NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WITH respect to Reviews, a single word is to be said. It is so painful to give pain unnecessarily, that as the publication of very dull or even weak books, when they have nothing wrong in principle, does no harm to any one but the author, it is often thought the better course to pass them sub silentio, than to wound the feelings of perhaps very worthy men by exposing them to ridicule. Again, it is very true that, in most cases, the Reviews in a Magazine must be very brief, but in most cases also, they are long enough, if they state the object of the book, and give a simple opinion on its merits. For example, out of twenty treatises on the Evidences, probably not one contains a single original view; and the only question is, whether the matter is ill or well arranged, which can be as well said in three lines as in three pages. An author would naturally like to see many pages allotted to his work, but other persons have no interest in it. In the leading Reviews, the review of a work is in fact a general essay on the subject of it. That, of course, is out of the question in a Magazine.

The Editor regrets his inability to give insertion to the Paper by Mr. Hamilton on the Established Church, from its great length.

The following are received:-" Presbyter of the church of England," "A Layman,” "Tarpa,' "Cler. Vet. Com. Ox." (The Editor regrets that there will be no space for some months for papers on Prophecy.) "E. T.,” Tig Tivi, "One of the Old School," "Renewal, not Reform," "Academicus," "A. H.," "C. S.,” “Phylax,” (Could Phylax get the charities in the other part of Kent?) "A Constant Reader,"

A paper on the Establishment, from the neighbourhood of Stamford, shall be used. It ought to have been acknowledged before.

The Leeds Intelligencer states that 21237. 17s. 71⁄2d. are subscribed to the Infirmary there by churchmen, and 505l. 17s. by dissenters. This should be pursued through all the institutions there and in other places.

The following copy of a Parochial or District Petition against the Dissenters' claims, in general circulation, in which some of the necessary reasonings on the matter are embodied, has just been sent to the Magazine, and this, with the short form given above, will probably supply to all classes of persons wishing to petition, suitable modes of effecting their object:

TO THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL, &c. &c.

WE, the undersigned, beg leave most respectfully to approach your Lordships for the purpose of imploring your protection for the national church. We are reluctantly compelled to appeal to your Lordships by the very numerous petitions which have of late been presented to both Houses of Parliament by dissenters of almost all denominations, complaining of the public establishment of religion by law, in some cases directly demanding its subversion, and in all requiring such relief from certain alleged grievances, as necessarily involve it. Firmly believing that, without such an establishment, the blessings and the obligations of religion would be soon lost to vast masses of the people, we earnestly call on your Lordships not to give ear to the prayer of those petitioners who seek its overthrow. We unfeignedly deplore the necessity we are under of farther requesting your Lordships to withhold from our fellow-subjects any portion of the relief which they desire. We shall gladly see every concession made to them which can consist with the existence and the wellbeing of the national church-with the maintenance of the rights of conscience and the rights of property. But we are compelled to stop at this point; and, where concession cannot be made without manifest peril to these high and paramount objects, it becomes a duty to implore your Lordships to resist all concession, and to uphold the national church in the possession of those rights and privileges which it enjoys for the public good.

In this spirit then, my Lords, we shall gladly hail the introduction of a system of registration on a basis purely civil, such as may afford security to all classes of our fellowsubjects, whilst it removes all feeling of grievance amongst our dissenting brethren. We claim for the church, on this head, no right, except that which is inherent in every society, of registering such acts as concern its own members and ministers.

In like manner, although we have a lively dread of the evils likely to arise from the public treatment of marriage otherwise than as a religious ordinance of the most sacred character, yet, as members of the church of England, we desire for it no power of interposing its ministers or its services but for the benefit of those who seek them at its hands. And we shall be ready to receive, as a measure of relief to it equally with the dissenters, its release from the obligation to take part in the marriages of any others. In the wisdom of Parliament, therefore, we unreservedly confide for the enactment of such provisions as may preserve from violation the consciences of the ministers and members of the church, and

may secure the safe transmission of property in families; and may ward off, as far as civil measures can effect that object, the evils which must arise from affording facilities to the formation of hasty and clandestine connexions, or to the ready dissolution of a bond so sacred as marriage.

But, my Lords, the next point is one on which we find it impossible to shew a like spirit of concession. The question of church-rates, we humbly submit to your Lordships, is a vital one, and cannot be yielded without giving up the question of a national establishment altogether. This is felt by large portions of the dissenters equally with your present petitioners, as they have repeatedly stated that it is not by the amount of the levy, but by the principle on which is it made, that they are aggrieved. It is indisputable, my Lords, we respectfully submit, that church-rates are not a charge on dissenters as such, not even a charge on persons at all, but a rent charge upon property itself, (older, by centuries, than the title to any estate on which it falls;) and that, whilst the rights of property are sacred, it will be impossible to afford relief to the property held by the dissenter at the expense of an increased rate upon the property of the churchman, however advisable it may be to afford the dissenter, who may reasonably be somewhat jealous on the subject, satisfaction as to the faithful application of money so raised.

