1 - -
r
V0L. VIII THIRD SERIES
SALISBURY, BT. G, OCTOBER, 18, 1877.
NO 52
Carol!
1
rv IL JLuk iL JL Ji. lL dJL o
HEW (YORK'S OPPORTUNITY.
,fAWM Y WE SECURE AN OBELISK
FIXER THAN THAT NOW
GOING TO ENGLAND.
1 MONtHKVT OF WHICH, INDEED, AMER
ICA MIGHT BE JUSTLY PROUD.
Tlte story of liCleopttra?8 Xeedl fifV
U'ntorkni ra'ue and ich;one of them is
making a great Voyage.
We invite the attention of oar readers
' to-day to an event which is not merely of
interest iu itself but upon t:ie way to a
nossibility f tl,e livest importance for
5fev York. Nothing but a comparative
lv slight effort ot public spirit here i3
nceiwl to secure for our own metropolis
an ornament fully equal to that which is
now on it way to London eagerly ex
pecfed by the whole British people. We
are authorized to State that His Highness,
- tbe Khedive of Egpyt, has signified his
willingness to preseut to the city of New
York,-'up"" a proper application being
made to him the noble obelisk seventy
' feet i height, which now stands "solitary
, aud alone" near the railway station of
Ramlet, at Alexandria, its companion
baviug been accepted by England, and
provisiou made for its transportation
thither by a public-spirited Scottish gen
tleman. And we are further able to say
that the enterprising contractors who are
now conveying the English obelisk to its
- 'destination are prepared to agree to bring
- the-companion monolith from Egypt to
America and to erect it in any site which
may he selected for it at a price not ex
ceeding 8 100,000, the whole risk of the en
terprise being taken by them against a de
posit ef the sum agreed upon in the hands
of some leading American banker.
f or nearly 2,000 years there have stood
on the ghores of the Levant" two obelisks
of rose-colored syenite known as "Cleopa
tra's Needles." Egyptologists tell us
bow these great monoliths, nearly seveu-
o ty feet high, were taken from the granite
.quarries at Syene by the skillful work
men of aufiquity and conveyed thence
to Karnac and Heliopolis. In order , to
move them the stone was marked the
whole length required, and metal wedges
were driven into the line. Another plan
which showed wonderful ingenuity was to
insert wedges of extremely dry wood aud
then to pour w ater upon them till they
split and displaced the stone. Pliny says
that they wero transported to the Nile
witlrthe aid of flat-bottomed boatsfloat
jng in canaYs specially prepared for the
purpose. Sharpe says that they were
placed in an erect position by cutting a
groove in the pedestal, in which the lower
edge of the monolith might turn as if it'
were a hinge, the top of the obelisk being
elevated by means of a mound of earth, cut to the. necessary size, and when m
thesizeof hich was continually increas- Jroduced was to be laid upon a beel of
, , , -, large blocks of Timber, forming a plat
ed till the stone stood securely erect. forni upon the Keel of the sllipt go a8 to
From Heliopolis, where they stood before keep this immense weight of solid sub-
theentranccofthfctenipleof the god Turn, stance exactly a midship, and to prevent
or the Setting Sun, they were transported f.rai" V?g KfL U?i place,i !" tle
1 ... . , . . hold ot the Ship, the Needle was to be
toAlexaHdiuulunngthereignof Hbenns, secured iu its bed, so as to preclude the
but bear their popular name because of a possibility of its being moved therefrom
tradition that thpv wppm bioiiirht. to AIpt- bv the motiou of the ship at sea. As the
flndria iu the time of Cleopatra. A-great
deal of controversy has raged among the
learned in regard to their meaning, but
notwithstanding all that has been said
'and written about them, as well as .about
other similar nfouumeuts which" still
stand in Eyypt or have been transferred to
, Some, Aries,. Paris and Loudon, no abso-
lute certainty as to their import has yet
been reached. Pliny supposed them to
i he symbols of the sun's rays; other writ
ers have identified them with the Jachin
at Jerusalem, apparently duly because
the obelisks were placed in pairs before
the entrance of an Egyptian temple!. They
have, been regarded as identical with the
Hindu Lingam and a scoreof opinions, more
f t les reasonable, have been advanced by,
, speculative inquirers, but there still is
quite as much difficulty iu arriving at
their true meauing aud origin as there is
iu interpreting the story of the round
towers of Ireland, or, to compare small
things with great, the origin of the New
port mill. Mr. Bononii, who is a better
authority than most writers, inasmuch as!
