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capital of Ho-nan province, in China. The existence of this 

 Jewish colony has been known for a couple of centuries, from 

 the report of the Jesuit missionaries, and other occasional no- 

 tices of travellers, and since the treaty made by our Govern- 

 ment with the Chinese at Nanking, in 1842, several benevo- 

 lent persons in England have interested themselves in the 

 condition of the Jews in China. Amongst others a lady, not 

 long deceased, bequeathed a sum of money for the purpose of 

 defraying the expenses of an inquiry into their condition. The 

 present Bishop of Victoria, Dr. George Smith, undertook to 

 direct the general plan and management of the undertaking, 

 and, under his auspices, two native Chinese Christians were 

 sent to visit the synagogue at K'ae-fung-foo. 



The journals kept by these emissaries have recently been 

 printed at Shangae, in English, with some introductory re- 

 marks by the Bishop. Without giving the details of their 

 discoveries, which would be out of place here, it is enough to 

 say that, in their first visit in November and December, 1850, 

 they brought back eight MSS., containing portions of the Old 

 Testament in Hebrew, described as written on thick paper, 

 bound in silk ; from the nature of the paper and binding they 

 were judged to be of Persian origin ; the writing seemed to have 

 been executed by means of a style, and they had all the vowel- 

 points and accents. The rolls now exhibited to the Academy 

 are fac similes of two of these MSS., executed by Chinese 

 artists on wooden blocks, and printed on Chinese paper. As the 

 originals are written with points, and on paper, it is evident 

 that these MSS. are not synagogue rolls, but of the class 

 called private rolls, which are written for private use, or for 

 assisting the members of the congregation to follow more rea- 

 dily the synagogue reader ; and the form of the character, to- 

 gether with the fact that they do not in any respect differ from 

 our common Babbinical text, renders it impossible to assign 

 to them a much higher antiquity than the 15th century of our 

 era. The use of the sign Raphe, to indicate the aspirated let- 



