The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-10 00:00:00

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

THE UNSOUNDNESS OF THE PROTESTANT
VERSION OF THE WORD OF' GOD.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR—You have shown your candour, and yottr small
estimation of mere names, when real things are at
issue, by the prompt insertion of my reply to " Rusti-
cus ;" and now, when the clergy of the Law Church
are all a-flame, for the adoption, in all the schools of
the empire, of their version cf the Word, in preference
to, and in exclusion of, the versions of Catholics and
Disserters, it may not be :laths to make a few remarks,
tending to show that even the vaunted Protestant trans-
lation is not so fa:thful or faultless as to admit of being
taken on trust with any degree of sa!ety. I would not
be understood to insinuate, that the distinguished men
who executed the current Translation were wilful per-
verters of the toter of the Word. Far from it. But I
do assert that they saw the truth it embodies, not with
their naked eyes, but with coloured doctrinal spectacles,
and that thence their Thanslation took a line which has
no warrant in the bright light of the original.
The Clergy of the English Law-Church have ever
been opposed to lay-education ; and the uniformity of
their opposition, from age to age, leads me direct to the
conclusion, that it has a root in the very foundation of
Protestantism jtself. I firmly believe that it has. I
believe that the due preservation of the bundle of irra-
tional dogmatisms and unscriptural mysteries which are
called " the Chureh" (and which the ecclesiastics tell us
are not to come under the inspection of our lay-under-
standings), is the real motive for the clerical hostility to
the cultivation of thosa God-given faculties. And that
clerical self-love, and popular sensuality, and apathy, on
spiritual things, have been, primarily, the producing
causes of these so-called mysteries themselves, and,
therefore, Sir, I believe ou c moot strike a successful
bow at this rampant -Protestant hierarchy, without
striking one first at Protestantism itself; that rooted
evil which has been the growth of centuries in both
clergy and laity ; for the evil which lies so cursorily-
looking and superficial, and seems so much confined ton
small bench of Bishops. and a few hundred fat Rectors,
is an e%il which is deeply seated in half the world.
In the outset of my remarks on the Law version of
the Holy Scriptures, 1 must object to tine crohihitory
enactments, which make the printing of the Bible a
monopoly of the Pitt ( ) Press and the University
_Printer. What object can this possibly serve, hat the
prevention cf all improvements of the translation. The
Greek and the Hebrew originals, wide scattered as they
are, by successive editions, through all the countries of
Europe and America, are now, happily, quite hide-
structible ; so that neither the powers of Heil, nor the
hierarchies of the certh, nor the intolerant fierceness
of the sects, can tear out one jot or one tittle which is
written there.
Two manifeSt instances of mis-translation, on which
two main false doctrines of the English Church depend,
will amply suffice to show how cautious we should be
in receiving either their Bibles or their tenets. The
first case is from M itthew, c. xiii. v. 39 and 40, where
occurs the following :—" The harvest is the end of the
world ;" " as, therefore, the tares are gathered end
burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world."
Now every schoolboy who learns a little Greek, every
schoolmaster who teaches any, and, a fortiori, all the
University-bred Priests of the Established Church,
must be perfectly well aware that the true reading is
" the harvest is the consummation of the age :" " as,
