The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-18 00:00:00

or a manistrate for the state of the weather, or of the pub-
lic mind.' If a bookseller were bound to read all the
books he has to sell in business, he could not get on, he
must be master of all languages and all subjects ; his
whole time would be occupied in reading ; and he could
not possibly so do business enough for a subsistence. The
rule of the trade is, that he is the best bookseller who has
no opinion to give of his books. In nine cases out of ten
in the bookselling business books are got to order, and
pass through the hands of a bookseller, as an agency, as
they may pass through the hands of a carrier, porter, or
errand boy. The binder of a book is as morally respon-
sible as the seller. And if the bookseller could read at
all, how is he to judge of libel, when the very Judges of
of the day contradict each other ? Juries must be made
ashamed of giving verdicts of guilty in such cases, and

Judges of punishing; for most assuredly some of them will

iyeto see- the whcrie of these cases followed by solemn

udicial and legislatorial reversals or judgment, as in the

case of Algernon Sidney and many others. lam neither
friend nor acquaintance of Hetherington's ; the little I

know of him i dislike; but I would in such a case, do
justice to an enemy. The report of the trial took me by

surprise ; I had thought this batch of cases at an end,
under the compromise with Heywood. But as it is, with
your permissian I will put this in a fair, intelligible, and

new light.
Haslam may be a gross and vulgar man, so to treat the
subject of religion ; I believe he is so ; for l am sure that
none but a very ignorant and ill-passioned man would
write or talk of burning the Bible,' or any other book.
This was the point on which the Lord Chief Justice
Denman laid stress in asking the jury for a verdict of
guilty. What lam about to show is, that all these cases
of blasphemous libel arc referable to a bad translation of the
Bible, and that the first abuse, the first blasphemous libel,
is in the relation of the English authorised version to the
original and pure Hebrew text. I have seen some
long advertisements in your paper about the translation of
the Bible from Mr. Bellamy or his friends, but they are
trifles compared with what your neighbours say. From
Mr. Straker, 443, West Strand, and Mr. Bennett, 26,
Villiers-street, have issued a prospectus and specimen of a
new translation of the Bible, by the late Solomon Bennett,
wherein we are told that the hagiographical books of
the author:zed English version, arc all, excepting the
Pentateuch and Prophets, on an average, in two of
every three verses, not only corrupt in the translation, but
even nonsensical! There is no exception made as to the
Pentateuch and Prophets, and it is but a fair inference to
suppose this language applying to them also. This Pro-
spectus was reviewed in the Times newpaper of October
24; the blasphemous libel was copied into the paper, and
the reviewer added, that the defects of the translation con-
stituted a withholding of the divine truths from the people.
On the 26th of October there appeared an advertisement
of the Prospectus in the Times, in which it is stated that,
" the proposed mode of publishing the work has received
the approbation of the highest authority."—( See Times of
Saturday, October 24, 1840.)
Presuming that Hetherington, the bookseller, should not
be made responsible for what Haslam the writer has writ-
ten and printed, we will suppose Haslam standing before
the Court and jury defending his writing under this plea—
"My Lord and Gentlemen of the Jury, I acknowledge
error in my unguarded style of writing. I ought not to
have condemned a book, the original language of which I
do not understand ; but I have the highest authority fur
saying, that the translation, in the authorized version of
the English Bible, is, in two out of three parts, corrupt
and nonsensical. I know no other, and I claim that it is
not unrighteous, to say such a corrupt and nonsensical
translation ought to be burnt." How could the Court
and Jury meet such a plea? Ba it remembered that
neither Haslam, who is a journeyman hatter of Manches-
ter, nor Hetherington. a printer and bookseller in Lon-
don, know anything of the Bible in the original Hebrew lan-
guage ; consequently, all their language applies to the Eng-
lish version, and I undertake to say that it will very soon be
proved, as the settlement of all theological difficulty, as
a breaking up of all sects and schisms on the subject,
as a reformation indeed, that the first libel on the Bible,
and the foundation of all the attacks that have been made
upon it, has been the translation itself, changing its lan-
guage from the pure science and inspiration of ancient
mystery into an impure historical narrative, that is no
more a revelation of the ancient mystery than is Gulliver's
Travels, by Dean Swift ; which, as a satire, or burlesque,
or other wonderful narratives, may also be deemed a blas-
phemous libel.
This is not all the case. Catching the Titncs at a blas-
phemous libel, it was thought great good might be done in
a neat exposure of the wickedness of such prosecutions,
by indicting the printer and publisher of the Times ; so,
on the file of the Clerk of Arraigns, at the Old Bailey,
