crowbar. On inquiry after the other fragments of it, he said there was a horse-load of it taken away by women for "freestone;" i.e. to break up for scouring purposes.

Dr. O'Donovan sent a curious letter written by Sir Charles O'Carroll to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Mountjoy, in 1595. It throws considerable light on the ancient boundaries of Ormonde and other districts in Munster, and will form an important contribution to Irish topography.

The Rev. J. O'Hanlon contributed a continuation of his account of the materials of Irish County History, laid up in the Irish Ordnance Survey Office, in the Phoenixpark, Dublin.

The Rev. Constantine Cosgrave forwarded a sketch of Ballymote Castle, made by a lady, Mrs. MacDermott, and some particulars concerning the history of that pile.

Mr. Edward Fitzgerald contributed a paper, termed "Jottings on Archæology," being his second contribution of the kind to the Society's Journal.

Mr. W. Williams, of Dungarvan, an ardent student of Irish Ogham literature, sent an elaborate paper, entitled "Ogham Readings; with an account of an Ogham Monument recently discovered in the ruins of the Church of Kilrush, near Dungarvan, in the county of Waterford;" towards the illustration of which Mr. Williams contributed a large number of woodcuts.

Mr. Daniel MacCarthy sent an important contribution from the State Paper Office, being the correspondence relative to the elopement of Sir Henry Bagnall's sister with the famous Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. A deadly feud between the Irish chieftain and the English marshal was the result, and the mutual hate of the parties was only quenched in the blood of Bagnall at the Blackwater. The latter important historical event has had much new light thrown on it by the paper contributed by Mr. MacCarthy to the January part of the Journal, and now in the hands of members. The meeting adjourned to the first Wednesday in May.

Phoenicia. By JOHN KENRICK, M.A., (London: Fellowes.) - When the vast ruins of Egypt and Assyria were being explored by men who had set out from this country for the purpose of widening the scope of knowledge with regard to Eastern antiquities, the discovery of a few vases and implements of bronze gave birth to the pleasing reflection, that probably the tin used in the composition of that alloy was carried by the Phoenician traders from the shores of Britain itself; and that thus the metal which was dug thousands of years ago from the mines of Cornwall, was again sent back, as it were, from the hands of some ancient artist, to swell the list of treasures already collected in our museums. Whether the material so found be really the produce of our own isles, or whether, as is equally probable, it was brought from Banca and the peninsula of Malay, certain it is that an actual trade was carried on ages upon ages ago between the merchants of Phonicia and the semi-barbarous inhabitants of the south-west of England.

That country, then, which, as far as we know, was the first to have any dealings with our own, the first to extend commerce and to plant colonies, and lastly, the home from which came the race that so long and fiercely contended with Rome for supreme dominion, should naturally be

an object of no slight interest to those who carry back their researches to times of remote antiquity. With much pleasure, therefore, have we gone through this book, of which the author, Mr. Kenrick, is already well known as having produced other works of a kindred na

ture.

The early origin of the Phoenicians is a subject on which has been spent much learned argument. It is a question whether they were indigenous, so to speak, to the country in which we find them located from the most remote times, or whether, as is asserted by Herodotus and Strabo, they immigrated into Syria from some country bordering on the Indian Ocean. The former of these authorities, at the very commencement of his history, tells us that they had migrated from the Erythræan sea, which we must understand as comprising the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Bay of Bengal: this statement is again repeated in his seventh book, and there founded upon their own traditions, (ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι). The geographer mentions two islands in the Persian Gulf, Tyrus and Anadus, on which there were temples similar to those of the Phoenicians, and of which the inhabitants pointed to the islands bearing the same name in the Mediterranean, as being their own colonies. The opposite view to this has been

strengthened by the weight attached to such names as Bochart, Heeren, and Niebuhr; and Movens, a more recent writer on Phoenician history, has appealed to the silent testimony afforded by the Scriptures, in which there is no mention made of any such immigration. Without pretending to give an opinion on a point which must of necessity be beset with so many difficulties, we will merely remark that it appears to be a question of positive and negative evidence. While the former seems decidedly to favour the idea of an immigration, the latter tends much to confirm a contrary assumption.

