the main defect in the system of transportation, which a Committee of the House of Commons has declared to have completely failed. Need we say that the committee did not enquire into its working in this respect: if they had contrasted the 7557. per annum paid for the religious instruction of the convicts with the 57,7407. 11s. 3d. paid for the police establishment of the colony, as Mr. Burton has done, they would not have made the startling assertion-that the system of transportation not only exhibits an inefficiency in deterring from crime, but likewise "a remarkably efficiency, not in reforming, but in still further corrupting" the criminal, without adding, that religion formed no part of the system, and that reformation without religion would be a moral impossibility.

ART. VII.-Jerusalem and the Jewish Cause: a Letter to the Right Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London, respecting the State and Prospects of the Jews and the Jewish Mission in Syria. By the Rev. W. B. HURNARD, M. A. London: Hayward and Moore. 1840.

2. Israel's Return, or Palestine Regained. By Joseph Elisha FREEMAN. London: Ward.

1840.

3. Sketches of Judaism and the Jews. MCCAUL. London: Wertheim. 1838.

By the Rev. Dr.

THE Jews have many claims upon Christian sympathy-to them we are indebted for impulses of unspeakable value; our greatest spiritual blessings have been communicated through Jewish channels. The Jewish and Christian Churches, in their early history, and in their future glories, are twins of the same destiny, around which all prophecy unceasingly revolves.

Apart from all scriptural considerations, a very partial acquaintance with the history of the Jews during their lengthened dispersion, is sufficient to inspire us with regard for them. They may be bowed down by the heavy burden of ages of political slavery, habits may have been acquired, which subsist, in relation to social institutions, in a state of degradation-these will cease as soon as that relation is dissolved, and those institutions are improved; but the impartial observer will admit, that in struggling through centuries of desolation, as abandoned outcasts, every where unsheltered from the ceaseless storms of pitiless power, yet maintaining their national unity and distinctness, upon the stake of some far distant and mysterious hope they have exhibited an unconquerable freedom of mind, an

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innate strength of character, which is unequalled. Even the most determined opponent of the realities of prophecy will probably admit, that a despised and persecuted people, who could follow up some ever vanishing object of expectation through so vast an interval of time, with unbroken faith and unrepining confidence-untainted by the fluctuating customs of the world-must possess some latent and enduring energies of mind which would be called forth if the influences which depressed them were taken away-surely, some extraordinary destiny must await a family which has been guided by such strange instincts. Those who associate nobility with love of country will also regard the Jews; the descendants of Abraham never forget the "pleasant land," and maintain, under every variety of outward circumstance, the same unperishing attachment to their ancient mountains. The burden of their song is unchangeable: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy."

There is something peculiarly appalling in the fixedness of the Jewish character, as a proverbial reproach, during a career of bondage so protracted and enduring; the flood of time seems to have carried along with it no exercise of sympathy or remission of oppression. If the pilgrims of sorrow could scan the history of their wearisome journey, and trace the events of successive ages, from the dispersion to the conclusion of the last century, they might mark out certain stages in the great diary, and reckon up at each the civil earnings and benefits conferred upon the commonwealth of Israel; but they would reiterate, at the expiration of every cancelled cycle, an unchanging response: "The enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground, he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead."

Every year now, however, brings with it a series of events which unite in testifying that the captives are approaching the term of their degradation. In commenting upon these, we have no intention of entering into the soundness of the policy of Christian Governments conferring civil privileges upon unconverted Jews, but merely desire to deal with such circumstances, in common with other novelties of the age, as indicative of the passing away of the Jewish tribulation. The events of the year that is past, although somewhat chequered, have been, nevertheless, very generally delineated in favour of the Jews; the exceptions being limited to a few detached spots, where small sections are infolded in the grasp of some decaying fragment of

the empire of Islam, as at Damascus and Rhodes-but the intervention of foreign powers has been already called forth, and a stop will be put to the repetition of such disgraceful scenes. The Syrian Jews are evidently in the hands of the Philistines; the only wonder is, that similar tragedies have not been more frequently exhibited. So low is the standard of morality in Syria, that Burckhardt affirmed that if a British code of laws was introduced into that country, the mass of the inhabitants would find their way to the penal colonies before the expiration of a year.

During the general relaxation of oppression at first alluded to, the Jews have not been stationary and inactive. Whilst different governments have been occupied in releasing them from the essentials of bondage, they have at the same time been effectually struggling to free themselves from the fetters of Rabbinism; they cannot remain much longer in their present state, and are evidently making rapid progress towards some great and still undefined change. Unhappily, the leaders in the march of reform are taking the ground of rationalism and infidelity. However anxious they may be to induce their brethren to abdicate the follies of Rabbinism, they are, at the same time, ambitious of making it assume new developments, independently of the essential principles of truth which are mixed up with it in the writings of their ancient prophets. They desire "to clothe their ecclesiastical institutions in forms consonant with the age, that those customs which were introduced in unhappy times, should be replaced by others more corresponding with the customs of the present day;" or, in other words, they desire. to obliterate all that is venerable and sacred in the institutions of modern Judaism. The apostles of reform seem to have no fixed religious principles-nothing that will be lasting, or that will ever become broadly effective upon the nation, to offer in exchange for the religion of their fathers; instead of upholding the ordinances of Jehovah, and seeking to guide the religious fraternity by the light of the "sure word of prophecy," they are leading them away from national duties and national destinies by the deceitful glare of an irreligious intellectualism. But that we may not appear to misrepresent their case, we shall give their own view of it in a few brief extracts, and then proceed to the discussion of late political events, which may be looked upon as the harbingers of the fulness of the cycle of bondage.