'he has speut a longeriod en the kinks
of the Nile in unwearied, and intelligent
research, says: "As regards the original
sits of obelisks, it should be mentioned
that there are none on the western bank
of the river proper the obelisk appear
ing to be a decoration of the: cities of the
living, symbolized by the rising sun, us
the pyramid is of those of the dead, sym
bolized bv the setting of that luminarv "
aken jn connection with the fact that at
Heliopolis the monoliths now known as
Cleopatra's Needles stood at the entrance
of the temple of the Setting Sun, this ex-
planation rather shows the diffieiiltieji
surrounding the question of their mean-
mi . . . ... . . .
j - - j
ing and origin than throws any decisive
light on the subject. Nevertheless a study
of the heii'Gglypbies with which the Need
. les are covered seems to confirm the view
of Mr, Bdnomi. These inscriptionsgen-
erally describe the greatness, magnificence
and glory of the pjop&wh in whose reign
they were erected, On the olwdisk which
"VvilUoon be erecte4 W Landau appears
the name of Thothmes III,, Jin? date of
whose reign, according to Sir Gardner
Wilkinson, is a about the miaVile of the
fourteenth century before the Christian
era, or some 3,300 years ago. On the
other hand, and touching the theory that
obelisks were raised for the living alone,
t should be remarked that dwarf obelisks
were employed in Egypt from the earliest
times and were placed before the doors of
sepulchres at least 4,000 years ago- Obe
lisks Are squared columns tapering slight
ly from base to apex, the proportions of
the base being one-tenth of the height of
the shaft up to the foot of the pyramidian
or pyranmidal top, which in later tunes
wan sometimes capped with gold, iron or
copper. It wag probebly during the
twelfth dynasty of the Egyptian kings
that they ceased to be sepulchral adorn
ments or symbols and were placed before
jhe temples.
In 1801, at the termination of the cam
paign of England against Napoleon in
Egypt, General the Earl of Cavan was
left in command of that portion of the
British forces which was ordered to re
main in the country. In this portion" was
included the auxiliary corps seat from In
dia under the command of General Sir
David Baird, the captive first and then
the captor of Seringa pa tarn. Lord Ca van's
rattention was drawn to theolndisk known
as Cleopatra's Needle, which lay upon the
ground at Alexandria close to its own
pedestal and io the other, which, as shown
iu our plate, is yet standing, aud is be
lieved by some persons to be. the true and
distinctive Needle. He conceived the no
tion of obtaining a grantof the fallen mono
lith for the purpose of conveying it to
London, to be erected there as both an
illustration of ancient history, most in
teresting in itself, and as a monument of
British successes in Egypt. He obtained
a grant from the Turkish authorities, and
at once proceeded to carry his purpose
into excecutiou. In connection with Maj
Bryce, the chief engineer on the spot, he
prepared a plan for the embarkation and
conve5Tance of the obelisk to England. A
manuscript now in the British Museum
dated March 8, 1841, and apparently writ
ten by General Macdonald, says that
troops then remaining in Egypt
were invited by their Othcers to subscribe
a certain number of days' pay to meet the
Expenses ot an undertaking m which
their feelings were deeply interested, an
invitation which was eagerly accepted, so
that Lord Cavan instantly found the
neccessary Funds for his Purpose at his
disposal. Officers, Non-Commissioned
Officers and Soldiers vied with each other
in offering their Contributions to tire
fnrthcr'infiu tf nn rinf ca rrvn ti fVi n nr trfc
their Xational and to their "professional
pride, and work was withforth put in
progress in the following manner: One of
the largest of the French -Frigates ( El
Carso) captured at Alexandria was pur
chased, of the Prize Agent, from the
Fund thus, contributed, to convey the
fallen Needle to Englaud. A Stone Pier
or Jetty was commenced, alongside of
which,'' When completed, the Frigate was
to be brought, to receive the Needle,
which was to be introduced into the Ship
upon rollers, through a Stern Port, to be
falleu Needle lay close to the Sea, the
moving it upon Rollers' from where it lay,
to the Ship, became a very easy opera
tion." Considerable progress was made with
the jetty, and all the officers of the Royal
Navy then at Alexandria entered heartily
into the project, which would have been
successful had it not been abandoned in
consequence of orders received from Lord
Keith and General Fox, who were then
in command of the fleet and the troops
serving in the Mediterranean. The work
ing parties were discontinued, the bar
gain with the prize agent for the ship was
rescinded and the funds yet undisbursed
were returned to the subscribers. The
objections to Hie wort seem to have been
those which would be expec ted from two
commonplace martinets. General Fox
held that the employment of soldiers in
such work was detrimental to their dis
cipline and destructive to their equip
ments; Lord Keith thought it unbecom
ing that the-Iioyal Navy should be em
ployed in such an undertaking.