may be found the following ignored bill, presented to the
Grand Jury at the November Sessions :
" London—The Jurors of our Lady the Queen, upon
their oath present (ignored) that JOIIN JOSEPH LAWSON,
late of London, printer, being an evil-disposed and wicked
person, and disregardiog the laws and religion of this
realm, and wickedly and profanely devising and intend-
ing to bring the Holy Scriptures into disbelief and
contempt among the liege subjects of our said Lady
the Queen, on the twenty-fourth day of October, in the
fourth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria,
by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith,
at London, that is to say in the parish of Saint Ann, in
the ward of Farringdon-within, in London aforesaid, un-
lawfully and wickedly did print and publish, and cause to
be published, a certain scandalous, impious, blasphemous,
and profane libel of and concerning the Holy Scriptures,
containing therein, among other things, divers scandalous,
impious, blasphemous, and profane matters and things of
and concerning the Holy Scriptures, in one part thereof,
according to the tenor and effect following, that is to say,
It is true that portions of the Scriptures (meaning the
Holy Scriptures), have been translated by individuals well
qualified for the task, and Hebrew scholars ; and professed
Theologians have felt the less the want of a new transla-
tion, because by their acquaintance with the original lan
guage they have been at once able to arrive at the true
meaning of the text ; but to the public and the great bulk
of the Christian world, a defective taanalation has, in some
degree, operated as withholding of the Divine truths ; and
though portions have been correctly revealed, yet much
remained, over which a species of concealment was cast.'
And in another part thereof, according to the tenor and
effect following, that is to say, Is it to be supposed, that
in the period of European barbarism, viz., a period of about
fifteen hundred years, during which the prosecution of the
Jews violently raged in Europe, and in which many hundred
thousand volumes of Hebrew manuscripts were by the Papal
Bulls consigned to the flames without exception, and
without censure (see Julis Bartolocci's Bibliotheca Magna
Rabbinica, vol. 3. p. 679-748)—is it to be supposed that,
in a period like this, a correct and faithful version of the
Hebrew Bible could have been an essential object of the
Church (as then constituted) and its followers ? Even in
the last three centuries in which the Reformation took
place, and when providentially the discovery of the press
has opened an unlimited field fur human intellect, and col-
leges in all branches of literature, as well as for all lan-
guages, have been liberally established throughout Europe
—even at this period the holy language has not made that
progress which is due to its eminence and sanctity, an ex-
ample of which we behold in the present corrupt state of
our received translation, called 'the authorised version'
(meaning the English version of the Holy Scriptures) ; nay,
of the hagiographical books at large, the subjects of which
are of an universal tenor, taking them on an average, two out
of every three verses arc not only corrupt, but even nonsensi-
cal. Such is the real state of the present authorised version
(meaning the Holy Scriptures). To the high displeasure of
Almigh:y God, to the evil example of an others, and against
the peace of our Lady the Queen, her Crown, and dignity."
There was a second count, an abridged repetition cf the
first. There is too much ground to fear, that if the name
of Haslam or Hetirceingtoa, instead of Lawson, Printer of
the Times, had been in that bill, it would have passed the
Grand Jury as a true bill for blasphemous libel. I ear,
show that less offensive language has so passed, and that
against a woman. " Bill for a blasphemous libel against
John Joseph Lawson, printer and publisher of the Times !'
exclaimed the Jury, with surprise. The first quibble was
proof of the publication. "Oh !" cried one of the Jury,
" we must have proof of the publication from the Stamp.
office ;" as if anybody would forge a Times newspaper,
or as if they would do so, for the purpose of passing
•-
an indictment before a Grand Jury, to be blown-
up when answered. A young man swore that he bought
the copy at the Times office,
which is precisely the extent
:s
of the evidence against Henry Helherlngton, with the pro-
bable exception, that II
etheringtee's name seas not prefixed
or affixed to Haslam's Letters, and if so, without his con-
, sent, as be was not the original publisher. The young
man was asked if he knew Mr. Lawson, to which he
an-
swered in tire negative,
imagiac either House of Parlia-
ment so met, on complaint of breach of privilege, and
what could be done ? One of the Jury hit on the
project of sending the paper to the Judge in Court,
Baron Parke, to ask if it we're a ;of which Baron
Parke was no legel, judicial, or competent judge, that being
the province of the Petit Jury. The paper was scut
to Mr. Baron Parke, and returned with the opinion of that
Judge, that to say the authorised English version of the
Bible was withholding of the divine truth of the original
I Hebrew; and that in two of every three verses the transla.