226 
ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 
[May 10, 1858. 
the Egyptian dominion. At present (1852) a post travels every week to and 
fro between Beirut and Jerusalem, by way of Yafa ; another passes northwards 
weekly to Tripoli and Ladakiyeh, and thenee to Aleppo. The communication 
with Damascus (from Beirut) is twice a week. From Aleppo and Aintab a 
land post goes regularly through Asia Minor, both to Constantinople and 
Smyrna. The transmission of letters on all these routes is tolerably rapid, and 
not expensive.” At Beirut there existed in the same year a native “ Society 
of Arts and Sciences,” which had been founded in 1847, a part of its members 
having been educated in the American mission at that town. The Society met 
twice in a month, when papers were read, questions discussed, and occasionally 
lectures delivered ; and in the first year of its existence 750 volumes had been 
collected for a library, amongst which were 527 Arabic and Turkish manu- 
scripts, some of them dating hack seven or eight centuries. Professor Robinson 
attended some of the meetings, and remarks, “ With one exception the speakers 
were all natives , and I have heard much worse speaking before Literary Societies 
in London and New York ” (p. 27). Such a circumstance is one of better omen 
for the progressive advancement of the countries under Turkish rule, than any 
mere political events could afford. 
In reference to Lej jun, the ancient Legio , the author reminds the reader that 
in a former volume he had set forth the grounds for assuming the identity of 
Legio with the more ancient Megiddo of the Old Testament. He adds, “ Our 
visit only strengthened this conviction ” (p. 118). In his criticism relative 
to the rock-hewn tomb beneath the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 
Professor Robinson gives his reasons for not referring its formation to even so 
early an age as that of Constantine — and, in fact, all his researches in that city 
attest the difficulty of identifying the correctness of sites to which specific 
names have been applied in accordance with monkish traditions. With respect 
to the antiquity of the arch in masonry, he asserts that “ it was well known in 
the East long before the period of the Jewish exile, and at least seven or eight 
centuries before the time of Herod ” (p. 229). 
At Urtas, near Hebron, the author fell in with seven or eight Americans, 
men and women, who bad come out as missionaries to introduce agriculture 
among the Jews, but being unacquainted with the language and customs of the 
country, and therefore helpless, they had been taken by Meshullam, a convert 
from Judaism, into his employ, where they found at least food and shelter. 
They had brought out with them some American ploughs, but could make no 
use of them for want of stronger teams. A similar colony of Germans had 
been in like manner employed by Meshullam two years before, but they, too, 
had become dissatisfied, and dispersed (p. 274). Professor Robinson says, “It 
is hardly necessary to remark that the idea of speedily converting the Jews, 
living as strangers in Palestine, into an agricultural people, is altogether 
visionary.” Mere enthusiasm in any object, unsupported by sufficient know- 
ledge to enable its being properly carried out, can be expected to result in 
nothing but lamentable failure. 
In recording the arrangements made by himself and his companions previous 
to entering upon their tour, Dr. Robinson remarks (p. 31), “ that the most usual 
mode of travelling in Syria is for a party to put themselves under the charge of 
a dragoman — a native who speaks more or less of English, French, or Italian — 
and who undertakes to provide them with sustenance, servants, tents, bedung, 
and means of transit.” The party found the expenses of travelling comparatively 
less on this journey than on the preceding one under the Egyptian rule ; they 
amounted to somewhat less than 11. each daily. It is stated that the travellers 
took with them no weapons whatever, and never for a moment felt the need of 
any. Each had a Schmalkalder’s compass, measuring tapes, and thermometers. 
Besides the books enumerated in his former work, Professor Robinson took with 
him the first two parts of Ritter’s great work on Palestine, the sheets of the 