In 1319 Mehemet Ali offered the obelisk
to the Prince Regent, aud the British
Government accepted the gift. Then rose
the question of the expense of its removal,
and as the estimated cost was put at
50,t)00 the Government which lavished
ten times that sum on the Prince's follies
declined to act in the matter. Subse
quently, in 1851, the subject was revived,
when even that watch-dog of the Treaa
ury, Mr. Joseph Hume, strongly advocaN
" '
ei jts rem0val to England, in the House
of Commons, but it was still deferred, al-
though the estimated cost had been re-
dnced t 33,000. It was- offered to the
Crystaf Palace Company, which being in
financial straits, shrank from the outlay.
The upshot was that the Admirality sent
a commission to Alexandria to examine
the shaft and report upon its condition
aud the feasibility of transporting it to
England. In-lS32 it was examined by
Mr. Scott Tucker, and a fragment of it was
placed in the British Museum.- The subject
its removal was again brought under the
notice of the Government, in consequence
of a notification froni the Khedive, who
had let the ground on which it stood to a
Greek merchant, whp demanded that it
should be removed as an incumbrance. It
was taken away, and consequently, in
order to be rid of it, the merchant buried
it in the ground, finally in 1876 Gener-
Sir James. Edward Alexander, the well-
known Orientalist, a kinsman of the Alex- 1
anders of Sterling, revived the question
of the obelisk in England, and Mr. John
Dixon, a welUknown engineer and con
tractor, offered to undertake the work,
the whole expense Wing assumed by
Professor Erasmus Wilson, to whose
munificence and public (spirit England is
indebted for its preseut real ownership of
the far-famed Cleopatra's Needle, Seeing
that there was but slight prospect that
the nation would ever obtain the obelisk
through any action on the part of the
Government, Mr. Wilson stirred in the
matter, and the result is that the fallen
monolith has been removed from the
trench in which the Greek merchant bur
ied it, placed iu a specially constructed
iron vessel', or floating case, and is now
actually at sea, being towed to England
by Messrs. William Johnson .Co.'
Liverpool steamer the Olga.
In floating the obelisk a novel plan was
used which would doubtless have sur
prised the ancient engineers who origin
ally brought it to Alexandria. The stone
is inclosed in an iron cylinder with ends
shaped like wedges, which was built
around it as it lay on the shore. Sixty
tons of iron were used in its construction.
It took about two months to inclose the
monolith. The inclosing cylinder is 92
feet long and has a diameter of 15 feet ;
planks were arranged and fastened around
the box, and after all was ready the whole
was rolled down to the sea with the aid
of ropes fastened on winches in vessels iu
the water, while other ropes on winches
on the shore kept it from rolling too rap
idly. At first it was a struggle as to which
should be set in motion by this apparatus
the vessel or the obelisk. The obelisk
got entirely the better of the strain, so
that the boat, instead of pulling the stone
down to the shore, was itself borne to
wards the laud. It was only when steam- J
tugs were substituted and put under full
headway that the enormous mass was
finally made to move; When, after two
days of labor, the obelisk reached the sea,
the cylinder filled with water because of a
leak, and a powerful pump failed to emp
ty the air spaces. Divers were employed,
who found that a stone had broken a
large hole in the cylinder aud was wedg
ed in it so tightly that it could not be re
moved under water. The cylinder was
turned over, the injury repaired, aud soon
this remarkable boat, with its still more
wonderful contents, was floating safely in
the Mediterranean.
