cusations brought against it, and the embarrassments in which it has been involved. The latter, he asserts, have been completely removed; and the charges of its opponents he dismisses, ascalumnies and misrepresentations" which "have carried with them their own refutation," and have been "conveyed in language" which" leaves a Christian advocate of the cause no argument but silence." (p. 8.)

We shall not defend the language of its accusers, far less their calumnies and misrepresentations, if such they have employed: this, however, as it may be easily proved where matters of fact are alleged, ought not to rest on bare assertion; and we question the policy as respects the public, and the justice as regards the supporters of the Society, of thus endeavour. ing to dismiss such charges with contempt. If it be true that, after an existence of seven years, and an expenditure of 70,000l. a radical change was necessary, in consequence of the blunders and failures which had occurred; if "unpropitious circumstances of a personal nature," (p. 2.) the ingratitude of some of its proselytes, the knavery of others, and the shameless profligacy of more, had cast a shade over the character of its proceedings and its projects; if pecuniary distresses, approaching almost to the verge of bankruptcy, had driven the leaders of the Society into the necessity of adopting new measures, and courting a new class of patrons, by a fundamental alteration of its constitution, surely the censures of its enemnies cannot be wholly undeserved. The errors of the Society, and the faults of its agents, may be, and perhaps have been, exaggerated by those whom feelings of personal disappointment, or the odium theologicum have armed against it: but the wiser method of depriving this aggeration of its mischievous influence would have been found, in an honest confession of the real truth; for querulous remarks upon the coarse or angry expressions of an opponent, will not extenuate a charge supported by evidence, which the defendant does not venture to impeach; and facts uncontradicted will

bias the judgment of the public, however the language in which they are stated may offend by its violence, or the observations which accompany them may betray a malicious or revengeful spirit.

We extract from Mr. Way's pamphlet, the following rhetorical description of the rise and progress of his favourite Institution, in order to contrast it with a somewhat different version of the same story.

"An obscure and unknown individual of

the Jewish nation is led, in a foreign land, to make a profession of Christianity. He comes to a country occupied, in a time of warfare and public calamity, in diffusing nations at large. He is patronized and the blessings of everlasting peace to the educated by an association of Christians, who intend to send him to the Hottentots. The circumstance of his origin, and an apparent casual suggestion, detain him in our country to make an attempt towards calling the attention of his brethren to the religion he had espoused. At first only ten individuals unite with him in the formation of a little society, called "the City of Refuge." All classes and denominations of Christians gradually attach themselves to the object of ameliorating the temporal and spiritual condition of the Jews resident in England. Subscriptions are raised, amounting gradually to nearly 10,000l. per annum. Royal patronage is home and abroad. The Old Testament obtained, the public interest excited at reprinted,† the New translated into Hebrew, correspondences established, con

* It would seem, from this statement, that "The London Society" had grown out of the exertions of Mr. Frey; and that this The fact, however is, that the "London City of Refuge had been its precursor. Society" must have been formed in the latter end of the year 1808, as its first half yearly Report is dated May 23, 1809, lished February 28, 1809. (See Mr. Way's and the "City of Refuge" was first estab

Letter, p. 7, note.) REV.

†The reprint of the Hebrew Old Testament was, we presume, a mere trading speculation of its editor, Mr. Frey. Surely copies of various editions were easily to be obtained, both at home and abroad, and it needed not the exertions of a new So

ciety to reprint a book which is in constant demand. We have now before us the catalogue of a very respectable bookseller, which proves that this new edition is not materially cheaper than the Amsterdam edition of Vander Hooght, of which it is professedly a reprint. The question then occurs cui bono? REV.

troversies commenced with Rabbies, the Jewish people provoked to emulation, and new vigour given to their own endeavours to remove the moral reproach so long hanging over their nation. An Episcopal Chapel, built for their spiritual instruction, springs up, as it were, out of the earth, raised, if not "without hands," yet, certainly, without ostensible means. In the space of one short year, an hundredt de

scendants of the House of Abraham are heard to sing within its walls," Hosannah to the Son of God!" At the end of the sixth year of its existence, this rapid and extraordinary exertion seems at once to suffer a paralysis, and the whole, as a mere ephemeral novelty, appears nigh to dissolution. The warmth of public zeal abates, the hopes of individuals are disappointed, the supporters of the system

are withdrawn-the machine of the Society, complicated and embarrassed, appears to be at an utter stand. At once a new era commences, light springs up in darkness, resources are found in a desert. The peculiar circumstances of the Society, which would have involved any Institution of a mere worldly nature in utter confusion, are over-ruled to the production of more harmony and order than had ever before existed. The differences of religious persuasion are made to produce and nourish the principles of Christian love. Private feelings are sacrificed to public good; the very principle on which the Society was founded, is abandoned for its immediate preservation. Under the influence of a Christian spirit, worthy of the best ages of the Church, all denominations concerned in the general promotion of the cause, concur, at a public meeting, in consigning the conduct of this important cause to the exclusive management of the Established Church; and on

the seventh anniversary of the Society above mentioned, (on the very day on which it had assumed its first ostensible name and character,) a new Institution arises, not one present efficient member of which had any concern in the primary In

stitution." P. 5.

