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I will exhibit to this scholar (who "understands what he reads," "who darkeneth not counfels by words without knowledge," and whofe words are not like a tangled chain," as the language of "the ignorant and prefumptuous S. H.") a fpecimen of the clear and accurate ideas, which the Editor CONCILIORUM MAGNÆ BRIT. and the admirer of this comprehenfive and intelligent linguift, have obtained by the "excellent fenfe of the Latin tranflation."

"Concilia Magnæ Brit. a DAVIDE WILKINS, S. T. P. P. 138.

Gif hwylc Criften man his agen bearn, oththe his nehstan mæg, with anigum wurthe fylle, næbbe he manne gemanan mid Criftenum mannum, ær he hine alyfed hæbbe of tham theowdome, gif he thonne hine begytan ne mage, dæle fwa mycel feoh for hyne, fwa he ær mid him nam, and alyfe otherne of theowdome, and freoge thone, and fæfte feofon Wucan on hlafe and on Watere, and gif he thæs geftreones næbbe, that he alyfan mæge, fæfte thonne eahta and twentig wucena on hlafe and on Waetere.

"Si quis chriftianus infantem fuum vel proximi fui pro aliquo pretio vendiderit, non habeat confortium aliquod cum chriftianis, antequam eum e fervitute redemerit; fi autem ipfum obtinere nequeat, tradat tantum pecuniae, quantum prius per ipfum acceperat, et redimat eum e fervitute, ac liberet illum, et jejunet feptem feptimanas in pane et aqua: et fi facultates non habeat, ut eum redimere poffit, jejunet octo et viginti hebdomadas in pane et

aqua.

"If ilk Chriftian man his own Barn, oth' his nigheft Kinfmans, with any Worth fell, not have he no Communion with Chriftian men, e'er he them loofed have of their thraldom, if he then them get not may, deal fo mickle fee for them, fo he e'er with them nimmed,+ and loofe others of thraldom, and free thence, and fast feven Weeks on Loaf and on Water, and if he this ftrength not have, that he loofe may, fast then eight and twenty weeks on Loaf and on Water."

Now to a perfon of common apprehenfion it may appear a ftrange circumftance that a man must be neceffitated to redeem thole from flavery, whom he cannot redeem, "fi autem ipfum obtinere nequeat, redimat eum," et liberet eum; it may feem contrary to the fpirit and doctrines of Chriftianity to require impoffibilities; but this is a trifling paradox to enlightened Reviewers, who collect" better fenfe" from fuch precife laws that punifh fin. ners for doing what they could not do, than the juft, equitable, and benevolent principle inculcated in this penitential by this Council, that inftituted the emancipation of Englishmen, that the feller of a flave, or flaves, before he was re-admitted to the communion of the church, fhould firft pay the price of the purchase.

* Synonymous with price.

+"Nimmed his purfe."-Shakspeare-Merry Wives of Windfor.

money,

money, then reftore him, or them, to liberty if poffible; but if this was impracticable, then it became his atoning duty to loofe others of thraldom. If common fenfe is "wretched ftuff," yet may God grant me always to write common sense.

I will now proceed to comment on the learned Critiques of Antiquaries, relative to the meaning of half fentences or fingle words. The Analytical Review, and Magazine by the Wooden Civilian, abufe me unmercifully relative to the following paffage, "—and thu nu thurgh that tryw, and thurgh that Rode hæfft ealle thyne blyffe forefpylled."

quando quidem per ligneam* illam crucem tuam, omnem delectationem perdidifti."

"—and thou now thorough that true one, and thorough that rood† haveft all thine Blifs fore-fpoiled."

In the first place it is neceffary to observe relative to Sylvanus Urban, who never commits "typographical errors through hafty writing" (p. 862) that tree is fubftituted in his extract for true or true-one. I next afk whether these acute grammarians and able Saxons are accustomed to meet with tautological expreffions in the writings of our forefathers? But if I admit that TRYw may mean tree, which I do not mean to deny, will they pretend, or dare to affert, that it does not mean true, (TREU oder GETREU Germ.) and if it is capable of fuch interpretation, as I affirm and can prove, which language or fentiment conveys the most correct or natural ideas?"per lignean illam Crucem," or the idea tranfmitted by my homely version, "through that true one who affumed humanity to render men well-pleafing to God, atoned for all the fins of the world by his fufferings on the cross, and bruised the serpent's head.” This may be wooden ftuff, yet ex quovis Ligno non fit Mercurius; but I fhall ever prefer my own acceptation of this paffage to "thorough that tree, and thorough that rood," for whoever 'doubted that the cross was made of wood?

