them as admirably adapted to the great ends of practical and experimental godliness, and as suggesting the most important principles for the regulation of Christian churches, and the formation of Christian character. His discourses are well fitted to secure these results, under the blessing of the great Head of the Church. They are characterised by an affectionate spirit, and by searching and impressive addresses to the conscience and the heart. They are uniformly perspicuous in diction, and sound in argument; and while their tendency is eminently practical and spiritual, they are invariably connected with the maintenance and exhibition of the essential principles of the Christian system. Mr. W. has, indeed, proved and biographical illustrations, both from Scripture and other sources. Something is wanted to relieve the attention of the reader; and on each topic ample materials might have been easily provided. himself "a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth;" and we cordially and unequivocally commend his work to the attention of the British churches. NATURE AND GRACE; or, a Delineation of the various Dispositions of the Natural Man, contrasted with the opposite Character of the renewed Mind. By Mrs. Stevens. 12mo. pp. 474. Seeley. 6s.-This elegantly printed volume contains a series of Essays on va rious subjects, illustrative of the state of man, under the influence of depraved affections on the one hand, and holy principles on the other. They are eridently the productions of a pious and cultivated mind; and on some topics exhibit considerable force and originality. The general tendency of the work is spiritual and practical; and at the close of each section there is an appropriate citation of scriptural authorities. There is, however, a want of definiteness and precision in various parts of the volume; the arrangement of subject is not of the most logical order; and though the sentiments of the author are evangelical, there is a frequent confusion and obscurity in the statements of doctrinal sentiment, which are by no means favourable to a clear perception of scriptural truth. There is too much of that abstract and distant generalisation, which prevents a direct and powerful impression of the facts and principles of the gospel. In the practical application of these principles, there is, however, much more of minute and circumstantial delineation. The work, as intended for the young especially, would have been rendered far more attractive and beneficial, if the author had availed herself of historical THE THE ULTIMATE DESIGN OF A Discourse CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. delivered at Petersfield, April 15, 1827, before the Hampshire Association of Independent Ministers. By T. Binney. London: Hamilton. pp. 86. 2s.-This is one of the few single sermons on which we would be disposed, if we had room, to write a long critique rather than a short notice. When we say it is elaborate, eloquent, and profound, we have not pronounced the eulogium to which we feel it is entitled. Mr. Binney seizes on his subject with a giant's grasp; and while he displays the mental vigour which he possesses in no ordinary degree, he manifests an extent and minuteness of acquaintance with the been acquired by a deep and experiChristian system, which could only have his own wants, and feelings, and hopes, mental knowledge of its adaptation to Rarely have we met with so extensive and admirable a view of the design of the ministry of Christianity. Oh that thus impressed with its grandeur; then all who engage in that ministry were would its aims be more energetically, powerfully, and successfully pursued. Unaccustomed, as we are, to exaggerated praise, we recommend this discourse as a high, mental, and spiritual treat; with a repetition of which we shall be glad to be furnished again, as soon as Mr. Binney may find it convenient and suitable to supply it. LONDON IN THE OLDEN TIME; or Tales intended to illustrate the Manners and Superstitions of its Inhabitants, from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman and Co. 1827. 8vo. 10s. -History, through its long and shadowy vista, gives us, in dim perspective, the grand outline and prominent objects of the generations that are past; it exhibits mankind in the mass and human nature in the aggregate; the sympathies of our common nature lead us to wish for a nearer approximation and more minute survey. The historian pursues the high and public way, and narrates the march of armies, the conflict of battle, the duplicity of political nego tiations, and the cabals and the pomp of courts. It is to other sources we must look for the living manners, for those passions and pursuits which interest the individual and agitate society. The chronicler steps aside and exhibits the rusticity of the cottage, and the revelry of the village hostel; while the memoir and the diary unfold to us the domesticities of life, and lay open "men's business and bosoms." It is from these rivulets of history that we obtain a view of social life, under all the varied modifications which the advance of knowledge, the influence of religion, the municipal and political institutions of the period impress. From them we learn the appalling superstition and the potent charm; the phantoms of science which captivated the youthful student, and the intensity with which they were pursued; the oppression of the forest laws, and the bold daring of the outlaw; and the serf and the burgher, the wimpled dame and the boddiced damsel, arise before us in all their nativeness and simplicity. Although works, purely imaginative, but rarely receive notice in our literary columns, yet we cannot hesitate to admit them, when that brilliant power is invoked to explore scenes of by gone glory; to exhibit to us, in faithful and vivid colouring, the peculiar superstitions, the popular notions, the prevailing habits, and the general manners which characterised the conditions of society in the earlier stages of our history. Rich, beyond most cities as is London, in antiquarian remains, we view with somewhat of a pensive feeling their gradual decay, and with indignation the sweeping hand of modern improveprovement