both in the Texel and at Brest, for the invasion of Ireland; and it was this urgency which induced the French government to oblige the Dutch fleet to put to sea, and thus caused the memorable victory gained by Admiral Duncan on the 11th of October 1797.

The Committee now proceed to state that, early in the present year, the French government informed the Irish Union that they might expect succour from France in April: but, notwithstanding the rebellion, says the report, they have not yet thought it prudent to fulfil their promise. (The report was written before the landing of the French troops at Killala.)

The report goes on to give a history of the steps which led immediately to the rebellion. The design of rising, even without foreign aid, it states to have been urged by the Ulster delegates so early as the spring of 1797, in consequence of the vigorous measures of government. The Leinster delegates, however, dissented from the measure at that time: but the consideration of it was resumed by the delegates in March 1798;-when the well-timed measures of government were so efficacious in dissolving the Union, and in obliging the people to surrender their arms, that it became evident to the leaders that they had no other alternative than to rise at once, or to abandon their purpose. About this time, therefore, detailed military instructions were sent to the Adjutants-general of the Union, and all things were prepared for the insurrection. This produced the Government proclamation of the 30th March 1798, stating that the conspiracy had broken out into actual rebellion, and enjoining the military to act in the most summary way in disarming the rebels and the disaffected. This proclamation was transmitted to General Abercrombie, then commander in chief, who published notices to the inhabitants of the disturbed counties, of the measures which he in consequence intended to take. These notices are given in the Appendix; and the Committee observe that no measures of severity were ever adopted by the servants of government without previous and timely notice. The efficacy of these severities was so great, that the leaders of the rebellion began to perceive that their cause was losing ground. The arrest of the Provincial Committee on the 12th of March, and of several other leading members of the Union on the same day, added greatly to their embarrassment, and urged them to a desperate effort. A plan was therefore formed for a general rising. The camp at Loughlinstown, and the artillery station at Chapel-Izod, were to be surprised. The counties of Dublin, Wicklow, and Kildare were to co-operate in the attack; and the insurrection having commenced in the metropolis, of which

the

the signal was to be the burning of the mail-coaches, it was expected that the North and South would also rise. Government were informed of these intentions; and therefore, though the rising was attempted on the night of the 23d, and the mail-coaches were destroyed according to agreement, it was completely frustrated. On the 24th, the Lord Lieutenant by proclamation authorised the summary punishment of martial law against the rebels, or any who should assist in the rebellion.

Such is a general view of the statements contained in the report made to the House of Commons. The Committee conclude by submitting to the House their opinion on the whole.

The Appendix constitutes the great bulk of this volume, and contains a vast variety of matter; all, in fact, which was connected in any degree with the United Irish, and which could be amassed from former reports of parliamentary committees, seized papers, private information of witnesses, public trials, minutes of courts martial, &c. &c. &c. They seem to go the full length of substantiating, against the United Irish Society, all the charges which the report contains. It deserves to be noticed, however, that no correspondence appears to have passed between the French and the United Irishmen, until after the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam from the government of Ireland.

The matter of the Report of the Upper House of the Irish Parliament being substantially the same with that of the larger mass of information contained in the Report of the Commons, it is unnecessary for us to analyse the former with the attention which we have bestowed on the latter. It may suffice briefly to observe, that each of these authentic publications completely confirms and illustrates the evidence produced by the other.

ART. XIV. Hora Biblica, &c. 8vo. pp. 109. (Not sold.) 1797.

THIS

HIS little volume contains the product of the biblical hours of a lay-theologian, Mr. Butler, of Lincoln's Inn; a liberal man, as is evident; a catholic, as we presume, from his general insistance on tradition, and from some specific intimations. They are occupied more with exegetical than with doctrinal points: but of their contents the author's own compendium will be the best description. He undertakes to give,

I. Some history of the rise and decline of the Hebrew language, including an account of the Mishna, the Two Gemaras, and the Targums: II. Some account of the Hellenistic language, principally with a view to the Septuagint version of the Bible: III. Some ob

servations

servations on the effect produced on the style of the New Testament, 1st, by the Hellenistic idiom of the writers; 2dly, by the Rabbinical doctrines, current in Judæa, at the time of Christ's appearance, and by the controversies among the sects, into which the learned were then divided; 3dly, by the literary pursuits of the Jews, being confined to their religious tenets and observances; 4thly, by the political subserviency of the Jews to the Romans; 5thly, by their connections and intercourse with the neighbouring nations; and 6thly, by the difference of the dialects, which prevailed among the Jews themselves: IV. Some account, Ist, of the biblical literature of the middle ages; 2dly, of the industry of the Monks; and 3dly, of the industry of the Jews, in copying Hebrew manuscripts: V. Some notion of the Masorah, and the Keri and Ketibh: VI. Some notion of the controversy respecting the nature, antiquity, and utility of the vowel points; VII. Some general remarks, 1st, on the history of the Jews after their return from the Babylonish captivity to the birth of Christ; 2dly, on the persecutions suffered by the Jews; 3dly, on their present state; 4thly, on their religious tenets; 5thly, on the appellations of their doctors and teachers; 6thly, on the Cabala; 7thly, on their writers against the Christian religion; and 8thly, on their principles respecting religious toleration VIII. Some observations on the nature of the Hebrew manuscripts, and the principal printed editions of the Hebrew Bible; IX. Some account of the principal Greek manuscripts of the New Testament: X. Of the biblical labours of Origen: XI. Of the polyglottic editions of the New Testament: XII. Of the principal Greek editions of the New Testament: XIII. Of the Oriental versions of the New Testament: XIV. Of the Latin Vulgate: XV. Of the English translations of the Bible: XVI. Of the division of the Bible into chapters and verses: XVII. Some general observations on the nature of the various readings of the sacred text, so far as they may be supposed to influence the questions respecting its purity, authenti city, or divine inspiration.'

