prejudice of this kind will be attended with great injury and inconvenience to the world at large. As I am anxious that a contrary opinion should be established, I shall take the liberty of conducting Mr. Malham through the Scriptures for that purpose; and I shall be very happy, if, by means of the extensive circulation of your valu able Journal, a proper degree of publicity be given to arguments, which cannot fail, with an ingenuous mind, to remove every doubt of the wholesomeness of bread made of barley.

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Let Mr. Malham first accompany me into the Syrian harvest field. The barley harvest, which, it must be observed, is in that climate many weeks earlier than the wheat harvest, shall be just commenc ing. It is, by nature, a season of great heat; there being no showers to allay the excessive warmth of these regions, during five or six months of Summer. Such, indeed, was its extreme sultriness, that, while the husband of Judith stood overseeing them that bound sheaves in the field, we are informed that the heat came upon his head, and he fell on his bed and died. In like manner, the child of the Shunamite went out to his father to the icapers; and he said unto his father, My head, head. By the father's order he was carried to his mother, and he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. In a climate so destructive to those who were spectators only of the labours of harvest, let us inquire what kind of provision was prepared for the poor reapers? Toil, under such circumstances, must speedily exhaust the most robust; and wholesome and nutritive diet must be frequently administered. What this diet usually was, we immediately understand from the book of Ruth, when Boaz says to Ruth, ‘At meal time come thou hither, and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers, and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed and left. Now parched corn, which Boaz here gives to his fair guest, in preference to the bread and vinegar, and which she manifestly receives as a favour, was no other than green ears of barley dried by the fire. Upon such provision are the reapers of Boaz, and Boaz himself, contented to feed. And such is the estimation, in which famine has taught Ruth to hold provision of this kind, that, when she has eaten and is sufficed and has left, she reserves the remainder for her mother who is absent. Indeed, it was to obtain subsistence for herself and her mother, that she ventured into the field to glean the loose ears of barley. And when Boaz commands his young men to let fall some of the handfuls on purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them, and rebuke her not, his charity is a lively proof that barley is a valuable bread. Her collecting the corn with so much care, and immediately beating it out of the ear, proves that it was to be dried by the fire without delay, that it was to be converted into parched corn for the use of herself and her mother. The subsequent present of Boaz also, when he gave her from the threshing-floor six measures of barley, as a token of his esteem, clearly, manifests the value of the grain. We ought, perhaps, to add, that the extraordinary care taken in reaping the barley and binding it in sheaves, is no feeble proof that it was to be applied to the purposes of subsistence.

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Let our attention next dwell on that particular point of sacred history where, having left the wilderness in which they have lived forty years upon manna, the Israelites pass through the Jordan, and arrive in the promised land. It was in the time of barley harvest. On the tenth day of the month Abib, they encamped in the east border of Jericho, on the fourteenth they observed the passover, and on the morrow after the passover they did eat the old corn of the land and parched corn in the self-same day.' The divine historian adds, that "the manna ceased on the morning after they had eaten of the old corn, neither had the children of Israel manna any more.' Here a very singular transition is made in the diet of this numerous people. By the express appointment of God, a luxurious provision is withdrawn; and they are left to subsist on the remainder of the last year's grain, and the parched barley of the new year. They quit what the Psalmist stiles the food of angels, for ears of green barley dried by the fire-the corn of heaven, for what Mr. Malham is unwilling to allow to be a wholesome corn of earth. And yet, much as they were disposed to complain, we are not informed of a single murmur, upon this occasion, throughout all their tribes. Bread of this kind was, on the contrary, so acceptable at all times to an Israelite, that when Abigail makes haste to appease the resentment of David, who is resolved to exterminate the whole house of her husband, she brings with her as a present, among other provisions, five measures of parched corn. The same David, when a youth, was sent by his father into the camp of Saul, to carry a quantity of the same sort of food to his three brothers in the army. And previous to that battle in which his son Absalom is slain, when his friends furnish him (David) and his army with sup plies, we read of their presenting to him barley in the grain, as well as dried by the fire. The soldier, therefore, as well as the labourer, was in the land of Israel supported, in part, at least, by a barley diet: officers of rank, and even the King himself, did not disdain it; for we are expressly informed that the barley and parched corn, &c. &c. were for David and the people that were with him to eat, for they said—The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness." Persons of every description, indiscriminately, fed upon this peculiar species of diet. When the man of Baalshalisha brought to the prophet Elisha bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn (barley without doubt) in the husk, the prophet instantly commands him, Give unto the people that they may eat. So he set it before them, and they did eat. There can be no doubt, that the Priests, in like manner, consumed the offerings of the first-fruits; after they had been presented, and after a small portion of them had been burned upon the altar. Such offerings, at the time of the Passever, must have been wholly of barley; and consequently, the priesthood must have entirely subsisted, at this season of the year, upon green cars of barley dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears, upon which oil had been poured previous to its presentation. may add, that the strict injunction of the law, that no person in Israel should eat bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears of the new

