VI.-1. The Affectionate Pair; or, the History of Sung-Kin. A Chinese Tale, translated from the Chinese, by P. P. 2. Chinese Courtship, in Verse; to which is added an Appendix, treating of the Revenue of China, &c., &c. VII. 1. State Trials; or, a Collection of the most interesting Trials prior to the Revolution of 1688. Reviewed and THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.-1. The History of the British and Foreign Bible Society. By the Rev. John Owen, A.M. London. 2. A Respectful Letter to the Earl of Liverpool. By the Rev. H. H. Norris, A.M. London. S. Twenty-Second Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society. London. 1826. 4. Statement, by the Committee of the Edinburgh Bible Society. 5. Second Statement of the Committee of the Edinburgh Bible Society, relative to the Circulation of the Apocrypha. 6. Third Statement of the Edinburgh Committee. 7. Review of the Conduct of the Directors of the British and Foreign Bible Society, relative to the Apocrypha, and to their Administration on the Continent. By Robert Haldane, Esq. 8. Second Review of the Conduct of the Directors of the British and Foreign Bible Society. By Robert Haldane, Esq. 9. Letter addressed to Robert Haldane, Esq. By C. F. A. Steinkopff, D.D. London. 1826. 1826. 10. Remarks upon the Recent Accusations against the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society. London. 11. Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Bexley. By the Rev. Andrew Thomson, D.D. Edinburgh. 1827. AT T different periods, during its progress, the British and Foreign Bible Society has been called upon to encounter assailants from without: against the Bishop of Peterborough, the Master of Trinity, and Mr. Norris, it has had to appear in the field of controversy; but from all such conflicts it retired, we apprehend, scatheless. Not that, in our opinion, there was any deficiency of talent or zeal in its antagonists; but their representations, simply because these came from professed antagonists, could not be expected to make much impression on an association most of whose members were bound to it by the blindest feelings of partisanship. Within the last three years, however, a different and far more formidable enemy has assailed the tranquillity of this great institution. Some of those who had access to the arcana of the Earlstreet managing committee began to suspect that the Reports, monthly or annually sent forth to enlighten the subscribers, did not contain the most faithful representation of the affairs of the Society. It was whispered that, in the concoction of these docu VOL. XXXVI. NO. LXXI. B ments, ments, the directors had recourse to a great deal of artful management-in short, that the public were informed, not of the whole truth, which they had a right to know, but of those facts only, which were conceived to be best adapted for augmenting the funds placed at the committee's disposal. These rumours gaining strength, a strict inquiry was set on foot; and some gentlemen, who had for years exerted themselves very cordially in extending the influence, and promoting the objects of the Society, applying their zeal to this novel investigation, soon brought to light many matters that might well prefer the shade. The committee of the Edinburgh Bible Society took the most prominent part in this scrutiny; having completed it, they remonstrated over and over again with the directors in Earl-street; and in vain. Nothing remained but to appeal to the impartial judgment of the subscribers and the public at large; and hence a pile of polemical pamphlets, the names of which, had we placed them all in array before our readers, would have filled several of these pages. The directors have endeavoured to enlist the feelings of the subscribers in their behalf by representing the statements of the Edinburgh committee as an attack upon the Society itself; but this artifice is transparent. All impartial observers must perceive that the point raised in the present controversy is not the utility of the institution, but the degree of integrity, good faith, and discretion, with which its affairs have been administered. The first charge urged against these managers is the circulation, on the continent, of Bibles, wherein the apocryphal writings are intermingled with the canonical books of scripture, without any marks of discrimination. When St. Jerome, towards the close of the fourth century, accomplished that version of the Bible which, under the denomination of the Latin Vulgate, has since acquired so much authority in the west of Europe, he affixed to the apocryphal writings, prefaces, or notices of interpolation, for the express purpose of distinguishing them from the canonical books; and from the fourth century down to the time of the Reformation, the Latin Vulgate continued to appear under this form. In the course of the sixteenth century, the Reformers, after much struggling, succeeded in altogether excluding the apocryphal books. In the year 1534, Luther gave the world the first copy of the inspired