"the Unitarian Editors" appear to me to be justly liable. * The inaccuracy of their chronology, was long ago perceived, by more friendly critics than their present assailants; and sounder calculations of the dates of our Lord's birth, and ministry, were instituted and published by Dr. Carpenter, in the admirable dissertation prefixed to his "Apostolical Harmony of the Gospels." Not being aware of any method, at all satisfactory, by which the notes in the "Improved Version," referring to this point, can be defended, I do not profess to understand why they appear again and again without remark or correction, in the successive editions of that work.

Dr. Tattershall, I perceive, adopts the usual mode of reconciling the chronology of Matthew and Luke; and supposes that the reign of Tiberius must be reckoned, not from his succession to the dignity of Emperor, on the death of Augustus, but from his previous association with Augustus, in the tribunitial authority. Widely as this explanation has been adopted, it cannot be denied that it has been invented to suit the case; that such a mode of reckoning would never have been thought of, had it not been for this discrepancy between the two Evangelists; and that it has nothing to support it but the evidence which belongs to all hypotheses, viz., that if true, it removes the difficulty which it was designed to explain. Even the industry of Lardner has failed to present us with any instance in which a Roman historian has reckoned the reign of Tiberius, from this association with his predecessor; or with any distinct trace that such a mode of computation was ever employed. And it is notorious that all the Christian Fathers calculated the fifteenth year of Tiberius from the death of Augustus. Should Dr. Tattershall be in possession of any evidence in support of this mode of reckoning, more satisfactory, than that which has hitherto been adduced, he would render an important service to biblical literature by producing it.

D.

It is so universally understood that we are indebted to Mr. Thirlwall for the admirable translation of Schleiermacher's Essay, that I conceive there can be no impropriety in speaking of the work, as his ;

*There is a misprint in Dr. T.'s note, p. 104. The sentence at the end of the third paragraph should close thus; "nine months after that event, on one calculation, or three months before it, on the other."

though his name does not appear in the title-page ;-a circumstance of which I was not aware, till making this extract for the press. The whole note from which are taken the words in the Lecture, is as follows:-"The arguments by which Hug attempted to reconcile the two Evangelists on the residence of Joseph, are extremely slight and unsatisfactory. He admits that St. Matthew supposes Bethlehem to have been Joseph's usual dwelling-place. But, he asks, was St. Matthew wrong? This however is not the question, but only whether he is consistent with St. Luke. Now, nothing can be more evident than that, according to the account of the latter, Joseph was a total stranger at Bethlehem. Bethlehem was indeed, as Hug remarks, in one sense his own city, but clearly not in the sense that Matthew's account supposes. Here too, therefore, Schleiermacher's position seems to remain unshaken."-(See note on p. 44, of Translation of Schleiermacher's Critical Essay on St. Luke's gospel.)

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