However this may be, it is agreed on all hands that the Phoenicians were a branch of the Semitic or Aramæan race. True it is that the Canaanites, from whom they sprang, are classed in the Bible amongst the descendants of Ham; but the following passage from Mr. Kenrick's book, we think, satisfactorily clears up this difficulty:

"By placing Canaan among the sons of Ham, with the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Mauritanians (Cush, Mizraim, and Phut), the author of the ethnological sketch in Genesis evidently designed to reckon the Canaanites among those nations whose adust complexion indicated a more southern climate than that of the Israelites themselves, whose progenitors were natives of northern Mesopotamia. The difficulty which has been felt in admitting that the Canaanities belonged to the race of Ham, while their language proved their affinity to nations descended from Shem, vanishes when we observe that colour, and not language, was the principle of classification. The narrative of Genesis implies this. There,' it is said, are the sons of Ham after their families, after their tongues, in their countries and in their nations,' indicating that varieties of language prevailed among them. In our modern ethnology, the fair German, the dusky Persian, and the swarthy Indian are classed under one family, from similarity of language, though one belongs to the descendants of Japheth, and the other of Ham; where colour was adopted as the principle of classification, diversity of language would in the same way be overlooked. Even supposing that the Phoenicians, when they migrated, spoke a dialect more Arabic than Hebrew, they may in the course of time have adopted that of the country. The progenitors of the Jews must have spoken Syriac, not Hebrew; that is, Canaanitic." -(pp. 48, 49.)

It must be admitted that language is a far safer criterion by which to be guided in the classification of different races than mere colour, which is of course liable to be affected by a variety of external circum

stances.

The great Semitic branch of languages has been divided by Gesenius into three heads-the Arabic, the Syriac or Chaldee, and the Hebrew. With the last of these is the Punic most closely connected. The principal sources from which we are enabled to form the Phoenician alphabet, are the monuments and coins found in Athens and the islands of the Mediter

ranean. But in addition to these, the celebrated tablet discovered at Marseilles in the year 1845, has furnished us with a most excellent specimen of the Carthaginian language. The writing on this tablet is a list of prices to be paid for certain sacrificial victims; and out of ninety-four words, no less than seventyfour can be met with in the Old Testament.

At the end of his book, Mr. Kenrick has supplied a table of the Phoenician, early Hebrew, and early Greek characters, in parallel columns: a glance down these suffices to point out the striking resemblance between the letters of the three languages, and more particularly between those of the two former; a more careful inspection will leave but little doubt in our minds that both the Hebrew and the Greek owe their origin to the Phoenician. It is remarkable, however, that in spite of the impress thus stamped on the form assumed by the language of Greece, and consequently of Rome also, and notwithstanding the vast influence that must have been exercised by the Phoenicians on the islands and shores of the Mediterranean by means of their colonies and commerce, scarce a single vestige remains to us of that literature which they seem to have once possessed.

On this subject we have the following passage:

"The literature of Phoenicia in its original form has wholly perished, and little has been preserved through the medium of Greek translation. Its oldest productions appear to have been philosophical and theogonical, and the Greeks attributed to Sanchoniatho and Mochus an antiquity far surpassing that of their own oldest literature. The language in which these authors are spoken of by Athenæus and others, might lead us to suppose that their writings were historical; but all that has been preserved of them is philosophical or theological. The other historians of Phoenicia are all known to us under Greek names,-Theodotus, Hypsicrates, Philostratus, Dius, Menander, Hieronymus, a native of Egypt, and prefect of Syria under Antigonus; and as they had introduced into their history the carrying off of Europa, and the visit of Menelaus, it is evident that, like the Persian historian mentioned by Herodotus, they had mixed Greek legends with the native authorities. What we

know of their contents has been preserved to us by the circumstance that their testimony was found valuable to the Jewish and Christian apologists for confirming the authority of Scripture. They appear to have been founded on authentic public documents, preserved at Sidon, Tyre, and the other principal cities, and probably not much inferior in age to the historical literature of the Jews, with the exception of the Pentateuch. Their loss is deeply to be deplored, as having made the history of Phoenicia a blank for many centuries, and deprived those who originated or diffused the invention of letters of the benefit which states of much less importance have derived from it."-(pp. 168-170).