We are compelled, in like manner, to protest against the demand for licence to dissenting ministers to officiate in church-yards at the funerals of members of their own sects. The church-yards were (with a number of exceptions too small to deserve notice), given by the piety of individuals; and, no less than the churches themselves, consecrated for the exclusive use and practice of the ceremonial of the national church. As dissenters, too, not only may have, but actually have their own burial grounds, we cannot conceive that they labour under any practical grievance; while the introduction of dissenting ministers into church-yards is, not only a serious invasion of our rights, but must obviously cause constant collision and farther alienation between churchmen and dissenters.

Lastly, we feel bound to express our alarm at the claim preferred for the introduction of dissenters, as such, into the Universities, a measure which must assuredly have the deplorable result of destroying every thing like religious education. We are firmly persuaded that young men of the same age, under the same circumstances, and often engaged in a contest for the same distinctions, cannot be subjected to different courses of discipline, and that consequently the permission given to dissenters to withdraw from religious instruction and worship must shortly lead, by certain consequence, to the exempting churchmen also from the wholesome restraints, and depriving them of the signal blessings of religious education, to the deep and bitter regret of every Christian parent. We feel ourselves also bound to state that the endowments of the various colleges in the Universities were given (whether by Romanists or Protestants), for the exclusive use of the national church, and that consequently the admission of dissenters to degrees, which would inevitably be followed by their participation in these endowments, would be at once to affect the rights of property, by altering the intentions of the founders; and the safety of the church, by robbing it of funds expressly dedicated to its advancement.

For these reasons, we earnestly beseech your Lordships to resist the several demands made with respect to the abolition of church-rates, the access to church-yards, and the admission of dissenters to the Universities, and to preserve to our church those immunities and privileges with respect to these important objects, which cannot be taken from it without seriously impairing its strength and its welfare, and thereby inflicting a proportionate injury on the country at large.

And your petitioners &c. &c.

A similar petition (mutatis mutandis) may be used to the House of Commons. The petition need not be on parchment, and may be sent in covers, with the ends open, to any Peer or county or city Member, free of expense, by the General Post.

One name at least must be on the same paper as the Petition.

ERRATA IN THE NUMBER FOR MARCH.

-that T.

Page 283, line 14, for "gave no other; that T. Beza," read "gave no otherBeza;" substituting a line of suspension for the semicolon. P. 284, top and also at 1. 19, for Sectiones read Lectiones. P. 285, note, l. 14 from the bottom, for Cor read loc. P. 283, 1. 8, for corum read locum.

In the CLERICAL APPOINTMENTS, for Predergrast read Prendergast. Mr. Sheepshanks is elected from Grammar School Pimlico, to Grammar School Coventry.

In the PREFERMENTS:-W. Cooke, Bromyard V., for Bishop of Hereford, Patron, read the Portionists. Joseph Dudley, Marston P. C., read Co. Hereford, Dioc. Hereford-R. of Pencomb, Patron.

In this country, most people know only the outside of the Jewish nation. They see or hear only of two classes-rich Jews and poor Jews. When a rich Jew is named, they think of the funds; and at the mention of a poor Jew, oranges, pencils, old clothes, &c., are generally the associated ideas. The continental traveller soon makes a different classification. He finds, in the language of Christians, enlightened (aufgeklärte) Jews, and bigots; or, in the phraseology of the Jews themselves, old-fashioned and newfashioned Jews (altmodische und neumodische Juden.) The epithet bigot, in modern times so fearful, may deter many an one from inquiring farther concerning the class upon whom it is bestowed. But the quiet and impartial observer soon discovers that the term bigot, when applied to Jews, means nothing more dreadful than it often does when used among Christians. It simply signifies a man who thinks that his forefathers had some wit and knowledge too; and that wisdom is not one of the inventions of the nineteenth century. That which continental Gentiles call a bigoted Jew is, as the Jews rightly express it, an old-fashioned, or, in other words, a Rabbinical Jew.

