude, plain, square edifice, without buttresses, and its whole exterior walls covered with plaster, or rough cast. In the sides are small circular headed windows, and in the upper or belfry story, is a double window with one semicircular arch, covering two other smaller arches. These are divided by a sort of balustre column, with capital &c., partly resembling those in the Barton Towers. In the masonry there are upright, and long-and-short stones, also like the Barton work. On the west side, is a low, semicircular, arched doorway, formed of very rude masonry.

“But the most satisfactory evidence I met with of the actual existence of Saxon work was at STOW CHURCH, in the archdeaconry of Stow, Lincolnshire. It is a very large building in a very small village, and there is the most satisfactory historical evidence, that it was built, or rather began to be built, by Eadnoth, Bishop of Sidnacester, who died in the year, 1015. The tower was so far advanced in 1023, that Alfric Puttoc, Archbishop of York, gave two bells to it. Earl Leofric and his Lady Godiva subsequently contributed to the building, which was intended for a minster for secular priests, and was so occupied till the Conquest, when the community was changed for Benedictine monks. With all this data before me, I was exceedingly surprised to find the whole building apparently of the most decided Norman character, and of that solemn and imposing style of the Norman, which implied a date much after the Conquest. Between the erection of the church and its desertion by the monks, there was not time for Bishop Eadnoth's work to become ruinous,-yet where was the evidence of it? I was greatly at fault and much mortified at finding no dependence could be placed on the historical data, which had at first excited my curiosity, nor on the so positively defined styles of the architecture. In taking notes of details, however, the whole truth appeared. Bishop Eadnoth's tower, I believe, still remains; it has four semicircular arches; its piers are square masses, with a half-engaged shaft set against one face; the shafts have no capitals, and the architrave is merely of two rounds, with a drip-stone, or weather moulding. Against these rude massy piers, some churchwarden of the olden times has built up pieces of masonry, of the decorated character, and thus nearly obscured the original Saxon work. The upper story of the tower is of much later date, being of the pointed style. I have entered into these details because I think the evidence decisive of the erection of the tower of Stow Church to be very early in the eleventh century, and that it is, therefore, an undoubted specimen of Saxon ecclesiastical architecture."

Such are the particulars of our valuable correspondent, and it will gratify him, and other students of architectural antiquities, to learn that we are enabled to present them in a future number with two accurate and interesting etchings of the church above

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