Our readers, we hope, will excuse

* The history of this Episcopal Church would not be without its moral, did our limits permit us to enter upon it. We have heard of various pretences under which subscriptions were obtained towards the building; and of some subscriptions which were reclaimed, because these prétences were not realized. If its means were not ostensible, at least an ostentatious dis play was not wanting to procure them. See account of the laying the first stone, Jewish Repository for May, 1813. REV.

"There are usually seven or eight Jews at the Lord's Table at the Episcopal Chapel." (10th Report, p. 28!!!) BEV

us, if, after having gratified them by this highly wrought narrative, we now proceed to lay before them a very homely, but, as we believe, authentic statement. It is drawn, indeed, from adverse sources; but the particulars which it details are either supported by the admissions of individuals who best knew the facts, or corroborated by strong circumstantial evidence: and they are further rendered credible by the silence of that Society, which, if it has been unjustly accused, is, on all accounts, deeply interested in their refutation.

An obscure foreign Jew professing Christianity, who, after failing in an attempt to qualify himself as a strolling player, had served his time as a shoemaker, disgusted with manual labour, suddenly felt an inclination to become a Missionary; and was recommended, as such, to the Missionary Society in England, to be sent by them to Africa. Arrived in England, however, his mind became suddenly enlightened upon the subject of his future destination; he found himself called to duties of a higher order than mere missionary occupation, and discovered that his talents fitted him rather for the meridian of London, than for the kraals of the Hottentots. Having

succeeded in persuading the Missiona ry Society to educate him for the ministry here, he was clothed, fed, and instructed in one of their seminaries; and, in due time, employed in the Dissenting Chapels as a Missionary to the Jews at home. Ambitious, however, of more power and distinction than his patrons chose to give him, and forceived, and the implied conditions on getful of all the favours he had rewhich they were bestowed, he deserted them, joined the newly formed "London Society," and, by insinua. tion and management, obtained from them a liberal income, and considerable influence in the disposal of their funds, and the conduct of their con

cerns.

While under his auspices, impostors without number were suffered to prey upon the Society; the most shameful immoralities were practised by its pretended converts; the association

itself was disgraced, its income wasted, the royal patronage which had been obtained, withheld, the public interest lost, and the more respectable Jews insulted, and confirmed, if they needed confirmation, in their own faith, by the misconduct of those who had undertaken to convert them. And thus the crisis was produced to which Mr. Way alludes.

"The warmth of public zeal abates, the hopes of individuals are disappointed, the supporters of the system are withdrawn; the machine of the Society, complicated and embarrassed, appears to be at an utter stand."

;

The new era then commenced but it was marked by occurrences, which, as Mr. Way has chosen to involve them in studied obscurity, we will venture to state more clearly. The Society had been originally conducted upon dissenting principles, and was then joined only by those churchmen, who were willing to give their time and money to an institution, whose converts were instructed in a meeting-house by a Jew, educated by Dissenters, and receiving all his notions of Christianity from their teaching. But when its profuse and foolish expenditure of the enormons sums which had been levied on the credulity of the public, had involved the Society in financial difficulties; when its debts were great, and its creditors clamorous; the Dissenting members of the Institution, with a wariness which the conduct of its directors fully justified, refused to advance more money. Nothing, therefore, remained, but to appeal to the less cautious liberality of their Church of England associates; and to conciliate them, the direction of the Society was thrown into their hands by a willing abdication on the part of the Dissenters; the meeting-house was shut up, the rules altered, the committee re-cast, and, under the management of those churchmen who before had felt no objection to the broad basis, it suddenly became a Church of England Society, and as such was loudly and perseveringly recommended to those whose good-humoured liberality and pious credulity had been tolerably well ascertained. Such then was the

new era; and thus was "the conduct of this important cause consigned to the exclusive management of the Established Church," (p. 7.) that is, of persons, many of whom had before sat in the committee with Dissenters, and expressed no disapprobation of the meeting-house, the Jew-dissenting teacher, and all those arrangements which made it, what it was henceforth nominally to cease to be: we say nominally, because, though Mr. Way calls it a "new Institution," we shall soon show that little was altered but the name.

