hands may be traced in the workmanship.

Upon the discovery of these antiquities being reported to the French Government, the sum of 50,000 francs was granted to M. Botta for his private expenses, and 100,000 francs for that of excavating, while two artists, M. M. Costa and Flandin, were sent out to make drawings of unremovable sculptures, and a ship was despatched to Bussora for the purpose of transporting to Paris those that could be taken away. The return of this vessel to Havre, laden with the spoils of ancient architecture and art, has rerecently been announced; and a room on the ground floor of the Louvre has been prepared for their reception, which is to bear the name of the salle de Nineveh. The French Chambers have also voted near 300,000 francs for the publication of M. Botta's work upon them, to be illustrated by Flandin's drawings. Two heads of Ninevite sculpture, from M. Botta, not long ago, came into the possession of Sir Robert Peel, through the medium of Sir Stratford Canning, the ambassador at Constantinople. According to published descriptions of them, the position of the hair resembles that upon the Persepolitan remains; the ears are ornamented with large massive ear-rings, in the form of the letter I; and the lips wear the same set smile which characterises the Archaic Greek sculpture.

Some subsequent operations, conducted at another site, by our countrymen, Mr Layard and Major Rawlinson, private adventurers in this field of interesting research, may now be briefly stated, which prove the disinterred sculptures of Khorsabad to be only samples of a larger stock concealed in the district. Upon opening a mound at the village of Nimroud, Mr Layard found an entrance evidently into a building. The entrance was formed by two magnificent lions, winged and human-handed. Upon farther excavation, it led into a hall, 150 feet long by 30 broad, from which several entrances, each formed by winged lions or bulls, led to other chambers, and successively fourteen were opened

without the whole having been explored. All these chambers were constructed of slabs of marble; the side walls were covered with bas-reliefs and inscriptions, in fine preservation; the sculptures, representing battles, sieges, and lion-hunts, executed with the same animation and skill as those at Khorsabad. They are said to form a complete history of the military art among the Assyrians; and to prove their intimate knowledge of many of those engines of war, the invention of which is attributed to the Greeks and Romans as the battering ram, the catapult, and tower moving on wheels. From the long converse of Major Rawlinson with cuneiform inscriptions, the expectation may be indulged, that he will find a key to these records.

The site of Nimroud, the scene of Mr Layard's labours, is remarkable.

Leaving Mosul, in his kelek, for a voyage down the Tigris, the traveller passes between highly-cultivated banks wherever cultivation is practicable, and speedily hears the roar of the Zikrul Aawaze. This is a dam constructed in the bed of the river, for the purpose of leading off as much water as may be needed for irrigation, of very ancient workmanship, regarded by the natives as a monument of the time of Nimrod.

The stream, when full, rushes over it with great impetuosity, and has all the appearance of a natural rapid. Immediately below this spot a pyramidal mound is seen peering above the horizon, on the east bank of the river, and not far from its brink. This marks the village of Nimroud, about a quarter of a mile from it, and at the distance of six caravan hours from Mosul, traces of ruins being abundant in the neighbourhood. The pyramid, an artificial erection, now covered with earth, retains much of its original shape, and is a point of some historical interest. Xenophon, in relating the expedition of the ten thousand Greeks, states that, after having crossed the Zab, at a short distance from that river, they came to a ruined city on the banks of the Tigris, formerly inhabited by the Medes, called Larissa. "Close to the city," he remarks, was a pyramid of stone, up

on this were many of the barbarians, who had fled there from the neighbouring villages.' The description of the sites correspond, and the extant pyramid clearly establishes the identity in locality between the present Nimroud and Larissa. But the latter Xenophon denotes as being then an ancient ruined city; and the common traditions of the country carry back the former into the highest regions of antiquity, as a foundation of the chieftain whose name it bears. "The Turks generally believe this to have been Nimrod's own city, and one or two of the better informed, with whom I conversed at Mosul, said it was Al Athur, or Ashur, from which the whole country was denominated. It is curious that the villagers still consider Nimrod as their founder. The village story-tellers have a book they call the Kisseh Nimrod, or Tales of Nimrod, with which they entertain the peasants on a winter night." This statement is remarkable, viewed in connection with the fact, that it still remains a vexed question with biblical philologists, whether the passage in Genesis, "out of that land (Shinar) went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh," ought not rather to be rendered, as it is in the margin, "out of that land he (Nimrod) went forth into Ashur (Assyria), and builded Nineveh."‡ Regarded either way, it is singular to find an obscure place on the site of Nineveh, connected by name and local tradition with the first settler in the country. Reference has so frequently been made to the inscription discovered in cuneiform or arrow-headed characters, called by the Germans keilformig, or wedge-shaped, that some general notice of this still mysterious mode of writing will not be out of place. These characters are doubtless the A6σύρια γράμματα of Herodotus, and the Litteræ Assyria of Pliny, which, with a similar notice by Thucydides, is almost all the mention made of them by the Greek and Roman writers of the classic age. By some of the moderns they were at first supposed to be the

