together with many discrepancies from each other, so that no one of them could be regarded as an unobjectional standard; that after several attempts had been made from time to time up to the year 1767, to correct such errors; and that at the period just mentioned, the delegates of the Oxford press commissioned Dr. Blayney, who was assisted by distinguished members of the University, to exhibit the text in an improved form, and that he performed his task in a manner to excite general approbation, and to justify the delegates of the Cambridge press in making that edition the standard of their copies. The Vice-Chancellor therefore concludes, by telling the memorialists that the Syndics of the University deem the edition of Dr. Blayney to be the best possible standard; that the confidence reposed in it should not be disturbed on light grounds; that they believe themselves warranted in sharing that general confidence, and that they will be always ready to correct errors, when such are pointed out.

A reply, nearly in the identical terms of that transmitted from Cambridge, was sent to Dr. Bennett from Oxford, not by the ViceChancellor, but by the printers.

In a week after the receipt of these letters, the gentlemen who signed the memorial met, and resolved themselves into a permanent committee, to do all in their power to obtain a restoration of the legal version of King James, after having first protested against the conduct of the Syndics of the two Universities. A sub-committee of these gentlemen was afterwards chosen, for the purpose of verifying the various collations which had been made by Mr. Curtis, and drew up a report, dated June, 1832, of which the following is a

copy:

"Present-Dr. Bennett, Dr. Cox, and Dr. Henderson, a Sub-Committee appointed to verify and report upon a collation of various editions of the Holy Bible, made by the Secretary.-Dr. Smith, though not of the SubCommittee, kindly assisting in the investigation, it was

"Resolved,-1. That this Committee are perfectly satisfied that an extensive alteration has been introduced into the text of our Authorised Version, by changing into Italics innumerable words and phrases, which are not thus expressed in the original editions of King James' Bible, printed in 1611.

"2. That these alterations so far from being an improvement of our Vernacular Translation, greatly deteriorate it; inasmuch, as in most instances, they convey to the reader the idea, that whatever any words are printed in Italics, there is nothing corresponding to them in the original text: whereas it must at once be obvious to every person who is competent to judge on the question, that what has been supplied in these instances, was absolutely necessary in order to give the full force of the Hebrew and Greek idioms; and consequently, should have been printed in the same characters as the rest of the text.

"3. That those who have made these alterations, have discovered a great want of critical taste, unnecessarily exposed the sacred text to the scoffs of infidels, and thrown such stumbling-blocks in the way of the unlearned, as are greatly calculated to perplex their minds, and unsettle their confidence in the text of Scripture.

"4. That it be recommended to the general Committee, to take such measures as they shall deem most likely to effect a speedy return to the Standard text, which has thus wantonly been abandoned; but that it is expedient to wait till the reprint of the edition of 1611, now printed at Oxford, be before the public, ere any further correspondence be entered upon with the Universities.

(Signed,)

"E. HENDERSON. F. A. COX, L.L. D. J. BENNETT, D.D."

The names attached to this document are too respectable not to communicate a great degree of importance to any statement to which they are affixed. We are sure that this matter cannot rest here, although nothing further seems as yet to have been attempted by the committee. Too much praise cannot be awarded to Mr. Curtis for his indefatigable zeal, his disinterested and ceaseless activity, but, above all, for the truly Christian spirit which marks every part of his conduct throughout this very trying ordeal of his fortitude.

ART. VI. History of the Greek Revolution. By THOMAS GORDON, F.R.S. 2 Vols. Edinburgh: Blackwood. London: Cadell. 1832.

EVEN Mr. Gordon himself acknowledges that the contest between the Turks and the Greeks is a hackneyed and apparently exhausted subject, and justifies his two bulky tomes simply on the plea that he thinks it important to record an accurate account of a series of events, which, from a hasty view of them by numerous authors, are altogether misunderstood by the public. Upwards of forty distinct productions have now appeared on the subject of Greek affairs, and out of the whole of these, according to Mr. Gordon, no more than three or four have the slightest claim to accuracy. Then with respect to the few writers who form the exception, our author remarks that their labours were limited to brief and detached intervals of the period during which the war raged; and independently of this imperfection, there was another to which they were subject, namely, the influence of strong prejudices. So far as the history of the insurrection at Patrass, and the siege of Tripolizza are concerned, these four authors may be properly depended on: in this concession, the author would even extend so far as to include the campaign in Peloponnesus amongst the events which they have been able authentically to describe: but they were totally unacquainted with the operations which were simultaneously taking place in the northern territory of Greece, and in that beyond the Danube.

