The tyrannical rule of their rabbis rendered them less accessible, perhaps, than any other people in Turkey, the Moslems alone excepted; and intellectually they were among the most degraded races in the East.

Yet they stood higher in their morals than did the Turks.

They had but few books; and until the issue of the edition under Mr.Schauffler's superintendence, they had no copy of the Old Testament in their vernacular tongue, that was accessible to the people at large.

Two editions of the Old Testament, in Hebrew-Spanish and Hebrew and Chaldee, with Rabbi Solomon Jarchi's commentary in opposition to Christian doctrines, had been published in 1816, at Vienna, in six quarto volumes.

Now the Christian church, while waiting for a wider entrance among the people, was called on to provide the books that would be indispensable when that entrance should be secured.