We may as well here notice the fact that

whatever Phoenician antiquities we possess have been obtained from her colonies, and not from Phoenicia herself: but, without being quite so sanguine as is Mr. Kenrick in this respect, we nevertheless hope that whoever will take the trouble to examine carefully the sites of the ancient Tyre and Sidon, will not altogether fail of reaping fruits that will amply repay him for so laborious a task.

But if the literature of Phoenicia is wholly wanting, and if her monuments in stone and in brass are but thinly scattered, she has by no means receded from history without leaving many and lasting footprints on a considerable portion of the world as it was anciently known. From the outlet of the Propontis to the Pillars of Hercules it is easy to trace a succession of Phoenician colonies: Euboea aud Samo

thrace, Crete, Malta, and Sicily were all in turn more or less occupied by the merchants of Tyre; and it is needless to point to the mighty Carthage as a proof of the grandeur and importance to which an offshoot of this Eastern community might ultimately attain.

A large portion of the book before us is devoted to a consideration of these colo

nies, as forming the most important feature in Phoenician history; and the subject is divided by Mr. Kenrick into four sections, each of which, in turn, meets with special attention :

"The progress of their discoveries and settlements naturally divides itself into three, successive eras, determined by the conformation of the Mediterranean basin, which bears traces of a subdivision into three smaller basins. The most eastern of these, extending from the coast of Syria, and including the Egean and the Euxine, has its western limit defined by the promontory of Malea and the island of Crete on the European side, and the projection of Cyrenaica on the African; leaving an interval of 170 miles. The second has a still narrower inlet from the west, its boundaries, Lilybæum in Sicily, and the Her

settlements, and those on the northern coast of Africa were of such high importance as to claim separate consideration."

We have only been able to touch upon the origin, language, and colonies of the Phoenicians. The latter part of the volume is taken up with the history of the people from the most ancient times to the conquest of Syria, by Selim I., in 1516; embracing, in round numbers, a period of about 3,000 years. In this the subject seems to have suffered under no lack of pains on the part of Mr. Kenrick, who has given to his readers all the advantages of detail and minuteness. A history such as that of Phoenicia, although perhaps of secondrate importance, cannot be wholly destitute of the interest with which we must look back upon a state that had at one time reached the summit of commercial

grandeur, and therefore think that the author deserves much praise for the time and pains he has given to these researches.

Disputed Questions of Ancient Geogra phy. By WILLIAM MARTIN LEAKE, F.R.S. (London: Murray).-Mr. Leake's book is a running commentary on the well-known "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography" of Dr. Smith, to whom the remarks 66 suggescontained in it are addressed, as tive of the propriety of his reconsidering a few of the articles, with a view to a second edition of his Dictionary." In the very first page we are plunged into the question, so often discussed, but not the less interesting each time it is brought under consideration, as to whether the continent of Africa was circumnavigated by the Phoenicians in the seventh century B.C.

As far as our opinion is concerned, we see no very strong reasons for rejecting the story as told by Herodotus; and al

forty-eight miles distant from each other. The third is that which is entered from the ocean through the Pillars of Hercules, and, ascending to the north along the coasts of Spain and Gaul, returns by those of Italy and Sicily to meet the projection of Africa.

"The settlements of the Phoenicians within the first and second of these basins have no definite chronology; they are attested only by mythic legends and traces of early communication. We know, however, that they were expelled from the islands of the Egean by Minos, three generations before the Trojan war. From the story of Dædalus we may infer that, when driven from the Egean, they transferred their settlements to Sicily. Their voyages to the south of Spain must have preceded the foundation of Gades, as Tartersus is mentioned in the book of Genesis. We shall endeavour to trace their course from east to west in Asia and Europe, according to the three great divisions of the Mediterranean which we have pointed out. From the coast of Phoenicia to the Straits of Gibraltar is a distance of thirty degrees of longitude; but the Straits were by no means the western limit of their colonies and trading

Gama is said by Dr. Robertson to have been, up to that time, "the longest ever made since the invention of navigation," we are inclined to entertain the notion that the feat of doubling the Cape of Good Hope was performed when the country of Columbus was as yet the abode of uncivilized barbarians. However, the reality of this voyage is doubted in the article on Egypt in Dr. Smith's Dictionary, although its mere possibility has been clearly established by Major Rennel, in his essay on the Geography of Herodotus.

