The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-06

cIEyY OF PuIIADTIPu1A-A stated meeting of
the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society was
held last evening at its hall. In the absence OF
the President, Mr. William s. Vaux, first Vice.
President, occupied the chair This being the
appointed time, the annual report of the trea-
surer was presented, which showed the finances
of the society to be in more fourishing con-
dition than on any previous year. number of
donations to the library we're announced and
several letters read
Mr. Charles Henry Hart read very interest
ing article on some Indian Bibles lately found
near Monongahela City, in this State, and Mr..
William Grier Hibler followed with q sketch
of some remains of an unknown race found on
Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.
very handsome antique seal was exhibited,
and description of the same read from the
owner, Hon. Alexander s. Johnson, OF Utica,
New York.
A valuable photographed essay on ''The
First American Edition of the English Bible"
from the Rev. DR.. Joseph A. Murray, OF Carlisle,
Pa, a corresponding member, was read, in the
absence of the author, by Mr.. Hart.
The following is an abstract of the essay
Although il was in 1897 that our country had been
discovered to England by Cabot under Henry VII
yet the first permanent colony dld not arrive III
our present version OF the Bible commenced in
the mother country. In 1920 the sturdy and virtu-
with them, reached their New England home. Aud
during almost the entire reign OF eight soveregns in
succession the Sacred Volume had been uniformly
imported. During all that time not man or family
possessed an English Bible-DOt a copy was read or
nearu 1cau-JnaJ DdQ not Dee0 brought dCTOSS Ju6
Atlantic True, the printing press had been set up
in our land early as 1885, and though other books
were printed yet the early settlers c9aid n not Prat
cutiOn from those in England and scotland who
published it by patent from the Crown, or ctn.
priDilegiO, as did the Universities OF oxford and
Cambridge Nor did the mother c0untiy-guilty OF
such restriction or monopoly-ever grant this per-
mission to her coonized children until at last it
wIested from her. So that the first Bible In Eng
lsh with an American Imprint was not published
till more than one hundred and sixty years after the
arrival of the MaV1OWer. about piuhtVVeare ago
IN 1864 the Rev. John Eliot had printed at Cam
bridge, Mass, the Bible In the la language OF the Ma.
not being in the English language patent royal or
cum pyirt'e9fO was not requisite In l749 Christie
pher Sauer or Sower, at Germantown, Pa, pub
lshed the first German edition OF the Bible, latter
having. been three years in the press
dred and seventy years after the first English colony
had been planted in America (at jamestown, Va,
160T that the Bible, in the English language, was
printed During this long PERIOD as stated the colo
nists were dependent upon the press OF the Old
After independence r had been declared, however,
such was the scarcity of Bibles that DR.. Allison,
phia, and others, memorlazed Congress on the sub
ject, and that body in 17I7, appointed committee
lshed thirty thousand copies at the expense OF Con-
gress, ITO be reimbursed by the sale OF the books
Journal, Sept. II, 177ll The difficulty of obtaining
type and paper induced the committee to recommend
to Congress to direct the Committee Commerce to
import at the national expense, twenty Thousand
English Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or else
where; and Congress ordered the importation. But
afterwards when the unsettled state OF the country
and its commerce prevented the execution OF this
order, Congress resumed the subject OF printing
which was referred to committee OF three, 10 which
the Rev George Duflield of the PRESBYTERIAN Church.
and the Rev. William White of the Episcopal Church.
Chaplains of Congress- assisted. And the first Ame-
rican edition OF the Bible in the English language
was printed in 1ISl-2, in small duodecimo form and
This Bible was printed and published during the
Revolution, and such were the difficulties attending
the undertakng-apart from the disadvantages OF
the art of printing at that early period, compared
with the great improvements ard facilities of the
present day-that "NIr Aitken, in the midst of his
work, was obliged upon one occasion to remove his
them under barn, in order to save them from de-
struction by the British soldiers And veto
quote from communication which or-
FHSy Feemaos "Pps1ng Ppne of 17s%nder ali these
disadvantages, a complete, an accurate, and ee-
city in four years from the time OF the evacuation
by the British. The very paper that has received
the impression of these sacred books was manufac-
ured in Pennsylvania the whole is therefore purely
American, and has risen, like the faoled Phoenix,
from the ashes of that pile in which our enemies
supposed they had consumed the liberties OF Anne
AS peace soon after occurred and commerce was
no longer in danger, Bibles were imported in such
quantities as made it Necessary for Mr.. Aitken
to sell his under cost and he lost by the operation
''mOre than three thousand pounds in specie" See
his memorial to Congress in 1889, in which he men,
tions this fact, and asks Congress to grant him ga
patent, authorizing him, his heirs, and assigns, ex-
clusivey, TO print the Holy Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments for the term OF fourteen years
! within the United States" under proper restrlc-
| tions, which memorial, however, was laid upon the
table. But his lasting memorial is and will be, that
of having printed the first American edition OF the
! English Bible. And though Congress did more
than EupeTindend by committeesthe printing OF the
! oTk and afterward approved It and recommended
it to the people OF the county, yet in only so doing
| they showed their profound veneration for, aud
their high appropriation Of, the sacred Scriptures
| as well as the successors of their constituents,
through all generations, will not in any manner
undervaue the religious patriotism, or the Bible
whence it was drawn, OF that noble body OF great
and good men-the priceless fruits Of which we see
all around US in the grand elements Of our national
greatness.
After the reading of the essay a vote OF thanks
| to the author was passed, when the society adj
| jOurned.
| PHILADELPHIA ORTHOPRDIC HOSPITAL