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the direction of experienced soldiers, would be a most instructive exercise for a young of. ficer, and an excellent school for the habits of a military life.

There is no part of the coast of England, where a battalion of the local militia night not be assembled in the space of five or six hours after the appearance of an enemy, and 5000 men within forty-eight hours. No great apprehension, then, need be entertained of the consequences of any marauding expedition. The Yeoman Cavalry, and these corps are extremely well adapted for maintaining the internal tranquillity of the country; and for this purpose they are, in some respects, preferable even to regular troops. They are composed of men who have a stake in the country, and are personally interested in the preservation of good order: no doubt can be entertained of their sincere desire to cooperate effectually for the suppression of any disturbance. From their local information, they are better able to check such attempts in their infancy, and are more likely to distinguish with propriety, between the guilty and the innocent, than a body of strangers might be, when irritated by the resistance of a mob. For these reasons, some expense may with propriety be incurred for keeping up an establishment of Yeomanry.

His lordship adds very cogent reasons, addressed to our commercial men, for their furtherance of his proposals. But, when he speaks of the French appearing to entertain extravagant ideas of the wealth of England," he does not express himself with an energy suited to the fact. We know, from personal observation and experience, that Frenchmen are convinced, [we have heard it in l'Œil de Boeuf; it has been reiterated to us in the cottage!] and doubly, and trebly convinced, that England is a land overflowing with guineas; and they scarcely think they use any hyperbole, when they speak of British gold as inundating the continent. Let our merchants and others draw what inferences they please: our inferences are, that the inhabitants of the continent have suffered but a mere trifle, to what the inhabitants in this country would suffer; his lordship's phrase double, we are positive should be twenty fold.

It is stated, says Lord S. by persons who have ample opportunities of information, that the repeated contributions levied by the French in Holland, have drained off fully twothirds of the capital which every merchant was possessed of under the government of the House of Orange. We have no reason to suppose that less rigour will be used towards

the citizens of London than of Amsterdam. England has been so long an object of envy On the contrary, the commercial prosperity of and jealousy to the French, that our merchants must expect to feel a double weight of vengeance and rapacity. In addition to this, the French appear to entertain such extravagant and exaggerated ideas of the wealth of. England, that, after our moneyed men are reduced to absolute beggary, it will still be believed that they have concealed treasures, to obtain the disclosure of which, personal violence, and, perhaps, torture, may be deemed a proper expedient.

Lord S. is not cast down by the contemplation of present difficulties. His sentiments so closely coincide with what we have already adduced that we cannot but support our opinion by his lordship's authority.

Our unemployed manufacturers will, in the course of time, find other employments for themselves,-employments perhaps still more advantageous to the country; but time is requisite for this transfer of their industry, and it is during the interval, that relief is important to soften the abruptness of the change. For the permanent consequences of the attack that our enemies are now ma

king on our commerce, there is no reason the contrary, we have the strongest reason to for entertaining the slightest uneasiness. On believe that the experiment which our antagonists now compelling us to make may be of essential service. It will prove beyond dispute, that Britain is independent of commerce, that our soil is the essential, the only sure foundation of our prosperity and our greatness. When the first pressure of individual distress is over, it will soon be discovered how loss of our intercourse with the continent. small a part of the nation has suffered by the When the glare of commercial prosperity no longer throws into the shade the vast amount of our internal resources, every one will perceive how inconsiderable a portion of our national wealth is derived from foreign countries,-how inferior is the importance of those commerical interests, which have long excited such a feverish anxiety, and to which our national policy has so often been made to bend. Such is the stable basis of our na lated, we may find the means of making tional strength, that, when altogether insugreater exertions, than with all our external connexions we have ever yet made.

fective men, will be found in another part of the present number, together with the sentiments of a truly respectable commoner to the same effect as his lordship's.

An insertion from Lord S.'s table of ef

1

Hebrew family, and suffering the Jews themselves to retain that rite. We should circumcision on a convert to Christianity, resist with all our power, the injunction of as an observance necessary to his salvation: nevertheless, the apostles of Christ were circumcised, and practised circumcision; the Christian bishops of Jerusalem, during several centuries, being Jews by descent, were circumcised equally with their con

Lectures on the Four Last Books of the Pentateuch, designed to shew the Divine Origin of the Jewish Religion, chiefly from Internal Evidence. -In Three Parts. -I. The Authenticity and Truth of the History.-II. The Theological, Moral, and Political Principles of the Jewish Law. -III. A Review of Objections.-Delivered in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dub-gregations. If circumcision were not, at lin, at the Lecture established by the Provost and Senior Fellows, under the Will of Mrs. Anne Donnellan. By the Rev. Richard