We feel bound to notice the following passage from Mr. Leake's observations on the subject:

"If the experiment of circumnavigating Africa had ever been successfully tried, one cannot conceive that it should have been so entirely forgotten in Egypt, that the geographers of Ptole

maic and subs quent times were not agreed in opinion whether Africa was or was not a peninsula."-(p. 7.)

The weight of this objection is, we must confess, altogether lost upon us. The fact that Herodotus mentions the supposed voyage proves that it was spoken of in Egypt at least as late as the fifth century B.C.; that is, some 200 years after the event is said to have taken place. Thus, that the tradition of the voyage, whether true or untrue, had for some time a real existence it cannot be doubted; and even if Mr. Leake could satisfactorily shew that in the time of the geographer Ptolemy all memory of it was lost, we cannot understand how this would shake any one in his belief of the story. Unless it can be proved that the tradition never at any time existed-which is, of course, impossible-the objection of this negative testimony must be totally invalid.

The next subject that is discussed, at some length and with no small attention to minutiæ, is the site of ancient Ilium. Those who have read the Travels of Dr. Clarke will probably recollect that he enters into this matter with very considerable detail. But although to scholars the question whether old and new Ilium occupied the same site or not, may present many features of interest, to the general reader it is but of little importance.

The volume concludes with a very useful essay "on the Greek Stade as a linear measure," being a paper originally published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.

We recommend Mr. Leake's "Observations" to all who are in the habit of consulting the book to which they bear reference, as being calculated to render them much assistance in forming their opinions on many vexata quæstiones of ancient topography.

Essays, Critical and Imaginative. By PROFESSOR WILSON. Vol. III. (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood and Sons.)-This volume is a very rich one. There is a long paper—in the same old delightful style of "Streams" and "Old North and Young North"-called "Christopher on Colon-. say," in which the Professor relates his feats in equestrianism; there is an article of criticism on Coleridge; and there is a long review of Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome," which, as might have been guessed, were a sort of poetry very much after Christopher's own heart: it was a treat to him, after the milk-and-honey regale offered by his "friends, the Young Poets," to seat himself to a meal of meat and wine,

such as that served up by our great historian in his character of bard.

Quite half the volume, however, is given to Robert Burns, and well given, in every sense. Had Burns, looking forwards on his death-bed, had to choose a champion from amongst his own nation, surely John Wilson is the very man whom he would have named. Amidst a great deal essentially unlike, there were between the two men some points of peculiar resemblance. There was the same broad humour in both, and the same exquisite pathos, and in the productions of both-so tender as these productions are-there is perceptible the same curious, almost indescribable, effect from the influence of vigorous physical development; the genius of both, too, was remarkably dissimilar to that of the generality of their countrymen. We are not surprised at Wilson's rapturous love for Burns; nor that he should surpass himself in this essay on the great poet's genius and character.

The Annals of England: an Epitome of English History, from cotemporary Writers, the Rolls of Parliament, and other Public Records. (London: J. H. and J. Parker. 3 vols., fcap. 8vo.)-Independently of its own intrinsic merits, which are considerable, this work has an especial claim upon our attention, as exhibiting the results of a systematic attempt to carry out a great principle; the duty, namely, of resorting to original authorities. Its peculiar character, and its peculiar merit, is this, that it presents to the reader a catena, so to speak, collected from the most credible historians and historical documents, arranged chronologically, connected by a thread of narrative, and illustrated by biographical notes. The whole is put together with skill and taste, and the result is a readable and a quotable synopsis of the History of England. If we could wish any alteration, it would be that the original historical matter had preponderated even more decidedly than it does over that which may be termed supplementary; but we gladly accept it as it is, and have no hesitation in describing it as an excellent idea very creditably carried out. And it has this one great merit-it recommends itself to one's common sense. We wish to understand the history of our country. We read of the Roman invasion, and we are referred to Cæsar. We read of the Saxons, and we are referred to Bede and the Chro nicle. We read of the Normans, and we are referred to Malmesbnry. Why not at once read Cæsar, and the Saxon Chronicle, and Bede, and Malmesbury? The answer probably would be, that the thing is not

