nature of the wilderness, the possible changes that have probably occurred since the days of Moses, and the gracious interpositions of the Lord are considered, there can be no real difficulty as to the food necessary for the flocks and herds of Israel.

BISHOP COLENSO, CHAP. XIII. The Number of Israelites, and Extent of the Land of Canaan.

"I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come,

has had an opportunity of visiting the great Arab tribes of the Syrian desert, can see that the Bishop's difficulties are purely imaginary. The Israelites had immense flocks and herds (Exod. xii. 38): these from the necessity of the case, and like the flocks of the modern Bedouin, were scattered far and wide over the peninsula, and probably over the plain northwards. On one occasion I rode for two successive days through the flocks of a section of the Anazeh tribe, and the encampment of the chief was then at a noted fountain thirty miles distant at right angles to my course; yet the country was swarming with men and women, boys and girls, looking after the cattle. In like manner the great bulk of the Israelites would be scattered over the desert. The camp would thus be a mere nucleus; large, no doubt, but not approaching the exaggerated estimate of Bishop Colenso. Yet, being the head-quarters of the nation, containing the Tabernacle, the priests and the chiefs, and forming the rallying-point for the warriors, it was the only place with which the sacred historian was concerned."-Compare Dr. S. Davidson, Introduction, vol. i. pp. 326, 327.

and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee, in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit the land." Exod. xxiii. 27-30.

Upon this D. C. remarks, that if the land of Canaan had in it two millions of Israelites, it would be about as thickly inhabited as the three counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. But it cannot be said that "these counties, with their flourishing towns and their innumerable villages, are in any danger of lying 'desolate,' with the beasts of the field multiplying against the human inhabitants." But every considerate reader can see that the cases are not parallel. These counties have no wild beasts, except the fox, either within or near them: Canaan had both. There were wild beasts in the land, and there were plenty in the desert on the east, and in the Lebanon. Besides, D. C. seems to suppose, though his language is not very clear, that the desolation would be caused by the multiplication of wild beasts. But this is not the meaning. God promises not to drive out the Canaanites in

one year for two reasons: first, lest the land should be desolate; secondly, lest the beasts of the field should multiply against them. Now if the whole population of Canaan had been destroyed in one year, which implies continued fighting, disorder, and neglect of agricultural pursuits, was there not a danger that the following year there would be no crops? Let the three favoured counties of England be one year the theatre of war, the inhabitants be slain or driven out, and no cultivation of the land, what would be their condition the following year? Beyond all doubt, they would be desolate, and it would take some time before the invaders could settle down, and become cultivators. In this state of things, in a country like Canaan, when there were wild beasts in the land, and abundance in the neighbourhood; when the fields and roads and cities would all be full of the corpses of slain and unburied Canaanites, there would be the greatest possible danger of the wild beasts multiplying against the new comers, and even disputing possession with them. Even in France, with its immense population, wolves increased during the revolutionary troubles and confusion from 1793 on, to such a degree as to cause serious alarm, and to cause high rewards to be offered by the National Convention for their destruction. In 1797 no less than 5351 wolves

were destroyed, and the alarm had not subsided even in the year 1800. The comparison with the colony of Natal is equally, or rather more delusive. He says the colonists, although only 150,000 altogether, on a space of 18,000 square miles, are not afraid of wild beasts. But in the first place, the European colonists have fire-arms, which the Israelites had not. In the second place, Natal began to be colonized by Europeans in 1836, twenty-six years ago. In the third place, when the first Dutch boors arrived, the whole native population of the country was not destroyed. Had they been extirpated the first year, the difficulties with wild beasts might have been very inconvenient.

D. C. seems also to find a difficulty with regard to the land of Canaan, as to its capability of maintaining or containing the two millions of Israelites, with the aboriginal inhabitants "who filled the land." That the Canaanites filled the land, is said without any proof of any kind. As to the fertility and capabilities of the land, that question was settled long ago by the Abbé Guénée', in his memoir on the fertility of Palestine. With regard to the proportion of the land to the population, Mr. Porter, in the letter quoted above, says, "The population of the land at the present

"Les Loups dans la Béauce," par Ad. Lecocq, p. 24. "Récherches sur la Judée," at the end of the Third Volume of "Lettres de quelques Juifs à M. de Voltaire.”

moment is about two millions, or about equal to the number of the Israelites at the Exodus: and I can testify that more than three-fourths of the richest and best of the country lies completely desolate. The vast plains of Moab and Esdraelon, and the whole valley of the Jordan, are without an inhabitant. In the plains of Philistia, Sharon, Cœlosyria, and Hamath, not one-tenth of the soil is under cultivation. In one section of Bashan, I saw upwards of seventy deserted towns and villages." Besides the two millions, therefore, there would be plenty of room for the old inhabitants of Canaan.

BISHOP COLENSO, CHAP. XIV. The Number of the Firstborn.

"All the firstborn males, from a month old and upwards, of those that were numbered, were twenty and two thousand two hundred threescore and thirteen. Numb. iii. 43." "Let us see what this statement implies, when treated as a simple matter of fact. For this purpose, I quote the words of Kurtz, iii. p. 209:—

"If there were 600,000 males of twenty years and upwards, the whole number of males may be reckoned at 900,000 [he elsewhere reckons 1,000,000], in which case there would be only one firstborn to forty-two [forty-four males].