Graves, D.D. M.R.I.A. Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and Chaplain to His Grace the Duke of Richmond, Ld Lieutenant of Ireland. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 1000, Price 16s. Cadell and Davies, London. 1807.

that time, inconsistent with the profession of Christianity by Jews, what has rendered it inconsistent in later ages? What divine authority of later promulgation has forbid the practice? We perceive, too, that Christianity endangered by their obserthe apostles of Christ did not think their vance (as Jews) of the Passover; which was a national rite commemorating a national deliverance. They seem to have suspected its interference with any principle properly Christian, no more than we suspect any such interference in the squibs and crackers which commemorate the deliverance of our nation from arbitrary power, under King William, or from the intended mischief of the gunpowder plot.

their conversion, may deserve inquiry, by those who interest themselves in the welfare of that too deeply degraded nation. There is, surely, more prospect of the Jews being induced to give an impartial attention to Christianity when presented under its mildest form, that most congenial to their scriptural institutions, than when it assumes all the inflexibilities of gentilism, confirmed during the lapse of ages, and rendered objects of terror by the sneers and the outrages of the inconsiderate multitude.

That is a very injudicious system of theology which affects to set the Christian Dispensation in opposition to the Jewish, and considers them as inconsistent with each other. The basis is not opposed to the shaft that rises from it: the parent stem is not opposed to the graft that it bears. Christianity is the completion of principles interwoven with the Jewish Whether, then, in demanding from the code; it is the termination of much that Jews complete compliance with Gentile was merely introductory, and it is not ir-notions, we do not contribute to impede reconcileable to other parts that, we think, with due deference, need not to be abrogated. We confess, it has appeared to us, that not only the Jews, but Judaism itself, has been hardly dealt with by Christians of later ages, whose zeal for what they thought to be Christianity, has been burning, if not shining. They insisted that a Jew should relinquish entirely whatever was proper to him as a son of Abraham, as well as a disciple of Moses; they would strip him of his national distinctions, as well as of his pharisaical pretensions. We doubt the propriety of this; and are not convinced of its authority. National distinctions are indifferent to Christianity: and since we willingly allow an European, an Asiatic, or an African, to be a Christian, yet to retain the name of his race, his tribe, or his country, so we ought to allow a Jew to retain his relation to Abraham, without insisting on his abandoning the marks of that relation. There is a powerful and complete distinction between enforcing on the Gentiles any rite peculiar to the VOL. IV. [Lit. Pan. June, 1809.]

We have hinted at these sentiments, because we are no more desirous of retaining Gentile prejudices against Jews, than we are that the Jews should retain their prejudices against Christians. Goodwill to all men, is the motto of our great Master, and the honour of Christianity is, that whatever of benevolence was com prized in the Mosaic institutions is adopted and exceeded, far exceeded, towards all nations on the face of the earth.

If it were possible to deprive the Hebrew institutions of the character of diᎡ

vinely appointed, the Christian dispensation would fall with them: as the graft would fall with the stock, as the shaft would fall with its basis. Every endea vour to support the Hebrew code, provided it be conducted on correct principles, is a service done to truth, and is an honourable engagement in a Christian divine. We are therefore glad to see that this ancient system has received a regular attention, and that it is treated by Dr. G. with considerable extent of thought and powers of research. We commend the book and having thus frankly, at a word, given our opinion in its favour, we shall proceed to set some things advanced by the worthy author, in a light rather stronger than that in which they have appeared to him. It is a respect we do not pay to every work, and our apology, if it need any, must be found on the importance of the subject, and on a conviction that parts of it are susceptible of yet further illustration.

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Dr. G. divides his performance into three parts. The first examines the history contained in the later books of the Pentateuch, including the authenticity and truth of the books themselves; with a vindication of the miracles, as historical events; also, the nature of the Jewish government, distribution of property, &c. The second part contains the theology of the Mosaic law; particularly of the ten commandments, its penalties, equity, &c. the political principles of the Hebrew institutions; the favour shewn to agriculture; principles of national defence, general protection, benevolence towards the necessitous, &c. The third part meets several of the objections that have been started against certain of the events narrated: as, the treatment of the Canaanites; the severities against idolatry, the situation of the Jews under their judges, the theocracy preserved even under their kings, the separation of the tribes into two kingdoms, &c., whence the writer proceeds to the doctrine of a future state, as being contained in the writings of Moses,-of this he finds evidence in the book of Genesis, quite as much as in the four following books of the Pentateuch; and he proves that it was gradually unfolded to the Jews, by testimonies from the Psalms, and later books. Other objections, also, come under his notice, and his closing lectures are intended!

to shew, that the Mosaic institutions were admirably calculated to introduce the Gospel, and did, in fact, prepare the way for it.

