thus dragged through the mire for many a long and weary page; but I throw off the slough; I disentangle myself of these unworthy manacles. No, my lord, we are not prisoners at the bar; the Bible Society is not fairly put upon a grave and elaborate defence against charges such as the above, and conveyed in such a spirit. To explain where there is reasonable ground for misunderstanding, is both a duty and a pleasure; and there is no degradation, but much propriety and Christian meekness, in the office: the honest doubts and difficulties of those who seek not party, but truth, ought to be carefully and patiently solved; but to be constantly replying to inflammatory charges, and made to plead as criminals before the bar of public opinion, because some bookseller, hundreds or thousands of miles off, happens to send a wrong box out of his warehouse, notwithstanding the most explicit understanding and agreement, and for which wilfulness or negligence he is discharged; or because some common informer chances luckily to discover a mare's-nest, with a few addled Apocryphas in it, when the rest had been carefully extracted and crushed; and no man, say what he will, really believes that the Bible Society intended to hatch Apocryphas, or has not taken the utmost possible precautions against it, the best proof of which is just such a solitary mistake as the above; -to keep up such a running fire of snipe-shot to frighten the timid, where there is not a particle of real hazard; is neither truth loving nor reasonable. Our lively French neighbours know full well the force of the adage, that, in such matters, excuse is a species of self-accusation. But the Sackville-street declaimers count upon those minds which can catch a fact, but not embrace a principle; and persons of this order of intellect, after reading over a variety of exculpatory details, such as the preceding, are ready to say; "This may all be very true; but still there seem to be a great many ugly stories." Such persons are not able to take in the vast mass of transactions; to look at the aggregate history of more than a quarter of a century, and to bring out the fair result. It is the same in matters of private character; half a dozen exaggerated party-newspaper stories are quite sufficient to blast for a time, in public opinion, the most exalted reputation; but the good man appeals to the uniform tenor of his life, as his evidence, and those who know it are satisfied. If he is to answer in print to every idle tale, and when it is answered and settled, and dead and buried, to be called again to reply to it, again and again, years after; and when, perhaps, the parties who best understood the transaction are dead and buried too, no character can be safe.

No, my lord; look at the Bible Society, not in these pettyisms of accusation, but in its real character, and the aggregate benefits which, through the mercy of God, it has been the instrument of conferring upon the human race. Vast as it is, it has been hitherto comparatively but a Hercules in the cradle, strangling the snakes of prejudice which have hissed around it from its formation to the present moment; yet even its infant labours have extended far beyond the giant cliffs of Abila and Calpe, and it is every day going forth, in the strength of God and with the word of God, to plant the tree of life for the healing of the nations. We have some half-dozen stories of mistakes and misadventures; but our politic friends keep out of sight the vast mass of undeniable benefit. I will copy only a few paragraphs from one of its documents: let these be our answer to those who are more expert at finding faults than mending them.—

"The centre of this institution is in London; and its auxiliary societies, branch societies, and associations, extend throughout the British dominions in every quarter

of the globe. One hundred and sixty-four affiliated institutions have been formed during the past year. Numerous correspondences have been opened with the clergy and laity of different nations; and powerful coadjutors are actively employed in circulating copies of the Sacred Scriptures among men of every nation under heaven.' During the twenty-seven years that the Society has existed, it has circulated more than seven millions of copies of the Scriptures, and expended ONE MILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-NINE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THREE POUNDS.

Among its foreign relations, the British and Foreign Bible Society enumerates many auxiliaries and branches. In Europe it has established itself at Malta, as a central point of great and increasing importance. In Asia its cause is aided and represented by the Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Columbo, Singapore, and New South Wales auxiliary societies, and their various branches. In Africa similar institutions are established at Sierra Leone, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius: also, in the British Colonies of North America, in Nova Scotia, at Halifax, Liverpool in Queen's County, at Pictou, Yarmouth, and Argyle; in New Brunswick, at St. John's, St. Andrew's in Charlotte County, Fredericton, and Miramichi; and in the Canadas,―at Quebec, Montreal, York, Ernest Town, Amherstburgh, Midland District, and Kingston; and likewise in the West Indies, at Jamaica, Antigua, Barbadoes, Montserrat; at Berbice, Honduras, and in the Bermudas.