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harvest, till such offerings had been presented, clearly implies, that the corn of the barley-harvest was no sooner reaped, than it was made use of by the nation at large, as well in flour as in the grain both green and dried.

Nor was the custom of living upon barley peculiar to the Israelites. For when Hiram, King of Tyre, made a treaty with Solomon, the terms of which specified that Solomon should furnish Hiram with food for his houshold, we find that he sent him an equal portion of wheat and barley. The Prince, therefore, and the people of Tyrefa city, which is said to have heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets-a city, whose merchants were Princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth a city, which took the cedars of Lebanon for her masts, made the benches of her ships of ivory, and spread the fine embroidered linen of Egypt for her sails) were supported in a great measure by barley.

To shew that other nations made the like use of this grain, we may observe, that when Jotham, king of Judah, overcame the Ammonites, he exacted of them an equal portion of wheat and barley, namely, ten thousand measures of each; which were annually paid for three years. The ability of the one to answer so large a demand, and the desire of the other to be so liberally supplied, is proof sufficient, that the two grains were equally esteemed, and used by both nations, for the purposes of bread.'

That a high value was set on barley by the Israelites, becomes immediately evident from a passage in Leviticus; where Moses says, that an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. For if the homer contained about seventy-five gallons and five pints, and the shekel was in value about two shillings and four-pence farthing, it must follow that the barley was not worth less than twelve shillings and six-pence per bushel.

A price so high being set on a commodity so common, we at once discover the reason why it was carefully reaped and bound in sheaves; it was extremely valuable, being one of the main pillars of man's existence. Hence we are able to account for the sturdy infidelity of the nobleman, on whose hand the king leaned at the siege of Samaria; who, upon being informed by the prophet Elisha, that on the morrow two measures of barley should sell for a shekel, deemed it utterly impossible, unless the Lord should make windows in heaven. This was, indeed, so much less than the price of Moses, that if we estimate the seal at two gallons and four pints, a bushel of barley must have been sold for about three shillings and ninepence.

The value of barley in Syria being so great as Moses has stated it to be, we perceive why Absalom was so ready to set fire to the barley-field of Joab. A greater injury it was impossible for any man to have offered, in the heat of his resentment. He destroyed what he knew to be very valuable property; a field of barley, ready to be reaped and dried by the fire for immediate sustenance. Had is. not been ripe for the sickle, he would in vain have attempted to burn it; and if it was yet standing, Joab had many ecks to wait,

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before he could repair the loss of it by the commencement of his wheat-harvest. If we suppose that a time of famine preceded the act, it was impossible for Absalom to have been guilty of a tresspass more cruel and provoking. It seems, indeed, that Joab never forgave it. He continued to be the enemy of Absalom ever afterwards. And when he had an opportunity to put him to death, he deliberately thrust him through the heart; though he had been commanded to spare his life, and was reminded (immediately before he killed him) of the king's special order, beware that none touch the young man Absalom.