The author commences with an account of the rebellion of Ali Pacha, and the results of which it was the immediate cause. He

then describes the revolt of Theodore Vladimiresco in Wallachia, and the attempt which the ill-fated Ypsilanti engaged in for the purpose of making himself master of Moldavia. As a specimen of the lengths to which the curse of dissension carried itself in Greece, we find that Ypsilanti, even under the pressure of the greatest difficulties during his expedition to Moldavia, was conspired against by his own brothers. So mischievous did this dissentient spirit prove in the army, that to it must be attributed, in a great degree, the failure of that unfortunate chief. The circumstances, and the event of the campaign in Moldavia, are well known. Ypsilanti was arrested by the Austrian government, and shut up in the castle of Mongatz, one of the most unhealthy spots in the whole of Hungary. He was sent to another place of custody afterwards, where he lingered for six years, and finally fell a victim to confinement and anxiety.

We take Mr. Gordon's testimony for the fact that Ypsilanti was destitute both of courage and virtue. One of the basest transactions which ever was charged against a general, is imputed to him. When in Wallachia, and waiting there under circumstances that made him fear a forcible detention-for he had fled to a convent, and was devising measures to effect an escape from the provinces on which he had heaped so many calamities: whilst thus situated, Ypsilanti had recourse to an expedient which is enough to degrade his memory for ever. He forged letters, which he pretended were written by the general who commanded in Transylvania, and these were to announce that Austrian troops were on the point of invading the principality. In order the better to carry on this deep deception, he caused these letters to be translated and read in public, and, with blasphemous hypocrisy, had a solemn service of thanksgiving celebrated in the church of the convent, during which repeated volleys of musketry were fired, in token of joy at the event; but the officers saw through this stratagem, and generously assured him his safety.

Mr. Gordon, in the early chapters, labours to illustrate the leading causes in which the Greek revolution originated. His facts and arguments tend directly to show, as an undoubted truth, that the disposition to revolt was generated in Greece by a disinterested zeal for country and religion, and by feelings of resentment for the injuries and insults which were habitually offered to both: besides this, the needy and ill-treated population looked with envious eyes on the luxurious ease in which the Turks enjoyed existence, keeping magnificent establishments: then again the condition of the Moreote primates had been for a long time such as to give them no small share of interest in the chances that might eusue from a convulsion. The nature of the grievances to which the Greeks were subjected, have never been more graphically, yet more briefly described than in a letter addressed by a Greek to hemet Pasha. The grievances, he tells his Turkish corres

pondent, are" the cruelties committed without the knowledge of the Sultan's government; the injustice of the Viziers, Vayvodes, Khadis, and Buloukbashis, each of whom closed the book of Mohammed, and opened a book of his own. Any virgin that pleased them they took by force; any merchant in Negropont, who was making money, they beheaded, and seized his goods; any proprietor of a good estate they slew, and occupied his property; and every drunken vagabond in the streets could murder respectable Greeks, and was not punished for it. The book of Mohammed allows none of these things, but prescribes blood for blood, honour for honour, money for money; this precept, however, did not satisfy those functionaries, and therefore they laid it aside, and composed every one his own book, and judged according to it, and to the length of his sword. We are well aware that the great Sultan never knew, nor had an idea of such things, and consequently we sent in numerous petitions, none of which reached him, because those wicked persons had power enough to hinder our memorials from being presented, and thus constrained us to take up arms, and either to perish or free ourselves from such calamities. If it please your excellency, write a representation to the Sultan, and obtain for us an imperial edict, that we may be delivered from our ills. We will then sit quietly in our houses, looking after our private affairs, and so things will go better a thousand times than they have done. With regard to my capitaneria, my father inherited it from his father, through his valour, and I hope to keep it in the same way. I have the honour to salute you humbly."