"From the position," says Engineering
of the 21st September, "where the obelisk
had rcmaiued durinc twenty certuiies to
the dry-dock iu the harbor is a distauce
of about eight miles by sea, and a consid
erable proportion of this length lies out
side the new breakwater, where the rollers
of the Mediterranean tumble in with no
inconsiderableforce. It will be interest
ing to all students of naval architecture
to learn how the cylindrical ship behaved
K i... a.. ..i r i. ,i
uuuer iuee cjicuiusiauces. ju iiic iiaj
of the passage the sea was high for the
time of year, and thick waves, impelled
by the northly wind, rolled on parallel to
the breakwater, seudiDg columns of spray
high into the air. The two tugs iu charge
of the Needle rolled, continuously gppjjsous
under, making it impossible to stand on
the bridge without clinging to the rail,
while the Needle ship came along grandly
after them, with some forty or fifty Arabs
and Maltese sitting unconcernedly on the
plain cylindrical top, with nothing to save
them if the ship made a roll which she
never once did, so far as ceuld be determ
ined by the senses of those on board her
or the tugs. Although she behaved ex
actly as theory indicates, and was pre
dicted by the engineer, it nevertheless
struck every one with the sensation of a
surprise to see that two powerful tugs
tossing violently with their floats fanning
the air at every roll whilst the little cyl
indrical ship just let the rollers pass un
der her without answering to them in the
slightest degree, merely bringing her for
ward and occasionally into the waves and
charging the water right and left off her
arched buck. She would have pitched
less than she did had she been in sea
going trim, but she was rudderless and
was towed stern foremost, though inten
tionally trimmed down by the stern one
foot aud by accident somewhat more, as
she had a considerable quantity of water
in her at the time. It was no easy task
to tow her, under these circumstances,
round the breakwater, and after sunset
through the dangerous Boghos Pass in
to Alexandria harbor ; and the manage
ment of Messrs. Greenfield's tug by her
commander was beyond praise. The
rudderless cylinder would appear first on
one side aud then on the other, and again
apparently prepared to charge savagely
into the broadside of the tug, so that the
skipper generally had his wheel going
opposite ways, either to coax along the
Needle or to git out of her way when she
charged. Captain Clark was busier per
haps than he had ever been before towing
a craft, but the Arab pilot of course sat
crosslegged on the paddle-box smoking
cigarettes aud looking dreamily ahead,
as if he had done nothing since his child
hood than sit in tug and tow 'Needles' round
to Alexandria harbor."
Now that three-quarters of a century
after it was first offered to her, England
finally sees Cleopatra's Needle on its way
to her shores, the new question has arisen
what is she to do with it? The matter was
left in the hands of the London Merropol
itan Board of Works, and the Chief Com-
missioner has already submitted two or
three sites on any of which he thinks that
the monolith might be placed to advan
tage. But the London public seem una
ble to decide upon the exact place in which
to put it, Mr. Noel set up a wooden mod
el near St. Margaret's, Westminister, in
the immediate neighborhood of Westmin
ister Abbey, but no sooner had he done
so than evil was predicted. The founda
tion of a monument so situated would be
immediately over the Metropolitan Dis
trict Railway, and so heavy a mass as
Cleopatra's Needle might break through
into the tunnel. Besides this, either a
new street must be closed or the flower
beds would have to be removed, while the
statues of eminent men near the Houses
of Parliament would bwarfed into pig
mies by this colossal monument from
Egypt, which no true Britons could tol
erate. Sir Charles Barry's enormous
eight-day clock-tower, which rises to a
height of 320 feet above the House of
Commons, would,, in its turn, dwarf the
Needle, so why should it be placed there?
Sir Charles Barry sees this, aud loudly
protest against Jhe site at Westminister;
he desires to place the monolith at a spot
"remote, unfriended, melancholy, low
near the top of Portland place. Others
suggest that it should stand iu the court
yard of the British Museum. Another sit
and a fiie one which has been thought of
is the upper end of the noble Thames Em
bankment; still another is Lincoln's Inn
Fields, and another still is Primrose Hill.
Some people insist that the ouly proper
place for it is within the railings of St.
James's Park, where a monud would have
to be raised for it after the manner of that
whereon the statute of Achilles in Hyde
Park is mounted, foi; which some enthusi-
tic ladies gave a commission that it might
cownenorate forever the battle and the
victor of Waterloo. As to St. James's
Park, some objections not of an artistic
but of a highly practical nature are urged.
The ground was originally swampy, and
is thought to be still treacherous, so that
it is within the limits of possibility that,
should the Needle be placed there, Lon
don might awake some fine morning to
find it, like the Amsterdam Stadt-Huys,
sunken and gone. Similar doubts exist
with regard to the site on which the wood
en model stands in Parliament square.
