that no case whatever, as far at least, as affects our Universities, has been established.

It appears from this pamphlet, that Mr. Curtis, (formerly, we believe, a partner in the house of Gale, Curtis, and Co. Booksellers, Paternoster Row, and now a Dissenting Minister and Schoolmaster at Islington) having discovered several variations in the different copies of the Bible used by his pupils, some of which were obviously accidental, and others intentional, was led to inquire into the cause, and finding that in some cases the printers adhered to the original editions of 1611; in others, that they adopted Dr. Blayney's alterations in 1769; and in others, the corrections introduced by Mr. Reeves, the King's printer, at the close of the last century, proceeded to lay the subject before the Bishop of London, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Mr. C's first applications produced great effect; the Bishop of London, and conductors of the Cambridge press were thunderstruck at the announcement of thousands thousands of gross blunders, and wanton alterations; the press was instantaneously stopped; the syndics assembled; plans of collation and correction were adopted; and Mr. C. leaves Cambridge with the hope, that, as Dr. Blayney received a thousand pounds for putting the Universities in the wrong, they might give me (to use Mr. C.'s own words) five hundred pounds to assist in putting them right. p. 22.

upon

With such agreeable anticipations, and in order to make assurance doubly sure, Mr. C. commenced a correspondence with Oxford, and at length visited that city. His reception there, however, was not so favourable as at Cambridge, and on his return to town all his bright visions were at once closed by a letter from Cam

bridge, announcing indeed the gratuity of a hundred pounds, for his past services; but intimating at the same time, that they were no longer necessary. Mr. C. next applies to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and finding his Grace somewhat unmanageable, at length calls in the aid of a few London dissenting ministers, and appeals to the public.*

So much for the narrative. Now for the facts. What are these numerous errors, &c. It appears,

1. That in the editions of Mr. Reeves the King's printer, the small capitals are usually omitted and the distinction made by King James's translators between the sacred name JEHOVAH, and the other divine names, as Elohim, &c. in the original, is thus lost sight of. As the word Jehovah occurs above 6500 times in the original, we have in Mr. Reeves's editions Lord' that number of times, instead of LORD,' and this Mr. C. sets down as 6500 errors.

2. In Dr. Blayney's edition the same variation frequently occurs the words printed in italics also vary from those of King James's original editions; but the chief alterations are in the tables of contents, heading of pages, chronological notices, and marginal references. The number of these last alone amounts to about 65,000; and as the number in King James's bible is under 9000, we have at once 56,000 variations. Are they errors or improvements?†

*These only amount to nine, except Mr. Curtis, namely, Drs. Bennett, Cox, Fletcher, Henderson, Pye Smith, Townley and Winter, and Messrs. Blackburn and Collison. The great body therefore of London dissenting ministers have not thought proper to interfere.

Mr. C. seems to consider the marginal references as an integral part of the authorised version; and adopts language which produces an impression on the reader's mind, that the Universities are not justified in omitting these references, &c. in any edition of the Bible. We however must regard these marginal refer

3. Numerous instances of literary mistakes are pointed out; some of which are obviously calculated to perplex and mislead the reader; but we fear such mistakes are on any system unavoidable. As the heart panteth after the waters,' conveys a very different sense from, "As the hart panteth,' &c. although the whole variation arises from the intrusion of the vowel e, and no one who has had any experience in correcting proof sheets will be surprised at such an error escaping notice in one, or being repeated in a subsequent edition; and yet many of the errors Mr. C. has noticed are of this kind.

The perusal of this pamphlet has led us to some conclusions very different from what Mr. C. has adopted. We think for instance, that he has proved that the Bibles printed at the Universities, are far more correct than those issuing from the first London presses under the sanction of the King's printer; and also that the editions recently published at the Universities are far more correct than those printed in the last century. He has proved also that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the leading persons at Cambridge and Oxford are sensitively alive to the importance of issuing correct Bibles. We should scarcely

ences, chronological notes, heads of pages, and contents of chapters, as mere appendages to the authorized version; and conceive that the Universities do right in providing some editions in which these appendages are retained, and others in which they are omitted.

was

have anticipated, that an individual of Mr. C.'s pretensions arriving in Cambridge could instantaneously stop the Cambridge press; be admitted to familiar and confidential intercourse with the leading persons in the University; and receive such marks of attention as were bestowed upon him. And if his indiscreet mention of five hundred pounds did at the moment excite any suspicion that the spirit of the tradesman was not wholly expelled from the breast of the divine; yet the subsequent correspondence with which he honoured by the University, the liberal donation with which his projected services were remunerated, and the excessive anxiety uniformly evinced to obviate every existing mistake, may well convince the disinterested inquirer, that the leading persons in the Universities regard the exclusive privilege with which they are invested of printing Bibles, as a TRUST to be sacredly observed, rather than as a MONOPOLY to be improved for pecuniary advantage. Our full conviction is, that the Bibles printed at our Universities are at once more correct and more reasonable than they would be, were the printing of the sacred volume thrown open to the trade in general. The Bible is, in proportion to its size, the cheapest book in a bookseller's shop.Whether this would be the case were its publication thrown open to the public, is to us at least doubtful.