"In England the Society has published at its own expense, the Bible, or integral parts thereof, in thirty-two languages. One edition of the Irish Bible, in the vernacular character, has been completed, and another is in contemplation. It has also printed, or extensively aided in printing, the Holy Scriptures on the continent of Europe, in the French, Basque, Breton, Flemish, Spanish, Jewish-Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Romanese, German, Bohemian, Servian, Wendish, Hungarian, Polish, Lithuanian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Lapponese, Icelandic, Samogitian, Esthonian, Lettish, Slavonian, Wallachian, Albanian, Russian, Turkish, Turco-Greek, TartarTurkish, Modern Greek, Albanian, Calmuc, Buriat Mongolian, Modern Armenian, Carshun, Syriac, Georgian, Turco-Armenian, and Armenian, languages. In Asia it has promoted, by liberal and repeated contributions, the translation and publication of the Holy Scriptures in Persian, Arabic, Singalese, Pali, Hindoostanee, Bengalee, Sanscrit, Teloogoo, Tamul, Malay, Mahratta, Malayalim, Orissa, Seik, Burman, Carnatica, and several other dialects; together with two versions of the whole Scriptures in the Chinese, a language understood by perhaps one-fifth of the population of the globe, many of whom are resident within the British dominions in the East. At Madagascar a translation of the Scriptures into the Malagasse has been completed, and the New Testament printed. In the Society and Georgian Islands, the missionaries have been aided in printing the Scriptures in the Tahitian language by repeated supplies of paper from this institution; and the most cheering prospects are opening for the general distribution of the Scriptures throughout the surrounding islands. In Africa, although the operations of the Society have been chiefly confined to distributing copies of the Scriptures, furnished from its domestic depository, it has also had the satisfaction of supplying the ancient church of Abyssinia with an edition of the Ethiopic Psalter and the Gospels; and the providential acquisition of the version of the entire Scriptures in the Amharic, the vulgar dialect of a large portion of Abyssinia, of which the New Testament, edited by the Honorary Librarian of this Society, is already printed, will, doubtless, prove the source of invaluable blessings to this interesting Christian community. For the use of the inhabitants of Egypt, the Psalter and the four Gospels have also been printed in Coptic and Arabic. A portion of the inhabitants of Western Africa have been furnished with a part of the Scriptures in the Bullom dialect: and the acquisition of a translation of the Gospels and the Book of Genesis in the Berber language, will afford the Aborigines of Northern Africa, by whom it is extensively spoken, the means of becoming acquainted with the things concerning their peace. The Society has also taken measures for printing the Gospels in the Namacqua dialect, for the use of certain tribes inhabiting South Africa. In South America an extensive field was opened for the circulation of the Scriptures, and an Agent of the Society was sent out to carry forward the work; but, owing to political changes, and other causes, his exertions have been impeded, and finally closed by death; though numerous supplies of the Scriptures have been disposed of through his instrumentality. The same political causes have operated to check the extensive circulation of the Scriptures, which was anticipated in Mexico, when the Society sent out another of its agents. At Labrador, the New Testament and Psalms, translated into the Esquimaux language by the Moravian Missionaries, have been received with gratitude, and are producing blessed fruits. In the language of Greenland, the New Testament has been printed at the charge of this Society, and the copies dispatched to that country have been received by the baptized Greenlanders with delight.

The principal translations of the Scriptures now carrying on under the auspices,

and with the aid of this Society, are-in Europe, the Breton and Catalonian; in Asia, the Persian, the Curdish, the Ararat-Armenian, and various dialects of the peninsula of Hindostan; in the South-Sea Islands, the Tahitian and Raratogna; in America, the Chippeway, the Peruvian, the Mexican, the Misteca, the Tarasco, and Esquimaux; and in Africa, the Namacqua.

"The foregoing account of the operations of the Society, at home and abroad, would be incomplete without a distinct notice of those independent, but kindred institutions, which it has been the means of producing on the continent of Europe, and in the United States of America. These are conducted under the highest patronage, and are supported by individuals of different Christian denominations, many of them eminent for piety, learning, and station, in the capitals of Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Hanover, Saxony, Würtemburg, the United Netherlands, France, the principal Cantons of Switzerland, and in the Ionian Islands.