The meeting-house indeed was shut up; but the Dissenting Jew convert, Mr. Frey, was continued in the pay of the Society as a teacher; and in that capacity he was sent down to Stansted, to superintend those who were there breeding up as future converts, under the patronage of Mr. Way. In the Report of 1816, one whole year after the regeneration of the Society, this appointment, and the reasons which induced a committee of churchmen to make it, are thus announced.

"A door not being at present opened for Mr. Frey's ordination in the Established Church, it has been judged expedient by your committee to give him a destinalishment. He has, therefore, been stationed in the immediate vicinity of the young men above mentioned, and the three youths educating by the Society, have and placed under his charge, where they been removed from their former situation,

tion which connects him with this estab

have the advantage of all the means of grace provided for their brethren. Another young man who was baptized some years ago, under the patronage of the Socity, and has since been employed in the to become a Missionary, has also been printing-office, having expressed a desire put under the tuition of Mr. Frey, at the expense of a benevolent individual, to whose acquaintance he was introduced in a providential manner." Sth Report, p. 24.

No other testimony, we conceive, will be required, to prove that the change in this Society had been more nominal than real. "The conduct of the cause" was indeed consigned to members of the Church; but the principles on which it was conducted had suffered no alteration. Neither the converts, nor the Missionaries of the

Society could be expected to become very sound churchmen under the tuition which they "judged it expedient" to afford them; nor would any persons who were really anxious for the security and welfare of our excellent establishment, be well content to entrust one of her institutions to those who could endeavour to procure ordination for Mr. Frey; a man of dubious morals even then, a man whose conduct in the Society had already attracted notice and animadversion, whose religious principles were wholly imbibed from Dissenters, who continued to be a Dissenting teacher, and was ready, if they could have employed him, still to officiate in that character.

Fortunately, in this instance, the vigilance of our ecclesiastical rulers defeated the expectations of these consistent churchmen, and the door was shut against Mr. Frey. We sincerely hope that no future occurrences may suggest reasons for regretting that a similar caution was not observed on another occasion; and that the chosen companion of Mr. Way's travels may prove worthy of the sacred order into which he has been admitted.

As we conceive that the best evidence of the principles of this Institution is afforded by its conduct, we could not allow any weight to arguments built upon alterations in the list of its managers, were they as great as Mr. Way has chosen to represent them. He has ventured to assure the Right Rev. Prelate whom he addresses, that "not one present efficient member of the new Institution had any concern in the primary Institution." P. 7..

What shelter Mr. Way may claim under a latitudinarian interpretation of the word "efficient" we know not; but we learn, from a comparison of the Report for 1814, with that now before us, that his assertion is not to be understood au pied de la lettre. One of the present Right Rev. Patrons stands upon the list of Vice-Presidents for the year 1813, up to the moment of his promotion to the joint patronage. Shall we imagine that he is not, and has not been an efficient member? Shall we so stigmatize all the Vice-Patrons but one, and twelve

of the Vice-Presidents, among whom Mr. Lewis Way himself must be reckoned, all of whom appear on the Society's lists in Reports prior and subsequent to the change, though not always bearing the same rank in its scale of dignities? Or shall we judge thus harshly of all the Clerical members of the committee, and five of the Laity who are to be found on the list before the boasted reformation; or of the Treasurer, or the County Direc tors, or one of the Secretaries who was on the committee under the original constitution? Surely some of these persons were efficient members of the Institution, or wherefore were their names continued on the list? In either case something like deception has been practised. If they were non-efficient, it was scarcely dealing fairly by the subscribers, to allow them to imagine, that the funds they had so liberally supplied were managed by men of high respectability, whose names were only used as a decoy: if they were, and are efficient, wherefore is this disparaging insinuation thrown out against them? If the object of thus asserting that the affairs of the Society have passed into new hands, be to conciliate favour and obtain support, it wears too much the appearance of a libel upon them, and a fraud upon the public, to suffer it to pass without a mark of disapprobation. The honourable mind of the learned prelate, to whom this letter is addressed, will, we are sure, shrink from the very idea of being made in any way a party to such a representation.

It is far from our intention to follow Mr. Way through the whole of his letter, or to comment on the va rious strange positions which it contains. If he can be delighted with his present wanderings; or if he received any pleasure from being surrounded by outcast Jews, clad in the tarnished finery of Monmouth-street, in silken robes, silver clasps, and faded turbans; and was disposed, for the sake of such a gratification, to submit to those depredations to which so suspicious an association subjected him, we know of no law which forbids. the