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On these subjects we meet with a va riety of acceptable remarks; some things receive a new light; and on all, the author shews himself to be a man of sense and reflection as we cannot pay equal attention to all parts of these volumes, we shall direct our remarks principally to those which elucidate the history of these peculiar people, at this critical period of their existence.

Dr. G. in his Preface takes occasion in a long note to observe the importance of hat justification which Scripture incidents have received, by being compared with the observations of modern travellers on similar incidents, as now known in the east. He pays a very proper compliment to Mr. Harmer, whose " Observations on Scripture," &c. are highly valuable; and to Mr. S. Burder's "Oriental Customs." But we are surprized at his apparent ignorance of the FRAGMENTS appended to the late edition of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible; which are written with an extent of thought not inferior to Mr. Harmer; and from which Mr. Burder's work is pretty much taken. Conviction obliges us to adopt some of the principles laid down in that work, for the purpose of the present article.

It has been well said, that " Geography and Chronology are the two eyes of History:" we must therefore be allowed to regret, that Dr. G. has confessedly paid so little, or rather no attention to the geography of the scenes which it was his duty to describe. He appears to have had no impression on his mind that Egypt (Mizraim) was a city, a double city, being divided by a branch of the Nile ; nor that Succoth-Booths, was a regular waiting place; a place where the Israelites from the land of Goshen could join those from the city of Egypt: his notion of the form and situation of the Red Sea is very imperfect, and consequently, his account of the passage is incorrect; in four or five places he describes the Israelitish caravan as marching and countermarching" in the desert, with as much ease as if it were as open as Salisbury Plain. No such thing: there are, as there ever were in this desert, certain fixed roads and ways; for the rocks and

precipices effectually deny passage on every other side. Moses led Israel in these customary ways.

Dr. G. talks of " a nation amounting to some millions of souls, with their flocks and herds, for forty years frequently supplied with water out of the flinty rock."What then, did the water run up hill, in the eleven days' journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea? Of what use was it at " Jotbathah, a land of rivers of waters ?" Did it follow the Israelites "by the way of the sea?"-Dr. G. we presume, has trusted to certain maps, drawn by fancy, in which the engravers have placed the fortyone stations in whatever zigzag course might best decorate their copper, but without the smallest reference to the possibilities of the desert, or to the history of the transactions. The fact is, that the Israelites did not "march and countermarch" in the desert that they were, during by far the greater part of the forty years, within a reasonable distance of culti vated country; and they even maintained a traffic of some kind, during their abode in these parts. Dr. G. must accede to something like this, if he would but inquire by what means the "immense mul. titudes of cattle," that accompanied the Israelitish camp, were supported? Did they eat manna? Did the desert yield them grass -Most surely not. Neither were they diminished or destroyed in the desert; for as they went in great numbers into the desert, so did they come out of it in great numbers, as is manifest from the desire of the tribes of Reuben, &c. to possess a pasture country.

Where there are so many evident miracles, claiming the character of miracles, and clearly to be received under that character, it is worse than useless to load the history, by considering as miraculous, events which are not so described by the original writer, and which do not demand this character, because the ordinary occurrences of nature are sufficient to account for them. We are, therefore, sorry to see that Dr G. has wasted his strength in insisting on the miraculous preservation of the clothes and shoes of the Israelites in the desert. Had he but reflected, that the persons to whom these words are spoken were of the second generation, that came out of Egypt (for the first generation fell in the desert), that they were youth, children, infants, and many

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thousands of them were unborn when
the wanderings commenced, and that,
unless, as sundry sagacious rabbins affirm,
their clothes" grew with their growth,
and strengthened with their strength,"
they would not fit men of forty or fifty
years of age, he would have seen the im-
propriety of laying the stress which he
does on this as a miracle. Could slaves
in Egypt have stored up dresses for a forty
years' consumption? Let him reflect on
the diminution of the general stock of
clothes, &c. in the interments of those
who died, on the extremely feeble nature.
of the clothing worn by the women, on
the impossibility that every thing men-
tioned in this history should have been
brought by the Israelites out of Egypt,
(for surely this people in its flight would
not have brought heavy beams of timber
from Egypt to Sinai)-and he will per-
ceive, that by the same means as the
spices of Ceylon, the dressed seal-skins,
and the timbers of the sacred inclosure
were obtained, other necessaries, and
even convenienciés, might be obtained
also.