Not only does the Metropolitan District
Railway run under it, but beneath this
spot of old the water flowed around
Thorny Island and Westmister Abbey,
Another site which has been spoken of is
Greenwich Hospital, but the obelisk might
almost as well be placed on Salisbury
Plain. It will be seen that there is a
great variety iu the views of the English
public as to where the Egyptian relic of
the times of Thothmes III. should stand,
the subject having been taken up with the
liveliest and keenest interest by the Lon
don people of all classes, from the scholars
and divines down to the smallest shop-
keepers, who are quickwitted enough to
see how much new grist will be brought
t their mills by this new and unprecc-
dented addition to the attractions of the
great metropolis.
These obelisks posses a very great his
toric value aside from that sentimental
estimate which enlightened nations place
ipon all monumeuts of antiquity. WThen
the one now on its way to England was
unearthed on the grounds of M. Dimitri,
the Greek merchant already spoken of, it
was covered with three feet of sand and was
fouud to be just sixty -eight feet long. The
hieroglyphics which cover all of its four
sides were prepared for deciphering by
by washing the stoue from the water-skin
of a water-carrier. They were then studied
by Brugsch Bey, the eminent German
Egyptologist, who visited this country
at the time of the Ceutennial. He
found that they referred to the lives qf
two kings, Thoth-n.es III. aud Rameses
II. The central inscriptions recounted
the deeds of Thothmes aud the
others those of Rameses. The weight
of the whole block was 200 tons. So
far as is known, the hieroglyphics ou
the obelisk which remains standing at
Alexandria, and which as we elsewhere
show may one day be transferred to New
York, have not been deciphered, but as
they are of the same age and came origi
nally from the same city and temple, it is
not unlikely that they refer to the same,
or at least to similar subjects.
The temple at Helipolis, where the
Monoliths first stood, is of intense iuter-
est to Biblical Students as boing supposed
to be the one In which .Moses, the Hebrew
law-giver, became learned in all the wis
dom of the Egyptians. Thothmes III.
was one of the greatest of the Egyptian
Kings, and in his day the power of Egypt
was extended over Ahyssinia, Nubia,
Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan
and Armenia. Notwithstanding the tra
ditional hatred of the Egyptians for the
sea, he had a powerful fleet on the Med
iterranean with which he conquered
Cyprus and Crete and the islands of the
Archipelago, the southern coast of Greece,
and perhaps evon the south of Italy. All
of northern Africa where his monumeuts
are found, were certainly brought into
snbjection by him. Rameses II., whose
name is recorded on the English Cleo-
patra's Needle, was the greatest builder
of all the Pharaohs. Many of the mag-
nlficont Temples at Karnak and Luxor
1 are his work, as are also the two snbter-
ranean Temples at Ipsambul in Nobis, I
and the Rameseum at Thebes. He also
was a great warrior, and it was upon the
story of his campaigns and those of Seti
and Thotnmes that the Greeks built I
up their legends Sesostris. When the
hieroglyphicsupon the second obelisk shall
Jtm t tff-B . y
wind and weather further liirht ma
be cast upon the history of the remote I
past in Egypt, which is so profoundly
tuuuuicu nuu iuo wuuio rine auu pro
gress of the religions, the philosophies
and the arts of our own race and our own
times.
From the Lnthertn Visitor.
LETTER FROM REV. G. D. BERNHEIM
FROM LONDON.
Exglaxd, Aug. 12, 1877.
Dear Visitor, I left Switzerland on my I
homeward journey .the 7th of August, and
stopped once more in Manheim and May-
ence, to bid my relatives farewell. Had
a pleasant surprise at a railroad station
in the Black Forest mountains, in meet-
ing another family of my relatives, on
their way to Switzerland on a pleasure
trip. I sailed down the Rhine to Dussel-
dorf, where I stayed a couple of days with
the rest of my relatives, from whom it was
very difficult, to part. Had a pleasant
visit to Baden-Baden, and enjoyed the
baths there very much. This is the most
renowned and fashionable bathing place
in all Europe. The water is hot, and has
minerals in it. They have a baud of urn-
sic playing morning or evening every day,
Last night I went to hear the music, and
there saw the fashionable world as-
seinbled in. the open air, in the gardeq
promenade ; and I assure you the glitter
of this world dazzled my eyes, and I
therefore returned early to my hotel, and
retired for the night. I
On my arrival in Dusseldorf, I found
everything in a commotion, as the Em-
peror was expected there on the 5th of
September, in order to hold a grand re-
view. All visits to Switzerland, Schwarz-
burg and other places are cut short, so
that the citizens may be back at the ap
preaching great event. Everywhere great
preparations were being made for the
Emperor's reception : arches were erect-
ed, troops were drilled laboriously each
day, an elaborate platform or stage tor
the review had been built ; all to welcome
and receive their great earthly sovereign,
but the heavenly king of glory bh, how
he is forgotten ! I was very much press-
i ed to remain there until after the Emper-
! or arrival, and indeed would have
i enjoyed it greatly, but my time was too
limited.