therefore, the tares arc gathered and burned in the fire,
so shall it be in the consummation of this age." And yet
this mal-translation is perpetuated ; because, probably,
were it not, the Protestants would have no passage,
whereon to ground their gross dogma of the destruction
of the world, and of the occurrence of a day of judg-
ment in the theatre of nature. It has been the general
fashion of good men to look up to their Maker as the
Creator and Preserver of the Universe ; but, lo I. here
is a self-styled- Church, " made with hands" of men,
which would teach little children to contemplate Ilium,
under the contradiction, in terms of a Divine destroyer.
The other instance is also taken from ore of the
Evangelists. The Protestant version has it—" The
Holy Spirit was noti.yet given, for Jesus was not yet
glorified." Titus, the Translators have inserted the
word "given," to accommodate the truth to their own
views of it, and to bear out one of the "Holy Myste-
ries," the doctrine of three Divine Persons in the God-
head. The plain truth is, just as stated, that " the
holy Spirit was not yet"—that a particular spiritual
influence, which in time would proceed from the Lord
Jesus into the souls of men, was not yet existent. But
this plain denunciation of the eternity of one of the
Persons of the Tritheista was to he varnished over ; the
varnish, and not the thing, preserved in successive edi-
tions, and shown to our children, whom the careful par-
sons would sedulously preserve from the errors and
heresies of the Denny version.
But I conclude with one question to the Protestant
clergy. I ask of them, on what ground do theybelieve
in the Divinity of the Word? - Is it that some dozen
persons, in the first days of Christianity, were told that
it is divine ; and, that a constant stream of hearsay evi-
dence of the fact has been transmitted from father to
son ? On tradition then. Good. But since its Divi-
nity does not consist in ever so uninterrupted a progress
of assertion, wherein, then, does it lie? Or, may be,
it is an inspired and Divine book, from the sublime les.
sons of wisdom and virtue it inculcates ; in which case
it only differs in degree from the writings of the wise
and good in all ages ; and may therefore have been
written by mea. Or is it Divine from treating of Divine
subjects, which it does in common' with a host of other
books, and which, by the way, it apparently does
not, in the historical parts of it. Or have the
priests an internal dictate on the matter ; being
thus forced to believe it without evidence,
or meaning, in the belief ? Or lastly, is it a " mystery ?"
Oh ! ye blind leaders of the blind ; ye eat up all the
spiritual, and much of the natural treasures of the land,
and in return, ye cannot gh,e your misguided or un-
guided flocks one grain of reason for the poor hungry
faith that is in you and them.
In my last, I attempted to show, on the high philo-
sophical grounds taken by Emanuel Swedenborg, which
yet may be told to all persons, lay or ecclesiastic, that
the Divinity of the Word lies in the spiritual sense,
which every iota, letter, word, and thing in it, contains.
I trust, therefore, that I shall not be suspected of any
Papistical or Deistical tendencies in these remarks on
the Protestant version ; for I have none, except, in-
deed, the common evils of thought and affection which
are in all of us, and which all tend that way. If I
have excited any spirit of inquiry among my fellow-
readers of The Sun, into the claimsof the great and liberal
philosophy I have just named and touched on, I shall
have done semething towards the public benefit, in this
crisis of priestly intolerance, and popular ignorance and
submission.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A S WF,DENBORGIAN.