Thus far we have attended only to the older scriptures. If Mr. Malham will now suffer me to turn to the New Testament, he will find that arguments of equal, if not of superior, weight, in favour of the grain which he has depreciated, may be derived from that quarter. I beg leave to refer him first, for conviction, to those passages, where we are informed that the disciples, being hungry and having occasion to pass through standing corn, began to pluck the ears of it, and to eat, rubbing them in their hands. The objection immediately raised by the Pharisees, that they did what was unlawful, seems to rest chiefly on a fact to be understood, that the wave sheaf of the first fruits had not been offered; before which time Moses had forbidden the Hebrews to taste even of the green ear. If this conclusion be allowed (and it is not a new one) the time of the disciples gathering the corn must have been a little previous to the beginning of barley-harvest; and the grain, which they were desirous of eating, must of course have been barley. But whether it was barley or not, we have good reason to believe that bread made of that grain was their constant food, and the food of our Lord himself. In proof of this assertion, let us consider the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. It appears from St. Mark and St. Luke, that the bread used on this occasion, was bread which the disciples had brought with them for their own eating; and St. John has very particularly informed us, that it consisted of five barley loaves. Observe, then, that it is for bread of barley our Lord gives thanks; that it is bread of barley which he blesses, breaks, and distributes, first to the disciples, and by means of the disciples to the multitude. The whole five thousand, besides women and children, thankfully eat of this barley diet, and are satisfied. And such is the value of this species of bread, in the sight of him who created it as he distributed it, and who could have created more, that he commands his disciples to gather up the fragments which remain, that nothing be lost. No one who bestows proper consideration on this fact, can doubt for a moment whether barley be wholesome and nutritive, and proper for the most laborious classes of mankind. Had our Lord, who knew all things, been sensible that the bread which he gave away was unwholesome, and communicated but little nourishment, he certainly would not have distributed it in compassion, upon men who were weary and faint by pursuing him.

Such are the arguments, Sir, which the scriptures afford us in sup port of the use of barley for bread, I heartily recommend them to

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the attention of Mr. Malham: and if I was near him, I should be very desirous of proposing to him one serious question. It is this. Since it is so manifest, that barley-bread was the provision which the disciples had privately taken with them, for the use of their divine master and themselves; is it not an inference which may fairly be derived from this circumstance, that it was for a sufficient supply of this barley diet our Lord taught them to pray when they said, GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD? Whether it was or was not, it is certainly the business of apostles to reconcile their congregations to the use of this despised grain, and not to countenance prejudices against it. If reluctance and murmuring prevail with the multitude, they should be taught, that though fed with barley, they are still fed as God fed his only begotten Son, and the children of Abraham his friend.

These, Mr. Editor, are arguments of sacred authority; sufficient to remove doubt and hesitation from every judicious mind. For the benefit of our weaker brethren, I shall take the liberty of throwing into the scale a deduction or two of plain common sense, in aid of what I have already advanced. And first I will observe, that barley is the principal food of many of the eastern nations to this day. Such is their confidence in its virtues, that we are informed by Dr. Pocock» that the camel itself is subsisted upon hordeum hexastichum. This is no new and silly custom, for barley was anciently given, by the wise king Solomon himself, to his horses and dromedaries; as you will find by the fourth chapter of the first book of Kings. And where, let me ask, shall we find horses in higher condition, than in the possession of English brewers? Inquire for the cause of their thriving so readily, and who will not impute it to the grains, that is, to the exhausted husks of malt on which they are accustomed to feed? And if the exhausted husks of barley are so nutritive, who can doubt of the flour being much more so? Accordingly, we experience that infusions of this grain form alone a powerful and substantial aliment. It is also possessed of a wonderful medicinal property, and was found by Captain Cook to preserve the health of the mariner, in his longest voyages, from the most fatal of maritime diseases. What room then is there to believe, that it will not be salutary as bread?

If by these arguments it is plain, that barley may be eaten without fear, and even with confident assurance that it is a most desirable food; I will undertake to suggest a means of enlarging our stock of wholesome provisions, which may render it unnecessary for us to rely upon importation. Suppose that such a degree of scarcity overtakes us, that it shall be proper to represent to the labourer and to the mechanic, whose table affords only bread and beer, that it will be necessary for them to part with one or the other. Without bread they certainly cannot exist, without beer they may. Is it not plain, therefore, that by stopping the breweries, a great and wholesome addition would be made to the bread of the land? Let it not be imagined that the poor would suffer exceedingly by such a stop page, and be consequently exasperated by it. They who suppose

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