j From Dusseldorf my route took me
through Holland. I was astonished that
I could understand so much of the lan
guage, which, in fact, greatly resembles
the German. At Flushing we took the
steamship for Queensboro. We had head
winds all the time, but not much motion
of the ship, which caused very little sea
sickness; and the trip was made iu eleven
hours. Took the cars at Queensboro, and
rode with great rapidity to London, a dis-
tance of 65 miles in one and a-half hours.
Visited St. Paul's cathedral, and attended
sejiviee there on the evening of my arrj-
val, and was much pleased with the mu
sic and intonations of the prayers, creed,
&c. ; also with the singing of the amen
responses. The choristers w ere all dressed
in white, and walked in procession to
their places, with the minister in the lear,
The reading clergyman wore a shawl-like
covering of red over his white surplice,
and the preacher a similar one of black.
llic sermon was very long, ana o no
means an able one ; but I must say I did
not hear very clearly, for the echo in this
immense edifice destroys the distinctness
of utterance. I was delighted with the
interior architecture of the church, but
the exterior is too much blackened by age
and the smoke of the city to please tlie
eye. There is no display of dross and
fashion among the worshippers; all were
apparelled m good clothing, Out notnmg
more, the English being an exceedingly
sensible people in this respect, caring
more for substantiate, aud less for finery
and outward spow.
London is a smoky city ; so much soft,
bituminous coal is burnt here in the
houses, factories, &c, tlifiV the buildings
are all discolored, and I have to keep my
window closed, to keep out the soot and
sulphurous air, that makes one poagh in
voluntarily. I should dislike to live here
ou that account ; but 0, what a change
between England and the Continent!
Here everything is quiet on Sunday ;
6tores all closed, and the Lord's day not
profaned. For this I like England it is
so much like my own country.
The next day I visited Westminster
Abbey, which is located near Westmin
ster bridge, and almost adjoining the
Parliament edifice. I arrived just at the
time of evening service, the music of
which sounded inexpressibly sweet
through the vaulted arches of the Abbey,
softened by distance, for I was in another
transept of the building. The service here
is intoned, like that iu St, Paul's cathe
dral, and is certainly an improvement
upon the services in some Episcopal
churches iu America. An immense crowd
was gathered in the Abbey for sight-see-
ing, and at the conclusion ot the service
a general rush was made to the various
parts of the edifice. Some of the visitors
were evidently from the coarser and low-
er walks of life. Mothers were there with
their, infants in their arms; and the
thoughtless and meaningless faces of some
of the visitors showed but too plainly
that they but little understood where they
were, or what they saw. The Abbey
more than comes up to all my expecta
tions. It is a noble building; not quite
m large M St. Paurg cathedral, purely
W a
and magnificence. In one of the divisions
may be seen, suspended from on hitrh.
gome of the mutilated battle-flags of past
nges, either as trophies of victories, or as
honorable vestiges of the faithful per
formance of duty. But what pained me
exceedingly, is the unpardonable sacrilege
of which relic-hunters have made them
selves guilty in mutilating the sacred
monuments of the honored dead ; here a
part of an arabesque monument is want-
ing, there an entire hand of a marble ef-
figy is broken off, on another but one or
two fingers are remaining, some of the
Anted collar of Queen Elizabeth's dress
taken away. 0, I could most severely
chastise such sacrilegious, theft. The
ashes of Mary Queen of Scorts repose
opposite those of Elizabeth ; the chancel
is between them, and the ashes of eacli
are in a separate apartment on each side
of the chancel. Their effigies on their
tombs are as though they were arrayed in
the clothing they wore in those days. I
was surprised to find so few of the Eng-
lish sovereigns entombed here. The most
of the monuments are erected in honor
of England's illustrious dead outside of
the ranks of royalty. In the poets' cor-
ner are names as familiar to us as house-
hold words Shakspearc. Milton. Gold-
smith, Gray, Dryden, the two Johnsons,
Chaucer, and a host of others, with
Macaulay, Thackery and Dickens as the
newest additions to those of a past age.