June 8.

..7.lls,•,Teww%,cmwtusrarwrea•wz
MARYLEBOND VESTRY.

On Saturday the Board met for the dispatch of business,
Mr. A. Daniel was voted to the chair, when Mr. Flood,
the Vestry Clerk, read the demand from the Middlesex
Magistrates of 2,2471. 3s. 4d. upon the vestry.
Mr. KENSETT, ill moving that the amount be paid, re-
ferred to the enormous increase that had recently taken
place for maintaining the leratie paupers in the Ilanwell
Asylum.—( Hear, hear.) The body oho had gagged the
deputation the other day, had claimed, without deigning to
give any worshipful explanation, the sum of 5001. and by
their having raised the weekly amount for each pauper
from ss. 31. to Bs. ed., they would take from that parish
for only 75 paupers no less as= than 6001. per anntref.—
( Loud cries of " Shame.") The irresponsible Magistracy
had contemptuously refused any explanation, and Lc)
doubt, they had reasons for it.—( Applause.) Instead
of an intolerant and abominable increased demand upon
the metropolitan parishes, the amount ought to have
been less, inasmuch as, since the introduction of the soothing
system, out of the 80a lunatics of the Asylum only 37
were dangerous lunatics. The remainder were actively
employtd, and the produce of their labour realised in the
market abundantly suflieierd to provide for their mainte-
nance.—( Hear.) The poor of Marylebone had quite as
generous a diet fur 4s. per week.—(hear.) Mr. Kensatt
then referred to the e:eitempt with which the Magistrates
treated the cl:put,tion and the memorial on Thursday,
amidst the unqualified marks of 'disapprobation of the re.
presentatives of the parishioners. He conceived that an
inquiry by Governreent was indispensable, and ho would,
therefore, move that the amount be paid, and " That in
onsAluence of the late increased expenditure of the
c :unty- rate and Lunatic Asylum, to the amount of 60 par
cent., a memorial be presented to the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, praying for a Commission to
inquire into the expenditure of the county-rate, as also the
propriety of establishing a Board of Magistracy elected by
the rate-payers."—(Cheers.)
Mr. WILSON, in seconding the motion, said he under-
stood that an adjoinirgparith bad adopted the same course.
Sir BENJAMIN HALL, M. P., said the subject was one
that certainly eoremanded the most serious attention.—
( Hear, hear.) At the late M:nisterial crisis he was about
moving for a Committee of the House of Commons to
inquire into the expenditure, but he had since thought the
better way would be for this parish to follow the example
of St. James's, Westminster, and to memorialise the Home
Secretary to issue an unpaid commission. If that were
refused, he (Sir Benjamin) would then be happy to move
for a Select Committee.—(Cheers.)
Mr. WILSON wished to know if Lord Kenyon or Mr.
Rawlinson could inform the vestry for what purpose the in-
creased demand was made.
Lord KENYON and Mr. RAIVLIN SON said they knew no-
thing about it.—(Laughter.) The Noble Lord agreed
with Sir Benjamin Hall on the necessity for inquiry.
Mr. 'J.- T. lloee, a Magistrate, said those who paid the
rates had an undoubted right to ascertain the way they
were expended.—(Cheers.) It was shameful to reflect
that no less a sum than 130,000/. had been expended on
the House of Correction.—( Cries of " Shame.")
Mr. JOSEPH said the magistrates were so food of the
Maryleleeee mad people, that when they once got them
within their clutches the idea of any being returned
cured was out of the question. There were many
hart-ekes lunatics at Hanwell who might be maintained in
a workhouse.—( Hear. hear.)
Mr. RATnnoNE addressed the vestry in favour of the
Magistrates,

And, after some remarks from Mr. WILSON and Mr.
KENSETT in reply, .

A comtnittee. was appointed to draw up the memorial.
SEIZURE OF THE RECTOR'S PEWS IN THE PARISH CHURCH.
The churchwardens having &dined to carry out the

order of the Vestry in seizing the irc!or's pews,fot fear ;
of being cited in the Eccles_astical Court, on the motion
of Mr. Kennett, two of the beadles were directed to take
poszcssion of them on Tuesday nest.

DOINGS-OFTHE iiiDDLESEX

MAGISTRATES.

(From the
We last week left the Lunatic' Committee of Visiting
Justices of the Hanwdl Asylum endeavouring to make
Dr. Mitlingen, the superintendent, and Lieut.-Colonel
Hunt, the house steward, the scapc-goats for the Com-
mittee to extricate them from the lamentable exhibition
of incompetence in the administration of the public-
money of the county rate-:paycrs which their own printed
Reforts present ; arc Lin the ground, as they stated in
t':eir 49th Report, that—
' Since the appointment of the new superintendent and
cteward, great irregularities have taken place in the issuing
of the various orders for the supplies vethe asylum."
Our readers will at once perceive how cunningly this
is warded. It announces three things—" Colt great
irregularities have fdren phtte in the issuing of the
various orders for the supp:ies of the Asylum"—it fixes
the period since which the Lunatic Committee of Vi-
siting Justices wish the public to believe these irregu-
larities have occurred at the A.R.) lure—and then it
implies that Dr. Millingen, the superintendent, and
Lieut.-Colonel Hunt, the house steward, have been
the cause thereof.