perly we think, considered that the coroner's warrant recording a verdict of lunacy, &c, cannot determine the sense of this Rubric; Wheatly very justly remarking, 'that there is no reason, because a coroner prostitutes his oath, that the clergy should be so complaisant as to prostitute their office.' Entertaining similar views, the Rev. Mr. Taylor declined in March last, officiating at the funeral of a poor wretch of the name of Mercer, who had committed suicide in his parish; and was in consequence proceeded against by the relations of the deceased in the consistory court of Lichfield, on the ground of having violated the 68th canon of 1603, which requires ministers not to refuse to christen or bury. When the Articles were exhibited, Mr. T. observes, that after consultation with my Proctor, upon the various allegations in the Articles, I agreed to admit the facts, without putting the prosecutor to the trouble of collecting evidence, fully expecting that by joining in an affirmative issue, I should thereby submit the law of the case to the judgment of the court.' By this humane concession however he lost his cause. By subscribing to an article propounded containing the 68th canon, I found that I had virtually subscribed to the authority of the law, and could no longer

set up

6

the Rubric in opposition to it.' The Chancellor of the court indeed kindly consented to allow Mr. Taylor to withdraw his affirmation; but on consulting four Proctors who were present, and finding that they agreed with Dr. Lushington on the impossibility of setting up a legal defence in the present state of the Ecclesiastical Law, Mr. T. deemed it advisable to submit to the decree of the court, which of course condemned him in costs.

It may be important to state that the friends of the poor wretch submitted a case to Dr. Lushington, in which among other queries they asked,

Whether under all the circumstances of the case, the parties can proceed against Mr. Taylor, for his refusal to perform the Burial Service with success, and can he plead the words quoted from the Rubric in his defence?

To this Dr. Lushington replies—

I am of opinion that Mr. Taylor may be proceeded against by articles in the spiritual court, for his conduct in refusing to perform the Burial Service, and that such prosecution will be successful. I think the Rubric furnishes no defence.

Such is Dr. Lushington's opinion. We cannot but wish for the good of the church, though not perhaps for either the pecuniary interests or mental peace of Mr. Taylor, that he had withdrawn his affirmation and litigated the question until it reached the highest authorities. If we understand the case he is censured by a canon of 1603, for observing a Rubric confirmed by the Act of Conformity in 1662. Now we should have supposed that the latest Act of Parliament is the present legal authority; and that the canons of King James in 1603 could not be pleaded in opposition to a Rubric confirmed as we believe to be, by the act of 14 Charles II. in 1662. Entertaining this view, we cannot by any means consider the question as finally decided; though the probability is the view taken by Dr. Lushington would be affirmed by the superior courts. We trust some efforts will be used effectually to remedy the existing anomalies of our ecclesiastical law, and that those Rubrics which now spread a snare for the young and uninformed clergyman may be speedily corrected.

FACTS.

1. Romanists are on the increase in Oxford. Whereas a few years back they scarcely amounted to so many scores, they are now multiplied into hundreds.

2. The R. Catholic population in Oxford and its immediate vicinity, averages five hundred, or possibly more.

3. R. Catholics may be seen frequenting every church in Oxford, either regu larly or occasionally.

To this fact it may be objected, that it bears the appearance of a contradiction; since there exists in the Church of Rome a general prohibition with respect to entering places where heretics assemble.I grant that it does appear so; but the Priest knows too well the interests of his church to impose any severe penance for such conduct; because he finds that it does not lessen, but rather increases his flock; for R. Catholics, by attending Protestant places of worship, make the ignorant Protestants imagine that there is no great difference between their respective religions.

4. The Priest, (a Jesuit,) is very active in his avocations, though he has the pru dence to confine his personal labours in the way of proselyting to the neighbourhood in which he resides-St. Clement's.

5. The Chapel is situate in the centre of the populous parish of St. Clement, which it will soon be necessary to enlarge, or else build a second; it is always well filled, the average number on an unfabourable Lord's day being about 170, on a very fine day in the summer, from 200 to 250; in a word, crowded to an overflow; neither is this to be wondered at, for the style and substance of the discourses delivered there, are calculated to produce an indescribable effect upon those who may be seduced to listen to them, if they have no settled religious notions of their own.