From the dispersion to the latter end of the last century, Rabbinism prevailed universally amongst the Jewish nation, with the exception of the one small sect of the Karaites. If asked to give a concise, yet adequate, idea of this system, I should say, it is Jewish popery: just as popery may be defined to be Gentile Rabbinism. Its distinguishing feature is, that it asserts the transmission of an oral or traditional law of equal authority with the written law of God. And, as it is most minute in its details, and altogether immutable in its decisions, it has made the intellectual and moral state of all those who receive it

One more letter of Bp. Horsley's is reserved, for want of space, till the July No. VOL. V.-June, 1834. 40

almost stationary; so that a rabbinical jew of the present day, as he exists in Poland or Palestine, conveys a tolerably accurate idea of what the Jews were centuries ago. It is true that the variation of the national fortunes, and the rise of such men as Jarchi and Maimonides, has had considerable influence in modifying or directing the studies and dogmas of the people; but any one, who has had much opportunity of observation, will find a striking resemblance between the habits of mind described in the New Testament and those now general amongst the Rabbinical Jews. Acute, subtle, disputatious, with a profound love of learning, and an uncontrollable energy in the pursuit of knowledge-such is their general character. Any one who has travelled through Poland, and has known enough of Hebrew and Jewish to inquire into the state of the Jews, will readily admit that they are an educated and highly intellectual people. It is true that they are altogether ignorant of Greek and Latin literature, and consider it a sin to learn any modern language. But a nation which has a learned language besides the vernacular dialect, an extensive literature in that language, and which studies that learned language almost universally, so that it is a rare thing to meet a Jew, however forlorn and destitute, who cannot read it fluently, and understand it at least a little,-such a nation must be regarded as an educated and intellectual people.

It is true they can make no pretension to Belles Lettres. The vernacular dialect of the Polish Jews is still what was formerly the language of the whole class of German Jews, and is now called Jewish (Jüdisch). Half-a-century ago it was commonly called Jewish-German (Jüdisch-Teutsch); but this latter term now signifies good German, printed in Jewish characters; whereas Jewish is ancient German, mixed up with Hebrew and Rabbinical; and, in Poland, with a small addition of Polish. All the theological terms are Hebrew or Rabbinical; many of the names of household implements, and not a few imprecations and terms of abuse, are Polish. It is not an uncommon thing to hear the three languages in one short sentence-as, iach gei die Beheimos umpoiyin," I am going to water the cattle." Beheimos (behemoth) is Hebrew; umpoiyin is of Polish extraction; the rest is German. This dialect, though very free from rules of grammar, and uncertain as to its orthography, possesses a tolerably extensive literature, which forms the lecture of the Jewesses and ammaratzin* or unlearned Jews. Prayers, poems, dramas, legends, commentaries, and extracts from the Rabbinical writings, have been published in this dialect. Athias also published the Old Testament complete in the Jewish character; but the

Amhoretz and its plural, ammaratzin, are taken from the Hebrew, am haaretz, "people of the land;" and is, amongst the learned Jews, a term of great reproach.

language approximates so nearly to good German, that this translation has never become general in Poland. The New Testament, Pentateuch, Isaiah, &c. have been published by the London Society in the Polish-Jewish dialect. The favourite book is R. Jacob's Commentary on the Pentateuch and Haphtoroth, or weekly portions of the prophets, usually known by the title Tsennorennah, or the Weiber Chumash, the women's Pentateuch. This book, which is a compilation of all that is absurd and marvellous in Rabbinical lore, furnishes the Sabbath reading for the female Jewish population; and shews, on every page, the low state of religious knowledge amongst the Rabbinical Jewesses. If the Biblical citations were taken away, it might be classed with "Tom Thumb" or "Jack the Giant-killer." As it stands, it appears to the Christian reader as the most inconceivable mixture of absurdity and gravity. But, after all, though the female part of the Jewish community be neglected, the Rabbinical Jews must still be regarded as an educated people. Double attention is bestowed upon the male children. Almost every Jewish boy learns to read and translate the five Books of Moses. If he be an orphan or poor, either the congregation or some benevolent individuals voluntarily supply the means. There was some years ago, in a town on the continent, a Jewish tailor, who devoted all that he could save or spare to the one object of educating destitute children. He made it his business to seek for them, and paid a Melammed, or teacher, to instruct them. No doubt the popish idea of the merit of good works, and the superstitious notion, that, if a child cannot repeat a certain prayer in the synagogue, the soul of the deceased parent remains in purgatory, have great influence in procuring the careful instruction of Jewish boys. But this does not affect the plain matter of fact, that the greatest reproach that can be cast upon a Rabbinical Jew is, that he neglects the education of his children. Poverty does not present the same bar that it does in this country. There are, amongst the Jews, whole hosts of Melammedim, or school-masters, whose terms are very low; and who, though poor themselves, are never hard upon their poor brethren touching the matter of payment. In the class above the very poor, some five or six fathers of families club together to pay a Melammed; and those who can at all afford it keep a private tutor in their own family. A Jew, with one-quarter of the means possessed by our middling trades-people, would be sure to have a private tutor. His wants and those of his family are few. The Jew is, in general, temperate, or rather abstemious. In fact, no nation indulges less in luxury, or practises self-denial more than the Jews. Their clothing, furniture, and food, are much plainer than that considered absolutely necessary by Christians in the same rank of life. They can, therefore, afford to expend more upon what they justly think more important-the education