We now proceed to analyze the statement. In April
1838, the Lunatic Committee cf Visiting Justices
made the following appointments in the Hanwell Asy-
lum ; they selected Dr. Millingen to be superintendent
and resident physician ; Lieut.-Colonel Hunt, for-
merly. of Colonel Ciitherow's own regiment of militia,
to be house steward ; and Airs. Boun;xrd to be matron.
Either these three individuals have been very unfor-
tunate in Laving received the patronage of the Lunatic
Committee, cr the justices have been most unfortunate
in their selection, for the t% hole of these important .offi-
errs have either resigned or been discharged ; but as
they are now out of the way, it perhaps is convenient
to endeavour to throw the blame of the .‘ irregularities"
upon them : 'this is magnanimou3

- In a volume recently published (1833) by that emi-
nent ex-pluralist in the Hanwell Asylum, Sir Wm.
Chas. Ellis, Knt , who for some years was superinten-
dent, resident physician, deputy chaplain, house steward,
trew.urer, tie. &e. &c., in his account of the mrnage-
ment of-that institutiun, he states of the Lunatic Corn-
mi:tec of Visiting Justice, at page 290, that—
" Once a quarter the becks and accounts of the esta-
blishment are very carefully examined; any two or tin ee of
the gentlemen, who may happen to be presert, arsisting
the Chairman to inspect them, and compare the bills and
vouchers for the articles procured since the last examina-
tion. A statement is then laid bz‘fore tlie.m of such things
as are expected to be wanted before the next meeting ;
they give their orders for these in writing, their own clerk
teieq in attendance to take down the transactions of the
meeting."
Sir William Ellis's assertion in this passage, that the
orders emanate from the Visiting Justices, and the
transactions are recorded by their own clerk, receives a
corroboration by the 49th Report, declaring the inten-
tion of the Lunatic Committee to appoint Mr. Charles
Wright to the office of their clerk, at a salary of 701.
a year, and 7s. for each journey to Hanwell.
If these are facts, then the Lunatic Committee,
and not the superintendent and house steward, are the
parties guilty.
The Hon. Fred. Byng recently stated, that.sone of
these worthy gentlemen had a hobby for mad-houses,
and no doubt when hobbies can be ridden without any
expense to the parties taking this species of equestrian
amusement, it must be delightful in the extreme : but
the fact is, the Lunatic Committee, up to a recent pe-
riod, were mere puppets, and Sir William Ellis was a
species of" go-cart" in and through which they were
suffered to appear before the public ; they, like other
children, were anxious to kick down the go-cart, and
stand in their native strength, and hence has arisen the
melancholy spectacle which the Lunatic Committee now
exhibit, their prop being removed.
There is one more point which tends to exonerate
Dr. illillengen and Lieutenant-Colonel Hunt from the
very serious imputation in the 49th Report, and that is,
that of the whole deficiency of 505/. on the 31st De-
emitter, 1839, 359/. 18s. Id. is avowedly for clothing
supplied in 1837, long before-either:of these gentlemen
were appointed to the Hanweil Asylum.
We particularly observed that the Learned Chair-
man of the Middlesex Magistrates, Mr.• Sergeant
Adams, in endeavouring to parry the home thrusts
which Mr. Fred. Byng so ably administered to‘the in-
competent Lunatic Committee of Visiting Justices,
wished the public to understand what admirable finan-
eiersthe said Committee were!

We will present to our readers the exquisite portrait
they have drawn of themselves as financierS ; a more
graphic sketch it would be impossible to procure
Their 48th Report, we observe, is dated 17th of
January, 1839, and according, to the approved. recipe
for concoeting this periodical trash, to which in our
exordium we last week alluded, at page 6 it contains
these words

The Committee have audited the several aceoun's of
the Asylum according to the Act of Parliament.
" Jamrs
Not a single word about " the irregularities," not a
word about the formal WselLarge of Lieutenant-Oolonel
Hunt, the house steward, who (it' oozes out three:
months afterwards in the 49th. Report) was formally
discharged on the 29th November; 1838..
This " audit of the...accounts according to the Act
of Parliament,", it appcari, " took place on the 10th ol'
January, 1839, by J. Clitherow (Chairman), R. Hodg
son (Dean of Carlisle), John Garford, Peter Laurie, •
James Williams ;" it showed that, notwithstanding the
increase upon the weekly charge for each lunatic of
Is. 21, there was still a deficiency of 4691. 81d.,
but that the Lunatic Committee had in store, on. the
31st December, 1838, against this cleficiency=
Coals, about if3so 0 0
Flour, malt, sundries l5O 0 0

