it, will serve to throw some light upon your representation of these facts. They prove that the Committee of the Bible Society were very anxious, while engaged in the important work of printing the Welsh Scriptures, to adopt the most perfect text which could be procured; and that, so far from being influenced by "an ill-disciplined disposition to be doing good without due inquiry concerning the means*," they did not advance a single step without much caution, inquiry, and deliberation; and that they did nothing without the sanction of the Bishops, and the authority of the Cambridge Syndics. These extracts further prove, that the Committee were desirous to adopt the same text with the Society in Bartlett's Buildings. When it was reported to the Bible Society that the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge resolved, in March 1805, to print from the edition of 1746 †, the Committee referred the matter to the Syndics of the Cambridge press, and readily concurred in their general decision "to follow the same edition with the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge." You will find, by Appendix C, No. 16 and 17, that the Bishop of St. David's, some time afterwards, communicated to the Committee of the Bible Society the determination of the Society in Bartlett's Buildings to print, not from the "edition of 1746, but from that of 1752; and that application was immediately made by Mr. Owen to Dr. Gaskin, for information on the subject. Dr. Gaskin's answer encloses the resolution of March 12, 1805, without any remark. From that resolution it

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is not clear what text they intended to adopt. Yet as they had really determined to take the edition of 1752 for the standard, the Bible Society thought it expedient to follow the example; uniformity in the text being particularly desirable.

I recommend to your perusal all the letters contained in Appendix C, and especially those from Lord Teignmouth. You will then be willing to admit, that, from the beginning of this transaction, his Lordship, and the Committee, were on all occasions most anxious to proceed with due deliberation; and if any error, or probability of error, could be detected in their measures, they were at all times open to conviction. This is precisely what I should expect from the character of Lord Teignmouth, than whom I believe there exists not a man of more sterling integrity, or of a more mild, and open, and ingenuous disposition; and you never laboured under a greater mistake than in charging him with the design of seeking "to hurry" you "away from the sober trial of the merits of the case, into a reciprocation of unbecoming and inflammatory personalities*."

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This, then, is the formidable history of the edition of Welsh Bibles! I shall here, therefore, offer a few remarks upon your statement.

1. You intimate, p. 47, that Lord Teignmouth has not proved the necessity of a new institution, and that "the first foundation of the Bible Society is in danger of slipping from under" him. After the absolute and indispensable necessity which I have

Dr. Wordsworth, p. 17.

now exhibited, and which Lord Teignmouth could also have displayed; and after a knowledge of the despair of procuring Bibles from the Society in Bartlett's Buildings, which existed as well among the Members of the Establishment as the Dissenters, he will be a bold man who shall again hazard such an assertion.

2. You insinuate, in a mysterious way, that “alterations were reported to be projected;" and we are left with the impression, that the alterations were to be made for the purpose of perverting doctrines and favouring dissent. You do not say this in so many words, but your. readers will certainly understand this to be your meaning. If what I have already stated do not completely destroy the charge, I must request you to read with attention Appendix D; and then you will know the truth.

3. You state, that "This caused a great alarm among the clergy, who applied again to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, through the Bishop of St. Asaph, then of Bangor, for a supply *." This is incorrect, unless Mr. Roberts be the Welsh clergy. The passage should run thus: "This caused a great alarm in the mind of a single Welsh clergyman, who applied, &c."

4.

"In March 1805," at the time when the Bartlett's Buildings' Society passed their order for an edition of 20,000 copies of the Scriptures in Welsh, "the Bible Society had not begun to put their order in execution t." Incorrect again: the Bible Society

* Dr. Wordsworth, p. 48.

Dr. Wordsworth, p. 48.

had been busily proceeding with their plan for nearly twelve months, and had even engaged with the Syndics of the University press. If you mean that they had not begun to print, I grant it: many measures, as you have now seen, were to be executed before they could go to the press.

5. In p. 49, you insinuate that the Bible Society hastened their edition, in consequence of our resolution in Bartlett's Buildings, and with the mean intention of anticipating that of Oxford. In point of fact I beg to state, that their rate of proceeding was in no respect altered in consequence of the resolution in question: as they had not lost a moment previously, so they did not lose a moment afterwards. Most persons would be inclined to applaud this zeal and it is most unreasonable to expect that it should have been relaxed in deference to the slow progress of the Society in Bartlett's Buildings. When the Report of that Society was published, in 1809, not a single copy had been issued in consequence of their order, dated March, 1805.

6. By a note in p. 49, you would have us to believe, that the Bible Society adopted a size for its edition smaller than octavo, "in consequence of a resolution of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge to print an octavo edition." In proof of this assertion, you refer to the 1st Report of the Bible Society. You quote correctly, but your reasoning is wrong. The Report says that the size. was "ultimately fixed," in consequence, &c.: it had been determined long before, viz. on the 3d Sep

tember, 1804: at a time when the Society in Bartlett's Buildings had expressed no intention of sending Bibles into Wales.

7. In p. 156, you have this passage:-" The fact is-from your having entrusted the superintendance of your Welsh edition of the Scriptures to a noted leader of the sectaries in that country-that the dispersion of it fell, in considerable measure, into the very same and other like hands." "The fact," as it respects the superintendance, has been, I trust, satisfactorily explained; and, as it respects the dispersion, neither Mr. Charles, nor any "sectary," had any other advantage, either in procuring or dispersing Bibles, than that which they had acquired by the amount of their contribution. Mr. Charles had taken infinite pains in forwarding the new edition of the Welsh Scriptures; and had brought, in less than a year, nearly two thousand pounds to the Society's funds. It was but reasonable, therefore, that he should be enabled, on the earliest issue, to supply with copies those who had contributed through his means. Beyond this, neither Mr. Charles, nor persons who answer to your description of the very same or other like hands," had any privilege which even you would not have possessed had your situation been cast in the principality of Wales: for, by a resolution of the Society, in 1806, every Welsh clergyman (as well as every dissenting minister in Wales) was at liberty to purchase, for the use of his parish, as many Bibles as he might want, at the reduced prices, whether he subscribed or not.

8. Your history further implies, that the edition