from the general reader, whom it brings, upon the whole, several degrees nearer to the original than any preceding version we are acquainted with. While we think this improved version susceptible of many further improvements in detail, we value it highly for its felicitous exemption from the faults that most easily and usually beset the translator of Scripture. Of sectarian bias we see not a trace. The phraseology is nearly all we could desire; there is no servile adhesion to King James's theologians, while there are but few of those cold and tasteless modernisms with which new translators commonly love to vex us; the fine antique simplicity of the authorised version is honoured but not superstitiously worshipped. Mr Sharpe translates from Griesbach's text, and why, in the name of scholarship and honesty, should any other text of known and confessed authenticity ever be translated from, or otherwise sanctioned by, the literary and ecclesiastical authorities? It is discreditable to the age that the old Elzevir text should be so much as reprinted, except for the use of the collator or literary antiquarian.

CLERICAL CONFORMITY AND CHURCH PROPERTY. THE PILLARS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. THE PRAYER BOOK OPPOSED TO THE CORN Laws. RELIGION AND POLITICS. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON CHURCH REFORM. REMARKS ON NATIONAL EDUCATION.-Price 2d. each. By the Rev. Thomas Spencer, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath, and formerly fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. 1840.-Mr Spencer's philosophy is not that which is taught from the moral chair of Oxford, nor has his religion anything of the apostolical succession about it, except a simple, truthful benevolence inherited in the direct line from the men of Galilee. Religion, in his view of it, "is not the religion of a sect or party; mere Church of Englandism, or mere dissent; it is not a mere instrument for collecting tithes, or for enriching a popular preacher; it is not a religion of creeds and doctrines-of sacred history past, or of prophecies yet unfulfilled; but it is the atmosphere in which the just man lives; it speaks with his mouth; it writes with his pen; it smites with his hammer; it follows his plough; it stands behind his counter; it presides over him at his desk, and in the social circle; it makes him eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and instruction to the ignorant."

We heartily rejoice that the Church has still such men as the curate of Hinton Charterhouse; and if he means to be perpetual curate, we hope he will remain in perpetuity the same efficient, warm-hearted, large-minded reformer that he is now. These liberal clergymen of the establishment have facilities for getting access to the public ear, which must go far to reconcile even a sensitive moral taste to whatever is anomalous in their position. And when courage to speak out is sufficiently tempered with good sense, and the man is neither cowed by the terrors of the episcopacy nor irritated into a petulant, ostentatious antagonism, but goes straight on with quiet fearlessness, we recognise and hail the true Conservative reformer. These conditions of public moral efficiency are abundantly realised in Mr Spencer. In regard to the theological part of Church Reform, the author thinks that

"The Articles and Liturgy should be revised. A few simple articles, in general terms, substituted for the numerous and complicated documents to which the clergy have now to sign their name. Greater freedom ought to be infused into the services of the Church, and greater latitude and discretion given to the clergy. By the laying on of the hands of the Bishop they are said to receive the Holy Ghost; to have an unction from that Holy One, whereby they know all things, and are called the successors of the apostles; and yet in the most minute particulars they are tied down as though they were unfit to handle sacred things. The Bap

tismal service should be rendered simple, and the godfathers and godmothers dispensed with. The Burial service should be divested of those expressions which appear to decide the state of the departed. The absolution dismissed from the Visitation of the Sick, and a service arranged which would lead the minister to know that his chief and hopeful work was with men in health, to teach them how to live, rather than with the sick, whose compulsory religion generally leaves them as soon as their sickness is over. There should be excluded from the Prayer Book the Athanasian Creed; the service for the 5th of November; for King Charles the Martyr; for the Restoration of the Royal Family; and for the 25th of October. The Canons should be abolished, and the laws of the Church made instead thereof should be simple in their nature, and generous in their spirit.

elec

In matters of finance and discipline Mr Spencer advocates, tion of the clergy by the people, and of bishops by clergy and people together, abolition of episcopal peerages and of the Ecclesiastical Courts.