X5OO 0 0
Mr. Frederick Byng, on behalf of St. James's parish
made it appear to the Court of Quarter Session, that
the annual statement of the accounts which were thus
represented to have been " audited according to the
Act of Parliament'" were, for the
first time, withheld.
We observe that the reply was, Oh, it is a mere mis-
take—an omission ; and forthwith wils printed an ad-
dendum to the 48th Report, signed by the five members
the Lunatic Committee j&st stated.
Our readers will he in amazement when we inform

them that the same Lunatic Committee, in the following
month of April, in their 4th Report, pages 6 and 7,
thus speak of their own audit and publications in the
previous month of January—

" Your Committee [l. e. the Lunatic Committee] next
direct the attention of the Court to the ennual statement of
income and expeniiture for the year 1838, annexed to this
Report,wh:ch statement was omitted in theßeport presented
at the Epiphany Sessions, and subsequently printed in an
imperfect manner." •
An audited account withheld, and then printed in an
imperfect manner! !!
A new version of the accounts is then put forth, and
the deficiency declared to be 505/. 3s. Gad., to meet
which deficiency they had actually borrowed 1,5001.,
and never mentioned the important fact in their Report
in January 1839, nor in their addendum to that Report,
nor in their 49th Report : but in the appendix to this
last Report, the fact first makes its appearapce without
note or comment, " Loan from Messrs. Twining's,
1,500/." The spirit of inquiry, we imkirie, had dis-
played itself in the interval !
There is a graphic sketch of the financiers of the
Middlesex Magistrates, borrowing 1,5004 to pay an al-
leged deficiency of 505/., and suppressing the fact in
their accounts " audited according to the Act of Par-
liament."

We last week said they were artists in their peculiar
line, who deserved more attention than they received.
We are utterly at a loss to imagine under what Act
of Parliament they borrowed the 1,500!. There is no
clause_ in the, Pauper Lunatic Act, 9 Geo. IV. cap. 40.
author:zing the Visiting Justices to borrow money ;
the Court of Quarter Session alone has the power to
do so.

We hope the metropolitan parishes will look to
the extremely suspicious circumstances we have been
detailing. We perceive, from the last official statement
of the assessment of the county of. Middlesex, that the
whole rental is five millions, six hundred and fifty-three
thousand, nine hundred and ninety-two pounds : how
much the large London parishes are interested in this
question may be ascertained from that return. St.
Marylebone, St. George Hanover-square, St. Pancras,
and St. James Westminster, alone pay 37 per cent. of
the whole Middlesex county expenses—the rental of
those four parishes being two millions, ninety-six thou-
sand, two hUndred and forty-four pounds.
We believe that most, if not all these four parishes,
are regulated by Representative Vestries under Sir
John Hobiouse's Vestry Act, and we should like to see
the representative principle, with a firm and vigorous
grasp, laying hold of these incompetent, non-representa-
tive expenditors of the public money—we should have
no doubt of the issue.

ACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY.—One of the
usual eroAded Exeter Hall attendances of this extensive
musical Society took place on Friday. In the early part
of the evening Handers " Dettingen Te Deurn" was most
finely performed ; it is the chef d'auvre of the SOciety, and
could not well have gone with more care, precision, and
effect. Miss E. Cawthorn sang " Angels ever bright and
fair" with good expression, and in fine voice. Bennett,
who, though wanting power, is an excellent and careful
tenor, gave the solo, " 0 come let us worship" very nicely.
Miss Fanny Wyndham sang from Pcrgolcsi the splendid
" Oh, Lord have mercy upon us," with her pure, deep, and
beautiful contr'alto, with all the effect which Phillips has
so of en given to it. She was loudly encored. Phillips.
himself was clear, smooth, and masterly as usual in the
" Snares of Death." In the Graduate, which concluded
the first part of the performance, the crescendos and dim -
nuendos were observed with the utmost nicety. In Haydik's
First Service, which succeeded, all the choruses were
steady, and gloriously in tune. The quartett, " Benedictus
qui venit," was beautifully executed. The Hall was
crowded, and the performances were altogether of the
usual holy and inspiring order. •