The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-05 00:00:00

THAMES.

Philip Dicke, a lad in the service of Mr. Moses Dehaus,
cigar maker. of No. Zl, Mile-end-road, Stepney, was
brought before Mr. Paget, charged with stealing twelve
cigars, the property of his master.
On Saturday evening the cigars were found upon the
prisoner after he had denied having them.
Mr. Paget committed the prisoner for trial.
lied Menab, known as the " Fire King," came to this
court for the purpose of publicly contradicting certain
statements made by Mrs. Rel Menab, his wife, that he had
not supported her and his children, and that he was about
to leave the country. He said he had maintained his wife
and family by a former husband to the full extent of his
means, and that he had forwarded 21. Is. in post-office
orders since the HU of last month. He did not intend to
leave England.

THE TALMUD.

(From the Guardian.)

•
A few years ago a strange story that had in it an
air of Eastern allegory found its way into the papers. A
fortunate searcher for antiquities, breaking into • cave on
the Spanish coast, was astonished to behold the antique
Phomician miners still at their work. There were the
hi-wired figures, the uncouth dresses, the sound of the lost
language, the noise of the active picks. But with the ex-
plorer came in the light and air of day, and the busy
workers at once seemed to crumble into dust. The author
of the truly momentous article, Talmud, in the Quarterly,
carries us into a world buried more deeply still of old learn-
ing, belief, life, and manners in Palestine and Babylon ; but
as we look at the venerable picture of these old workers in
the mines of truth, wondering that it has been so long
shut out in its strange cave from the face of the day, the
more we gaze the brighter glows the scene, the more distinct
and more intelligible grow the voices, till they speak a
language known to us, and instead of destruction, life
springs up before us, instinct with light and colour.
People talk, indeed, of the Talmud fluently enough.
Itenan, who considers himself a Semitic scholar, denied
that there is a single manuscript of the Talmud, pro-
bably not having even looked in the catalogue of the
Paris library, of which he was at that time a keeper.
A learned reviewer speaks of its 90 volumes. Such igno-
rance may almost be forgiven when we see the vast
labour that is evident in this article ; an article which is
in itself a cyalopiedia of erudition, save for the thrilling
charm of its eloquence. But we shall not approach
it with prase. The general voice not only of
the learned, bat of thinking people, has already
—in a week—pronounced a verdict that leaves
far behind all ordinary and extraordinary terms
of admiration. At once, then, we pass to the two
questions that most men are already putting—What is
the Talmud? and what is the relation of the Talmud to
Christianity ? The first question is indeed put end
answered by the whole Quarterly article, which, beginning
from the minutest germs, causes this vast creation to rise
up before us until it becomes like the fabulous Indian tree
—a
forest in itself—laden with blossoms and fruit.. But
we must briefly answer this very question in the most re-
stricted sense, to explain the direct importance of the
second. The Talmud is the literature of the Jews for a
thousand years, including all the elements of Babylonian,
Persian, Greek, and Roman culture. Though not written
till after the New Testament, it is virtually intermediate
between it and the Old Testament. It tell, us all
that the Jews thought and did during the most important
period of their history, for—and here we come at
once to the second question—it is the great commentary
by which we may explain the New Testament. How such
• commentary has come to be so long neglected is simply a
mystery and a marvel, and we hope that Canon Cooke and
the other twenty-nine contributors to the authorised one,
I so long promised, will be shut up each in his study, with
the Talmud before him—supposing he could rend it—for
at leak seven years to come.
We have said the relation of the Talmud to the New
Testament is that of a commentary. This does not pre-
cisely explain the relation of Talmudism to Christianity.
The book is an undesigned commentary, the system is •
collateral support, allthe stronger because inde-
pendent. In the Talmud we find the noble
ethics of Christianity. Ceremonies, which in them-
selves were only considered the outward frame of
the " Faith of the Heart," are already put in the
background and moral duties pat in the front. The mar-
riage relation is exalted at once to the lofty elevation of
chivalry and the idyllic simplicity of Puritanism. The
social condition of the modern Jews, in their family life
Westerns among Westerns, but also Westerns among
Eastern.., a most noteworthy but hitherto unnoticed fact,
is now explained, and explained for the first time. "It
is the glory of Christianity to have carried those golden
germs, bidden in the schools and among the ' silent com-
munity' of the learned, into the market of Humanity."
To us the discovery that Christian philosophy is not in-
debted to Plate, that Christian morality is not a product
of the Germanic races, and that there is en unbroken
continuity between the Gospel and the Law, the Law our
Saviour came not to destroy but to fulfil, that the
Apostles lived, that St. Paul himself admired when it was
considered in its moral side, the side the Talmud emphati-
cally prefers to the ceremonial, a truth the weaker minds
could never see—to us this grand discovery,or rather series
of discoveries, is nothing less then a linking together of the
two dispensations at the time when they seemed furthest
asunder.