P. H.

THE ILLUSTRATED COMMENTARY ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. Vols. 1 and 2. C. Knight.-These volumes will be a welcome present to the Biblical student. They are a republication of the Notes of the Pictorial Bible,' without the text, but with the woodcuts. The advantage to the public is, that the notes are now more convenient for reference by being published in a portable form, and can be purchased as an addition to the common family Bible, which many persons do not wish to lay aside for one of a pictorial character. The notes contain more historical information connected with matters of Biblical history than is to be found in any similar publication of equal extent.

SUPPLEMENTARY LIST.

'Spinal Deformities cured and prevented.' By P. G. Hamon. penter and Co.

Car

"The Certainties of Geology.' By W. S. Gibson, F.G.S. Smith, Elder, and Co.

'Journal of a Residence in Circassia.' By J. S. Bell.

Moxon.

2 vols. 8vo.

Carey on Population and Political Economy.' Part III. Miller. "Naturalist's Library-Entomology.' S. Highley. 'Chaucer's Poems Modernized.'

Whittaker and Co.

'Lectures on the Headship of Christ.' By different Presbyterian Ministers. Whittaker and Co.

"The Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius.'

and Co.

Translated by J. Conant. Ward

"History of Napoleon.' By G. M. Bussey. Illustrated by Horace Vernet. 2 vols. royal 8vo. Thomas.

Religion and Education in America.' By J. D. Lang, D.D.

and Co.

Ward

A Journey from La Trappe to Rome.' By the Baron Geramb. Dolman. 'Sonnets.' By Sir Jno. Hanmer, Bart. Moxon.

Edited by

Letters illustrative of the Reign of William III, addressed to the Duke of
Shrewsbury' by J. Vernon, Esq., Secretary of State.
G. P. R. James, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. Colburn.

'Poems.' By a Slave in the Island of Cuba. 1 vol. 8vo. Ward and Co. 'Guide to Service-the Poultry Maid.' C. Knight and Co.

* Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.' Oliver and Boyd.

264

Journey Book of England-Berkshire.' Knight.

'Surgical Operations and Mechanical Dentistry.' By L. C. De Sonde. Whittaker and Co.

'Snelson on the First Chapter of Genesis.' Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 'Review of the Management of our Affairs in China.' Smith, Elder, and Co.

< The Forester's Offering.' Sketches in Verse and Prose. Whittaker and Co.

'A Weather Almanac.' By Peter Legh, A.M. Tilt and Bogue. Paul Read on the Niger Expedition,' &c. Ridgway.

'The Old Oak Chest.' Harvey and Darton.

"The Excitement; a book to induce young people to read.' The 12th of the series. By the Rev. R. Jamieson. Whittaker and Co.

'Recollections of the Lakes, and other Poems.' Tilt and Bogue. 'Chivalry and Charity, illustrated by the Lives of Bertrand, Du Guesclin, and Jno. Howard.' C. Knight and Co.

Baronetage of the British Empire.' By J. Mortimer.

"The Saga of Frithiof.' By Bishop Tegner. E. Bull.

"History of England under the House of Stuart, including the Commonwealth.' Published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 2 vols. 8vo. Baldwin and Cradock. 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.' Parts 9, 10, 11, and 12. Taylor and Walton.

'Substance of a Speech in the case of the Presbytery of Strathbogie.' By R. Bell. Johnstone, Edinburgh.

'A Patriot's Fourth Letter to the British People. By S. W. Boyd. E. Wilson.

Absolute Monarchy-the Russian Empire. Published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 59 Lincoln's-inn fields.

Narration of late Proceedings in China.' By J. Slade. Canton Press. 'Abridgment of Sir T. F. Buxton's Work on the African Slave Trade.' Murray.

Sir Geo. Stephen on the Civilization of Africa.' Saunders and Otley. 'An Essay on a Congress of Nations for the Adjustment of International Disputes.' By W. Ladd, Esq. T. Ward and Co.

Prize Essays on the same subject. 1 vol. 8vo.

Tilt and Bogue.

"The Lovers.' A Play. By M. Healey, Esq. Bull. 'A Topographical History of Surrey.' Part I. 'Lord Nugent on the Punishment of Death.' (An able pamphlet.) Ridgway.

** We must defer, for want of room, our notice of several of the above.

ERRATA in our last Number.

Page 434 and 439, for "founding," read "pounding."

436, for "

or zinc," read of zinc."