"A Protestant Bible Society in France occupies an important station among similar institutions on the continent: and the ladies of France have embarked in the work of forming Bible Associations.

"According to the latest accounts, the Russian Bible Society, previous to its suspension by an Imperial Ukase in 1826, had, with its 289 Auxiliaries, Branches, and Associations, undertaken the printing of the Scriptures in twenty-seven different languages (it has also purchased copies in fourteen other languages), of which 861,105 copies of entire Bibles and Testaments, or of separate books thereof, had left the press. An edition of 10,000 copies of the Pentateuch, in modern Russ: 145,600 copies of the Psalms, and above 100,000 copies of the entire Testament, in the same dialect (including those with the Slavonic) had been printed: thus have the inhabitants of the vast empire of Russia received, for the first time, a translation of the Scriptures in their native dialect, a work, the benefit of which it is impossible to calculate.

"In the United States, a national society has been established at New York, under the title of the American Bible Society, with which no fewer than 660 Auxiliaries are now connected! At Philadelphia, a similar Institution, with various Branches, successfully prosecutes the same great object."

I will not, my lord, weaken the force of these statements by a word of my own. I will only add the concluding paragraph of the document from which I have extracted them. I pity the man-I am not angry with him—who, after reading these interesting facts, can turn round on his couch and dream- of Haffner's Preface. My dreams, I hope, this night, will be of a brighter hue: and, should I dream, it will rather, I trust, be of that seraphic vision, "I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

"After presenting this sketch of the institution, any thing like a formal appeal on its behalf to the liberality of the public would be superfluous. When it is considered that the society is engaged in promoting the translation, printing, or distribution of the Scriptures, or portions of them, in more than one hundred and fifty different languages and dialects; that it stands pledged to aid numerous Bible Societies already formed, and still forming, in different parts of the world; and that, after issuing more than seven millions of copies of the Scriptures, and expending upwards of one million seven hundred thousand pounds sterling, the demands upon its services appear rather to have increased than diminished ;-when these circumstances, together with the simplicity of its principle, the catholicism of its spirit, and the extent of its proceedings, are deliberately considered, no additional motive can be wanted to stimulate the inhabitants of the British empire to promote, by all means in their power, the interests of an institution which promises, if liberally and extensively supported, to become a blessing to the whole earth."

LETTER XII.

FROM alleged bad deeds I proceed to alleged bad doers; for among the reasons urged to shew the necessity for a change in the constitution of the Bible Society, there is none more strongly insisted upon than the charge that it has employed exceptionable agency, both at home and abroad, but especially the latter. I will endeavour to meet the allegation with all fairness; neither cloking what may have been wrong,

nor imputing guilt where I do not really discern it but I must again remark, that it has no fair bearing on the point which it is brought to prove; for, whatever may have been the character of the society's agents or connexions, it has not been the result of Socinian counsels, since no Socinian has ever been in the Earl-street committee.

In turning, my lord, to the society's foreign transactions, by which is meant, in this question, almost exclusively its European intercourse, I would ask, What was the condition of the continent when the Bible Society commenced its operations, and for many years after? and what, in a great measure, is it at this moment? Need I reply, that it was very widely overrun with irreligion and infidelity; that the Church of Rome retained its ancient corruptions, mixed up with much secret or avowed modern scepticism; and that both the great leading divisions of the Protestant Church-the Lutheran and the Reformed-now united under the name of the Evangelical, were generally sunk in religious indifference, and too often tainted, to use the lightest word, with Arianism, Socinianism, Neology, and often, I fear, with positive Infidelity. The French Revolution, and the writings of Voltaire and his colleagues, had produced their worst effect, and reaction had not yet commenced : the destructive seed had been sown all over Europe; it had sprung up, and had not begun to be eradicated. Wickedness had done—so, at least, I would trust-its worst; and in this lowest depth there seemed no lower depth to which churches still retaining the name of Christian could sink; and the only hope was, that, in the mercy of God, a revival might ensue.

