burn a man capable of reflecting high honor on any body which has the good fortune to enroll him as a member. The late Lord Melville has been lauded to the skies for the benefits he conferred on the naval service; but although his son and successor conferred thrice the number of benefits on it, not a voice has been raised in his favor, on the contrary; he has been rather held up as its enemy. He probably accomplished as much as any individual of his station or rank could possibly have done; for while he held his appointment on the proviso that the naval service was to be prostituted as a jobbing concern to secure parliamentary influence, he must either have succumbed to such a state of things or have resigned; but His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, like his distinguished brother, stands on more commanding ground, and can boldly give a direct negative to a propo sition, with which a simple subject would have either to comply or retire.

RESPECTING

CERTAIN VERSIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

PUBLISHED BY THE

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY:

IN REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN THE SEVENTY-FIRST NUMBER OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.

BY THOMAS PELL PLATT, M.A. F.A.S.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:-1827.

THAT the British and Foreign Bible Society has undertaken a great work-a work that tends to results of the last importance. to mankind at large-cannot be doubted: and that it is a work, the difficulties of which are proportionate to its greatness, must also be allowed. That its Managers and Directors, or those who have carried on its work, have in all cases fully overcome the difficulties with which they had thus to struggle, it would be rash indeed to assert. But the attempt was noble in itself, and they went forth to it, not in their own strength, but in the strength of HIM who is Almighty-and hence, doubtless, it is, that their success has been, in many respects at least, so astonishingly great. A Committee is formed, not out of the mighty and learned of the earth, but from among a few pious men, most of them altogether unknown by name to the world. Their plan is denounced, as hostile to ancient Religious Societies, hostile to the Established Church of the Kingdom, dangerous to the very existence of our Eastern Empire-and against all this, they stand, they "put forth branches," and, in less than twenty years, literally cover the face of the whole earth. By their means, Establishments for a perpetual supply of the Scriptures are set up, under Royal and Ecclesiastical sanction, in half the Kingdoms of Europe;-a Translation of Scripture is sent forth, for the first time, from St. Petersburg, in the national language of the Russian Empire ;—while, at the same time, the people of China and of Western America, of Iceland and of the Islands in the Southern Sea, are receiving, every

man in his own tongue, the record of the wonderful works of Godu

But, amazing as this work of Twenty Years must appear to every mind that will calmly think on it, it can never be for va moment desired that men should rest content with the mere report of general results, however magnificent. Among the various points on which inquiry is and ought to be made, one question of great importance has been-Are the Versions of Scripture, thus furnished, faithful; and are they in language that is commonly read and understood? In order to answer this inquiry, as far as lay in their power, the Committee had resolved, a few months since, (Feb. 5.) that an Account should be drawn up of all the Translations which they have circulated; stating the reasons which led to their adoption, or the history of the translating and editing of those which were New or Revised Versions. The preparation of this Account ultimately devolved on myself; and I was beginning to enter on it, when a statement on the very same subject came forth, in a Periodical Publication, (the Quarterly Review, No. 71,) which has appeared to call for the few following remarks.

My object will be, chiefly, to give a correct relation of Facts which the Writer in the Review has misrepresented. I hope, and am ready to admit, that his misrepresentations have been uninten tional: yet, surely, the utmost care ought to have been exercised, before imputations were cast on a body of men who are engaged in an undertaking so beneficent and so important to mankind, as the Reviewer will and does acknowledge that of the Committee of the Bible Society to be.

The case of the WELSH BIBLE comes first in order. Here, says the Reviewer,

"The Directors of this Institution (the Bible Society) devolved the selection of a proper text, and the revision of their new edition, on a Mr. Thomas Charles, an apostatized clergyman from the Established Church, and at that time an itinerant preacher among the Calvinistic Methodists. Who or what recommended him to the Managers of the Society, we do not happen to know. The result, however, proved exactly what might have been anticipated; he introduced so many unauthorised innovations, by way of inproving the version, that one of the Welsh Bishops found himself called on to remonstrate with the Committee. Finding that the heads of our church were not to be taken by surprise, the Directors were constrained to suppress the edition; and, up to this day the inhabitants of Wales are deprived of the benefit which the Managers of the Bible Society intended to confer on them by Mr. Thomas Charles's new readings of the word of God," he tol Now it is not true that Mr. Charles "introduced unauthorised innovations" into the Welsh Bible, by way of IMPROVING THE VERSION." A representation was indeed made against the plan which he intended to follow in his edition, but the complaint was this:

1

"The ORTHOGRAPHY of the copy prepared, for the press is very much changed and altered, and makes the language a different dialect from that of the Bible in present use. I judge of it by the

seen in some other Welsh publications. This measure I consch

with many bad consequences, and methinks should not be suffered to be carried into effect." Boy Lions and busiest insmom

P

The charge brought was, solely and simply, an attempt to correct the system of ORTHOGRAPHY. And the communication was not made by a "Welsh Bishop," but by a very respectable Welsh Clergyman the Rev. John Roberts, the present Rector of Tremerchion; who, it may be added, is now an active member of the Flintshire Auxiliary Bible Society.

Again, no edition of the Welsh Bible was ever SUPPRESSED. L.The discussion above mentioned took place while the copy was preparing for press. No fault has ever been found with the Welsh Bibles and Testaments which have been actually printed; and the number of these has been, up to the present time, 97,598 Bibles, and 156,697 Testaments.

(One Welsh Bishop was, at the time, a Vice-President of the Society; and this Prelate, at least, saw nothing so objectionable in the proceedings of Mr. Charles and the Committee, as to withdraw from them his patronage and support. On the contrary, he did all in his power to assist in deciding the course that ought to be followed. This Prelate was the Bishop of St. David's (the present Bishop of Salisbury); and it was in consequence of a communication from him that the edition of 1752 was adopted. In reference to the imputation against the Committee, of neglecting to take advice from " ecclesiastical authorities," the following passage, from a Letter of Lord Teignmouth to the Bishop, deserves notice:

"The Bible Society (notwithstanding the intimation in the Report of the Committee to the Subscribers at large, that it has been determined to follow the example of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in printing from the edition of 1746') would, I imagine, consider themselves at liberty to adopt the suggestion of your Lordship, as it must be their wish to pay every respect to so high an authority. But, as the Act of Uniformity subjects the Welsh Bible to the revision and approbation of the Bishop of Hereford and the Welsh Bishops, it would, in my opinion, be most satisfactory to the Bible Society (considering the preceding circumstances) if your Lordship would condescend to nominate some person or persons to prepare such a copy for the press as would be likely to meet your Lordship's approhation, and that of the other Welsh Bishops-a sanction which would preclude all possible objection."..

beIttobeing afterwards found that the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge intended to print from the edition of 1752, not from that of 1746, as they had at first proposed-and that

sw anistono od domsh Ion New 'Dealtry's Vindication of the Bible Society, (1811.) Appendix, p. xxvi