264 Notices rcjped'mg l^ew Books» 



the bricks on which ihey are infcribed, he fays, that he law 

 infcriptions of the. fame kind on other bricks at Bagdad and 

 in Pcrfia. 



But the moft circumrtantl;)!, and the moft recent notice re- 

 fpeding them, is that of M. Beauchanip, corrcfpondent-of 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, who, by refiding 

 feveral years at Bagdad, had more kifiire to examine and 

 defcribe the ruins of Babylon ; which he did in his account 

 inlcrted in the Journal des Snvans for 1790. 



In this account, the author, fpeaking of the remains of 

 Babvlon, fays, — " On the fulc of the river are tliofe immenfe 

 ruins which have fervcd, and ftill fcrve, for the building of 

 Helle, an Arabian city containing ten or twelve thoufnnd 

 inhabitants. Here are foiuul thole large and thick bricks, 

 imprinted with unknown chara&ers, fpecimens of which I 

 have prefented to the abbe Barthelemy." What kind of 

 cbara£lers, however, thefe w ere, neither Beauchamp nor that 

 celebrated antiquary, who wrote with fo much ability on the 

 Fhcenician, Palniyrenian, and other infcriptions, thought 

 proper to determine ; and it is only by his fucccflor, 

 M. Millin, that wc have lately been made acquainted with 

 the exiftence of fomc Babylonian bricks at Paris, containing 

 infcriptions, which were fent by Beauchamp from Babvlon, 

 and of which drawings or copies were Iranfmitted to M. Hei*- 

 der, at Weimar, and to proicflbr Munter, at Copenhagen. 



In the mean lime, the Honourable Eaft India Company, 

 being always defirous to lend their afliltance to thofe who 

 may be employed in the elucidation of oriental antiquities, 

 and being informed that, near tlic town of Hillah, on the 

 river Eujihratcs, there exilt the remains of a very large and 

 magnificent citv, fuppofed to be Babylon j and that the bricks 

 of which thole ruins are con)pofed, are remarkable for con- 

 taining, on an indented fcroU or label, apparently a diftich, 

 in charafters totally different from any now made ufe of in 

 the Eaft, direcletl the governor of Bombay to uive orders to 

 their refident at BalTorah, to procure from thence ten or a 

 dozen of the bricks, and to tranfmit them, carefully packed 

 up, as early as poflible to Bombay, that they n;ight be thence 

 forwarded to them in one of their Ihips failing tor England. 



In confcquence we were gratified, at the conmiencement 

 of the prefent year and century, at London, aith the firfl 

 view of infcriptions, which, on comparing them with the 

 Perfepolitan charadlers as given by Le Bruyn, Chardin, 

 Niebuhr, and other travellers, appeared to be of the fame 

 origin, being only more complex, and connected by long 

 lines, forming whole and half fquares, ttars, triangles, &c. ; 

 a fo 