437, for "provided that two," read "provided that the two."

,, 457, for "surface of which," read "surface on which."

P.S. HAYTI. Since the note was written accompanying the critique upon Miss Martineau's novel of The Hour and the Man' (p. 236), Lord Palmerston has announced the conclusion of a treaty, in which Hayti is at length recognized as an independent state.

TURKEY.-It appears that the captain, whose conduct is noticed page 223, put a price on the fresh water on board, as an expedient for raising money. A small barrel was sold for 31. The majority of his prisoners being utterly destitute, 400 perished.

THE

WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

GOULD'S BIRDS.

ART. I. ORNITHOLOGICAL WORKS OF JOHN GOULD, F.L.S., F. Z. S., M. E. S., &c. &c.

1. A Century of Birds from the Himalayan Mountains.
2. The Birds of Europe.

3. A Monograph of the Ramphastida, or family of Toucans.
4. A Monograph of the Trogonida, or family of Trogons.
5. Icones Avium.-Parts I and II.

6. The Birds of Australia.-Part I.

THE rapid advancement of the physical sciences is one of

the characteristics of the present age. Actuated by a spirit of philosophical investigation, men of talent, zealously pursuing their researches in various departments, are daily adding, by their labours, to the great stock of knowledge; and as discoveries serve to stimulate to farther enterprises, so the success of one is an incentive to the exertions of others.

This observation is strikingly applicable to zoology. Till of late years indeed zoology had remained where the naturalists of the last century left it. It was doomed to general neglect, and the few who unskilfully cultivated it added nothing to what had been previously accomplished.

When Shaw, in 1820, published his General Zoology,' England, as far as natural history is concerned, was a century behind France. We may now claim for ourselves the precedence.

To this happy revolution many influencing circumstances have conduced. Among these may be enumerated a state of national peace, which has opened to us a free intercourse with our continental neighbours; the extension of our colonies and commerce in distant countries, and the various expeditions undertaken for the purpose of geographical discoveries, in which men of high scientific attainments are engaged. Nor must we omit to notice how much we owe to the establishment of the Zoological Society of London.

VOL. XXXV. No. II.

U

This society commenced under the auspices of the late Sir T. Stamford Raffles, Sir H. Davy, Mr Vigors, and other eminent men. It boasts of a noble museum of natural history, containing upwards of 700 distinct species of mammalia, and of an extensive menagerie, attractive no less to the public at large than to the professed zoologist; its objects were the cultivation of the great truths of science, the vindication for zoology of its legitimate station in public opinion, and the diffusion of a taste for the works of nature, than which nothing is more humanizing, and beneficial to the moral and mental faculties of man.

In the pursuance of these laudable designs, it followed as a matter of course that the society became a rallying point, a bright centre, round which naturalists and men of science collected; and thus it formed a school of zoology, inciting to study, and affording at the same time the materials. At the scientific meetings of the society, which are regularly carried on, new, valuable, and interesting communications are received and discussed, giving origin to "Proceedings" and "Transactions" published at stated intervals. Of the importance of these works, acknowledged on the continent, some idea may be formed, when it is known that in the "Proceedings" from 1831 to 1839, inclusive, nearly 170 new mammalia and about 590 new birds have been carefully described, to say nothing of reptiles, fishes, shells, &c., or of original and numerous anatomical investigations. The good results arising from the establishment of the Zoological Society of London do not, however, end here; it is the parent and pattern of similar institutions which have sprung up in many of our larger provincial towns; and thus it asserts its claim to be considered as one of the causes of the revival of zoology in our island.

We deem it our duty to speak in express terms of the advantages derivable by the naturalist from the Zoological Society, and of the influence it has exercised upon science and the public at large, creating, as it has done, a general demand for a new class of works; not only because these advantages and this influence have not been so largely appreciated as justice requires, but also because under the fostering patronage of this society Mr Gould began his zoological career, the result of which has been the production of a series of magnificent works, without a rival in the cabinets of science, and the gem of every rich man's library, to which, unfortunately, works of such artistical beauty, from their great costliness, must necessarily be confined. many years Mr Gould was one of the officers of the Zoological Museum, and immediately connected with the ornithological department, and it was while pursuing his researches there, that

For