capricious, unmeaning, and ornamental flourishes of the architects of the buildings in connection with which they are found, but may be now generally admitted to be either alphabetic characters or syllabic. They have been met with rarely in Egypt, but abundantly at Persepolis, Babylon, Bisitun, on the rocks by the great Lake Van, in Armenia, and at Nineveh, where M. Botta and Mr Layard have discovered a larger store than all the inscriptions previously known combined. Grotefend's views, at first conjectural, and arrived at in consequence of a random wager, that he would decipher one of the Persepolitan records, have been sanctioned with modifications by the great orientalists, St Martin and De Sacy, the latter of whom consider him to have unquestionably made out the names of Darius Hystaspes, and Xeuxes at Persepolis. He recognises three great divisions of cuneiform writing—the Persian, Median, and Babylonian-which all occur frequently in the same inscriptions, placed in parallel columns, the one being a literal translation of the other, so that if any one part of a trilingual inscription is deciphered, the sense of the two other parts is known. Hitherto nothing has been accomplished beyond the probable determination of a few proper names, and the task is one of immense difficulty, yet by mul tiplying the means of comparison, as has been done by the recent discoveries, success may yet be attained in the attempt to unfold the meaning that lurks in these baffling characters. sufficient stimulus to research here is supplied by the important light that would be thrown upon the obscure fields of ancient history, and perhaps upon the fortunes of Israel and Judah, who became so intimately blended with the nations on the Tigris and Euphrates.

A

Such is the amount of our present knowledge respecting the remains of the first great city of the ancient world. Its memories invite a future notice.

SIR HENRY VANE the younger was born about the year 1612. He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Vane of Hadlow, in the county of Kent,* Knight, Comptroller of the Household and Secretary of State to King Charles the First. Vane received the first part of his education at Westminster School, where, says Anthony Wood,† he was bred with Sir Arthur Haselrig, Thomas Scot, the regicide, and other notorious anti-monarchists. According to the same authority, about the sixteenth year of his age, he became a gentleman commoner of Magdalen Hall in Oxford; but when he should have been matriculated as a member of the University, and taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, he quitted his gown, put on a cloak, and studied notwithstanding for some time in that hall. He then spent some time in France, and more in Geneva, where he contracted a deep aversion towards the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England. On his return home, his father, being comptroller of the household and a privy councillor, was greatly displeased on discovering the heterodox state of his son's opinions. The case being represented to the King, Charles prescribed for young Vane a course of discipline under Laud, then Bishop of London. The effect of Laud's discipline was to complete what Geneva had begun, and to confirm the mind of the intended proselyte in a thorough and ineradicable disgust for Prelacy.

In 1635, for conscience sake, he went with some Non-conformists to the infant colony of New England. He

had abstained two years from taking the sacrament in England, because he could get no body to administer it to him to his mind. He was no sooner landed in New England, than his abilities, and probably his rank, attracted notice, so that, when the next election of magistrates came on, he was chosen governor. But his unquiet and working fancy raised so many scruples of conscience, which they had never heard of before, and produced such dissensions, that the sober part, observing his conduct, concerted such measures among themselves, as put an end to his government at the next election.

Some time after, about 1637,§ he returned to England. He appeared

to be much reformed from his extravagancies, and, with his father's approbation and direction, married a lady of a good family. He was likewise, through his father's interest with Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, then Lord High Admiral of England, joined with Sir William Russel, in the office of Treasurer of the Navy, a place of great trust and profit.

About this time Vane conceived a disgust with the measures of the King and Court, which his enemies made no scruple of ascribing to resentment, on account of some slights and injuries received by his father and himself at the hands of Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards the unhappy Earl of Strafford. The history of the times, and the character of the man, may sufficiently explain the conduct he pursued without so poor an imputation. At all events, in joining the Puritan and Constitutional

party, he allied himself with the best spirits of the age; and such was now the opinion beginning to be entertained of his abilities and statesman-like qualities, that the borough of Kingstonupon-Hull chose him, without the least application on his part,* one of their representatives in the Parliament which met at Westminster, April 13th, 1640, and again in the Long Parliament, which began the 3d of November in the same year. And in this station, says Ludlow, "he soon made appear how capable he was of managing great affairs, possessing, in the highest perfection, a quick and ready apprehension, a strong and tenacious memory, a profound and penetrating judgment, a just and noble eloquence, with an easy and graceful manner of speaking. To these were added a singular zeal and affection for the good of the Commonwealth, and a resolution of courage not to be shaken or diverted from the public service.” Bishop Burnet, however, represents him as naturally a very fearful man, whose head was as darkened in his notions of religion as his mind was clouded with fear. But this imputation of Burnet is in opposition, not only to the testimony of Ludlow, but to the whole of Vane's public conduct recorded in history.‡

During the Earl of Strafford's trial, Secretary Vane being out of town, sent a letter to his son, together with the keys of his study, desiring him to look in his cabinet for some papers he wanted, and send them to him. Young Vane, in looking over many papers to find those his father wanted, lighted upon some notes which appeared of great importance. He showed them to Pym, who advised him to make use of them in the evidence against Strafford-a line of conduct questionable, to say the least of it. Another act of his life is less questionable. Having been appointed sole Treasurer of the Navy, and considering the fees which, by reason of the war, amounted to

* Ludlow, vol. iii.

p.