and commercial cupidity ruthlessly sweeping away almost every vestige. While the buttressed wall, the clustered column, and the lofty hall awaken an interest in the days that are past, the men who there reasoned or revelled, planned the chase, or ordained the tournament; recounted their warlike achievements for the cross in the Holy Land, or for the rose at home; frightened each other out of their wits with the midnight spectre, and then panoplied themselves with the holy spell, arise in shadowy indistinctness before us, and we wish to invest them in a more palpable form, to mark their dialect, catch their sentiments, partake their feelings, and, in the illusion of the moment, to be contemporaries with our remote progenitors. With a view to the realization of such scenes, and such a delineation of the tone and feeling of society between the twelfth and sixteenth century, the Tales before us appear to have been written. They discover a very intimate acquaintthinking, and the peculiar phraseology ance with the manners, the modes of of the period which they embrace. We must also add, they are creditable to the moral feeling, as well as to he inunderstand, is a lady. tellectual power of the writer, who, we THE GUILTY TONGUE, by the Author Seeley and Son. pp. 194. 18mo. 2s. 6d. of the Last Day of the Week. London: 1827.-Those persons who have read "The Week Completed," will easily "The Last Day of the Week," and recognise the same style of writing, and the same mode of conveying instruction in the work now before us. stand that these publications are the We underproductions of a lady, whose public religious exercises have excited considerable attention near one of the wateringbable, they are fictitious, they are very places in Yorkshire. Though, it is prodifferent from those of Mrs. Sherwood and her sister; and, in some respects, may afford to young people less amusewe think very superior. Perhaps they they do not leave a deeper, and a more ment; but we are much mistaken if salutary impression. The Guilty Tongue relates to a subject which, we fear, is seldom noticed from modern pulpits with any thing like the minuteness and particularity which its great importance demands. The story is simply this; two friends, deeply impressed with sin tongue, determined to concentrate, and and awful consequences of a guilty exert all their benevolent energies with ticular. With this determination, they a special bearing upon this vice in pargo forth in quest of opportunities, which unhappily present themselves with awful frequency. In several cases their efforts while, in others, scenes of the utmost result in the happiest consequences; horror present themselves as the ultimate effects of a guilty tongue. We are certainly not among the number of those persons who wish for a large increase of fictitious narratives, even where the design is evidently good. We apprehend tiated taste, and the occupation of time, that their general effect would be a viwhich ought to be otherwise employed; but there is so much of a pointedly moral and religious tendency in the termixture of the machinery and frameworks of this lady, with a moderate inher God speed. work of a novel, that we cannot but wish MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. JEWS IN RUSSIA. ་་་་་་་་་་་་ An Ukase, issued by Imperial mandate, for regulating the existing laws concerning the residence of Jews, for a specified time, in any of the towns of the Russian Empire. 1. Those Jews who have liberty to carry on trade, or practise handicrafts, exclusively in the provinces appointed for their settlement by the enactment of the year 1804, are not permitted to traffic in the interior governments of Russia; that is to say, they are not to offer any articles for sale, either in shops, or at their lodgings; still less are they to hawk about any wares or utensils, whether of their own, or the property of others. Neither may they open workshops, nor on any account hire or employ foremen, apprentices, or labourers, whether Christians or otherwise, in any department whatsoever. 2. They are at liberty to remain for commercial purposes, such a bill business, government contracts, and purveyancing, provided they have an express permission from Government to that effect. 3. As professed artisans they may settle, in order to perfect themselves in the craft pertaining to some guild, or for the instruction of the guild in any particular branch of the art in which they may possess peculiar skill. 4. Every Jew desirious of learning a craft, or of employing his peculiar talent in any art, must present himself before the Corporation, and give an account of himself, what kind of artisan he is, or what it is he wishes to learn. When the Corporation, and the guild officer, have examined the certificate of the magistrate of the place whence the individual comes, it must then be ascertained, who, in that particular department, might be invited to judge of his ability; also, whether the art is known in the town, and whether the knowledge of it would be of indispensable advantage to the community at large; and in every such case the opinion of the Corporation must be decisive. Such Jews shall be allowed to remain in the town a certain time, whilst the matter is brought to a decision, agreeably to the tenor of this law. 5. Jews, who thus obtain the privilege of commencing business, may not establish themselves any where, without having, besides their manifesto, a regular government passport. Namely, Lithuania, White Russia, Little Russia, Kief, Minsk, Volhinia, Podolsk, Astrachan, Caucasia, Ekatorinoslav, Cherson, and Tauridia. 6. Even the police master himself, may not suffer any Jew, under the above circumstances, to remain in the town more than six weeks; his further continuance in it depending on the Corporation, which must have weighty reasons for allowing it. And no licence may be given beyond six months, without the decision of still bigher authority. 7. Jews, who have no government passport, or who, having such passport, have yet no licence to enter any town in the interior, shall be sent back by the police, to the places of their abode, after the expiration of the time specified in the 28th section. 