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    THE NEW TRANSLATION OF-THE BIBLE . Revised English Version of the Holy Scriptures . By the American Bible Union . The Book of Job . - ^ Triibner . Many ICnglish students first heard of this publication from that polite preacher and correspondent , Dr . Gumming . He spoke of it as a " trim , new-fangled version now issuing from the American press . " New-fangled " being the historical epithet applied by coach-proprietors to railways , and likely to be applied to all improvements as long as interested or stupid persons form part of the population , lias ceased to be a term of reproach . The American version , then , is new-fangled ; but it has a history which perhaps Dr . Cumming has not studied , and which will , at least , convince , all but the irrational ami the impertinent that it deserves to be treated with something different from the uncritical flippancy of the fashionable pulpit . The Ames

    rican Bible Union was founded by men equally respected , in the Old and New Worlds—Cone , Maclay , Annitage—who , perceiving the multiplicity of interpretations and glosses , determined to procure a new and , scholarly translation of the Old and New Testaments . Theirs was no sectarian or exclusive plan . The translators they engaged , in the first instance , were gentlemen in ecclesiastical connexion with eight denominations , —the Church of England , the Old School Presbyterians , the Disciples , or liofbrmers , the Associate Keformcd Presbyterians , the Seventh-Day Baptists , the American Protestant Episcopalians , the Baptists , and the German Reformed Church . Written engagements were entered into with more than twenty scholars of repute , many of whom , in compliance with the stipulations of the contract ,

    employed approved assistants , so that the working body was composed of . between thirty and forty persons . Seven of the revisors , including two ministers of the Church of England , reside in this country , whihj a number of scholars have ofi ' ered their independent aid in the criticism of particular passages . One , for example , lias furnished a literal translation of all the passages in which tho Burmese versions by Dr . Judson diil ' ers from the common English text ; while others have applied the test of nn elaborate scrutiny to tho Siamese , Bengali , and Sanscrit versions . Thia comparative analysis has been extended to the Spanish and to the Italian ; the" most rare and costly books have been purchased , in whatever language , that seemed to promise any aid to tho translators , and every conceivable earelms been taken to secure the complete collation of the ancient Codices .

    We have before us three versions of the Book of Job , from the fourteenth to the twenty-ninth chapters—tho Hebrew Text , the Authorized , and tho Proposed Version . Leaving tho Hebrew to the reference of tho critical reader , we may point attention to a few of the " revisions" of the American Union . _ Some of these are remarkable , as substitutions of one form of expression for another , others us positive alterations of the meaning . In

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    of the several divisions ; pretended that Platoff himself had quarrelled % vith De Tolly ; extolled the services of the Cossacks , -without -whom , he declared , the Russians ¦ would have "beeu already conquered , and assured his companions that , within a ft > w days , there would-be a great battle . If this battle , he said , were fought within thrp « days , the Trench would via it ; but , if it were postponed beyond that time Heaven only knew what would happen . He added that , as far as he could learn , the French ¦ were commanded by a general named Bonaparte , who was in the habit of beatim ? all has enemies , but that the Russians were about to receive immense reinforcements to keep him at bay , so that , in this instance , he would be less fortunate than usual This conversationwhich reflected in the most natural and ori

    , ginal manner the current ideas of the Russian camp , was very interesting to the mighty interlocutor of the young Cossack . He smiled frequently , and willing to try the effect of his presence upon this son of the Don * desired M . d'Ideville to inform him that the Bonaparte he had heard of was the individual with whom he was riding . No sooner had the interpreter spoken , than the Cossack , seized with a stupor of astonishment , ceased speaking- " andfode on with his eyes fixed upon the great conqueror , whose name had reached him , with rumours of glory , in the distant steppes of tiie East . His loquacity gave way to . a . respectful and admiring silence , and soon afterwards Napoleon , rewarding him for his agreeable gossip , set him free like a bird in . its native fields . :

