The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-29 00:00:00

Origines ; or, Remarks on the Origin of several Empires,
States anti Cities. By the Right Hon. Sir W. Drummond.—
The Literary Gazette, May 28, 1825.
" The tower of Babel whose top was to reach to ' heaven,'
and 'the confusion of tongues;' the sacrifice of Isaac and
Jeptha's daughter; the true age of Christ at the crucifixion.' "
—Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors.
The works of Sir Thomas Brown, Kn'glit, M. D., of Nor-
wich, 1686.

Authorised Version, Deuteronomy, chap. 14, v. 22;—" Thcu
shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed."
It is a well-known maxim of English law, suggested by
common sense, and recognised by every principle of justice, to
infer, that the long and uninterrupted enjoyment of a civil
right must have originated in a regular grant from the original
owner, although no express evidence can be produced of
existence of such conveyance." On Tithes.—Quarterly Re-
view, No. G 3.

New Trans'ation :—" A tenth thou shalt tenth, of all the
increase of thy seed." Note—Oekelos, the most eminent of
all the learned Rabbis, who lived before the dispersion of the
Hebrews, and consequently made the translation of the Sacred
Volume into Chaldee at that period when the Hebrew was a
national language, he thus translates the clause—gnasaara
tignsarah, " a tenth thou shalt tenth," which is the same as
the Hebrew. The Septuagint 3..5xv.-0%, ocrrExav=vo-:.--1 (both
Alexandrine and Vatican) " a tenth thou shalt tenth." The
learned Selden, Le Clerc, and other great authorities on
tithes, say—" It. is not likely that the Levites should have had
a tenth of the whole produce of the land, because the number
of the tribe of Levi, compared with the numbers of the other
tribes, was so trifling. Neither could it be of all the produce
of the land, but of the increase of the seed; as it is truly said
in the common version : for the increase must necessarily have
been that part of the produce after the seed employed to give
the4oorease, had been returned to the grower out of the gross
.produce; otherwise it could not have been said it was the "in—
crease of the seed."

" The Council of Calcuith, or. Calchite, held in 7f3.5, or, ac-
cording to others, in 787, on account of erecting Lichfield into
an Archbishopric, ratified the Canons of a Synod that had been
conven'd just before in Northumberland. Gregory and
Theophilact, who presided as the Pope's Legates, acknow-
ledged, in their letter to the Pope, that they were the first that
had been sent into England with that character. The follow,
ing are some of the Canons of the Synod of Northumberland,
ratified by the Council of Calcuith Sth. The ancient
privileges of the Church are carefully to be preserved. The
17th urges the payment of Tithes from the authority of the Law
of Moses.' "

" Ethelwulph's reign furnishes us with a subject, which,
though mentioned elsewhere, it will not be amiss to repeat a
little more largely of in this place; I mean the grant of Tithes.
The Charter runs thus:—

" I, Ethelwulph, by the grace of God, &c., have, for the
health of my soul. and good of my people, taken the prudent
resolution of granting the tenth part of all the lands throughout
my whole kin;dom to the Church and Ministers of Religion,
&c. &c.—Dated the Palace at Wilton, in the year 854, Indic-
tionthe second, at the Feast of Easter."

'The terms, date, and subscription of the Charter, have in-
duced several learned men to believe it spurious. But without
entering into the controversy, I shall content myself with ob-
serving, that long before this Charter the Clergy of England
claimed a right to the Tithes, if they were not already in actual
possession of them. This is evident from the 17th Canon of
the Council of Calcuith, held in 785, where we find they urged
the payment of Tithes from the Law of Moses. If this Char-
ter, therefore, is not to be considered a forgery, it seems at least
to be of very doubtful authority. Add to this, that by the
tenth part of the lands must necessarily be meant the tenth part
of the profits ; which must be owned to be a very forced inter-
pretation, especially in a primordial Act such as this."--Page
111, Rapin's History of England.
From the above readings the following scale is deducible :
Allowing agricultural produce to realise thirty percent., which
is absolute—tithe impost to be included—and increase being
considered synonymous with produce—a tenth is 131. per cent.
Here we must observe we think the imposition of three half-
pence in every shilling quartern loaf a severe infliction for our
spiritual edification. Albeit it would almost pass without a
murmur, but that our hallowed Faith enjoins us "To feed the
hungry—and its denunciations are upon those who are unmind-
ful of " the child of misery baptised in tears."
Ethelwulith's Charter.—A tenth of the profit, 31. per cent.
Hebrew. New Translation.—A tenth of a tenth taken on
produce, 265. per cent.
Hebrew.--A tenth of a tenth, on the increase or profit, 6s.
per cent.
We cull from the "blaze of eloquence of immortal Milton
the epitaph for the patron of this work—" Revolutions of ages
do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of
which whole nations fare the worse."

" In the House of Lords, the debate being on the state of
Ireland, the Earl of Liverpool said, ' The Noble Lord had in-
sisted on tithes, a property to which the Church had a right.
He could not go quite the length of his Noble Friend, and be-
lieved that ultimately the question must come under the con-
sideration of Parliament."—( Hear, hear.)—See Morning
Herald, June 20, 182,3.

There is the recorded vote of the House of Commons to 10
per cent. property or income tax ! being oppressive.
Under the operation of the property tax an esquire whose
principal of 10,000/, netted him 5001. per annum, paid to the
State 50/., under the operation of the tithe composition, an out-
lay of 500/. subjects the cultivator to the same 50/. ; this, in-
deed, is " th' oppressors wrongs ;" but thank God, we seem to
outlive this.

