The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-19 00:00:00

PRICES OF GRAIN IN GERMANY.

EAST FRIESLAND, SEPTEMBER &
We have now • pretty general view of the harvest in the corn
countries on the North Sea, from which it appears that on the whole
the harvest is much below an average crop, and that of oats worse
than it has been ter 50 Ilere, in East Frieshind, where, In
good years. 24,000 lasts of oats are got in, we have this year hardly
8,000. In the Dutch Provinces of Groningen and Friesland, oats,
in lake manner, are not more than one-third of the usual crop.
HAMHUROH, SEPTEMBER 14.
CORW-MARIET.—Wheat, for which 95 rix dollars were paid
last week, was offered to-day at 90, but the purchasers kept hack,
because the last English post did not bring any orders at higher
prices than those before tired, which were lower than our market
prices, and also because of the uncertainty respecting the result of
the harvest in Englai.d, and an expectation of supplies from the
Upper Elbe. The purthasers think they need not be in a hurry.
RTE.—In consequence of the accounts front England, and the
bringing of many old stocks into the market, the prices have fallen,
but there has been • good demand.
BAILEY.—But little doing. New barley, which is asked for, is
not in the market, and old will not fetch a higher price than oats.
OATlL—There are many purchasers at the reduced priers, and
very tine fur England fetches the following priers viz. :-3leckien-
burg oats, 85 •70 dollars; 1101 stem, 56 ;65 ; Lower Elite,
Danish, and East Freisland, 40 a 60. Peas t yellow) at 06 to 110
i vie dollars ; and beans (Dutch;, large and small, at 70 to 85, met
witb a brisk sale. _

H•PE-SEED.—Our supply is small; whet has lately arrived met
with a ready sale at 913 to 101 rix dollars.

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

The conduct of these Societies having latterly attracted
some notice, and, from the nature of the discussions which
have taken place, it being very probable that it will
become more prominently the subject of observation and
controversy, we make no apology for copying the following
remarks from the Montrose Chronicle.

APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSV.
Political reader, be not alarmed at t he words do the top of this
article, we are not to write a sermon ; but in discharging a public
duty we cannot pass, in silence, over this unhappy dispute. Un-
happy we say, because we deeply deplore its conseiptences. That
mighty moral engine, the British and Foreign Bible Society,
which stands without a rival in the annals of benevolence, has
ueen wounded, and we fear not slightly, in the contest. Like
the wain of mustard seed, from a very small beginning this in.
atitution sprung up, ana spread its cheering branches on every
side, offering a covering shelter to millions who stood in need of
its refreshing bounty. Uniting the energies of Christians of
every denomination, it has arisen like the morning sun to chase
away the dense clouds that have been fur ages gathering and
brooding over the intellectual vision of by far the greater portion
of mankind. Its unity was its strength ; and that unity is
now disturbed, and we fear it.* power will be shaken. Its great
strength lay in the acknowledged and approved foundation on
which it stood, • the circulation of the Bible without note or
comment." This was common ground; and an agreement upon
it, drew more Christian profeaaors to the standard of the British
and Foreign Bible Society, than ever, we believe, were found
invisible and actual co-operation, in one common cause. In this
cause men in every station of life, from the wealthy peer to the
humble peasant, have been zealously exerting themselves. Auxi-
liaries to the parent institution have arisen in ahnost every town
and village, from the metropolis to the remotest corners of the
empire ; but these auxiliaries are now dropping off in quicker suc-
cession than they were attached. The cause of this, as most of
our readers well know, is the Apocrypha Controversy. Tire
Society in London is charged, an i justly, with a departure from
its fundamental principle, in countenancing and siding the circu-
lation of the Apocryphal books appended to the Bible, but form-
ing no part of the sacred volume. For many years put, that So-
ciety has been in the practice of assisting, with grants of money,
societies on the Continent, in the printing and circulation of the
Apocrypha. Being the general ahnoner of others, this enissp-
pi:cation of the funds has been the subject of much correspond-
ence, between the parent Society and its branches. On being
remonstrated with, a resolution was passed by the London so-
ciety, not to assist with greets of money those Continental socie-
ties who published the Apocryphal books; but still such vide-
ties were to be candied with copies of the Scriptures. It is contended,
and fairly, by the auxiliaris, that such supplies of the Scriptures
will only enable foreign societies to devote the larger a portion of
their own funds, to the circulation of the Apocrypha- It must
be obvious, from this account of the affair that the. complaints of
the brrnch societies, instead of being redressed, arc evaded in a way
that is unworthy of the openness and candour we would expect from
the I.ondon Society. To tell the contributors that none of their
money will be applied to tire circulation of the Apocrypha, but only
to the furnishing of the Scriptures for those associations who civet'.
late the Apocryphal books, along with the Scriptures thus furnished,
is a species of dishonourable chicanery, which looks more like an in-
rsak the branch societies than the open dealing we would expect
between parties united together upon the principle of Christian bene-
volence. There is really something staggering in the pertinacious
ad her,:nce of the London Society to countenancing and supporting the
circulation of books they have declared to be no part of the Scriptures.
Had then been any disputants/anises; dieWAtiuggiLy of the. Apocrypha
the case would have been very different; but to declare it no part
of the sacred writings, and yet aid its publication along with
these writings, at the expense of detaching such an efficient por-
tion of their subscribers, is inconsistent in the parent society as
christians, unfair as the dispenrier, of the bounty of others, and a
palpable violation of the fundamental bond of union between
them and their widely diffused auxiliaries. It cannot, indeed, be
said that the Apocrypha is either t• note or comment on the
Bible ;" but when it terms no part of the Bible, it can have no
more claim to circulation trout a Bible Society, than the Arabian
Night Tales. Regarding the authority of the historical parts of
the Apocryphal books, every one is at perfect liberty to je for
himself. Sume of these books may be what decent pee* 00 good
reading, because they hind them in good company; bat edger parte,
such as Bell and the Dragon, seem to be nothing but piecemeal**.
ward and ill got up romance. These books ought never to boo
been bound up with the Bible. They never were acknowledged by
the Jews as any part of their Scriptures ; and their care, in the im-
portant trust of preserving the sacred books pure and complete, was
very remarkable ; so much so, that they had the letters numbered,
lest any part should be lost, or any thing spurious added. No quo-
tations were ever made from, or reference had to the Apocryphal
books by the Saviour, or his immediute followers, although they have
quoted largely, and referred often to the previously penned Scrip-
tures. But die writers of these books do not pretend to any superna-
tural guidance ; on the contrary, some of them ask pardon for their
mistakes. Such Is the character of the books which have caused this
controversy, and which were never admitted into the canon of Scrip.
Ulf! till the mist of Popery had so tar blinded the people, that not
only the Apocrypha, but also the edicts of councils, and much other
trumpery, worse than useless, were canonized and set up of fora-
mount authority to the word of God. Indeed the very circum-
stance of finding it bound up with the inspired books, and the
references it makes to Jewish history, give to the Apocrypha a
sort of semi-sacred character in the eyes of many pious people ; it
has, as it were, taken shelter in the sanctuary, and still clings to
the horns of jibe altar. But we are fully warranted to reject these
writings. as no part of inspiration, and of no authority whatever,
any farther than as the historical parts may be corroborated by other
writings and circumstances. Whatever the good people south of
the Tweed may think of binding them up these books along with
the inspired books, and putting them into the hands of ignorant
people, we decidedly condemn such practices; and see proud that
they have been resisted by our presbyterian contributors to the dif.
fusion of the sacred oracles, although we regret the division caused
s this resistance.