All honorable professions seem to be rep-
resented here among the illustrious dead
men of science, like Sir Isaac Newton
and the two Herschells ; statesmen, like.
Pitt, Palmerston, and others; warriors
bv land aud sea, like Nelson and Mont-
gomery ; authors, theologians, novelist,
comedians like Garrick, and even his wife;
inventors such as Watt, explorers like
Sir John Franklin and Livingstone ; mu-
sicians. like Handel and others. The
lamented Major Andre has a most touch
jnr monument and epitaph, and even
John and Charles Wesley, the founders of
J 4- '
Methodism, have bas-relief portraits in
marble, with inscriptions quoted from
their works. And then, upon them all
fau8 ue "dim religious light" of the Ab
bey as it passes through the stained
windows. A decriptive placard, in each
part or division of the Abbey, sometimes
more than one, so that one can very
readily find the tomb and monument of
each one buried or honored here, with
other cards, all of which are hung up
some giving quotations from authors am5
poets respecting Westminster Abbey, and
others warning against mutilations, and
requesting the detection of such sacrileg
ious persons. The impressions made
upon my mind were more of a pleasing
nature than otherwise. One communes
not simply with the dead, but with past
events and honorable deeds, of which those
illustrious dead were the partakers -ant
promoters. And although "the patn ot
glory leads but to the grave," neverthe
less it is a happy thought, that England
thus honors the memory of her great men
and incites her sons and daughters of
every age to make England jret more re
nowned bv future deeds of valor. WTould
that republics could also learn the im-
p0rtant lesson here given, and cease to
,wrv(, tli oft-renited st ?ma.
that
tnev arc cencrallv ungrateful.
What most surprised me was the
coronation chair of ancient and mod
ern royalty, in use for a period of over
600 years even Queen Victoria was
crowned in it. It is a very rough and
ordinary armchair, made of wood, and so
indiflereat aud unornamented is it, that I
wouid not give it room in mv house, if it
eredeprived of its historical associations
TTjnderneath it .is fixed the stone, which is
i;ke.Tjse vefv ordinary, on which the
kinrs of ccotiaud were crowned. A sim
ilar chair was made when uliam and
Mary were crowned together, and stands
side by side with its more ancient com
panion. But such is the hallowed vener-
i
ation of the English for ancient things
and usage, that this "old arm cliair,"
dirty, discolored, nnpainted, and even
mutilated as it appears, is sacredly pre
served for all future coronation occasions,
and I admire them foJL it.
Yours truly,
G. D. Berxheim.
ERUPTION OF pOTpPAXI.
More Than One Thousand fjives Lost.
Ecnador Correspondent X. V. !Jaton.
The last eruption, of the volcano of CoT
Ltopaxi, the tenth according to my compnr
tation, took place on the 12th of Junelasb,
with every circumstance that could in
crease its horror utterdarkness in broad
day, thuuder and lightning, fearful explo
sions that made the earth-tremble sub
terranean noises and wild gusts of wind,
accompanied Vy a rain of ashes. An eye
ipitnuai tilil mo that. tliA volcano nnnred
out a cataract of ten times the bulk of!
Niagara, which carried all before it in its '
headlong course, and submerged the whole
surrounding country. The torrent divid-
ed itself in two opposite directions, as if
to give greater scope to its devastation
and make confusion still more dire. One
branch took a southerly course toward the
city of Latacunga, situated twelve miles
rom Cotopaxi., On its way the current
converted the plain of Callao into an im
mense lake. There is but little hope that
the ruins of the palace of the Incas, de
scribed by Humbolt, and all other travel- ;
era through the central valley of the r
equatorial Andes, have escaped the rav
ageof flood. Near Latacunga the furi
ous torrent tore up from the very founda
tion the cotton factory of Don Jose Villa-.
goracz, venose value was estimated at
$300,000 ; crops, cattle and buildings were
swept away ; the massive bridges of Cat
uche and Pan salvo were destroyed as well
as a part of the fine carriage road (scarce
equaled even in Europe), which connets
Quito with the towns iu the South of the
Republic, u .