The merit of this convenient and comprehensive miscellany has recommended it, we hear, to the Clarendon press. We shall however offer a few remarks on the leading subdivisions. I. 1. The claim of the Hebrew language to the highest antiquity (says our author) cannot be denied: its pretensions to be the original language of mankind, and to have been the only language in existence before the confusion at Babel, are not inconsiderable.' We deem them very inconsiderable, and are surprised that Mr. B. should have admitted such an unfounded assumption. Had he attentively perused the remarks of Schultens. De Guignes, Michaëlis, &c. on this subject, we think that he would not have hazarded an assertion of this kind: but the Rabbins and Buxtorfs seem to be his chief guides.

III. 2. The author professes to enumerate the religious sects among the Jews, at the time of the birth of our Saviour; and

he

he sufficiently notices the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, and the Herodians, but passes over the Essenes and the Gaulonites, both of whom are very interesting to the student of Christianity. We shall throw together a few particulars of each, chiefly condensed from the "Moses and Aaron" of Godwin.

The Essenes, according to some authors, were so named from the word NDN to heal diseases, an art which they are said to have studied scarcely less than the Bible. They were divided into "practic and theoric;" the former labouring for the profit of a common purse with their hands, the latter with their minds. They exercised gratuitous hospitality towards each other, and at the common expence towards strangers. They shunned perfumes, wore white garments, forbad oaths, venerated the old, drank only water, avoided animal food and sacrifice, and taught fatalism. During an apprenticeship of five years, their youth were trained to modesty and decency. They were commanded to speak little, to bathe in drawers, not to touch their seniors, to observe the Sabbath, to worship towards the east, to preserve the names of angels, and to marry not for the sake of having a wife but of having children. In number, they were reputed about four thousand. The practic Essenes were mostly occupied in keeping sheep, fishing, tending bees, tilling, and other handicraft occupations: to these were allowed a dinner and a supper; to the theorics, or instructors, a supper only.

The Gaulonites or Galilæans were so called from their original leader, who was of Galilee, and named Judas. This was a seditious confederacy first formed in the time of Cyrepius, to resist the payment of tribute to Cæsar. Judas taught his followers to call no man on earth master, but only the Lord of lords; and he was probably protected by Archelaus, a son of Herod, the seizure of whose goods he resisted. These Gaulonites were peculiarly hostile to the Herodians; and they forbad sacrificing for the emperor, and were in consequence attacked by Pilate, who slew many of them for contumacy. To this sect those ruffians are supposed to have belonged, who are mentioned in the Acts (xxi. 38.) as in number about four thousand.-

The Protestants have objected to Popery, and the infidels to Christianity, that the most dismal period of human history extends from the establishment of this religion under Constantine, to the dis establishment of it under Leo X. Our author's remarks on this period merit selection, on account of their apo logetic tendency;

IV. 1. The comparatively low state of literature, and of the arts and sciences, during this middle age, must be acknowledged; but justice claims our gratitude to the venerable body of men, who strove against the barbarism of the times, and to whose exertions we entirely owe all the precious remains of sacred or profane antiquity, that survived that calamitous æra. For whatever has been preserved to us of the writers of Greece or Rome; for all we know of the language of those invaluable writers; for all the monuments of our holy religion; for the sacred writings which contain the word of God; and for the traditions of the wise and the good respecting it, we are solely, under providence, indebted to the zeal and exertions of the priests and monks of the church of Rome, during this middle age*. If, during this period, there were a decay of taste and learning, it is wholly to be ascribed to the general ruin and devastation, brought on the christian world, by the inroads and conquests of the barbarians, and the other events, which were the causes, or the consequences of the decline and fall of the Roman empire. Besides, while we admit and lament, we should not exaggerate, the literary degradation, of the times, we speak of. Biblical literature, the immediate subject of the present inquiry, was by no means entirely neglected. Doctor Hody, in his most learned Historia Scholastica Hebraici Textus Versionumque Grace et Latina Vulgate, places this circumstance beyond the reach of controversy. He proves, that, there never was a time, even in the darkest ages, when the study of the original language of the Holy Writings was wholly neglected. In England alone, the works of the venerable Bede, of Holy Robert of Lincoln, and of Roger Bacon, shew how greatly it was prized and pursued there.'

VII. 1. In this section occurs a pontifical genealogy, or the pedigree of the Jewish high-priests, from the captivity to the time of Christ. The list begins with Josedek, who was carried into captivity at the first siege (1 Chronicles, vi. 15.) of Jerusalem, and who was the elder brother of Ezra. Now our author maintains (p. 32.) that this Josedek was high-priest at the time of the return of the Jews from captivity; which he supposes to have taken place under Zerubbabel, in virtue of an edict of Cyrus. The first edict of Cyrus was issued in the fifth year of the Conquest (Baruch I. 2.), or in the second year of Zedekiah's reign; and this return was superintended by Shesbazzar. The second edict of Cyrus is of unknown date; unless it may be inferred from the book of Ezra (ch. iii. v. 1.) that it took place in the seventh month after the second siege, in which Nebuzaradan burned the temple. Whether Josedek was killed in this second siege does not appear: but it is evident that Joshua, son of Josedek, was already priest within two years of that event (Ezra,

* We think that this is too bold an opinion, and not sufficiently warranted by fact. Rev.

ch. iii.