The Priest's manner in his public preaching is in the highest degree animated and energetic, with all the semblance of real piety and sincerity; in a word, what many would term methodistical; and,

indeed, I fear, were a similar question put to the Romish Priest, which was addressed by a Bishop of Rochester to a late celebrated stage player: 'Why do we proclaim the most awful truths without making any impression on the people, while you by your fictions attract the greatest sympathy in your hearers ?'—we might expect a similar reply; The reason is this-we speak fiction as if it were truth; you speak truth as if it were fiction.' The substance of the discourses of the Oxford Priest is equally calculated to seduce the unwary.... I was told by a person who heard a discourse there lately, that the total corruption of the human heart, and the absolute necessity of a change by God's Holy Spirit was insisted on in terms that could scarcely proceed from the lips of the most serious Arminian. Among others, this illustration was employed: 'It would be as unreasonable to go into the grave yard, and expect to see a corpse rising of its own accord, as to see any dead sinner turning in his own strength to God.' (We could not wish for a more apt illustration of the 9th and 10th Articles of the Church of England.) Again, the necessity of the merits and blood of Christ was equally strongly and clearly insisted upon; also Sanctification by the work of the Holy Ghost, &c. &c. All this was, however, at the conclusion richly seasoned with the most absurd superstitions, calculated to destroy all that was so clearly and so simply stated in the outset; for instance, (I use his own words as they were repeated to me,) he said, 'Whilst your sins may at the present be but a few, only a little will be required of you to atone the eternal justice of God; but if you delay to repent and go on in your sins, how will you be able to endure in your old age severe castigations, long pilgrimages, fastings, penances, yea, abstinence from the most innocent amusements and gratifications,' &c. 7. There are Emissaries sanctioned and encouraged by him in the work of proselytizing for many miles round Oxford; certain individuals, who are in the regular habit of periodically visiting the villages around, for the purpose of beguiling the poor unstable cottagers to embrace their soul-destroying system: they go amongst them, exercising their different worldly

MAURICE'S callings, as hawkers, tea dealers, &c. and are furnished with concise compendiums of controversy, which comprise the most astute syllogisms, and ingenious arguments against Protestantism. I believe that few Protestants are aware of the fact, that it is one of the practices of that wily system, to select the cleverest of the Roman Catholic children, and train them up as Home Missionaries by means of question and answer on the points of difference between them and Protestants.

8. Another of their devices, whereby they attempt to deceive those who are fool hardy enough to visit their chapels, is the appointing a person at the door to sell their publications; one of which I have obtained a sight of; it is called Prayers before and after Mass. Upon examination, I find it interspersed, (though rather sparingly,) with divers allusions to the Intercessions of Saints, etc. It is highly calculated to make an impression upon that class of persons liable to be enticed into their chapels; with the exception of the last, entitled 'the Litany of the Dead,' which must appear awfully blasphemous to any one that has his reasoning powers unimpaired by the beguiling influence of Satan.

9. That this Religion is popular in the City of Oxford, will be seen by the fact, that a Roman Catholic has been returned for Parliament with 953 votes.

10. That Roman Catholicism is looked upon as a harmless thing by some of the Members of the University is much to be feared, from the report that is afloat, of the activity of some of them in canvassing for a Roman Catholic candidate.

And what is going forward in Oxford relative to the extension of the Kingdom of Christ?

1. Shall I say that they who call themselves Protestant Christians, yea, many who aspire to a purer creed and stricter discipline than the Reformed Church of England, are laying such a stumbling block in the way of the poor deluded Roman Catholic, and their own unstable and wavering followers, as to make them imagine that there is no very great difference in their respective creeds; but that now at length the Aged Anti-Christian Apostate Church of Rome has become Christian. What does the apostle Paul say, (1 Cor. viii. 12.) When ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

2. What shall I say for the poor Roman Catholic? (I cannot but speak with a feeling of love of them individually; though I abhor their system, I must remember that the Scripture says, thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land. Deut. xxiii. 7.) Shall I say, the Romanist never hears anything to suit his case when he goes to any of the thirteen churches in Oxford ?

3. Shall I say, that when a Society is formed in Oxford for the purpose of promoting the Religious Principles of the Reformation, that not one name has sanctioned it among the Protestant citizens of Oxford, who, under God, owe all their own civil, political, and religious liberty to that Reformation?

4. Shall I add, that when a member of the Church of England came down, not nine months back, naturally expecting that Protestant Oxford would rejoice to open her pulpits, no brother bid him God speed and invited him to address the deluded Romanist and semi-infidel population?

T

Again, does the University stand forth as a sallying post for sound' Christian men, and encourage a society so called for in these days of perversion to Romanism?

Do the doctrines of the Reformers resound from that pulpit, where a cloud of witnesses once preached Christ Jesus without the wisdom of words, but in the glowing love of a godly sincerity? I leave the reply to the consciences of those who occupy the important post. It would do none of us much harm to take up some of the discourses preached in Oxford two centuries ago, yea later; but such comparisons are invidious.

But certainly if the clear and steady light of Gospel truth, that is reflected in the Articles and Homilies of the church, does shine forth within the walls of St. Mary, it does not extend its cheering and soul-reviving influence far.

The villages around Oxford, (with few exceptions,) are in a most deplorabie state of ignorance and darkness, particularly on that most important subject, the revealed character of the blessed God.-I do not here allude to the peasantry only, but to those who are raised above them in rank and station; in short, the great mass of the inhabitants; and this will account for the number of country people that are seen passing and repassing from the Roman Catholic Chapel in St. Clement's