escence of the people at large in the existing Version of the Scriptures soon followed, which has continued unbroken ever since.”—Mr. Anderson shows that historians and jurists have ascribed far too much to James, "high and mighty." The Dedication was "prefixed to many copies, though not to many others." The work depended on no personal bounty; and it was controlled by neither Prince nor oligarchy. In January, 1604, the famed "Conference" sat at Hampton Court; the sovereignty of James not having been yet formally acknowledged by Parliament. A fresh revision of the Bible was proposed, on this occasion, by Dr. John Rainolds the Puritan ; one of an illustrious triumvirate of whom an old writer says, " As Jewell's fame grew from the rhetoric, and Hooker's from the logic, so that of Rainolds arose from the Greek lecture in Corpus-Christi College, Oxford.” Bancroft said that "if every man's humour should be followed, there would be no end of translating;" but the King acceded to the motion, concurring also in the recommendation that no marginal notes should be added. The list of the "translators, and their respective tasks," carefully prepared, is given in vol. ii., pp. 374-377. Out of fifty-four who were named, fortyseven sat down to the work. We do not amplify here, as this chapter of bibliography is comparatively familiar. It is sufficient to note that 1611 was the memorable year of publication; and that the revisers, not the translators, were paid at the rate of thirty shillings each for the week. But by whom? Not by the King, impoverished by his prodigality; not by the Stationers' Company, excluded by an offensive monopoly from any part in the enterprise; but by Barker, the second patentee,-a party deeply interested. Many, who have taken on trust the current praises of King James, will be startled by Mr. Anderson's conclusion: "If we inquire for any single royal grant, or look for any act of personal generosity, we search in vain." The version made its way, but not by authority interposed, or canon, or statute. In the beginning of 1653, a Bill-quite unexampled-was brought into the Long Parliament, the object being a new translation. The interregnum makes it the more remarkable: but the uncrowned sovereign people were not thus to interfere with the sacred cause of the Bible, any more than the Princes of other days. The Bill sunk into oblivion by the dissolution of the House. This period was distinguished by the arrangement for bringing out Walton's Polyglot. It was the first of numerous works published in this kingdom by subscription; and it is gratifying to add that the elaborate collection surpasses, in important respects, the Complutensian, the Antwerp, and the Parisian. Meanwhile, the "grand Committee for Religion," chosen by the republican Senate, testified the superiority of the authorized version; and in this judgment, affirmed by Walton, Castell, and other masterly critics, a grateful nation has wisely acquiesced. Mr. Anderson gives a most interesting chapter on Scotland. We offer a few memoranda,-especially for the sake of our young friends who are engaged in historical readings. Wickliffe's labours seem to have attracted early attention, north of the Tweed. The vernacular New Testament, in MS., was also "in the best use under James IV. In 1534, Ales ("Alesius") was pleading with James V. in favour of domestic Scripturereading, and alleging the sanction of that Sovereign's father. Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and other places, as well as the English Metropolis and Universities, received in 1526 the treasure of Tyndale's New Testament, by the hands of merchants who visited the Low Countries. The resolute Protestants of North Britain are reminded that there was a time in their country's history, "when, if a vessel arrived at Leith or St. Andrews, at Dundee, Montrose, or Aberdeen, with copies of the New Testament on board, the ship and cargo were liable to confiscation, and the Captain to imprisonment!" We regret that we cannot pursue the story-exquisitely beautiful and tender-of young Patrick Hamilton, Scotland's enlightened proto-martyr. Within the hours of a single day he was tried, condemned, and reduced to ashes. One of his many Judges was that meritorious Bishop of Dunkeld who, at a later date, said, "I thank God that I never knew what the Old and New Testament was!" The martyr's last words ascended amid the noise of kindling flames and murmuring crowds,"How long, O Lord, shall darkness cover this realm! How long wilt Thou suffer this tyranny of men! Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." About the same time Friar Alexander Seton, after proclaiming long-forgotten truth, fled to Berwick; but a spirit of inquiry was awakened, of which the results are beyond our calculation. Alexander Ales distinguished himself, years before Henry VIII. broke off from Rome, by contending for the sufficiency of Scripture. Born in Edinburgh, educated at St. Andrews, he became a Canon in the metropolitan cathedral of his day. He was impressed and agitated by Hamilton's reasoning. After no slight sufferings for an awaking conscience' sake, he escaped to the Continent; whence he addressed his King, against the men who were forbidding the use of the vernacular New Testament. John Cochlæus, abroad, professed to answer; and, notwithstanding a triumphant rejoinder, wrangled still, ascribing the works of Ales to Melancthon. We find Ales at Cologne; then at Antwerp; then in London and Cambridge; then Professor of Divinity at Frankfort-onthe-Oder; and finally, Professor at Leipsic,-where, after an honourable residence of twenty-three years, and numerous efforts in sacred literature, he died in peace. The only tribute to his memory seems to be contained in a few Latin elegiacs, of the 16th century; but "he, being dead, yet speaketh." Forrest, of Linlithgow, was the second martyr. That the 66 new learning was spreading, there is ample evidence in the consternation of Churchmen, and the vain opposition of Parliament. The lesson may be read, as one says, "by