    In no part of his narrative is M . Thiers more successful than in ms account of the battle of Borodino , which Napoleon converted into a ruthless slaughter . Towards the close of the day he brought up four hundred pieces of artillery , and saying , " As they want more , let them have it , '' fired volley After volley upon the helpless masses of the enemy , sweeping them down by hundreds , " until evening darkened " upon this atrocious scene , without a parallel in the annals of the human race . " The conqueror retired to his tent surrounded by flatteries ; but the exulting enthusiasm of Austerlitz , of Jena ' and of Friedland was altogether wanting . Ninety thousand men lay upon the field dead or wounded , with twenty thousand horses , and three or four hundred overturned gun-carriages added to the picture of havoc . The Russians themselves admitted a loss of sixty thousand ; the French had thirty thousand put &vv de combat , including forty-seven generals and thirtyseven colonels killed or maimed . A hundred thousand soldiers were left to

    who resorted to a plan partly offensive , and partly defensive , to obstruct and destroy the enemy . His manoeuvres , which cost the Trench the loss of many men , cost the Russian army more , so that when Napoleon pursued him from Witebok , the advantage lay , clearly , with , the invader- But again had the weather undergone an almost magical change . The heat was intense 4 the roads were deep in Egyptian dust ; and , as tie French pressed , on , it appeared , as though Russia had been converted into an Eastern desert . ¦ . . ¦¦ .. ;\ . ¦ . ' . ' : Hitlerto , all Napoleon ' s schemes had failed . His hopes of fighting a decisive battle had been disappointed , and though , lie had beaten the Itussians at several points , caused them a loss of at least fifteen thousand men , Jailed , wounded , and taken prisoners , and driven them into Lithuania and Courland , he was still as far as ever from tire grand object of his expedition . He had now hew combinations to invent . The armies of the Dnieper and the Dwina , in spite of his tactics , were united-under De -Tolly , and it appeared impossible to overwhelm that -wary captain by . one of those surprises

    with which Napoleon imagined he could put to confusion the best general and tlie best troops in Europe . . Nevertheless , De Tolly only counted one hundred and forty thousand men under his immediate command ; Napoleon counted a quarter of a million ; and during fifteen days , meditating in a -deserted palace , Jtie plotted how to bring this mighty force to bear . When , howe-ver , he received his-quarter of a million or soldiers , he could not but remember that at the Niemen his active army consisted of four hundred thousand . ^ Aiundred and : sixty thousand remained between the Niemen ¦ and tlie Rhine , fifty or sixty thousand lay in the German and Polish hospitals ; and it was even accessary to diminish his personal followers by sending sixty thousand , under Macdoaald and Oudinot , to the Dwina , and twenty thousand to the ; Dnieper . No doubt , when he chose to lead his hundred and seventy thousand soldiers to St . Petersburg or Moscow , his flanks would be well protected ; but it was astonishing ^ after the campaign had lasted only one month , to find the invading legions so signally reduced . ¦ Of tie veterans that had marched six hundred leagues from Italy , and of those which had marched five hundred leagues from the Rhine , bow many had disappeared !

    'ML Thiers ' s qualities flB a military historian , are displayed with particular brilliance in his account of the operations that ensued up to tie date of IJorodina . _ The complex movements of the several divisions are described in a ^ narrative not less lucid "than minute . The battle at Smolensk forms a terrible p icture ; it was , Indeed , designed by Napoleon to appal his enemies . With , this object , he threw his whole force at once upon the hostile lines ; -one of his ^ batteries alone mounted sixty guns ; and the Russians were attacked , simultaneously , by enormous masses at every point . The unhappy city was literally shattered by this infernal dannonade , and when it was _ abandoned , after a day of uninterrupted slaughter , its defenders and its assailants combined to complete the ruin . Tires broke oat in every quarter ; magazines exploded ; and ^ reat pieces of ordnance burst amid tlie flames , * ' which resembled an eruption of Vesuvius hi a summer night . " The French

    batteries continued to play upon the houses , while the conflagration swept on , so that Smolensk might no longer be a habitable city . JFrain six to aeven thousand French , and from twelve to thirteen thousand Russians , were killed or wounded . This calculation , it is true , is contradicted by M . Boutourlin , . but M . Thiers furnishes an amount of evidence sufficient to confute the perverse exaggeration of that dogmatic writer . Even after such & day of carnage and such a night of destruction , the old Byzantine Basilica remained erect , sheltering a crowd of old men , women , and children , who clung to the altars . As they were led back to the few houses that had escaped demolition , a hideous spectacle met their eyes . The dead lay thick in the streets , fires still broke out of the ruinB , and of the