Mr. Hodges wished to ask the Noble Lord the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, whether it was the intention of
her Majesty's Government to introduce in that House, or the
other House of Parliament, a Bill to amend and explain the
Tithe Commutation Act ?

Lord J. Russell was understood to say that it was the inten-
tion of Government to introduce a Bill for that purpose.—The
Sun, June 14, 1839.
It being to the Editors of the Sun and the Examiner must
be conceded the onslaught on behalf of majesty and mind, here
we must observe, we consider we are fully warranted to make
our appeal to them to reassume their post of honour—" do
this deed of worth"—as we have maintained the field " through
good report, and through evil report"--our impulse of action
being to render our country " like a Greek ship, where every
man has his stake in her," and that "peace may have her vic-
tories no less renowned than war."
Ist Samuel, c. v., Authorized Version. " Saul abode in Gi-
beah,.under a tree in Ramah."

New Translation--" Now Saul abode by Gibeah, in the grove
by Ramah."—Classical Journal, p. 203, No. 5 for April, 1811.
Twenty-eight years since this emendation was submitted to
notice. There has been uncommon apathy, or ignorance in
our councils.

A letter to Mr. Bellamy, by Samuel Lee, M. A. of Queen's
College, and Professor of Arabic in the University of Cam-
bridge, 1821.
" Your Anti-Deist, a work perfectly of a piece with the
New Translation." . . . " I give it conscien-
tiously, I have not been able to discover any thing like
merit in your translation." Advertisement—" The author
takes this opportunity of making his grateful acknowledge-
ments to the Syndics of the University Press, for their libe-
rality in taking upon themselves the expense of printing these
sheets."—Extracts.
Mr. Bellamy's Reply to S. Lee, M.A., Professor of Arabic
in the University of Cambridge, 1821.
" You say,' The only writers, who in this clay have rejected
these helps (the sister dialects, Arabic, Syriac. and Coptic)
towards ascertaining the meaning of the Hebrew Text, are the
author of the Remarks' (the Regius Professor of Oriental
Languages at Oxford) abovementioned, and myself.' It is
certainly much to the credit of the author of the Remarks'
that he rejects those lame helps,' the sister dialects." . .
" But you have entirely passed over the vast destruction of
the infant children in Egypt, as recorded in the common ver-
sion. I have shown, so as not to admit of a contradiction, in
truth, that no such destruction was ever executed on the first-
born, but on the • bckor,'—the firstling of the animal in their
tabernacles, which was the object of their idolatrous wor-
ship." • • " Here I shall close my remarks
concerning the speaking of the ass, by observing, that though
you have given the reader to understand that the ass literally
spoke, the obvious sense in which Maimonides understood the
matter was, that the messenger spake, and not the ass. Really,
it is time you should get rid of such childish notions. To say
any thin.- more on your absurd conclusions, would be a total
waste of time. Depend neon it that, whatever they may now
do, asses never spoke in the days of Balaam."—Extracts.
The Critical Examination, refuting the statements of Mr.
Wh:t alien

" The reader will, by attending to the answers I have given
to the remarks in his book and in his Appendix, from a proper
judgment of this gentleman's great opinion of his abilities in
Hebrew, when he finds that the Third person singular of the
verb is made the plural—the Third person singular preter of
the verb is made the Participle active—the adverb instead of
the verb—the common plural They instead of Them—pronouns
where they are not in the original —errors in conjugation sanc-
tioned—the Masculine rendered Neuter—palbable errors, which
sanction the remarks of Deists, countenanced—obscenities at-
tempted to be confirmed, which are not in the pure word of
God—absurdities admitted—the characters of the holy men of
God represented as immoral and wicked."

"Luke xvi. 9. And I say unto you, make to yourselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousncss ; that when ye fail,
they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Such a
command certainly could not be given by our Saviour. This
verse remains in the state it was in when first translated out of
the native language of Judea, in the early ages of the Christian
Church, not translated : and this is the case with numbers
where the Hebrew words have been retained by the translators
in Greek. I call upon Mr. Todd, and the writer of the Cri-
tical Inquiry, to favour the public with the solution of the above
difficulty. If they cannot, they are not qualified to translate
from the Hebrew."

" Surely, every one who believes in the sanctity of the Word
of God, for the reasons above given, will be convinced that it
never was subject to those casualties which ever attend on the
writings of men, and will not hesitate to say, that the most
confirmed infidels, from the time of Porphyry, of Celsus, to
the modern Deist, could not have broached a more impious and
untenable dogma—than the sacred original Inspired Volumes
were corrupt.'"

" As the University is implicated, by the Syndics defraying
the expense of the publication called A Critical Inquiry, it will
be something new in the annals of that high seat of learning,
and will be heard with astonishment in the Continental Univer-
sities, that a book containing such dangerous and infidel dog-
mas, calculated if believed to shake the faith of all Christen-
dom, is printed at the expense of the Syndics of the University
of Cambridge, written by a man who says that the Third per-
son singular of the verb is also the participle active."
Specimen of emendations to be introduced in Part VIII. :
Song of Solomon, authorized version, chap. Ist, v. 5.—" I
am black, but comely, 0 ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the
tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."

Neither in this verse, nor Isaiah, chap. 42, v. 11, is the word
" Kedar"—" mourning"—translated.
• New Translation--" lam the dawning light, as the compa-
nion of peace, when the habitation of the daughters of Jerusa-
lem is as the tabernacles of mourning."—See Clasical Journal,
No. 30, for June 1817 ; the Examiner, Nov. 3, 1822 ; the
Examiner, Sept. 2, 1827 ; the Courier, April 23, 1839.
London: Longman and Co. Also, by Budd and Calkin,
No. 118, Pall-mall.