THE TORRENTS QF BOILIKG WATER,
The torrent that beaded toward the
south of Cotopaxi devastated the prosper
ous and enchanting valley j)f Chillo, and
in particular the estate of the Senor Agu-
irre, noted for having been the residence
of Humbolt. There, too. as in Latacuntra.
arose the building of a thriving factory, -
which, only the year before, had been -de
stroyed by fire, and had been repaired at
great expense. The torrent rooted it from
the ground, and bore it away in a thou
sand fragments. It is asserted that a mill
of Don Eanuel Palacios floated on the wa
ter like a ship at sea until shattered by
the current. The loss in the valley of
Chillo alone is estimated . at over
two millions of dollarsr-and in the other
sections is equally great. It is likewise
calculated that the number of the dead
exceeds 1,000. Although the surround
ings of Quito have been laid waste, the
city itself suffered.from only a rain of
ashes and a complete darkness, which be
gan on the 26th of June, at three in the
afternoon. At Machache and other places
the night lasted for thirty consecutive
hours. In the midst of t his opaque gloom
one could hear the bellowing of cattle and
the cries of other animals, who, deprived
of their usual food by the shower of ashes,
sought, iu a species of frenzy, for the
means of satisfying their hunger. Other
beasts frantic with terror, careered hither
and thither as if in dispair, and the pite
ous howling of the dogs pierced the ear
with its ominous sound. Iu Quito the
darkness was as that of night ; it was like
that described by the younger Pliny in a
letter to Taeitus, in which he relates the
eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction
of -Pompeii. "It was," he says, "as if the
lights in a room liad leen extinguished."
At Quito the shower at first was of coarse
heavy sand, which subsequently turned 7
into ashes so fine and impalpable that
they penetrated not ouly into apartments,
but into the most carefully closed recep
tacles. In the depth of the darkness
men and women, braving the rain of ash
es, sallied forth into the streets, screening
themselves with umbrellas, and lighting
their way with lautems, and all the while
these strange apparitions rent the air with
their cries aud prayers for mercy. The
umbrellas, as well as the green eye-glasses
used here on journeys, were no superflu--ous
precaution, although they afforded
but scanty protection against the subtle
powder ; which, it vas remembered, had
in many cases produced' blindness during
the eruption of 1843, during the rain of
ashes of thirty hours that attended it.
SLTEUSTITIOUS FREXZV OF THE PEOPLE.
From the outset the people had unani
mously ascribed the disaster to a chastise
ment of heaven, brought down by the
irreligion of the Government, which had
arbitrarily closed the churches, aud de
prived the people" of those spiritual conso
lations that were made doubly necessary
by the sad condition of things in general.
The idea of a divine punishment spread
like wildfire, and as the tempest raged
more wildly, this conviction gathered inr
tensity until, at last, groups of men, with
out a leader, without any concerted plan,
and without arms, threw themselves upon,
the guard of the military hospital, while
others attacked the guard stationed at
the powder magazine on the hill of Javira.
There were but few troops in the garrison,
the greater part having been sent to supr
press the insurrection in Inibabura; but
the assailants, lacking arms and direction,
were promptly overpowered, with no fur
ther loss than that of two soldiers and two
citizens. On the day following, before C
city had recovered from its con sterna ti'
auiTwhile clouds of asheSlstill hovereu ...
the air and pervaded the streets, five of
the unhappy prisoners who had been ta
ken during the tumult, suffered the bar
barous punishment of five hundred lashes,
some had died in consequence. The facts
peed no comment. A numlier of respect
able citizens haveJjeen arrested, and are
to lw' subiected to a court-martial. In
the present wretched condition of Ecua
dor, rupd as it is by a series of disasters,
the recent eruption is the culmination of
jts woes. Ten years of peace and pros
perity, fcf which there 1$ Unt prospect
now, will not suffice to repair the eyjl$
which a few lioius have wroujh$ in this
unfortunate laud.
Miss Frances Fjsher, of Salisbury, N .G.,
t,,e authoress of "Morton House' audoth,
r Z dler C
onei fisher, of North "Carolina", who was
killed in the first battle-of Manassas.
Bait. Qatette.
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