106 THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
World,” has been recognized by other labourers in the same sphere of 
enquiry. 
The most important discovery during the year, in its bearings 
on History, is that of the Assyrian canon by Sir Henry Rawlin- 
son. In scarching through the collection of antiquities in the British 
Museum, he found some fragmentary tablets containing lists of epony- 
mes or high priests, who gave their name to the year. Of this canon 
four versions have been found, and the application of the information 
thus derived, relative to the period between the 7th and 8th centuries, 
before Christ, cannot fail to be most interesting and valuable, especial- 
ly as it may be used in illustration of Biblical History and Chronology. 
I regret to observe, that from the English periodicals it appears 
that an alienation of feeling has arisen from this discovery, be- 
tween Rawlinson and that acute and profound scholar, Hincks. Let 
us earnestly hope that this estrangement will soon pass away, and that 
they will be found again working together in investigations so honour- 
able to themselves and so beneficial to their fellow-men. 
In Archeology, judicious excavations have revealed some most im- 
portant memorials of the past. Under the careful superintendence of 
Fiorelli, many houses have been opened in Pompeii, and numerous 
most interesting remains have been discovered. It is much to be de- 
sired, that the work which has been entered upon under such good 
auspices, may be continued until the whole town is exhumed. 
At Rome, excavations in different parts of the city have been made, 
and the results have been in some cases so satisfactory, that it may be 
hoped that some questiones vexate that have troubled Topographical 
Antiquarians will at last be settled. Some sculptures, especially a 
statue of remarkable excellence, have been found in the explorations 
in the Palatine, conducted at the expense of the Emperor of the 
French. But the most important discovery has been that of the 
original Church of St. Clement on the Esquiline, for which archee- 
ologists are indebted mainly to the Prior of the Irish Dominican 
College in the adjoining Convent, who, from his limited means, sup- 
plied the funds by which a considerable portion of this ancient struc- 
ture has been exposed to view. The ancient tradition is, that this 
church was founded by Constantine on the site of the house of St. 
Clement, the fellow-labourer of St. Paul. That there was one there 
in the fifth century there can be no donbt, but it was more than once 
destroyed and rebuilt, and the new church now stands above the level 
