may be entirely unacquainted with the subject, that it was no New Irish Version which the Society printed, but the Received Version of Archbishop Daniel, or O'Donnell. This work Mr. M'Quige was employed to edit; but his instructions were, to adhere strictly to the text as he found it, except in case of typographical errors. And, when he afterwards pointed out some passages in which he thought a change necessary, these instructions were repeated and confirmed to him; and he was informed, that if any such change should be indeed found, by competent judges, to be absolutely needful, they should be inserted in a separate page, at the end; but into the text itself no innovations whatever were to be introduced. Whether any, or what misconduct, was charged against this Editor, by the Wesleyan Methodists, I cannot ascertain; but this is certain, that it was by one of the most distinguished Members of the Wesleyan Body, Dr. Adam Clarke, that he was introduced to the Committee of the Bible Society: nor has any complaint been brought against him since he was so introduced to them, though he has been laboring in the work of the Society, as will presently appear, in close connexion with Gentlemen of the highest respectability in Ireland.

But it is stated, that the Members of the Irish Society in Dublin passed a Resolution, five years since, expressing their conviction that "material and very numerous errors exist in the Irish Version of the New Testament edited by the British and Foreign Bible Society." This matter requires a full and distinct explanation.

And first, the Resolution in question ought to be given at length. It will thence appear, that there was no intention, even in the very outset, to impute wilful carelessness to the Bible Society, or, in fact, any fault into which other Societies might not be equally liable to fall.

Copy of Resolutions passed in the Committee of the Irish Society in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 22, 1822.

66 RESOLVED, (on a Motion by John Leslie Foster, Esq. Vice-President, seconded by the Right Hon. St. George Daly, Vice-President)—

"That, after full inquiry, we feel satisfied that material and very numerous errors exist in the Irish Version of the New Testament edited by the British and Foreign Bible Society; and that we are not without apprehensions that the Translation which, we are informed, is in progress under the direction of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge may eventually prove liable to similar objections. That it further appears to us, that Bedell's and Daniel's Version of the Scriptures into the Irish Language (now out of print) is, with comparatively few and unimportant exceptions, a literal and faithful translation, and which has been received with approbation for nearly 140 years; and that the only course which we can recommend to this Society, is, to adopt the Translation of Bedell and Daniel, subject to such specific corrections as may be proposed and adopted by this VOL. XXVIII.

Pam.

NO. LVI.

2 A

Society, and which this Society will not in any case be disposed to adopt without being first convinced of an absolute necessity for so doing.

"H. C. SIRR, Chairman.

"RESOLVED

JOHN L. FOSTER.
ST. GEORGE DALY.

"That this opinion of this Society be respectfully communicated to the British and Foreign Bible Society, and to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, accompanied by the expression of our anxious desire to assist those Societies in the editing of the Irish Scriptures, by undertaking the task of revision and correction on the principle above referred to, in case it should be the wish of those Societies to have recourse to us for this purpose. JOHN L. FOSTER. ST. GEORGE DALY."

"H. C. SIRR, Chairman.

The Testament here referred to, differed in one important respect from the first edition, which has been already mentioned as edited by Mr. M'Quige :—that was in the Roman, this in the Irish Character: and on various points occurring in the use of that character, as to orthography, the use of aspirates, and similar matters, it is known that difference of opinion exists among Irish Scholars.

An intimation had been received by the Committee of the Bible Society, before the passing of the above Resolution, that the Irish Society would furnish them, if desired, with a List of Errata which had been observed in the Irish Testament then in circulation. In consequence, the Assistant Secretary of the Irish Society was immediately requested to furnish such a List of Errata, before a new edition, which had just been ordered, should be put to press; from which edition a grant of 5000 copies had been already voted, for the use of the Irish Society. This took place in Sept. 1822; and in November, a copy of the Resolution above quoted was received in London. Now the Version already adopted was the very same as that recommended by the Irish Society in their Resolution; and all that could be done, therefore, was still to continue the suspension on printing the new edition, till the proposed List of Errata, or some statement of the corrections required, should arrive. Nothing further, however, having been heard on the subject, and applications for the Irish Scriptures being urgent, the Committee were at length induced, in May 1823, to order 2000 copies to be printed off, from the same stereotype plates as the former edition, for a temporary supply.