EXPENDITURE OF PUBLIC MONEY.
MEETING OF THEPARDA OF ST. ANDREW,

HOLBORN.
A Meeting of the Inhabitant Householders of this Parish was
held o i Friday last, by public requisition, at the new inquest-
room, adjuinibg the church.
Mr. HARI:is. one of the Churchwardens, was called to the
Chair, and briefly explained the object to which the attention of
the parishioners was now called. It would be recollected that a
subscription had been set on foot some time back to resist certain
claims set up by the Rector, [Jr. Bcresford, in respect to tithes, and
a Committee of gentlemen, chosen from amongst the parishioners,
was appointed at a General Meeting, with full powers to take de-
fence in any legal way against those claims, and to co-operate wish
th City Tithe Committees, as occasion should termite. In pur-
it net of these measures, a BP: was brought before Parliament,
and passed, by which the Cominittee were enabled to levy a general
rate, proportionable to the value of each house respectively, to be
applied to the purposes before stated, and out of which it was
agreed to reimburse those individuals who, actuated by public
spirit alone, had voluntarily contributed large sums of money in
furtherance of the proceedings then contemplated. Since the rate
had been gathered in. some of the original subscribers had been
reimbursed, but a few others having died, or left the parish, pre-
vious to the allocation of the general fund, there now appeared to
be in the hands of the Committee an unclaimed surplus of 3321.
I Is. Id. the application of which was the prevent subject of inquiry.
A suggestion had been made, that this money could not be more
appropriately disposed of than by laying it met in a piece or pieces
of plate, to be presented as a public testimonial to those gentlemen
who, by their activity and zeal in the discharge of a gratuitous
duty, had been chiefly instrumental in bringing that troublesome
dispute to an amicable conclusion.
Mr. gset.r. was of opinion that the money could not be more
appropriately applied than in voting some suitable mark of public
approbation to two gentlemen of the Committee, who had given •
great deal of their time to the service of the parish at large, not
only on this, but on every other occasion ; the gentlemen to whom
he alluded were Mr. Joseph Taylor, and Mr. John Beauchamp.
They had, without either fee or reward, sedulously devoted their
talents and their exertions to the service of the parish, and justice,
noless than gratitude, demanded some such ueknowledgmeot as
the on. which he had now the pleasure to propose to the Meeting,
namely, "that two:pieces of plate, of the value of 100 guineas each,
with Inscriptions expressive of the high sense which the Parish en.
certain of the valuable services of these individuals, be presented
to them forthwith. The expense to be defrayed out of the surplus
fund now oo boon."
dlr. Simmons, sideoly concurring in the spirit and purport of
this Propookbal WWI leave to second the motion.
lin on
(die optician), before the motion was pet to the vote,
begged leas to sae otsto oe two remarks with respect to the pre-
pai ate. No owe soda hal awe mai* than he id as to the