In the year 1818, the committee of the Bible Society, in consequence of a variety of interesting circumstances which had occurred, and especially on account of the importance of affording to the Jews copies of the Old Testament, the New having been translated into Hebrew for their use, passed a resolution that "it is desirable to circulate the Hebrew Scriptures." A few months after this resolution, a communication was received from the Canstein Institution at Halle, offering four thousand copies of a Leipzig edition, and saying that it was a copy of the much admired one of Reinecius, published in 1725." A thousand copies were taken during 1818 and 1819, and no other copy of this edition was ever purchased.

Respecting the "much admired" edition of 1725, of which this was stated to be a copy, I find my valued friend, the Rev. Hartwell Horne, remarking in his excellent "Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures," that it is "neat and accurate;" he adds, also, upon the authority of the " Journal de la Literature," that the unsold stock of the Leipzig edition of Reinecius of 1793 was sold to the Orphan House at Halle, and was issued under the inspection of Dr. Knapp, a new title-page being given to the work with the date of 1818, for the sake of inserting that it was to be bought at Halle instead of Leipzig; it being stated on the title-page that it was a portion of the Leipzig copies of 1793, "ne fraus facta emptoribus videretur." He further remarks of this edition, that "it was undertaken by the celebrated Dr. Doederlein and Professor Meisner, in order to supply those lovers of Hebrew literature who may not be able to consult the expensive volumes of Kennicott and De Rossi; they have selected the principal various headings of those eminent collators, and have given a very correctly printed text." I find the same attestation to the character of this edition in the Bibliotheca Biblica of the late Mr. Orme, the Secretary of the London Missionary Society. I might easily add other names; but these may suffice.

What then, my lord, is the charge brought against the Bible Society? Why, that being Socinian at home and connected with Neologians on the continent, they did, in the years 1818 and 1819, purchase some Hebrew Bibles which are now said to contain some very exceptionable Latin headings; these headings being, moreover, insinuated to be modern, neologian, and slyly concocted by the infidel continental friends of the Bible Society. Now not one of these statements, except the mere purchase of certain Bibles, is true. I know nothing of the edition myself; but being stated, upon what was considered competent authority, to be a copy of a much-admired Hebrew Bible, and the Bible Society wanting Hebrew Bibles, and the committee, doubtless, having made such further inquiries at the time as appeared to them necessary, I see nothing to implicate them, even if some of the headings are now proved to have been exceptionable. They could but use their best udgment after due inquiry; and in the case of a pure Hebrew Bible from an old accredited edition, and strongly recommended by its reeditor, Dr Knapp, there seemed no ground whatever for suspicion. This fact, of the headings not being new, but a reprint, is a complete answer to the absurd charge of the Bible Society's conspiring with Neologians to corrupt the word of God; more especially as the very copies themselves were actually copies printed during the former century. As for the headings, whatever they may be, I ought to state once for all, that it was not till after much painful experience that the conductors of the Bible Society became fully aware of the necessity of scrupulously collating foreign copies of the Scriptures in such minute CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 364. 2 M

particulars as the customary headings of the chapters. If they learned that a pure Hebrew Bible was to be printed after an approved edition, they "suspected no evil;" and were willing-nay, eager to promote so laudable a design. It was the liability to mistakes in this respect that partly led to the appointment of Mr. Greenfield, whose duty it was thoroughly to scrutinize all Bibles before the Society either printed an edition or purchased copies; and having thus guarded against the recurrence of similar evils as soon as the liability to them became known, it is most ungracious and unjust to visit upon the committee of 1832, working with all the wisdom gained by the innocent mistakes of their predecessors, the fault of the purchase of certain Hebrew Bibles thirteen or fourteen years ago, and under circumstances in which there was not the slightest cause for suspicion; Bibles even to this moment strongly and highly spoken of in our best bibliographical works, without the slightest intimation of their containing any thing exceptionable; and strongly recommended by such a man as Dr. Knapp, a well-known anti-neologian, and who had the copies in his hands at the time, and edited the re-issue of them; nay, who, according to Mr. Horne's account, published in 1819" a second edition of this valuable Bible." If the Latin headings are exceptionable, it shews renewed cause for saying, "Lord, what is man?" but it shews no want of reasonable care and vigilance on the part of the former conductors of the Bible Society. The present conductors have gained much salutary experience.