On the 6th June a Letter, of which the following is an Extract, was written by H. J. Monck Mason, Esq., Secretary to the Irish Society :

"SIR,

"Irish Society, 16, Sackville Street, Dublin, 6th June, 1823. "The Committee of the Irish Society having reason to suppose that any inquiry respecting the correctness of the Stereotype Edition of the New Testament in the Irish Language, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, is likely to take up some time-and fearing that the great demand for the

book which now exists in this country will very soon exhaust the stock of copies at present in their hands-have determined to request of your Society to cause immediately to be printed an edition equal to the amount of the grant so kindly voted by them to the Irish Society.

"They are strongly induced to urge this to your Committee, because they think, that, in the present promising state of things, it would be the worst of all evils were the efforts of this Institution to be checked in any way, especially by the want of the Holy Scriptures.

"To the Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society."

The following is from the Rev. J. D'Arcy Sirr, also one of the Secretaries of the Irish Society :

-!

"Dublin Castle, August 12, 1823.

" MY LORD, "A generous grant of 5000 Testaments was made to us, we understand, long since. One thousand has been received: two more, we now hear, have been ordered to be struck off. But why suffer us to languish for these tardy driblets? Why defraud the longing aborigines of this island, many of them daily dropping into eternity, of the important residue? My Lord, I may speak strongly, but the case is most affecting. Our countrymen are imploring us for the Records of Salvation, but we are compelled to dole them out with the most distressing parsimony. We have often expressed our gratitude for the assistance you have already rendered us: nothing can efface the sense of it: I only wish to have it deepened. "To the Right Hon. Lord Teignmouth."

"J. D'ARCY SIRR." After these appeals from the very quarter from whence alone any complaints respecting the Irish Testament had been received, there appeared to the Committee no reason for further delay; and it was finally Resolved, on Oct. 6, 1823

"That the edition of 2000 Copies of the Irish New Testament, in the Irish Character, now in the press, be augmented to 11,000; making the whole number printed, including former editions, 20,000 Copies."

On the 14th November 1823, Mr. Mason forwarded a collation of the first ten pages of the Irish Testament, made by Edward O'Reilly, Esq. author of the Irish Dictionary. It appeared, on examination of this collation, that of thirty-five variations in the Society's Testament from the edition of 1685 with which it had been collated, twenty eight were allowed to be unnecessary, or, at least, immaterial; and the remaining seven only are disapproved of by Messrs. Mason and O'Reilly. And on the 9th of January 1824, Mr. Mason writes again, urging "every possible expedition" in preparing the edition of the New Testament from which the grant to the Irish Society was to be supplied, and making no further mention of corrections.

The edition was completed accordingly, and put into circulation; and the Irish Society received the number granted to them. They have since received other large supplies, but no further complaint of any errors has been heard.

But we shall better show both the caution with which the Committee of the Bible Society have acted, and their friendly connexion

with the members of the Irish Society, by proceeding a little further with the history of their Irish Editions.

In the autumn of 1823, they resolved on another undertaking— the reprinting of Bishop Bedell's Version of the whole Bible, in the native character as well as language. In order, then, to guard against errors in this work, and to prevent the reproduction of those that might be found in the edition of the New Testament, fresh precautions were taken. Mr. McQuige was to be the acting editor; but he was placed under the superintendence of a Committee of Revisors, to whose examination his proof-sheets, with all corrections and changes, were to be submitted. This Committee consisted of the Rev. R. Daly, Vicar of Powerscourt; J. Leslie Foster, Esq. M. P., and Messrs. H. J. Monck Mason, Robert Newenham, and Edward Hoare.-These Gentlemen have sedulously attended to their task; and on the 4th of June last (1827) Mr. Daly writes :

"I have great pleasure in informing you of the OLD TESTAMENT having been completed. The press is now employed on the NEW. My soul praises God for this mercy."

