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manner in which excavations are carried on, wholesale destruction cannot be 

 prevented. There are about twenty different Jews and Armenians who are try- 

 ing to enrich themselves by the sale of these inscriptions. The Turks prohibit 

 excavations, and these men, being unable to dig openly and in the light of 

 day, are obliged to excavate at night. The consequence is, that for one 

 inscribed object they procure whole, they break nineteen. You will find in 

 the British Museum a cylinder I bought from three different people, and at 

 the time I did not know that the pieces were all portions of the same record. 

 It was found whole in the same soil, and the men who found it destroyed 

 half an inch of the inscription by hacking it with a saw. They had made a 

 contract with different Jews, and, as they had not found anything for a week 

 previously, they cut the cylinder in three pieces and gave a piece to each. 

 (Laughter.) It is a shame that England does not bestir herself. The relics 

 we have in London and Paris are, comparatively speaking, insignificant 

 in comparison to what I believe is still underground. I do not intend to go 

 again to Babylonia, but I know that it is for the benefit both of those who 

 love their Bibles and science that further discoveries should be made ; and 

 I have no doubt that some day inscriptions of the most valuable nature 

 will be found which will surprise us more than all those already brought to 

 light. What have hitherto been mysteries in the books of Daniel, Jeremiah, 

 and Isaiah, have been verified by the already-discovered inscriptions, and 

 most of the prophecies seem to have been fulfilled to the letter. 



Rev. F. S. Cook, D.D. — It is said that the siege of Babylon, described 

 by Herodotus as successfully carried out by Cyrus, is not the same as the 

 siege which has been spoken of to-night, but a later one, by Darius. Is that 

 the case ? 



Mr. BoscAWEN. — It seems probable that it is one of the sieges to which 

 Darius refers in his inscriptions. Babylon underwent so many sieges that 

 confusion might have arisen on the part of even the later Babylonian priests 

 who told Herodotus. 



liev. Dr. Cook. — You think that one name absorbed the other? 



Mr. BoscAWKN. — Yes ; Nebuchadnezzar became very much, as Dean 

 Stanley has said, a second Nimrod. Mr. Eassam spoke of broken inscriptions. 

 There was one among the inscriptions obtained by Mr. Smith which was 

 broken on the way to England. The name of Merodach-sarra-utzar appeared 

 upon it, and I identified that monarch with Belshazzar. I gave the theory 

 up, but have gone back to it aoain, because I am quite sure that for the last 

 few years of the reign of his father Belshazzar was associated on the throne 

 with him. Unfortunately, about a hundred tablets in the centre of the case 

 were broken on account of a heavy piece of work being placed on the top 

 of them. I am, however, quite sure that, as one inscription of this class was 

 found, we shall obtain others. 



Mr. W. Griffith.— I think that some of the evidence Mr. Boscawen 

 has spoke of will enable us to rectify the errors made by Herodotus. 

 Although Herodotus was always a most patient gleaner of knowledge, 

 and although he endeavoured to get at proofs, yet in many cases 



