At length the Welsh Scriptures were ready for distribution in July, 1806. When the arrival of the cart conveying the sacred treasures was announced, the Welsh peasants went in crowds to meet it, welcoming it as the Israelites did the return of the ark of God. Copies were eagerly borne off as quickly as they could be dispersed, and read by many hungering for the bread of life.

text correct.

Extraordinary care had been taken to have the Wilson Birkbeck, Esq., a member of the Society of Friends, collated it minutely, and found only thirty-six passages differing from the edition in ordinary use. Mr. Owen, therefore, remarks, "These variations were extremely minute: and this shows at once the correctness of the Cambridge press, and the jealousy of a dissenting member of the Bible Society. Indeed, I am more than ever convinced, by the experience I have had in the Society's proceedings, that if it had been wished to provide an expedient for securing the integrity and correctness of the authorize dversion, such a wish could not have been better accomplished than by a committee constituted as that is which sits at the New London Tavern."

The case of the felons and prisoners in Newgate was first brought before the Committee by T. F. Foster, Esq., April 4, 1806, and 200 Testaments were voted for their use; and a Sub-committee appointed to supply the wants of all the gaols, hospitals, and workhouses in the kingdom, including the hulks, at Woolwich, on board of which were lodged 800 convicts. Vast benefit arose from this

*Owen's History of the Bible Society, vol. i., pp. 268, 269.

K

merciful provision, as may partly be understood from Captain Walker's report of the prisoners of war, in the prison-ships and Mill-prison, Plymouth. He says, "Of 5,178 French prisoners, about 2,820 can read, of whom 2,410 are desirous of having Testaments; and of 1,700 Spanish prisoners, about 1,200 can read, and about 800 of them are desirous of having Testaments." Having been furnished with the blessed word in November, the Captain reported, "It is impossible to give you an adequate description of the anxiety that was manifested by the poor Spaniards to get possession of the New Testament: many sought them with tears and earnest entreaties they read the word of God with apparent eagerness that would have put many professing Christians to the blush."

"India and the East" ceased not to interest the Bible Society. The Rev. C. (afterwards Dr.) Buchanan had publicly appealed, in 1805, to the Government and the clergy of England as to the claims of India, bearing the most honourable testimony to the learning of Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Carey, Sanscrit Professor in the College at Fort William.* Mr. Owen says, "Dr. Carey had introduced to the Society the scheme of Oriental translations, so nobly projected by the Baptist missionaries at Serampore. Dr. Buchanan's Memoir of the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India,' had furnished the additional, and very important, information, that' under the auspices of the College of

Memoir of the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India, 4to., p. 82.

Fort William, the Scriptures were in a course of translation into almost all the languages of Oriental India.' And both authorities agreed in stating, that assistance from Europe was indispensably necessary. On these grounds, it was determined to appropriate £1,000 to an object, in all respects so deserving of encouragement and aid; and a grant to that amount was made, to be placed at the disposal of the Corresponding Committee at Calcutta. The feeling thus kindled on behalf of the natives of India, was not a little cherished by a communication received from Dr. Buchanan in August, 1806. This consisted of 'Proposals for translating the Scriptures into the Oriental languages,' from the missionaries at Serampore. "The design received encouragement from every quarter; a sum of £1,600 was soon raised for translations, to which the late Rev. David Brown contributed £250. Shortly before the close of the third year a more encouraging communication was received from Calcutta ; and a second grant of £1,000 was voted by the Committee in London."+

These were the principal operations of the Society during its third year; and it deserves to be acknowledged with gratitude to God, that harmony and love prevailed among the Directors and Officers of the Society, the fruit of the blessing of the Spirit of Christ.

THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE SOCIETY, 1807-1808.

INDIA and Oriental translations of the Scriptures still occupied the minds of the Committee of the * Owen's History of the Bible Society, vol i., p. 275, 277.

+ Ibid p. 280.

Bible Society. As one of their last acts in that year (May 4, 1807), they made a second grant of £1,000 in aid of the great work contemplated; and, on the 15th of June, a grant of 500 English Bibles and 1,000 Testaments was made for the use of the army and navy, and other Europeans in India; with 250 German Bibles, and 500 Testaments for the German Missionaries.

Difficulties, however, now arose in India, through the new Governor-General. The case is thus stated in a letter, dated September 13, 1806, from the Rev. Mr. Brown:-"We have lost Lord Wellesley, the friend of religion and the patron of learning; and succeeding Governors have opposed all attempts to evangelize the Hindoos; have opposed the translation of the Holy Scriptures; have opposed the formation of a Society for carrying into effect here the objects of your Institution. Persons holding official situations were requested not to act, except in their private capacity. We have, therefore, been obliged to commit the work, for the present, to the Society of Missionaries at Serampore, and afford them such aid and protection as we can give, without offending Government."

Mr. Owen informed Bishop Porteus, therefore, of this sorrowful state of things, and that excellent prelate wrote, "I am extremely concerned to see the hostility of the Bengal Government, both to the translation and dispersion of the Holy Scriptures in the Oriental Languages, and to the exertions of the Bible Society in foreign countries. I hope Lord Teignmouth and Mr. Grant will endeavour to render

them, as soon as possible, favourable to the Oriental and the British Bible Societies; as I think the future conversion and salvation of the natives of that vast continent do, in a great degree, depend on the successful progress of those two Societies."*

The Committee resumed their consideration of "printing the Scriptures in the Calmuc, the Tartar, the Arabic, and the Icelandic languages. A translation of the New Testament was procured, and types were cast, agreeably to a plan constructed by the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke; and these, with paper and ink for an edition of 5,000 Tartar New Testaments, were conveyed through the seat of war unmolested.

A third object of the Committee was the printing and publishing of the Scriptures in the Arabic language. For this purpose, they engaged the services of the Rev. J. D. Carlyle, B.D., Professor of Arabic in Cambridge. But as that learned divine died, the business was for some time delayed.

The Icelandic New Testament was, at length, finished, and 1,500 copies were forwarded, in the spring of 1807, to different parts of Iceland. But the work was interrupted, especially the printing of the Old Testament, to which the Committee had voted £300, by the war between England and Denmark.

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The Gaelic Bible, also, was completed, and offered for 3s. 3d. per copy, and the Testament for 10d., in the summer of 1807. Many of the poor Highlanders of Glasgow," writes the Rev. J. Maclaurin, "upon hearing of the cheapness of the Scriptures in

History of the Bible Society, vol. i., pp. 293, 294.