The next paffage which I fhall exhibit has been " feverely, but justly, commented upon by a Friend, 1, with the obfervations of Mr. E in the late Analytical Review, to whom I can now properly apply the conclufion of his critique on my work, Bene facis, vir bone, vade, et noli amplius peccare. To avoid the poffibility of mifrepresentation, I will give the extract at length.

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In P. 4, we have an extract from a Saxon manufcript, transcribed in the Thefaurus of Hickes, (Differt. Epist. P. 2.) with the Verfio Hickefiana,' and, on the oppofite page, the Saxon is printed in Roman characters, with an English radical tranflation," "by the Editor, in Italics. Which brings to our recollection the cafe of Dryden's Tranflation of Virgil; it was cenfured,' we are told, by Milbourne, a clergyman, ftyled by Pope the faireft of critics, because he exhibited his own verfion to be compared with that which he condemned.'

Ligneam-a wooden tranflation indeed. + Synonimous with Crofs.

"The

"The first two lines of Mr. H's tranflation, with the Saxon in Roman characters, we have here extracted:

Her fwutelath on thiffum gewrite, that an fcir-gemot fæt æt Here fettleth on this writ that one Shiremote fat at Egelnoths-ftane be Cnutes dæge cinges. Thær fæton Æthelitan B. Elnoth's-ftone being Cnutes day king. There fatten Atheistan Bp. "The very fecond word, fwutelath, which fignifies fheweth or declareth, is here tranflated fo as to mislead the learner, and make him think that our present fettleth is a corruption of the word before him. The accurate Hickes has explained it by oftenditur.In the next line we have BE CNUTES DAGE CINGES. In BE, which fignifies in, by the fame obftinate distortion of common fenfe, Mr. H. finds our modern English being. And the remaining words CNUTES DEGE CINCES are tranflated Cnutes day king. To any perfon who has read three pages of the Saxon grammar the inaccuracy of this tranflation must be ftriking. Cnutes and CINGES are both of the genitive cafe; we muft, therefore, render it in the day of king Cnute. Canuto regnante, Hickes. In die Canuti, Lye. In the fame line we have THAR SETON, there fatten,' which, without lofing one iota of its force, might have been expreffed in good English. At line 15, THA COM FARENDE TO THAM GEMOTE is tranflated Then came fore-hand to that mote.' The derivation of FARENDE from the verb FARAN, to fare or travel, is obvious, and ftill more fo our prefent word way-faring. On GEMOTE is this note, the Saxon ge prefixed, is almost conftantly to be left out in modern English.' This evidently regards his own tranflations, or why is it not faid, that GE was afterwards, in many cafes, foftened into y, as in yclepede: but is now generally

difufed."

6

With respect to the comparative infinuation, relative to Milbourne and Dryden, by this faireft of Critics, I fimply afk whether a tyro or fchool-boy would more eafily acquire a knowledge of a language from a literal or liberal tranflation? Now I proceed to my vindication. Relative to the word swUTELATH, Sylvanus Urban coincides with Mr. J. in opinion, by his dogma, that it fhould be fheweth. In the firft place, I refer for authority to Thwaites's Heptateuch, Gen. cap. xxii, ver. 8. Him andwyrde fe fæder, God forefceawath min funu him fylf tha offrunge. 9. Hig comon tha to the ftowe the him gefwutelode God. I fhall perfift in giving my literal verfion, which always fo ftrangely coincides with common fense, "though it appears to be founded on nothing but an' imaginary refemblance of found," (Gent. Mag. P. 861.) Him, anfwered the Father. God forefheweth my fon himfelf the offering. They come then to the flow (or place) that him fettled (ev Septuag.) God. It is certain, then, that there is a verb SCEAWATH Corresponding to fheweth, diftinct from SWUTELATH, which I ftill maintain to be fettleth for the following reafons. In this curious record, which commences with the words extracted, we are informed that the caufe was decided before one word was registered in the golpels of St. Æthelbert's Minfter, or in the original in one Chrift's Bonk, which

which the penetrating and acute Sylvanus Urban has wifely and learnedly discovered to be a Teftament in correction of my literal verfion; an unfortunate blunderer, however, cannot but err in the fimpleft alterations; for a Teftament includes the epiftles, (and I wish this honoured antiquary would inform me where the Saxon epiftles are to be found,) but one Chrift's Book contains here only the four Evangelifts, and, according to the ufage of our anceftors, oaths are now administered by swearing the perfon on the four Evangelifts. Subfequent to this, Turkill Wight, who is enregistered as a liber Homo of the firft clafs, a peer, in Domesday, "tenuit in Paragio," was defirous of fecuring this bookland to his pofterity by the fignatures of all the members of the county court, which document fettled it on him and his heirs. This litigation, by fuch means and procefs, was fettled here by this document. To ftate" in this writing is feen," is not agreeable to the mode of thinking used by our forefathers, it is like "gentlemen, you shall fee what you fhall fee."