canon, unincumbered by the Apocrypha, in a modern language. In the English version of 1535, his example was followed by Coverdale; and the great Bible of Cranmer, in 1539, stamped at once the royal and archiepiscopal authority upon this expulsion. To this proceeding of the Reformers, the Catholic church offered a staunch opposition. She gradually withdrew the prefaces and notices which St. Jerome had prefixed to the apo cryphal cryphal writings; and in the fourth session of the Council of Trent, these were expressly declared to be sacred and canonical, and ranked with the books of Holy Scripture in one undistinguished catalogue. From the date of this council, therefore, the apocryphal books have been considered by all Roman Catholics as constituting a part of the inspired code.-Now that this practice of incorporating the apocryphal writings with the inspired must delude the ignorant multitude, there can be no doubt; and we have just as little doubt, that not one out of a hundred contributors to the funds of the British and Foreign Bible Society ever entertained the slightest suspicion that his money was to be expended in the circulation of bibles so interpolated. Here, therefore, the directors have manifestly been guilty of a serious breach of the trust reposed in them, and most justly incurred the reprobation of the subscribers. That they should have thus deliberately lent themselves to one of the most dangerous as well as insidious corruptions of the Church of Rome,-this one plain fact, even if there were none behind, evinces undoubtedly either an intellectual or a moral incapacity for the discharge of the solemn duties which these gentlemen have undertaken to perform. The large sums thus spent by the directors in circulating on the continent, where their proceedings are in a great degree veiled from the eye of the subscribers, an interpolated canon of the scriptures, naturally awakened attention to their management, generally, of the pecuniary concerns of the Society. Their Edinburgh brethren roundly tax them with waste and extravagance. They assert that, while the contributions of the year 1825-6 did not exceed 40,3331., the expenses incurred by the directors, in managing this sum, amount to the inordinate sum of 8,450l. The directors, on the other hand, contend that their expenses are grossly exaggerated, and do not exceed 5,600l. per annum. But this discrepancy, respecting a plain question of arithmetic, will be best disposed of by a reference to the items included in the expenses of management, as stated by the two parties. Expenses of Management for the Year ending 31st March, 1826, as stated by the Earl Three Clerks in Secretaries' and Accountant's Departments... 300 0 0 300 66 13 4 233 6 667 11 8 330 2 6 Taxes, Coals, &c., Stationery, and Expenses of the Annual Meeting 399 1 9 Travelling Expenses.. Secretaries' Salaries.. Mr. C. S. Dudley, Agent...... Rev. P. Treschon, for various Services... The Accountant and Assistant Secretary (Salary). The Assistant Foreign Secretary..... The Depositary........ General Disbursements, including postage, messenger, and various other incidental expenses L. 8. d. 2696 15 11 119 9 0 1209 1 3 900 0 0 300 0 0 25 0 0 300 0 0 250 0 0 250 0 0 488 16 9 £5,603 16 3 750 0 0 150 0 0 105 0 0 100 0 0 1200 0 0 210 0 0 360 0 0 Expense of Annual Reports, Monthly Extracts, and other occasional Professor Kieffer, Agent at Paris Professor Vau Ess, Agent at Darmstadt £8,480 16 3 The account put forth by these directors, to meet the statements of their Northern brethren, appears under the sanction of four auditors; and on what principles these gentlemen took upon themselves to exclude the additional items of the Edinburgh statement, we cannot comprehend. Every subscriber must feel that the allowances made to the agents at Paris and Darmstadt-the charge for annual and monthly reports the house rent, warehouse rent, and insurance, are as much entitled to be considered as expenses of management, as any items in the published statement of the Earl-street committee. If the recent discussions had only dissipated the mystery in which the connexion of the directors with one of their foreign agents had been, for whatever purpose, involved, we conceive the Edinburgh committee would have established a just claim to the thanks of the subscribers. We allude to Dr. Leander Van Ess, who, for the last fifteen years, has been employed by the society to distribute the Scriptures among the Roman Catholics in Germany. Year after year the Reports put forth by the committee contained the warmest eulogiums upon the disinterestedness of this doctor. Of the zeal manifested by this learned, pious, and indefatigable professor,' say the grateful directors, in circulating the Scriptures in the Catholic provinces of Germany, it is impossible to speak but in terms of the highest admiration.'-Twelfth Report, p. 12. In another place we are assured, that Leander Van Ess seeks no earthly emoluments; nor is the applause of a vain world his aim; he desires not the treasures which rust and moth con 6 sume. |