to be done; that it would be a great bore; that it would cost a world of trouble and a mint of money to get these old historians and black-letter authorities; and that when we have got them, we should perhaps encounter some difficulty in understanding them. Now the author and the publisher who help us over these difficulties, who give us the extracts which we wish to examine in a reasonable compass and at a moderate cost, are public benefactors, and deserve the thanks and the encouragement of the public. We offer them our share of the former, and we are persuaded that a substantial proportion of the latter will not be wanting.

The Historical Magazine; and Notes and Queries concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America. (Boston, U. S.: C. B. Richardson. London: John Russell Smith. 4to.)-Our Transatlantic brethren have ever exhibited a most praiseworthy and patriotic zeal in cultivating the history of the respective States of the Union. They have their Historical and Antiquarian societies, and Genealogical and Topographical societies: these are of a public character. There are also important private libraries, containing everything that can be procured relating to the history of the United States; amongst the most remarkable of which may be instanced the colossal collection of works on American History collected by Mr. Peter Force, of Washington, and that of Mr. George Brinley, Jun., of Hartford. There are many other scholars engaged in this meritorious task, whom it would be invidious to mention. The cause to which they have so nobly contributed will be still further promoted and aided by the publication under notice. The "Historical Magazine" is devoted to historical affairs, and "is intended to preserve the records of historical societies throughout the country, and by reports of their meetings indicate the progress of the national taste for this branch of literature. It may, it is expected, in due time, increase the activity and value of these records, by stimulating some societies to hold more frequent meetings, and make others, at widely distant points, better acquainted with each other's labours and necessities. It will contain retrospective bibliography, and an attempt will be made to give each month a summary of histori cal documents, including obituaries of deceased historians, sketches of prominent antiquarian discoveries, essays upon historical subjects, &c. A department will be assigned to "Notes and Queries," in imitation of our successful English contem

porary. From the two monthly parts before us, we are enabled to say that the intention of the prospectus is ably carried out. Among other interesting articles, we find one on the "Charter Oak," another on the "Manners and Customs of the Esquimaux;" others on the "History of the Translation of the Book of Common Prayer into the Mohawk Language," "Harvard University seventy-six years ago," "The Cradock Family." A degree of peculiar interest attaches to the perusal of these articles, from the simple, zealous, and unaffected manner in which they are treated.

There is a sober, business-like tone about the "Historical Magazine," which is the more agreeable because unexpected. We commend it to the attention of all readers who take an interest in the progress, past and present, of our "cousins," and hope the Magazine will meet with the support and encouragement it deserves.

The New England Historical and Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal. Published quarterly, under the direction of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, (Boston: C. B. Richardson. London: J. Russell Smith,) is a work creditable alike in taste and execution. The January number, which has just reached us, contains a beautifully executed portrait of Washington; articles on the families of Hildreth, Franklin, Gross, Farrar, and others; a department for Notes and Queries; and a variety of other Historical and Antiquarian matter. Mr. Sylvanus Urban feels great pleasure in bringing the names of these young relations before his readers, and hopes they may enjoy an existence as prolonged as his own.

History of the Christian Church, from the Election of Pope Gregory the Great to the Concordat of Worms, A.D. 590-1122. By the Rev. JAMES CRAIGIE ROBERTSON. (London: John Murray.) — A modern writer has well remarked, that "Ecclesiastical History is the back-bone of Theology;" it keeps the student's mind upright amidst the warpings and distractions of doctrines and opinions, and the more profoundly it is studied the less tendency is there to narrow-mindedness: the worst informed men are invariably the most positive in their opinions, and the least disposed to admit any good in those of their opponents. Unfortunately, such studies have not been popular in England; Mosheim has too long retained his place as the standard work, and Milner's is avowedly written on a very narrow basis.