    population all but the helpless had fled . " Not even the Jews , so numerous in Poland , so avariciously serviceable , so accustomed to greet us with their disgusting but useful hospitality , —not even the Jews were here , for we had passed the boundary of their settlements on the Polish borders . " Napoleon rode through the city— " a calcined skeleton "—and prepared , without much decision , according to IM . Thiers , for the next stage of the campaign . Next ¦ came the bloody day of Valoutina , only paralleled by Eylau , Ebersberg , ot Essling , yet almost without object or result . At , this point , Napoleon , when < xudin expired before liia eyes , could not but reflect , suggests the latest historian ^ of * his misfortunes and of Ms glory , that in the course of tlie Russian expedition , to which he looked as the climax of his life , fortune had not

    f ranted him . a single favour ; his preparations had hitherto been fruitless , is genius unavailing . While lie had fotight the enemy with invariable success , his plans for defeating their combinations had been invariable failures . Bagration was still with De Tolly ; De Tolly still held the road to _ Moscow . At Beweltowo , at Mohilcw , at Ostrawo , at Polotsk , at Vikowo , at Krasno ' e , at Smolensk , at Valoutina , he had driven the Russians off the field ; with the exception of Yolhynia , he had been proclaimed as a conqueror throughout the ancient kingdom of Poland . But there was wanting the eclat of a great battle , and a splendid success , and in search of this itwas necessary to persevere in marching on , though inarching was far more fatal to his troops than fighting . To the onward march , however , the army w . as by no means averse , for some propitious changes in their situation had

    -exhilarated the soWierc The weather had again become serene and warm ; tho route lay along abroad , smooth road , shaded at intervals by avenues ^> f trees ; a green plain spread in front ; and while the generals , calculating tlie chances of the future , rode on in gloomy silence , " the men cried , 'To Moscow 1 to Moscow I' and followed Napoleon , as in other days the Macu-¦ doman warriors followed Alexander to Babylon . " IDuring the advance to Borodino a dramatic incident occurred , which M . ir » 68 < itlbea ^ P 0 * 1 tQe personal authority of M . Lelorgne d'Ideville hhn-? . ; , JS tho light cavalry having taken a Cossack prisoner , brought •^ -.,. . 2 P } 0011 ' Trho ' ordered him to De mounted , and rode by Ilia aidei with M . d'ldevnU , his interpreter :-ulu , ^ » * eaotant of the company in vrhicli ho -was travelling—for tho simplicity ol Napoleon was lime calculated to auggest to an Oriental imagination Iho yreseroo or * monarcli —oonvewea ^ rith the utmost familiarity on matters connected weui tu « wmt . MoTcpoated » U that-w ^ B eaid in U » a Russian awny about the movements

    coniplete the march upon Moscow . But when they deployed along the heights on their approach to the capital , all former sacrifices and miseries ' were forgotten ; joy , pride , and illusion animated their hearts ; they who had been ^ with Napoleon at the Pyramids , on the Jordan , at Milan and Madrid , at Vienna and at Berlin , were ' thrilled with expectation at the first glimpse of the ancient city of Muscovy . There , too , they expected to enjoy repose and plenty , and thither Napoleon galloped early in the morning , amid tremendous acclamations . The gilded domes , the mass of Byzantine and Gothic decorations , enriching church and palace , the lakes glittering amid

    painted pavilions , formed a paradise to the ima gination of the army . Their first impressions within the wails were not less flattering . They were dreaming of long days of luxury , when a vast cloud of smoke rose above the great bazaar , and a storm of fire burst amidst the magazines in the most opulent quarter of the city . The disappointment and the desolation that followed , the errors of Napoleon , and the despair of the army , the gloomy retreat , sometimes lit by a sudden beam of victory , the horrible confusion of the march , and the dissipation of the conqueror ' s most splendid hopes , form the subject of a history composed by M . Thiers in a style of epic variety . " We have but glanced at some of its episodes ; the narrative itself is voluminous , clear , and rapid .

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    930 THE LEADER , [ No . 340 , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 930, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2160/page/18/