No objection has been made by any of these Gentlemen to acting in concert with Mr. M'Quige: their intercourse with him, they say, has throughout been "satisfactory."

And as we find that the New Testament is now passing through the press under their own inspection, there cannot surely be a doubt that the errors of which they complained, whatever they might be, will be effectually removed.

Finally, it is this very Testament, be it observed, against which the complaints were made, that has been in so wide circulation during these last years in Ireland; and the reading of which has so powerfully contributed, under the Divine Blessing, to stir up that mighty movement in the minds of men which is now taking place there.

Having thus gone through the charges relating to the Welsh and Irish Versions, we come to those that refer to the Translations "PRINTED FOR THE FIRST TIME under the auspices of the Committee in Earl Street."

And here, while the Reviewer "lays it down as a general principle, admitting of very rare, if of any, exceptions, that the Translator of the Sacred Writings ought to possess a critical acquaintance with the original, together with an intimate and vernacular knowledge of the language intowhich he engages to translate them,"

'The Bible, as well as the New Testament, had already been printed by the Bible Society in the Roman Character.

he says that, "in the execution of all the Versions which have been printed for the first time under the auspices of the Committee of the Bible Society, principles have been allowed to prevail, for which we can discover no precedent in the annals of any previous Translations."«The Translators," for instance, in one case at least, are uneducated men, totally unacquainted with the original languages of the Scriptures, and having a knowledge of the language into which they translate, which their eulogists can only venture to call 'pretty complete.'-"For any thing we can see," he says in another place, "the case stands thus: from whatever quarter new Translations may be offered, they are immediately accepted and printed, without any satisfactory evidence of the competency of the individuals by whom they have been executed."

Now here, from my own experience and from recorded facts, I will venture to assert, that the principles on which the Committee have uniformly acted, have been these:-that it is most desirable and most important to get a Translation made directly from the Hebrew and Greek Originals, when men can be found able to make such a Translation; but that, when such men cannot be found, it is better, FAR BETTER, to publish among a people merely the Version of a Version, than to leave them in utter ignorance of the Word of God: provided always, that the Version so produced should either have undergone a revision by some person acquainted with the Originals; or, in extreme cases, as those of the NorthAmerican Indian Languages, where it is impossible to obtain such a revision, that it should be certified, on the best testimony that may be had, to be a faithful Transcript of the Version that it professes to follow.

These principles are not "new." Let us see how the pious Bishop Bedell obtained that Irish Version, which, as we have seen, is in use to this very day. The statement is taken from the "Acta Eruditorum" of Leipsic, for the year 1686:

"Statuerat (Wilh. Bedell) Bibliorum Hibernicorum, quibus hactenùs caruerant, copiam facere hujus regni incolis; ac hinc licet neminem indipisci posset qui præter hunc sermonem, Hebraïcum etiam calleret, Hibernum tamen quendam, King dictum, qui exactè simul Anglicam linguam noverat, incitavit, ut sacrum codicem ex Anglicâ saltem Versione Hibernicè redderet. Interpretationem indè partam Bedellus postea studiosè recensendam sibi sumpsit, collatis insimul cum Anglicâ Versione,Textu Hebraico, LXX. Interpretibus, et translatione Italicâ Diodati. Cùm verò opus ad umbilicum perductum jamque typis exscribendum esset, tunc quidem per invidas quorundam æmulorum machinationes repressum est, criminantium ejus autorem hominem simplicem et abjectum esse, quique adeò labori huic par esse haud potuerit. Exemplar tamen istius translationis naufragio seditionis supra dictæ ereptum, jam sumptibus Dni Boyle sub prelo sudare narratur."

"William Bedell had resolved to furnish the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Ireland with the Bible in the Irish Language, which they had never yet possessed. And though he could find no one who was acquainted with this