The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-09-20 00:00:00

The great county meeting of the South Lancashire
and Cheshire Protestant Associations, under the direc-
tion of the Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington, Wigan,
and Northwich committees, is to be held on Thursday
next, in Manchester. The Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan,
D.D., the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, the Rev. Hugh Stow-
ell, the Rev. Dr. Cooke, and several distinguished
noblemen and gentlemen are expected to attend on
this most interesting occasion. Those of our protest-
tant friends who may lie able to attend will enjoy a
treat of no ordinary character. The objects of the ap-
proaching demonstration may be thus briefly enume-
rated—to point out the increase of Popish influence
exercised over the members of Her Majesty's govern-
ment, as indicated by the public measures of the last
few Sessions of Parliament—to call forth such an un-
equivocal manifestation of Protestant feeling in the
people of this country as shall convince the present or
any other administration, that Great Britain is still de-
termined to retain her Scriptural Institutions in Church
and State—to originate and promote petitions to both
Houses of Parliament, imploring the Legislature to
withhold all further grants of public money from the
College of Maynooth and the Irish Education Board—
and to encourage the formation of Protestant Associa-
tions in every part of the empire. These objects must
be dear to the heart of every sincere Protestant, and
we have no doubt that the meeting of Thursday next
will greatly tend to promote their accomplishment.

MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUMINATED COPY OF THE

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

We have great pleasure in transfering to our columns the
subjoined extracts from the Britannia relating to the pro-
posed disposal by ballot of Bowyer's splendid and unique
copy of the Bible. This unequalled collection of illustra-
tions is comprised in forty-five large folio volumes, contain-
ing nearly seven thousand engravings. It includes the most

nteresting works, illustrative of the Divine Records, from
:he era of Michael Angelo to that of Reynolds and West.
The subjoined remarks will fully explain the plan adopted for
disposing of this invaluable collection of works of art. A
gentleman who is now in Liverpool, as the representative of
Mrs. Parkes, to obtain the names of subscribers, has fa-
voured us with a view of the engravings, from which each
subscriber of £25 will be entitled to select to the value of
his subscription. They are splendid efforts of art, and will
be well worth the money.
The'Fine Art season, as far as exhibitions are concerned,
may be said to have closed with the departure of picture-
patrons for their country-seats, where they may expect na-
ture fully as rich, and a trifle more true, than upon the can-
vass of Turner, and landscapes with land, sky, and water,
that have at least some pretensions to reality. The chances
are, too, that horses, cattle, dogs, and peasants will run or
walk about the hills, harvest-fields, and pastures, with full
as much life, grace, ease, and freshness, as ever they were
seen to wear upon the walls of the Royal Academy. In a
word, those who are out of the picture-galleries and into the
country have all the best of the transition. In our rambles
among the print-shops, however, we have discovered a few
topics in the world of art, that are yet worth noticing to
those who watch its progress with interest. And, first, we
will speak of a somewhat novel scheme of putting within the
pale of public competition that magnificently illuminated
copy of the Holy Scriptures, which the late Mr. Bowyer
employed so many years of talent, perseverance, and industry
to complete. This truly beautiful and most interesting work,
which contains, within forty-five noble folios, no less than
seven thousand engravings and original drawings, presents
in itself an exhibition better worth examining than any gal-
lery of the season ; and an opportunity for its inspection is
now publicly afforded, at the establishment of the proprietor,
in Golden-square. It is, to our mind, a subject of equal
reproach and regret, that a great national work of this sort
should not be in the possession of any of our great institu-
tions of learning-,that the British Museum should be a sin-
gle day without it—or, if any miserable deficiency of funds
in that establishment have put it beyond the compass of its
treasury, then that the Bodleian, at Oxford, the proper li-
brary for so noble and unique a copy of the Scriptures,
should suffer it to pass into any private repository of learning
and art. Such, however, is the case, and we now find it
tendered to the world in shares or chances, by a sort of ballot
of twenty-five guineas each, and to the extent of a hundred
and twenty-eight in number. By way of lightening the risk,
each losing subscriber will get twenty-five guineas' worth of
books or prints from the establishment of the proprietor.
Thus it is, that some lucky speculator, without any compa-
rative loss, may suddenly find himself possessed of a work,
which, in its time, has been insured for three thousand gui-
neas, but which is, intrinsically, invaluable. We have spent
half a day over some few of the volumes, and half a life
would be scarcely ill-devoted to its contents, considering the
holy nature of the book, and how pure, beautiful, and sub-
lime are its splendid Scripture developmmts. Imagine all
that mighty field of art laid bare before the gazer, which
takes within its wonderful compass all the schools, from the
era of Michael Angelo to that of Reynolds and West—which
opens up every form of life and description, of portraiture
and design—which illustrates every topic of sacred history—
and confirms, in the grandest of all human collections, the
glory of the Book of Life. A hasty, technical glance at its
contents will hardly give the reader the faintest idea of its
endless resources of treasure; but it will yet tell something
of the comprehensiveness of the work.
Firstly—A very fine copy of the text of Macklin's Bible,
with proof impressions of the historical plates and vignettes,
engraved after pictures painted for this work by Sir Joshua
Reynolds and the Academicians Smirke, West, De Luther-
bourg, Opie, &c., comprehending the best productions in
British art of the period in which this work was published.
Secondly—A very numerous, select, and appropriate col-
lection of etchings and engravings, including the works of
Raffaelle, Marc Antonio, Albert Durer, Callot, Rembrandt,
&c., extending to nearly every circumstance and object
treated of in the holy Scriptures, embracing every tree,
plant, and flower, every quadruped, bird, fish, and insect,
with representations of such fossils as have been adduced in
proof of the universal deluge.
Thirdly—One hundred and thirteen original drawings of
vignette embellishments to the several books of the holy
Scriptures, by P. T. De Lutberbourg, R.A. ; and also ma-
nuscripts of the dedications, and various other appropriate
and beautiful specimens of penmanship.
Fourthly—The best authenticated Scripture atlases, both
ancient and modern.

Such is the slight index to this present work. It has
hitherto escaped the notice of the press, if we except a de-
scription once given of it by the Times about nine years past.
We have held it our duty, after the delight it Ir.s afforded
us, to mention it in connexion with a strong remark, that
its fit owner should be the nation, and that its fit repository
should be our national Museum ; but since it is not to be so
disposed of, but is rather cast up to public competition, we
have still a pleasure in reminding our wealthy divines of the
existence of the work, which, indeed, not to have done,
would have been a sin of omission, in a journal so extensively
read by our clergy as the Britaunia has the honour to be.