Dr. Creizenach, a Jewish author of some celebrity, in considering the progress of reform, and consequent decline of "Rabbinico-Talmudical" opinions, states that "in the smallest congregations there are to be found Orthodox and Neologians;

admirers of the Talmud and opponents of the same, strict observers of the ritual law, and enlightened ones who look upon all forms of religion as unessential, and subject to the influence of time." A Parisian Rabbinical writer, with well conceived aversion to the fatal extremities to which they are proceeding, exclaims :

"Nothing, nothing at all distinguishes the Jew from the Christian in France, and especially in Paris. The former enjoys all rights as well as the latter, and discharge all the functions of Frenchmen. The Jewish-German, forty years ago the language of so many Israelites among us, is even not understood by the younger part of us. But one thing is to be feared, that the professors of our religion in this country will fall into a sceptical deism, if they are not, by a reformed divine worship, and a scientific turn of our theology, again united to our religion in its positiveness."*

Dr. Mc Caul, an able advocate of the Jewish cause, has furnished us with the most complete summary of the rise and progress of Rabbinical reform. The total results of all that has been done, as affecting religious opinions, are quoted to the following effect from Dr. Jost :

"Although no system has been formed, we think that we have perceived, amongst thinking Jews, a general adoption of the following principles :-All agree that the Jews are no longer a chosen people, in the hitherto received sense, and look upon expressions of this nature in the Liturgy only as an old form. They, however, assert that the Holy Scriptures are the only source of a true religion, capable of standing the test of reason. They remain strangers to the doctrines of Christianity; and no one believes that a confession of the Christian faith, free from hypocrisy, is possible, unless in those who have been convinced by education and custom. This pure religion consists in the conviction, that a supernatural revelation had been made to the forefathers of Israel, to Moses and the prophets-consequently, in the belief that there is one God. For the instruction of man God has made known, through human instrumentality, that He is the moral Governor of the world, and that His eyes are upon men, valuing and retributing according to their moral worth. This pre-supposes the immortality of the soul. The moral code of Scripture is looked upon as the only true one, in so far as it agrees with principles generally to be acknowledged. It therefore requires not only a moral life, but one based upon religious principle, and not on worldly philosophy. Every thing that appears to militate against this is rejected, and every passage of Scripture that appears hostile is explained from the circumstance of the times: as, for instance, the evil deeds of the patriarchs; and the same expedient was also applied to the miracles, which some explained away altogether, others endeavoured to explain on natural principles-but this system never became general."

* Jewish Intelligence.

The practical effects of reform may be summed up in the adoption of foreign customs, the setting aside of Rabbinic training, and the deposition of the national language. Reform, on the other hand, has acted favourably in exciting a spirit of inquiry, in developing mental powers long restricted in their free exercise by an exclusive system of religion; it has, moreover, released the Jews from oppression, and made them more accessible to missionary exertion. Long and faithfully have they clung to the traditions of their fathers; but now that the vintage-time of Rabbinism has been for some time past, they seem to be losing their relish for the "spiced wines of the Gemara," and the "wine of the Mishna :" and it is therefore to be hoped, that the weary pilgrims, who are perishing for lack of knowledge, may be speedily induced to drink deeply of the soul-refreshing" water of the Bible."* The conversion of the Jews is a subject of glorious hope. Some of the most able writers of the Anglican Church represent them as being destined to occupy, in bold relief, a prominent position in the Christian Temple; considering the reconciliation of Israel as one of the promised glories of the Gentile Church; the order of events being divinely appointed-that, "as we have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy."+ The result involves the most momentous consequences, in accordance with the conclusive inference of St. Paul: "What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead ?"

In considering the evidences of the altered political position of the Jews, the Ottoman empire is an important field of enquiry. In 1825, according to German statists, there were 300,000 Jews in Asiatic Turkey; a portion of these are now under the sway of Egypt, but the Syrian sovereignty is still claimed by the Ottomans. The precepts of the Koran infuse into the minds of all its followers a spirit of rancour against the Jews; in most Moslem countries they have been disallowed the public exercise of their religion; and the Turks, in particular, have long been hard task-masters to Israel. In the early stages of their history no people could be more decisive in carrying out the principles of their religion; the only prelude to plunder and tribute was the following summary address: "Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way; we require of you to testify that there is one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet." A complete revolution has now taken place, and late

The Rabbies say that "the Bible is like water; the Mishna like win e and the Gemara like spiced wine."

+ Romans xi. 30, 31.