The story of the Hanoverian Preface is the following:-The Hanoverian Bible-Society, not understanding fully the spirit of the London Bible-Society's rule, published in the year 1815, very shortly after its formation, an edition, with a preface, merely recommending, as I am informed, the reading of the Scriptures, and stating the formation of Bible Societies. It is clear that the conductors of the Hanoverian Society did not understand that a mere preface would be considered in England as a commentary; for, the very year before, they had sent an official letter to London, which is printed in the Earl-street Report for 1815; in which they say,

"Persuaded that notes and commentaries to the Holy Bible are contrary to the above pious intention; that they might rather produce a disadvantageous effect upon the public at large; that even our government would not agree to introduce them; we have undertaken our business with the greater zeal, since only the pure doctrine given by God Almighty to all Christians is to be promoted thereby; and confessors of all Christian churches are alike to use and participate in the pure intentions of our Society.'

Mr. Haldane's reply to all such assertions is, that these continental Biblists, being of course "neologians," lied in their throat almost as often as they spoke, in order to betray us poor deluded Englishmen: but I suppose no reasonable or candid man will doubt that they meant what they said; and that when they published their preface, while the ink was scarcely dry upon the above declarations, they did not believe they were contravening either the letter or the spirit of their rules.

The two or three specimens which have been printed in the Sackville-street papers appear on the face of them very exceptionable; but I very much doubt whether the word "virtutem" was intended to convey the idea which is meant to be attached to it in the Sackville-street papers. Its classical meaning is fortitude, constancy, not of necessity female modesty. The headings of the first chapters of Genesis are alluded to " Traditio de creatione," "Traditio de diluvio," &c.-as if the writer meant neologically that these things were mere traditions, not revelations. It may be so for I am not defending the headings-but it by no means follows from the use of the word "traditio," which means quite differently to a Latin ear to the corresponding English word; in proof of which I might adduce Calvin himself, that eminent Latin scholar, and certainly no Neologian, using this very word and its derivatives in precisely the same manner. See, for example, Institutes, lib. I. cap viii. seet. 3.

Among them were public functionaries, and men of high character, both civil and ecclesiastical; and it was not likely that they would commit themselves thus for no purpose whatever.

About three or four years ago, Dr. Pinkerton, being in Hanover, explicitly agreed with Mr. Hahn, the court printer, that, in case the Bible Society should order any copies of him, they must be pure copies, without preface or other extraneous matter. Mr. Hahn twice violated this agreement: whether wilfully, hoping to get off some copies he wished to dispose of, or, as he alleges, by mistake, he being from home at the time, and his agents confusing the copies in his extensive warehouses, the result was, that prefaced copies went abroad, and the committee in London, in consequence, faithful to their trust, ceased to give him further orders. As it could not be his wish to offend good customers, and there was the utmost probability of the detection, and of losing future orders, I would hope it was only inadvertence; but the committee acted but justly in not again trusting to his correctness in the dispatch of business. All societies, all men of commerce, all individuals, must trust to agents in the minute details of sending goods out of a warehouse in the state in which they are ordered; and no person can possibly believe that the Earl-street Society intended even a single copy of a prefaced edition to go out under their auspices. But a German who wants a Bible cannot come to London for it; nor can the London Bible-Society keep an English agent in every village on the continent: there must therefore be the common arrangements of business in delivering articles to order. Even the possible mistakes arising from this contingency the Society has now endeavoured to guard against, by stationing Dr. Pinkerton in the heart of the continent, to make security doubly secure.-I should just add, that no pecuniary grant has been made to the Hanoverian Bible-society for several years. I am afraid that I shall offend some of my Sackville-street friends again by stating, that of the character of the Hanoverian Preface I know nothing. Mr. Haldane, of course, avers as usual that it is "Neologian ;" and his copyists, that it is Socinian, or Infidel; but, whatever it may be, it neither mends nor mars the matter, so far as the Bible Society is concerned. The Society has nothing to do with prefaces of any kind. A Christian gentleman, however, who has read it, gives me the following sketch of its contents, and tells me there is not a word of Neology or Socinianism in it; but, to use his own phrase, "abundance of milk-and-water." I will quote the words of my informant; but they form no part of my case, which is simply, that an agent, reasonably confided in for a specific object, with explicit directions, failed in his discharge of the duty, and was dismissed for it. What would Mr. Haldane have more? A bookseller informs me, that, with the utmost care, never does a month pass without hundreds, and probably thousands, of mistakes in the simple matter of the delivery of magazines; and yet a gigantic institution like the Bible Society is to be torn to pieces, because the servants of a foreign agent happen to take a wrong lot of quires out of an extensive warehouse. I do not justify it the man is dismissed for it but is it honest, or Christian, to seize such a handle to ruin the Bible Society?