For promoting such a revival, the most efficient instrument, under the overruling influences of the Holy Spirit, seemed to be the general circulation of the word of God, as connected with, and preparative to, every other effort. But who were to circulate it? How were editions to be printed, and access procured for them to the towns, and villages, and churches, and scattered dwellings of this densely peopled continent? The early conductors of the Bible Society felt the magnitude of the difficulty; but, persevering in their labours, in reliance upon the gracious providence of God, they endeavoured to induce the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, throughout the Protestant states, to supply their own local wants; offering them from this country, where necessary, such assistance as might appear requisite for that purpose. For the London society directly to have undertaken the work by sending out thousands of itinerant agents with satchels of books, would have been impracticable and preposterous; nor would the laws and customs of various countries have permitted it, or millions of money have sufficed to carry it into effect. Of as little practical benefit, on a large and national scale, would it have been to take only here and there a native individual, of excellent intentions, but with very limited opportunities, who might distribute a few Bibles in his own neighbourhood, while millions of the population around were perishing for lack of knowledge. As for printing Bibles in England, and sending them to every town and village on the continent, no person who considers the state of Europe—the late war, inter-national jealousies, the variety of language and local versions, the restrictive laws both ecclesiastical and commercial, and innumerable other details-could ever have dreamt of it: and even could it have been done-could the millions of money to do it have been raised by voluntary contributions-the books, after all this munificence and labour, would but have decayed in the warehouses.-But it is useless to reason on what was obviously impossible.

The Bible Society was therefore obliged either to take things as it

found them, and to make the best of them; or to give up the matter in despair. It preferred, and I believe honestly and in the sight of God, the former. If, in any town or city or university, it found one or two individuals disposed to address themselves to the importantwork of circulating the word of God in their respective vicinities, and to stir up their neighbours and colleagues to assist their efforts, and by united agency to cause the object to be effected, it thought that such openings for the circulation of the word of God ought not to be neglected. The individuals with whom it first communicated were conscientious men, and, in cases innumerable, men of true piety; and by their advice and local knowledge, measures were concerted for the formation of Bible societies in various places; the zealous promoters rejoicing to merge their own feeble efforts in the more powerful concurrent labours of the pastors, magistrates, and influential residents of the neighbourhood. It is obvious that this system brought in the contributions or personal agency of persons who had little or no spiritual understanding of the blessed Book which they assisted to convey to others;—nay, more; in some instances where churches, orthodox and Protestant in name, were overrun with unsound doctrine and carelessness of life, it might, and did, occur that public religious functionaries, of high station and powerful influence, were grossly erroneous in their creed; so that the men who undertook to teach others, needed themselves to be taught what were the first principles of the oracles of God. All this was deeply afflicting; and the best hope for correcting the evil was to send out the Scriptures of truth among the nations;. trusting to the promise of Him who gave them, that they should not return to him void, but accomplish the purpose for which He sent them.

But how, I repeat, were the Scriptures to be thus diffused? A society in England could not at any time-more especially in a time of war— plant merely auxiliary Bible-societies throughout the continent, so, at least, as to render them really efficient. What, then, appeared, to the early directors of the institution, right to be done? I will take, what is alleged to be the worst case, Strasburg itself, as an example. A pious and zealous correspondent, of well-known excellent character, whose heart, to use his own expression, bled for the want of the word of life in his neighbourhood, writes over to England; and the London Society inform him, that if he and his friends will print a large edition of Luther's Bible, a pure version without note or comment, they will assist them in so doing. Here then is the germ of the Strasburg Biblesociety; and from that institution the whole vicinity and neighbouring places are supplied with copies of the word of God. Would it have been better for the London society to have declined rendering this assistance, or recognizing as a Bible society an institution formed from among pastors, professors, and leading inhabitants of the place, because the English society were not, and could not be, conversant with the private character or religious principles of the conductors? I put it as a case involving points for serious consideration; only again observing, that the continental societies were not auxiliary to that in London: they were independent local institutions, and were assisted from England only for one precise, definite, object; which was considered not of necessity to involve various ulterior questions, which had been of the greatest importance in a matter less specific-as, for instance, in a missionary or tract society. In all this, my lord, I am only stating the facts of the case, not arguing upon them.

the

I will further mention two or three other facts connected with the question the one is, that the Protestant churches on the continent