a Smithfield light." In 1534, Edinburgh began to gleam with the frightful illumination; and some of the best scholars in the country became refugees. Henry was urging Scotland, like England, to throw off the Romish yoke; but his embassy to his kinsman on the throne of the North, every one is aware, was political. Notwithstanding many a difficulty, the reading of Scripture in the vulgar tongue was publicly prohibited in May, 1536. Thus, before Tyndale suffered, his influential books were condemned both in North and South Britain. It was the clerical policy to promote alliance with France; and when David Beaton was made Cardinal, persecution was in that very month renewed. The tragic sequel we leave. It yields proof of a malignant hostility to the word of God, and, primarily, to that alone. George Buchanan and others escaped by flight; but blood, more than patrician, freely flowed. The comfort is, however, that thousands were perusing the Bible in secret. At the death of James V., Beaton aspired to the regency; but, by a remarkable change in his fortunes, he was soon in prison. During the fiery Cardinal's imprisonment, the Scottish Parliament, now in advance of the English, affirmed the common right of using the Scriptures in the vulgar language. The Act was never repealed. The Bible was not, indeed, printed in Scotland for many years to come: but the proclamation of the Parliamentary Act, through the chief towns, implied that copies were in extensive circulation. In fact, the English New Testament had been on Caledonian ground sixteen years; and, as to the time in question, John Knox testifies, "THEN might have been seen the Bible lying upon almost every gentleman's table. The New Testament was borne about in many men's hands!” Beaton, when enlarged, returned to his old work; as the story of the Perth martyrs, and that of Wishart, show :-but himself was dismissed by violence to his great account, in May, 1546. Mr. Anderson remarks that the history of the Scriptures in Scotland, from 1543 to 1650, is quite singular. It was the honour of the people to be scornfully called "New Testamenters." Well had they used the volume which had been so freely conveyed from England, as well as from Holland, that a copy was found in almost every house. And though no human authority interposed to bring about the general consent in favour of the authorized version, yet, says the Annalist, "about the middle of the seventeenth century, our present venerated Bible had nearly arrived at that state of prevalence which it has ever since maintained. Whatever opinions have since prevailed, or died away, from that time to the present, and in any part of the United Kingdom, the same version, without a single interruption, has continued to be the Bible of Great Britain and Ireland, or wherever the language is spoken." The indefatigable author traces the downward course of the Stuarts; arguing that the unfriendliness of that dynasty to the Bible accelerated the Revolution. He then follows the English Bible across the Atlantic; showing how, in this respect, it has been distinguished above all other European versions. Fathers" carried their Bible with them. The home authorities restrained the Transatlantic press for more than a century and a half; but, at length, the matchless book was printed in America without the permission of Britain. The singular fact is implied, that "from the reign of James I. down to that of the eighth Sovereign in succession, or the 22d year of George III., was the divine record in English uniformly carried all the way across the Atlantic! Eliot's Bible, for the North American Indians, came from a press which was not allowed to issue a Bible for the primary use of that apostolic Missionary. Equally remarkable is it, that "the first Bible in any European language, printed in our own America, was in German.” But contemporaneous with the acknowledgment here of American independence, was the printing of the English Scriptures in Philadelphia. The " “Pilgrim In glancing at the last sixty years, we are reminded of the observation of the accomplished Guizot on the moral distinction of the British people from the rest of Europe, analogous to their physical insulation. In one of Mr. Anderson's paragraphs there is a good deal of information, bearing on this point. The history of Britain, in connexion with the Scriptures, we have already given; and, in this comparison, let all justice be done to her potent neighbour (France). There was a time, in the 16th century, when France bade fair to have followed in the same career. Like England, and especially Scotland, she was highly favoured from without. In the course of only fifty years, or from 1550 to 1600, there were printed not fewer than 98 editions of the French Bible, and 59 of the New Testament separately. Again, when in 1600 Lertourt had printed his edition in folio, it was followed by 35 editions in various sizes, besides 56 separate editions of the New Testament. To these we may add 36 editions of the Catholic version, and 74 of the New Testament, from 1600 to 1700. Here, then, of the Scriptures in the French tongue, we have not fewer than three hundred and fifty-eight distinct issues from the press! O what an affecting retrospect, if all this was not to prevail! if all this was to be resisted from within the kingdom at large! For of these 358 editions, not fewer than 205 had been printed, not in France, but chiefly at Geneva on the one hand, and at Amsterdam on the other. Yet so it happened; for then came the reign of Louis XIV., with a brilliancy of a far different character. Were any one to take the hundred years which preceded his being declared of age in 1651, and compare it with the century which followed his death in 1715, few historical contrasts would be more striking. In the former, we should see the truth of God combatting superstition, and promising, if only let alone, to make the vine-covered hills of France rejoice in the possession of the true Vine: in the latter would be seen but little or nothing else save infidelity, undisguised