110.

little less than L.30,000 a-year, as too much for a private subject, he gave up his patent which he had for life from Charles I. to the Parliament, desiring only that L.2000 a-year should go to an agent he had bred up to the business, and the remainder be applied to the purposes of the State. This was done, and the usage of a fixed salary has continued ever since in that office.

When the Independents sprang up, Vane declared himself one of their leaders. It is said that, even at the time he distinguished himself as the great contriver and promoter of the Solemn League and Covenant, he had a great aversion to Presbyterianism.

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Of Vane's religious characteristics, Lord Clarendon gives a lively and highly-coloured description, when he says, Vane was a man not to be described by any character of religion, in which he had swallowed some of the fancies and extravagancies of every sect or faction, and was become (which cannot be expressed by any other language than was peculiar to that time) a man above ordinances, unlimited or unrestrained by any rules or bounds prescribed to other men, by reason of his perfection. He was a perfect enthusiast, and, without doubt, did believe himself inspired, which so far corrupted his reason and understanding (which in all matters without the verge of religion, was superior to that of most men), that he did at some time believe he was the person deputed to reign over the saints upon earth for a thousand years." §

Anthony Wood-also not a very competent judge in such matters, any more than his Lordship uses, as might be expected, still harsher terms. " In sum he was the Proteus of the times, a mere hotch-potch of religion, chief ring-leader of all the frantic sectarians,-of a turbulent spirit and working brain-of a strong composition of choler and melancholy, -an inventor, not only of whimseys in religion, but also of crotchets in

685.

the State (as his several models testify), and composed only of treason, ingratitude, and baseness."*

These descriptions, translated into the language of real religion, from that of caricature and contempt, present to us a man of many whims, perhaps, but of a deep-toned and highsouled devotedness to things unseen, such as alone, in that era, could command the spiritual mind.

But, alas for human frailty! Even enthusiasm in religion is apt to suit itself with devices of worldly wisdom. In the Treaty of the Isle of Wight in 1648, having now determined to procure, if possible, a change in the Government, Vane used all his efforts to retard any conclusion with the King, till the army could be brought up to London; and for that purpose amused the King's party by the offer of a toleration for the common prayer and the Episcopal clergy. In June 1647, he was one of the commissioners sent to the army, to acquaint them with what the Parliament had done, in accordance with their wishes, and to persuade them to a compliance with the Parliament. He did not approve of the force put upon the Parliament by the army, nor of the King's execution, withdrawing for some time from the scene while these things were acted.

Upon the establishment of the Commonwealth in February 1648-9, he was appointed one of the Council of State,† and, in 1652, he was for a time president of the same council, being then also one of the commissioners of the navy. On the 9th of January 164950, he made the report to the House of Commons, from the committee appointed to consider of the manner of electing future Parliaments. Towards the end of the year 1651, he was nominated one of the commissioners that were to be sent into Scotland in order to introduce the English government there, and effect a union between the two kingdoms. What service he rendered there, we need not now inquire. The religion of Scotland was then a problem as insoluble to the Republicans as to

Ath. Oxon. Ibid.

the Royalists of England, and with all his dexterity Vane succeeded neither in harmonizing the two parties of the Resolutioners and Protesters in the Kirk, nor in making them neutralize one another.

But while Sir Henry Vane was doing notable things, as Lord Clarendon says, in Scotland, in cozening and deceiving this or that set of men, there was another employed in doing certain things still more notable in London, laying plans and plots still more deep, and not only "cozening and deceiving" men and nations of men, but thrashing them too. The name of this latter notable individual was Oliver Cromwell. The leaders of the early period of the Long Parliament, Hampden and Pym, were dead.

Their most formidable opponents, Laud and Strafford, had also vanished from the scene. There remained no one perhaps who, in merely civil and parliamentary abilities, could cope with Vane, at once subtle, sagacious, and eloquent. "Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel, old." So says John Milton, one who knew the man. But Milton, who also knew "Cromwell, our chief of men," as he calls him, ought to have known better than to suppose that there ́ ever was a time when “gowns, not arms, repelled the fierce Epirote and the African bold." People who admire fine speakers may regret that Henry Vane did not rule England instead of Oliver Cromwell. But that was a time in which work was to be done which neither fine gentlemen nor fine speakers, nor even mere fine reasoners, could do. For in truth, at such times, your fine reasoners are apt to be found too fine; and Oliver's somewhat rude but unquestionably pious exclamation, "The Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane!" is somewhat palliated, when we think of the victor of Naseby and Dunbar thwarted by hair-splitting distinctions, captious objections, and interminable crotchets, made to fly as thick in the halls of Westminster as did the bullets in any of his own hard-fought fields.