8. If after an order to that effect, they either refuse to go, or return again, they shall be regarded as vagrants, and by virtue of the Ukases of 15th Nov. 1797, 25th Feb. 1823, and 8th June, 1826, they, together with those who allow them to remain, or who harbour them in their houses, shall be amenable to the law, as vagrants, or abettors of va grants. 9. Jews, condemned to banishment, must not be detained either for debtor or creditor accounts; but their affairs must be settled according to the usual forms of law. 10. The execution of an order of banishment is to be delayed by the police officer only. a) When the Jew is in one of the town hospitals, or b) When he shows a proper certificate from a medical man, stating, that be could not be sent away without injury to his health. 11. Rabbins, or other religious functionaries, are to be sent away by the police officer immediately on the discovery that they are such. 12. The Jews are not allowed to change their passports; and the expiration of their allotted time shall furnish an imperative ground for dismissing them. 13. Foreign Jews, who enjoy the privilege of other foreigners in those Governments only that are appointed for the residence of Jews, are required to be subject, in every other respect, to the laws and regulations imposed on native Jews: that is to say, if they have proper passports, they may be suffered to enter any of the Russian Provinces for the like space of time, and for similar purposes; but, in all other cases, they must be sent over the frontiers. Attested by the Grand Master of Police of St. Petersburgh.. EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF At the Southampton Bible Meeting, October 24, Sir George Rose in the chair, Mr. Bulmer delivered a learned and eloquent speech, in reply to the strictures of the Quarterly Review, which he closed by giving the following conclusive reasons for continuing his support to that noble Institution, and which we think are so satisfactory as to justify our transcribing them from the Hampshire Advertiser into our columns. "I will now take the liberty of stating, ---and I think myself bound in duty to do so, when a charge of blindest partisanship is alleged, in a case esperially in which such a temper would be mischievous to the best interests of mankind,--the grounds on which I shall conscientiously continue to be a subscriber to the Bible Society, with regard to its efforts to promote translations, as well as its domestic objects. They are these: First-No translation is perfect. To give a representation of an author's sense, to catch his spirit and manner, and to express his meaning with purity in the language into which any translation of any book is made, form no easy task. There are nice shades of meaning which the words and idioms of our language express, that cannot be in all respects exactly transferred into another language. But because no translation will ever be absolutely perfect, it does not follow that translations below perfection may not be eminently useful. The Septuagint or Greek translation of the Old Testament is very far from a perfect translation. It is indeed probably a more imperfect translation than any modern one in print, and yet it is very frequently quoted by our Lord and his apostles, who neither set about correcting it, nor left any injunctions on the subject. The learned and excellent translators of our English version, were far enough from considering theirs as a perfect translation. This they confess by the numerous marginal readings, which their copies, when they are printed as they were first published, contain nor do they less confess it in their learned, ingenious, eloquent preface, which ought never to have been separated from their great and good work. Secondly--Imperfect translations were the means, under the blessing of God, of preducing the Reformation. Wickliffe made an imperfect translation. It contains some such idiomatical renderings as must have been unintelligible; yet such was the effect of Wickliffe's efforts, that even in his own time, a third part of the clergy began to entertain scriptural sentiments. Tindal made an imperfect translation, and his zeal brought him to the stake: yet the fruits of his labours were neither few nor 6 small. Coverdale made an imperfect translation, and boldly asserted the unquestionable fact, that there may come more understanding and knowledge of the Scripture by sundry translations of it, than by all the glosses of sophistical doctors,' inasmuch as verbal and idiomatical differences would lead men to think, to compare, and to judge. Coverdale's imperfect translation was set up by authority in parish churches; the people flocked together to be instructed from it; and hence the Reformation spread and grew. Nor was it indeed until these and other imperfect translations had done the great work, that the present authorised version was undertaken. The translators of this version have shown a laudable anxiety to do honour to the authors of these imperfect translations We are so far,' they say, from condemning any of their labours, that we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God for the building and furnishing of his church, and that they deserve to be had of us, and of posterity, in everlasting remembrance.' Here it may be added, that so far has the Church of England been from taking alarm at imperfect translations, that it has actually sanctioned for centuries, and is to this day sanctioning, a translation of the Psalms, varying not only from the translation in the Bible, but even from the Hebrew, from the Septuagint, from the Vulgate, in many instances; and yet kept industriously within view, to the actual exclusion of the Psalms in the Bible: so that while these are entirely discarded from public reading in the Church Service, this exceedingly imperfect translation in the Psalter is read twelve times a year. So far are the great leading principles of revealed religion from depending on mere syllables and phrases; so loftily do they rise above the poor support of moods and tenses, that it has pleased the Holy Spirit to employ the meanest form of the Greek language, and the least accurate syntax of that