and circulated among persons who are known to be acquainted with the language, whose opinion of the work is solicited. When it has passed through this ordeal, it is finally submitted to the General Committee of the Society; before whom any individual may object to its adoption, provided he think that sufficient attention has not been paid to his previous representations. The work is not adopted and published until it has received the approbation of this Committee*.

Such precautions ought, I think, to satisfy the most scrupulous objection. If, however, M. Dubois can suggest any hint for the better security of the Translations from error, I will pledge myself, on my return to India-should it please God to restore me to my labours in that country!—to exert my influence with the Bible Society for its adoption.

The Abbé passes a sweeping sentence of condemnation against the Twenty-four Versions published at the Serampore Press, without giving us any proof of his ability, or informing us that he has taken any pains to ascertain

* Such were the measures adopted to the close of 1821, when my intercourse with the Madras Bible Society was suspended. At that time they were soliciting the opinions of several Gentlemen, as to what better or additional precautions could be adopted: and if any alteration has been since made, it will, I am persuaded, be for the better.

their character. But even were they as imperfect as he asserts, would the funds and the labour expended upon them be lost? No, by no means. It were unreasonable to expect the First Translation of the Scripture into any language to be perfect. The late Mr. Ward himself (speaking of the Translations against which the Abbé so bitterly inveighs) says,* "These Versions are not offered as perfect performances; but, I doubt not, they will bear to be compared with any other First Versions which have at any time been given to the world." Every First Version of such a book as the Bible, in any language, will require, in future Editions, many improvements, and all the aids possible, to carry these Versions to perfection." Every future Translator will be greatly assisted in his work by all that have preceded him. And if even the Seventh Version be in general correct, what good man will regret the labour and costs of the former Six? We may, for instance, refer to the English Translation, which, the Abbé says, is the

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*Farewell Letters, pp. 155, 184. Query. Is this the language of a man wishing to impose upon the Public? or of one who, "without the assistance of any criticism whatever, supposes himself, with five or six other individuals, able to execute genuine Translations into intricate Languages, with which they, after all, can possess only an imperfect acquaintance ?"

"Third Version" of the Scripture into our language; but which, had he taken proper pains to acquaint himself with its history, he would have found to be the Seventh, or rather a revision of Six former Versions. Though this Version, confessedly, is not perfect, yet it abounds in instruction which is able to make men wise unto salvation: and where is the Englishman, who loves his Bible, that does not praise God for having raised up such men as Wickliffe, Tyndal, and other English Reformers; who, in the face of personal danger, and while enduring grievous privations, executed those Translations to which we are greatly indebted for the accuracy to which our present Authorised Version has attained? So shall the day come, in the fulness of time appointed in heaven, when Asiatic Christians shall bless the memory of those devoted and benevolent Strangers, who, from such a distance, and with so many sacrifices, first brought to their shores the Oracles of Divine Truth.

M. Dubois more than insinuates, that we have no occasion-probably he means no right -to supply the Hindoos with Bibles, until they, ask for them: (p. 150.) Did they ask for the Jesuit Missionaries? Did any Heathen Nation ever, in the first instance, ask for the

Bible? Had the Almighty waited till man asked for His Word, we should have remained, to the present day, without a Revelation of His Nature and Will!

But this insinuation would be unworthy of notice, were it not that I am prepared to shew that the Hindoos are now in such a state, that they do ask for the Bible. Many more applications have been made by them, to myself, than it has been in my power to grant: and I shall here transcribe the greater part of a Letter in my possession, to prove that the Heathen are not only asking for the Bible, but actually coming forward to promote the objects of the Bible Society.

Having written to the Hon. Dr. Twisleton, Archdeacon of Columbo, to collect such Tamul Publications as he might be able to procure, in order to assist me in the revision of the New Testament in that language, he kindly wrote for me to a friend, C. Layard, Esq. Judge of the Province of Jaffna, where the Tamul is more spoken than in the South of Ceylon. On the night before I embarked for Europe, in a state of ill-health that precluded the possibility of my attending to business, I received a Letter from the latter Gentleman, stating that he had forwarded a large collection of Tamul Books,

and giving the following very interesting in

formation.

"Dear Sir,

Jaffnapatam, Jan. 4, 1821. "The books I sent from hence are all that I have yet been able to procure; and there are no other copies of the same works, I believe, left in the district.

"To dwell on the difficulties I have met with, would appear only as an attempt to enhance the little service I have been able to effect towards obtaining as many copies of the Sacred Scriptures, for the use of the Translators, as are extant: but were I to say nothing, I should deprive myself of the pleasure of communicating to you a piece of agreeable information-viz. that the possessors of some of these books would with more readiness have parted with much money or valuable property, than with the Sacred Volume; and that they would not have given them for any price, or on any terms, excepting for the Christian purpose of their being sent to the Translator, in order to expedite the circulating of an approved Translation of the Word of God."

Of the possessor of a Bible sent, Mr. L. writes, he "prizes it above any money, and refused, from a Roman-Catholic Priest,