and unblushing, in frantic rage against divine truth itself. (Vol. ii., pp. 576, 577.) Mr. Anderson briefly reviews the French history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For the love of the Bible, myriads of exiles fled in these fearful times from the country; but it was consistent that despotism should stand out in visible hostility to the truth which makes an instructed nation free. The reaction all Europe knows; and to little profit has he read, who has not learned the lesson to which we have once before referred, and which has been elegantly expressed to the effect "that science may flourish amid the decay of humanity, and that the utmost barbarity may be blended with the utmost refinement." Terrible was the struggle of Atheism for a perfection and satisfaction of man's making. For more than half a century, the long-suffering "Prince of the kings of the earth" endured the blasphemies of Voltaire, and the consequent surge of unbelief and crime. "Before the Revolution of 1792, the promoters of infidelity in France are stated to have raised among themselves, and spent, a sum equal to nine hundred thousand pounds in one year,-nay, again and again,—in purchasing, printing, and dispersing books, to corrupt the minds of the people, and prepare them for desperate measures!" The effect was seen in the length and breadth of the land. Ferocity was unchecked by the snow-white locks of age, the tears of beauty, the sensibilities of genius, or the appeals of virtue. Britain and her colonies heard the "confused noise" of the battle; and, if they saw not in their verdant plains the garments rolled in blood," the shock was still felt. Scepticism made her fiercest assaults; and, though the Gorgon was marked for final defeat and ruin, it is piercing to think of the victims that her malign glance meanwhile rendered "as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.” "Not only was the baneful influence felt in America; but even in India, almost all Europeans were of the infidel school. There, said Sir James Mackintosh, every form of religion was tolerated, except the Christian!"" The great point is,-The French people had not read the Bible, as the English had done. Not only had our sceptics, from Lord Herbert to Paine, been met on the field of argument; but THE PEOPLE knew the Book which was unscrupulously assailed. Multitudes had tasted honey; and they were not to be beguiled, by any phantasm of infidel chymistry, into a denial of its sweetness. And most opportunely the spirit of Christian charity was awakened. It was the result-whether so represented by annalists or not-of a great revival of pure religion. (On this point, we regret a defect of information in Mr. Anderson's pages; but to mention it is enough, though we are very far from allowing the accuracy of his general view of the eighteenth century.) The Naval and Military Bible Society arose in 1780. Ten years later, a number of individuals, chiefly in London, formed the "French Bible Society;" but their plan was soon VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES. 2 T frustrated by the Revolutionary war. After a little more than another decade, a nobler design opens to view. CAREY gives the sacred book to India. An aggressive Christianity stands forth. The Missionary conscience awakes. To China is given the consecrated toil of Marshman, and MORRISON, and MILNE. Early in the present century arises the British and Foreign Bible Society; the occasion being the scarcity of Welsh Scriptures in the Principality. And fragrant, in generations yet unborn, must be the names of CHARLES of Bala, and HUGHES of Battersea. The Bible Societies have expended much more than three millions sterling ;— two-thirds of the amount upon the Scriptures in the languages of the British Isles. Mr. Anderson hails the late reduction of prices, and urges a nation professing godliness to give the Bible to A WORLD. We most willingly echo the appeal. To Protestant nations the work is clearly committed. It is vain to look for an altered policy in Romanism. Those who have cherished this hope, because of recent indications of other progress in the States of the Church, have had their benevolent credulity rebuked by the recent encyclical letter, which shows Pius IX. in the true succession. But among Reformed nations, our own ought to be preeminent in zeal and love. As if to encourage us, peace prevails, and commerce opens a thousand doors. For Britain the East and the West are collecting their treasures; while her scientific sons are exploring every land, and her white sails swelling on every sea. British skill has annulled distance; and British conquest, in extent if not in swiftness, has surpassed the flight of the Roman eagle, and the terrors of the Arabian scimitar. Let British Christianity call to the common standard the hosts of " ONE UNDIVIDED CHRIST,"-point them to the wide field of conflict,—and tell the faint-hearted of those "elders" who, in other days, "escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." SELECT LIST OF BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED, [The insertion of any article in this List is not to be considered as pledging us to the approbation of its contents, unless it be accompanied by some express notice of our favourable opinion. Nor is the omission of any such notice to be regarded as indicating a contrary opinion; as our limits, and other reasons, impose on us the necessity of selection and brevity.] Epistles to the Few; being a Real Correspondence. Vols. I. and II. Epistles to the Few; on the First Book of Moses. Vol. III. 18mo. pp. 139; v, 145; xxvi, 101. Harvey and Darton.There are certainly many good things in these volumes; and, ordinarily, these are based on evangelical principles, though sometines mistily expressed. But very much is obscure, and therefore tending to no profit, as referring to the particular circumstances of the writers or their correspondents. It may be that all would be profitable as well as clear, were these circumstances known; but as this |