tongue, to convey to us the greatest part of the Greek Testament. Our translators felt this, when, alluding to the various din of objections that resounded in their days, from the tinkering of wordcatchers, they exclaimed, Is the kingdom of God become words or syllables?' Thirdly--The imperfections of translations are not likely to be such as to misrepresent the great leading truths of revealed religion. Here we refer again to the authority of our own translators, 47 men pre-eminently distinguished for their piety and their profound learning. We affirm and avow,' they say, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by Protestants, containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God; as the King's speech, which is uttered in Parliament, being translated into French, or Dutch, Italian, and Latin, is still the King's speech, though it be not interpreted by every translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense every where; no cause therefore why the word translated should be denied to be the word, or forbidden to be current, notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be noted in the setting forth of it. The Romanists, therefore, in refusing to hear, and daring to burn the word trans- lated, did not less than despite the Spirit of grace, from whom originally it proceeded, and whose sense and meaning, as well as man's weakness did enable, it did express.' And we may be bold to affirm, that there is not a translation extant, how imperfect soever in literary excellence, that does not clearly lay down the great ground-work of all religion: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself:' or that does not make it plain that Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light; or that does not proclaim by the Gospel, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good-will towards men; that does not show that it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; or that does not assert it to be the duty of those that believe in Christ, to maintain good works. Lastly: Life is short and art is long. We allow most readily, that the Committee of the Bible Society are bound, by the most solemn duty, to use every means to procure the most correct translation possible. But if we are to wait for these till Oxford and Cambridge shall have endowed professors of Welsh or Irish, much less of Mongolian, Peruvian, Arawack, Bundeikundee, and Munipoor Kunchee, and lectures on the languages of Otabeíte, Labrador, and Hottentot Land, and even on the celebrated and more inviting Sanskrit, we shall childishly abandon all our present opportunities of usefulness; knowing too, as all the world does, that even oriental studies have found so little encouragement in our seats of learning, that Cambridge has actually been obliged to fetch, or to train her professor of Arabic from a carpenter's bench. This is not said in the way of reproach, but with sincere regret. Though it has not been my lot to walk the studious cloister's pale,' I disclaim all sympathy with those who set themselves to disparage the institutions that produced Walton, and Pococke, and Hyde, and Castell, and Lightfoot, and Kennicott, and Lowth, and Horsley. Except at Paris, perhaps, and of this I am not quite certain, and anciently, it may be the Propaganda at Rome; not a University in the world, Protestant or Catholic, has to this day made an effort to cultivate the Chinese language, a language spoken by nearly one third of the human race. In the thousand years that our Usi versities have been established, has there ever been a public and authorized attempt to put the Scriptures into any language, of any nation, save our own? Is there any such efficient institution in the Church of Rome, in the Greek Church, in any of the foreign Lutheran Churches, or in the Church of Englaud? Is there any where any preparation for organizing a system of translation, except in the newly-founded College at Calcutta, which has been previously mentioned; an institution, too, which would, probably, never have been thought of, had not the Serampore translators previously set their hands to the work; for what then are we to wait? Since we should but wait in the temper of the idiot, who is to catch larks when the sky falls,' if we should delay till we could obtain perfect accuracy, in the hope of a generation of unborn literati, who are to possess, in some fair future day of the Greek Calends, the means and the will of doing that, which all the scholarship of the past has not yet effected, and which, where it has been done at all, has been done, in most cases, by invidual zeal and devotedness; such as led Bishop Bedell to give the Irish the Bible in their own tongue, and Bishop Wilson, the Manksmen. Were there any prospect of seeing a great Christian nation arising, as one man, to bless all other men with God's greatest gift; were there some grand and efficient universal scheme coming forth from the cabinets of Emperors and Kings, by which the most learned of every tongue should be congregated to some central point, to use all the means and applicances of a liberal scholarship, for enlightening mankind with divine truth; some holy alliance of all the best, the wisest, the most erudite of our race, to meet, and deliberate, and translate for all men, every where; most gladly would the friends of the Bible Society pour all their supplies of pecuniary support into the sacred exchequer of so godlike an Association, and speed their progress with the warmest cheers of affectionate gratulation. The bare idea of such a project may make glad the heart of sanguine anticipation. But is there a shadow of probability that any thing like it will take place in our day'; any thing national at least, if not universal ? If there is, let the Quarterly Reviewer exert himself, to rouse the wealthy, the learned, the powerful, to take up the affair without delay. We, in the mean time, will neither linger nor loiter; and, amidst cavil and misrepresentation, will support the parent Committee, in the most cautious endeavours to promote all possible accuracy, and in the most strenuous exertions to put it in the power of all men to hear, in their own tongues, the |