~Lea
ving with reluctance the almost countless topics of
this marvellous article, we will only support what we have
said by some short citations, which, short though they
are, must strike • chord within those who read the Bib!e
with an understanding heart : " Be thou the cursed, not
he who curses. Be of them that are persecuted, not of them
that persecute. He who sacrifices • whole offering shall be
rewarded fora whole offering ;he who offers 'burnt offering
shall have the reward of • burnt offering ; but he who
offers humility onto God and man shall be rewarded with
• reward as if he bad offered all the sacrifices in the world.
Even when the gates of prayer are shut in heaven, those
of tears are open. Prayer is Israel's only. weapon, a wea-
pon inherited from its fathers, • weapon tried in a thousand
battles. When the righteous dies it is the earth that
loses. The lost jewel will always be a jewel, but the pos-
sessor who has lost it—well may he weep. Love your
wife like yourself, honour her more than yourself. Who-
soever lives without marriage lives without joy, without
comfort, without blessing. He who forsakes the love of
his youth, God's altar weeps for him. He who sees his
wife die before him has, as it were, been present at the
destruction of the sanctuary itself—around him the world
grows dark. It is woman alone through whom God's bless-
ings are vouchsafed to a house. She teaches the children,
speeds the hushandto the place of worship and instruction,
welcomes him when he returns, keels the home godly and
pure, and God's blessings rest on all these things."
Here we pause, having quoted in these few lines enough
to show our readers why the world is talking of the Tal-
mud, why they should hasten to muter the concentrated
exposition of it in the Quarterly Review. As we began so
we end, without presuming to praise., but we would boldly
say that here is an opportunity for the church, and a final
answer to those who, in their ignorance of the Sheinites,
make Judaism in its sublimeness the necessary product of
the Shemite mind, while it is an unexampled phenomenon
in Sheniitism, and in their ignorance of the Talmud make
Christianity, in its moral side, • product of the Iranian
mind. We have at last an answer and • rebuke to all
such trifling, and • positive beginning of that reconcilia-
tion for which all mankind has been yearning.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.—A special session
of the Central Criminal Court was held yesterday,
pursuant to the provisions of the Central Criminal Court
Act, for the purpose of fixing the days for holding the
sessions of the court for the ensuing twelve months, and
any other business that might have to be transacted. The
court was opened at five o'clock, and there were present
the Lord Mayor, who is the Chief Commissioner of the
Central Criminal Court, and Alderman Sir R. Carden.
The following judges also came upon the bench—Mr.
Justice Willes, Mr. Baron Bramwell, Mr. Baron Channel,
Mr. Justice Byles, Mr. Justice Keating, Mr. Justice Sties,
Mr. Justice Montagu Smith, Mr. Justice Lush, and Mr.
Baron Pigott. Mr. Avory, the clerk of the Central Criminal
Court, said it was ordered by the court that the days for
holding the sessions for the ensuing twelve months be as
follows :-1867—Monday, Nov. 18; Monday, Dec. 16.
1868—Monday, Jan. 6 ; Monday, Jan. 27 ; Monday, Feb.
24 ; Monday, April 6 ; Monday, May 4 ; Monday, June
8 ; Monday, July 6 ; Monday, August 17 ; Monday, Sept.
21; Monday, Oct. '26. Mr. Justice Wales having inquired
whether there was any other business to transact, and a
reply being given in the negative by Mr. Army, the
court was formally adjourned to Monday, Nov. 18.
ALLEGED WIFE MURDER IN LIVERPOOL.—At
the Liverpool Coroner's Court yesterday an inquest was
held on the body of Elizabeth Jackson, the wife of the
manager of a public-house in Rose-place, whose death was
alleged to have been caused by her husband's violence.
On the previous night, the barman of the prisoner WY
called downstairs from his bedroom, and then saw Mrs.
Jackson lying dead on the floor of the bar, with a frightful
gash upon her head, extending from the back of the skull
to the front. He called the prisoner, who pronounced his
wife dead, sad eked the barman to go for the police. The
bands and shirt of the husband of the deceased were
covered with blood, which be accounted for by saying that
it had come there whilst he was lifting up the dead body
of the deceased, who he said had fallen downstairs whilst
drunk. Ultimately the jury returned into court with a
verdict of "Died from injuries, but how received there
wee no evidence to show,"