4U 



KNOWLEDGE - 



[Nov. 24, 1882. 



for thfv l.Kked the pates on tlio north side at tlie snnip 

 tiiiio as those on the south, whon a little couiinon sense 

 ■arould have told tlieni that ingress should in such cases 

 \<e alwars stoppotl lK>fon» egress is prevented. Thus, many 

 who had intendixl to see the march from their duli windows, 

 or had even paid for windows along Piccadilly, St. Janies's- 

 Ntre<>t, and .«» forth, and (a more serious wrong) several work- 

 in-,' men on their way to execute ordei-s, found themselves in)- 

 pris^iii.xi in St. James's-park at half-past eleven, through a 

 pi.-o.' ef shei>r stupidity on the part of the park-keepers and 

 j«>licv. Viewing the conduct of tliese prisoners as a 

 -tudeiit of character, I was struck hy their patience while 

 they thought tlieir imprisonment due to ofhcial zeal, and 

 iiv tJuir marke<l change of tone when, after the return of 

 :lie royal folk to Buckingham Palace, the gate^ were 

 -till kept locked. What hajipened elsewhere I do not 

 know : hut where I was, the strength of those gates was 

 -.-CTT .juicfcly subjected to a scientific test, and the result — 

 which 1 have much pleasure in submitting to the park- 

 keepers— showed that Uie gates must be made very much 

 stronger if they are to imprison people who are resolute 

 to gtt out. Far the warmest cheering heard throughout 

 the day followed the capture of that Tel-el-Kebir gate, in 

 tlie face of policimen who had a few moments before for- 

 bidden a working man to climb over it But those who 

 had l)een imprisoned had really had, at lirst, small reason 

 to complain, for they had far "the best and most varied 

 view of the whole "artuir. Those who wished could see 

 the r,.rlf,,.- from I'.uckingham Palace and back, as well as 

 the march of the soUlieiy to and also from the Horse 

 Guards, and the Mall was really the only place where a 

 tolerably large array of .soldiers could be seen at one view. 

 After continental reviews, where from fifty to a hundred 

 Uionsand men are brought together, the affair was, of 

 course, somewhat insignificant as a military display ; but 

 a view commanding the .Mall at one time on the 18th 

 was rather fine for this country. Our people, by the way, 

 are not often favoured (1) with great military displays — 

 when they have them they seem willing to make the most 

 of them, — and so do our newspapers. 



Of the royal rorl,',,.- I ran say little, my attention having 

 l»-en chiedy occupied with the soldier)- and the people. 

 IVsides I was so unfortunate as not to know any of the 

 royal family by si^'ht A genial and kindly-looking 

 '.•entl"m*n in a cocked hat— the Prince of \\'ales. peofje 

 iid- left a phasant impression; and of all the ladies I 

 »^ throughout the day, none seemed more perfectly lady- 

 i»~ and charming than the Princes.s, his wife. It seems 

 •iiMtl, by the way, that so much bowin:? should be expected, 

 ♦unless it is intended to correct the impression that princes 

 arc a stifTnecke*! generation : quite the contrary, I should 

 »ay. A rather dull looking .Scotsman seemed from the 

 attention given him (not only by those in the same car- 

 riage, but by the people, several of whom cheered as ho 

 p««M-d), to lie an important personage : yet, oddly enough, 

 he waa not riding inside a carriage, but at the back. 1 

 «up[.ose he was the representative of some ancient Scottish 

 family, doing »cn.- ice such as Bradwardine tells of— "the 

 /[onin'jiiim of the great tenants of the crown " — a sort of 

 hvmWjlic flunkeydoni ; and he may not be as dull a man 

 a.1 he looked I>it.T in the day. two wellniounterl officers 

 the Prince of Wales and tlif Kukeof Connaught, I think 

 —showed gn-at go.ifl humour and patience under trying 

 <rircutn»tanc»si ; for, as they rode through the crowd, they 

 were not only loudly cheenvj, but some of the more ilj- 

 roann< n-d of the " unwaj,hi-d " grasped the hand of the 

 youn;.'er with no little judgment that he seemerl likely to 

 J* pulle.j off hi* horse. But he lK)re it all like a " prince 

 of good fellowi." The more itaring of the jK-oplo was 



enough to have taxed any man's patience (scarce one in 

 the crowd seemed to think that manners required that 

 they should leave off st-aring when a Prince or a General 

 was clo.se by !), but pulling a man nearly off his horse is 

 jiar Irop fori. 



A student of human nature may pass a few hours worse 

 than in observing the ways of a British crowd. Our people 

 are not brilliant on such occasions. The nearest approach 

 to a joke which I heard, was the comparison of a trooper 

 to a DuU'h oven, and 1 suspect even this was a jest of hoar 

 lUitiiiuity. But they are good-humoured and tolerably 

 j>atient So too are our police. Americans, who think 

 they have more real liberty than Englishmen, may do well 

 to note that many things which our jiolice accepted with 

 good-humour last Saturday, wo\ild have brought into un- 

 pleasant action the truncheons of the police of New York. 



THE LIBRARIES OF BABYLONIA AND 

 ASSYRIA.— I. 



IT is now more than thirty years since Sir Henry Layard, 

 passing through one of the doorways of the partially 

 explored palace in the mound of Kouyunjik, guarded by 

 sculptured fish gods, stood for the lirst time in the double 

 chambers containing a lai-ge portion of the remains of the 

 imnieiLse librarj' collected by Assurbannipal, King of 

 Nineveh. The floors, to a depth of a foot or more, were 

 covered with thou.sands of trt>)lets, all engraved with 

 cuneiform writing ; many in perfect condition, but the 

 majority broken into several fragments, frequently widely 

 separated and portions apparently sometimes missing 

 altogether. These taldets were of various sizes, ranging 

 from one inch square to about nine by six inches, by far 

 the larger portion alike in shape, something similar to a 

 prn-cusliion, or dog-bi'^^cuit, but occasionally resembling a 

 cylinder or small Iwirrel. The lesser ones contained, perhaps, 

 only two or three fines of characters ; the larger sometimes 

 nearly one hundred. From the manner in which they 

 were heaped together and Viroken, and the fact that many 

 have l»een found buried in neighbouring parts of the debris, 

 it is evident that these chamliers were not the original 

 depository of the tablets, but that the library must have 

 been placed in some upper story of the edifice of which 

 they formed a part. Then, upon the destruction of the 

 building, they were precipitated into the position in which 

 the explorer found them. Some, however, owing to this 

 violent change of site — and others because of the whole 

 ruin at some period having been searched over, doubtless 

 for treasure — were scatt«;red to other parts of the mound, 

 which con.se«|uently has to be carefully examined all over 

 in order to restore to us the library as far as possible 

 comph^to. Since that time, with but slight intermissions, 

 this treasure-hou.se of a forgotten past has been turned 

 over again and again, notably in the expeditions of the 

 late Mr. George .Smith, and still the supply of its cuneiform 

 literature is not i-xhau.sted. 



Until last year this discovery remained unique ; but tln' 

 perseverance of the British Museum authorities and tin- 

 patient labour of Mr. Bassam were then rewarded by the 

 exhumation of what is apparently the library chamber of 

 the temple or palace at Sippara, with all its 10,000 tablets, 

 resting undisturbed arrangi'd in their jiosition on the 

 shelves, just as jdaced in order liy the liliiarian twenty-five 

 centuries ago. In hope of both gratifying and increasing 

 the interest awakened by this wonderful discovery, it is 

 intended to give a short and sin)plo account of what is 

 known as to Babylonian and Assyrian libraries, their sites, 