The effect which the breaking out of the revolution had upon the Turkish people, particularly those of Constantinople and the exclusively Turkish provinces, was in a great measure heightened by the discovery, in the very heart of the capital, of a plot for the overthrow of the government. The whole empire was wrought up to a pitch of frenzy, which exploded with a terrible convulsion. We may recall some portion of the dreadful vengeance inflicted on the Christians who were within the power of the Turks:

"Under the influence of this feeling, the Janissaries and the populace, both at Constantinople and in the villages on the Bosphorus, began to commit murders, and to break into houses; and as the Porte seemed not simply to tolerate, but rather to countenance such excesses, universal dismay passed into the breasts of the Christians. At the same time, the Sultan, by an imperial rescript, called on his Mohammedan subjects to gird on their weapons, and stand prepared to defend their faith and monarchy menaced by infidels: by his orders, too, the Patriarch of the Eastern church fulminated an excommunication against Ypsilanti and his adherents. In the month of March, and the commencement of April, the torrent of wrath being kept within certain bounds, a multitude of Greeks escaped by sea, some directing their course to the Archipelago, but the greater part towards Odessa, which was encumbered with fugitives. When, however, advices arrived of the rebellion of the Morea and the islands, the Sultan's indig

nation fell with terrible weight upon the nobility, clergy, and merchants. Many, doubtless, in the two latter classes, were privy to the schemes of the Hetorists; as the ecclesiastics, out of religious zeal, and commercial men from a love of liberty, had long sighed for emancipation: but the Fanariotes, constantly opposed to the hierarchy, and wedded by the ties of self-interest to Ottoman despotism, were certainly guiltless of the imputations laid to their charge. It happened unfortunately for them that the Sultan's favourite and confidential minister, Khalet Effendi, had strong personal motives for persuading his master into a belief of their complicity. His sole partiality having, against the wishes of the divan, elevated Michael Souzzo to the principality of Moldavia, it became him to show, that among the Greeks of rank, his protected client was not a single instance of disloyalty, and he therefore involved all the leading families in the same accusation. We may add, moreover, upon no slight authority, that Ypsilanti contributed to their ruin by a very culpable manoeuvre, having written and despatched letters to several Fanariotes, the former adversaries of his house, for the express purpose of compromising them. On the 16th April, Prince Constantine Morousi, Dragoman to the Porte, was apprehended, without any previous warning, conducted to a summer-house of the Seraglio, called the Aloikiosk, and there beheaded. Immediately afterwards, ten conspicuous personages of the Fanar (including a brother of Prince Hanjerli, a Mavrocordato, a Scanavi, and Theodore Rizo) were executed, and a similar fate overtook many rich merchants and bankers. The interest that waited upon their deaths, and the simultaneous destruction of a crowd of obscurer victims, was soon absorbed by a deeper sympathy for a more illustrious sufferer. Gregory, the Byzantine Patriarch, a Peloponnesian by birth, was an aged prelate, of blameless life and manners, whose piety and virtues commanded general esteem; indeed the high opinion entertained of him, had, during the course of a long life, caused his repeated promotion to the metropolitan throne of the east. As he was leaving his chapel, after the celebration of divine service, on the evening of Easter Sunday, (April 22d,) he was arrested by some Turkish officers, stripped of his pontifical robes, and hanged at the gate of his own palace: his body left suspended for three days, was then cut down, delivered to a squad of Jews, selected from the lowest rabble, dragged through the streets, and thrown into the sea. Next night, a few zealous Christians fished up the mortal remains of the martyr, and conveyed them to Odessa, where, on the 1st of July, they were interred with solemn pomp. At the instant of the Patriarch's execution, three Archbishops (those of Ephesus, Derkos, and Anchialus), and eight priests of a superior order, were put to death in different quarters of the city, and their bodies treated with equal indignity. Gregory's deplorable fate excited throughout Europe a profound feeling of horror and pity, and exasperated tenfold the animosity of the Greeks, insomuch as to render their reconciliation with the Porte impossible. The Sultan's conduct, in thus cutting off, in the gross, the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries, the objects of the people's veneration, was both cruel and impolitic; yet we dare not affirm that the Patriarch and the members of the Synod were entirely innocent of plotting against the state: we have, on the contrary, reason to believe that Gregory knew the Hetoria's existence, and that some of the other prelates were deeply engaged in its machinations."-pp. 185-188.