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Now for my informant's abstract. I give it as it was given me, without any view to publication.—

"The preface in the Hanover Bible chiefly contains arguments in behalf of circulating the Bible, as being the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. It states this to be the object of the Bible Society for the kingdom of Hanover, and more particularly in reference to the poorer classes, many individuals among whom, owing to the difficulties of the times, are unable to purchase the Sacred Scriptures. It then makes mention of the establishment of the British-and-Foreign Bible-Society

in London in 1804, which had done so much towards the dissemination of the Sacred Scriptures, and had assisted the Hanoverian Society with a grant. The wish is expressed, that in Hanover that may be accomplished which the Duke of Kent stated to have been the earnest desire of his father, that every poor child in his states might possess a Bible, or be enabled to read it. This quotation is confirmed by reference to Dr. Pinkerton's speech at the establishment of the Hanover Bible-Society, and by reference to Dr. Steinkopff's Remarks respecting the British-and-Foreign BibleSociety, on occasion of the formation of a Bible Society at Osnaburg. The preface goes on to say, that a popular introduction to the salutary reading of the Bible, for those whose benefit is chiefly aimed at in printing the Hanover edition of the Bible, has been printed separately, and will be distributed by another society, whose object it is to distribute religious tracts."

The Strasburg Preface is the last of these untoward details; and after the open and candid publication of the whole of the proceedings concerning it, by the committee in 1826, it is almost surpassing belief that any man should again advert to it in the way of reproach to the Bible Society. Those official minutes occupy nearly sixty closely printed pages, and to abridge them without doing injustice to them is impossible. They ought to be read throughout; and if any declaimer against the Bible Society thought that they could or would meet with that measure of justice, his tone of declamation must be considerably lowered. But "Witness Haffner's infidel preface," costs but four words; while, as I said of the Lausanne case, as many pages would not suffice to undo the mischief. Every honest mind was satisfied at the time, and there is not the slightest occasion to re-argue the matter. The official documents on the case are still accessible; and I will merely notice a few passages in them.

First, I find, Feb. 20, 1815, the committee receiving a communication from Dr. Blessig, expressing, with other friends, a desire to form a Bible Society for Alsace; upon which the committee promises a grant of 3001, "provided such Society be instituted upon the principles of the British and Foreign Bible Society;" and as if to prevent any possibility of mistake as to what those principles are, two sets of the Society's Reports were ordered to be sent to Dr. Blessig. In the letter above read at the committee, Dr. Blessig says, that there was the greatest destitution of the Scriptures;" adding, "My heart often bleeds at receiving (in vain) so many applications for Bibles, from clergymen, school-masters, and masters of families." This neologian-and-infidel founder of the Strasburg Society, and correspondent of the London Society, besides the "humbug"-of his heart bleeding for the want of Bibles--writes in the same strain to Dr. Steinkopff, that "a few Christian friends to whom the Bible and its sovereign truths are precious," had commenced the plan of a Bible Society, as long ago as 1804; intending, no doubt, by anticipation, to "humbug" the Bible Society ten or twenty years after. Again, well knowing of course that some years after the date of his letter there would be a celebrated "Strasburg Preface," he cunningly allays all suspicion in the outset by writing to Dr. Steinkopff:

"You ask me :-). Whether our Bible Society purchase copies of the Scriptures without note or comment (in the German language, Luther's Version), and dispose of them by way of cheap sale, or gratuitous distribution, among poor individuals and families? Nor do I wonder at your feeling rather uneasy, as we had announced several years ago a Bible with comments. Now I am fully persuaded, that a selection of the best and most useful explanatory remarks on the Holy Scriptures is a real desideratum of our times. This is the more necessary, as many of our present commentaries are written in so profane a tone, and with such striking contradictions to each other. But, on the other hand, where is the man fully capable of executing the delicate task of an impartial survey, examination, and selection, without being biassed, in any degree, by the spirit of our age? Certainly, attempts may be made by such individuals as are conscious of a persevering study of the Holy Scriptures, as well as of a sincere zeal for his glory, in their private

capacity; but I fully concede that the British and Foreign Bible Society has acted, as a public institution, a most wise and proper part, in adopting the fundamental rule, to confine its own labours, and its assistance to other Societies, to the dissemination of the sacred text, of the word of truth alone, leaving its interpretation to each respective party or individual. Had even our former plan of publishing an edition with notes and comments, not been rendered impracticable by the events of our day, the conviction which we have just expressed, would have led us to the circulation of the Scriptures without any addition whatever. For your own satisfaction, and that of your venerable Society, I can now give you the distinct and positive assurance, that, among the many hundred copies of the Bible, which, in entire conformity with the design of your institution, we have either sold or given away, all contained the simple text according to Luther's version, chiefly of the Halle, Bâsle, and Tuebingen editions. If the benevolent parent institution in London will refresh ours with its kind aid, the application of all sums thus received, will continue to be made in strict compliance with their fundamental rule."

Now the Bible-Society committee, good easy men, never suspected that all this was "humbug;" and that the complaints about the "profane" commentaries were only feigned; and that the desire to have the simple text, since no comment was likely to come out unbiassed by the neologian spirit of the age, was only hypocritical. The good London people, for want of having Mr. Haldane among them, took it all for truth, and accordingly passed a resolution, that, having read extracts from two letters from Dr. Blessig " announcing the formation of a Society for the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment, under the most respectable patronage, both among the clergy and laity, at the same time representing the country as in a most exhausted state from the long period in which it was the seat of war," the provisional grant of 3001. be extended to 500l. Next follows a letter from Dr. Haffner, the professor of divinity, in which he announces the death of Dr. Blessig; and it is curious enough that in the course of his letter he uses precisely the expression on which Mr. Platt grounds the merit of the Trinitarian Society above the Bible Society, for he says that he and his colleagues had "undertaken this pious work solely for the glory of God," so that there was nothing to have prevented Professor Haffner being president of the Sackville-street Bible-Society. Almost immediately after we have a letter from another responsible officer of the Strasburg Society, Professor Aufschlager, pledging himself that the London grant should be used in strict conformity with the rules of the British-and-Foreign Bible-Society; and the first annual Strasburg Report states explicitly that it was a law of that institution that there should be 66 no note or comment whatever."

I have quoted these passages, my lord, to shew that there was no want of stipulation on either side, as to the matter of notes and comments. This essential point it was considered was mutually understood; but so it was, that when the Bible came out it was found to be accompanied by a preface. The preface was eventually withdrawn; but in the mean time, and ever since, it has been made a subject of much angry discussion. Three particulars arise in regard to it first, the conduct of the London committee; secondly, the conduct of the Strasburg committee; and thirdly, the character of the preface itself. Of these three the first only is necessary to my argument; but I will add a few words respecting the other two.

With regard to the conduct of the London committee from first to last, it entitles them, in my esteem, to the highest honour. The moment they were informed of the violation of their rule, a violation on their part quite unexpected, they lost not a single moment in vindicating their laws,and through a long and difficult negociation triumphed over every difficulty with much wisdom, patience, and perseverance. At all this Mr. Haldane is extremely displeased: he is indignant that