Our author appears to have had equally obscure ideas on the connected historical events of the times. He has not perceiv→ ed that the period of the Israelites' abode in Egypt and Canaan was 430 years; that half of this period (215 years) was spent in Egypt, and that half of this period was spent in bondage: i. e. 106 years; which coincides with the reign of` Cheops 50 years, and Chephren 56 years, under whom the pyramids were built, as appears in Herodotus: and Diodorus Siculus expressly ascribes these structures, the first to Arameon (the Syrian, a name given to Jacob, Deut. xxvi. 5. Diodorus certainly intends Joseph under this name)the second to aMosIN, (2 Nm hu-aMosel)-the third to inARONA (17IN XIT hu-n-Aaron)—which names are clear resemblances to the Hebrew pronunciation of the names of Moses and Aaron. Exod. vi. 26, 27. Neither has Dr. G. understood, that during the first half of the abode of the Israelites in Egypt, Canaan was over-run by a foreign race, which, for distinction sake, we shall call Hindoo; and that this same race tyrannized in Egypt, during the latter half of the Israelites' abode there. Yet such was the fact; and the Rucmauatsa of the Hindoo Pooranas, (who was not, as they relate, of

the royal race of Egypt) was surely the Raumesses, Raugmesses (or, as Benjamin of Tudela writes it, Raghmesses), of the Mosaic history. This was the " king which arose in Egypt, and knew not Joseph." And the Canaanites, whom the Israelites were commissioned to extirpate, were not the old Canaanites; but this new race; the same as that which had used Israel so barbarously on the banks of the Nile. Can we wonder, that a total clearance from this inhuman tribe should be commanded? Was it not an obvious dictate even of common policy? That the old Canaanites were inimical to their new masters, appears in the conduct of Rahab: and that these new masters were from a very far country, was true enough, according to the story, with additions, trumped up by the Gibeonites. This seizure of Canaan completely accounts for the remark made Gen. xii. 6. that the (old) Canaanite was in the land, in the days of Abraham: and thus converts what has been urged as a strong argument against the correctness of the Mosaic history into an incontrovertible and decisive proof in its favour.

thentic and the least sophisticated of any under the sun, that approach, even, toward their antiquity. Yet, we confess that we discern no harm in admitting that parts of them were compiled, by those whom they concerned, from the public orders issued in the camp of Israel; the priestly parts under the direction of Aaron, the civil parts under that of the heads of the tribes: while the Book of Deuteronomy, being all that absolutely claims Moses for its writer, was, in fact, written with his own hand. It is clear, that parts of the Book of Numbers, for instance, are copies of public edicts, which concerned all the people; and in the instance of offering for the tabernacle, we have, as it were, twelve certificates that the tribes offered all alike, or copies of the register given to each as a receipt; and to prevent jealousy, or pride, the contents of each offering are enumerated at length, though all, after the first, amount merely to repetitions of so many words, Numb. vii. No impostor would have amused himself in these repetitions of his forgery: yet, it is more likely, that the priest, who received these presents, should enumerate them in this particular manner, than that Moses, the head of the people, should interfere in the mere routine duty of making out

such a list.

We know moreover, from other sources, that after the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the strangerkingdom of Egypt was so greatly weakened, that it was ultimately destroyed by the descendants of the former race: and Dr. G. allows, that some few parts of Moses appears to allude to such a debili- the Pentateuch are added by its editors : tated state of the Egyptian kingdom, in such must be all explanations of the names Deut. xi. 4. where he says: "the Lord of places in after ages; we may add, such had destroyed the Egyptians unto this day." may be some of the explanations of weights To suppose that he means to express no and of measures, and a few other items, more than that, those drowned in the for which we are very thankful to the Red Sea, forty years before, were destroy- Editors, and do not think the worse of ed to this day, is language hardly serious these sacred books. But we say further, enough for the Jewish legislator. But if that all quotations from foreign papers, we understand him to intend," the Lord such as triumphal songs (Numb. xxi. 27), has continued to destroy that people, unto and the Poems of Balaam, cannot claim this day," then the note of time appears Moses as their original writer. to be extremely proper, and the reason of doubtless, ordered them to be collected its introduction is obvious. and preserved but, when we are disWe have merely adverted to these sub-criminating, these must not be attributed jects, to shew, that geography and chro- to that Man of God. Nevertheless, after nology, properly understood, would have all deductions, these books are with great saved the reverend writer of these Lec- propriety called the Books of Moses, as tures much trouble; by furnishing an- their principal contents, and their mass, swers directly in point to meet the ob- generally speaking, are derived from him. jections which unlearned and untractable men have raised against the Mosaic records. They are certainly the most au

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Dr. G. has introduced in his Appendix a long quotation from Mr. Farmer, on the subject of the miracles performed by

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