The critique of my work, in the Analytical Review, is so contradictory in different parts, that it would have been impoffible to have accounted for fuch a Farrago libelli, had I not been obligingly informed that it was written by different perfons. In one place I learn that "any perfon, who has read three pages of the Saxon grammar, must be ftruck with the inaccuracy of my tranflation ;" in another place it is admitted, that "the grammars of the language have too frequently been conftructed on Latin principles." I afk thefe gentlemen what is the grammar they use that is of fuch authority with them, a grammar not conftructed on Latin principles? To this query I know they cannot reply, for I perceive they adopt Hickes and Lye's formation of the verb and construction of the noun (whose system I attack) and nobly and ably confute me by begging the question. Perfevering, however, in my "obftinate diftortion of common fenfe," I affirm that BE CNUTES DAGE CINGES, is intellible to an English reader when rendered "being Knutes day King. Lye and Horne Tooke admit that BEON is to be or being, and, from the frequent abbreviations and ellipfes in the Saxon records, the N final of BEON is omitted in writing, as it was in pronunciation, because of CN following it. With refpect to their genitive cafes are not the Latin principles adopted which they reprobate? On the fubject of their ftrictures on THA COM FARENDE TO THAM GLMOTE, "then came forehand to that mote," I take leave to enquire what exquifite fense there would be in the obvious amended tranflation of Mr. J. " then come travelling to that mote;" or Mr. Sylvanus Urbans, "then come going to that mote," when the plaintiff was prefent in court, and spoke or opened his case, to which Turkill, the defendant, replied. That FARE is fynonymous with fore I entertain little doubt; and that fore was common for be fore, FORE-SCEAWETH proves; and my verfion is certainly fenfe, and agreeably to the common language of the prefent day. As to the obfervation on the omiffion of the prefix GE, commented upon by the Analytical, where the writer thinks he is difplaying his learn

ing, I will inform him that where GE is once converted into it is fifty times dropped.

I really was in hopes that the civil Gentleman's Magazine, agreeably to promife, would, ere this, have "taken fome future opportunity of comparing Mr. H.'s wretched tranflation," with his "divine" illustration of the Saxon, for the writer does not know what a flee-man is. I will now give him my opinion what a fleeman is a man that has stabbed another in the dark like an affaffin, and imagines that he has deftroyed him with a murderous poniard; but, on discovering that the wound inflicted was turned afide by the muscular strength of the intended victim, and, that he was fummoned to an open and manly conteft at arms in the legal courts, runs his country, at the advice of his friends, crying fly-man-fly, and who, following fuch warning, then becomes a fleeman, or runaway.

London, March 18, 1799.

Yours, &c.

S. HENSHALL.

(To be continued.)

HISTORY.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.

JACTA

ACTA EST ALEA. The French, having completed all thofe preparatory means which we noticed in our laft Summary of Politics, have now thrown off the mafk, and, after commencing hoftilities, declared war against the EMPEROR of GERMANY and the GRAND DUKE of TUSCANY. On the firft of March, Jourdan's army croffed the Rhine at different points, took poffeffion of Manheim, and formed the blockade of Philipfburgh. The addrefs of this leader of the Gallic banditti to his followers is truly worthy a hireling of the regicide Directory. He reproaches the Emperor with a violation of treaty, and has the profligacy to declare, that the French themselves are "fcrupulous obfervers of the faith of treaties." It would be an infult to the understanding of Englishmen to attempt any demonstration of a fact fo notorious as that the perfidy of the French government is as flagrant as their infamy is confpicuous; that all the combined treachery and enormities of all the governments of former ages, of every denomination, would be light as a feather in the fcale, when oppofed to the treachery and enormities of the rulers of the French Republic.

Whoever feeks to difcover any other motive for the conduct of the Directory, than the fixed determination to fubvert all the existing inftitutions of Europe, with a view to the general deftruction of property, will feek in vain. Plunder is their object, and republican arms and revolutionary principles are their means for attaining it.

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