The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-10 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE THE Westminster Review contains one of the best pieces of criticism we have had the pleasure of read. tug for a long time. The subject of the article is the poet Young; and though the portrait here given of him may be somewhat too unfavourable, yet the laws of poetical composition are so ably discussed, and one or two such useful canons enforced, that we quite forget any injustice done to the particular poet, in admiration of the essay to which he has given rise. "Capabilities and Disabilities of Women," and " The State of Parties in Italy since 18-Ig," are both injudicious articles, especially the latter, the view wherein taken is that the renovation of Italy is to be looked for from the lower orders only, while the upper classes, and all those friendly to Sardinia, are to be regarded with suspicion. The paper is able, no doubt, but on that account only the more dangerous. To counterbalance this, we have a good article upon " Herat and the Persian War." It seems that from St. Petersburg to Astrabad, at the south of the Caspian Sea, there is one connected line of com munication ; that from Astrabad to Herat, via Meshed, is a distance of 000 miles in a south-easterly direction ; and that the route presents no difficulties but such as have been ere now overcome by Persian armies marching with large trains of artillery; that Herat, a place of immense strength, is the key of Atfghanis tan, and that on the maintenance of this post in friendly hands will depend very much the possibility of our holding Candahar, which is the key of India. " The Revision of the English Bible " is a very interesting and opportune atticle, and the remaining contributions are solid and instructive, though the number on the whole does not escape the imputation of heaviness. We have not yet had time to read through the National. The article upon Wordsworth, with which it opens, is not so good as that upon Young in the Westminster. It is obscure; and the writer seems, if we may say so, to have been thinking be yond his strength. We have glanced at what seems a very good article on Mr. Spurgeon, and another on the " Credit Mobilier, and Banking Companies in France." On " The Literature of Spirit-rapping" eve may take another opportunity of remarking ; at present we merely quote a passage to show the sin gular character of the paper:— Spirits recently disembodied seem to be close bound up with everything earthly ; although a quicker migration into the interior circles of heaven is accorded to persons who i►ave led a life of general benevolence. There does not seem to be much positive suffering. One spiritualist says, that he had only met with two spirits that owned tl_em• -selves unhappy. Of these, one admitted that he was drowned in consequence of getting dead drunk. On being asked if he were happy, lie replied "d---d happy," and said he was sorry to have quitted this life. He mani fested a desire for tobacco and grog. Very had men, how ever, seem to undergo an immediate though jocose punish. ment, and to be the butts of better spirits. Thus, a medium named Annie was asked what was the condition of Palmer, and said, He is in an iron box ; the spirits have him there." She added that the influence of murderers after execution was more strongly exerted upon the world, and that hence other murders often followed the execution of such per sons, and she said, " This was a powerful reason against capital punishments." PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-JAN. S. BOOKS. Letters from Canterbury, New Zealand. Robert B. Paul, M.A. ltivingtons. Lola, and other Poems. Devon Harris. Smith and Elder. The belle.. of Horace Walpole, Ea►l of Orford. Edited by Peter Cunningham. Bentley. The Medical List, or English Medical Directory hr 1857. Lane and Lara. The Haunted : A Tale. Frederick Gerstaecker. Routledge. Violet; or, Found al Last. M. J. M' Intosh. Ditto. Harris and His Home; or, the Conquest of Pride. Ditto. The Ear in Health and Disease. Renshaw. Wildflower. By the Author of " The House of Elmore." three Vols. Hurst and Blackett. Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel. M. Guizot. Bentley. THE PRESS. JANUARY 10,1857. 4.0-believer with John Foxe, and reminds u 3 of a noble passage in his celebrated sermon at Paul's Cross, preached when the Pope, for whom he prays, was striving to make Europe one infernal machine for the destruction of the Reformers, and their powerful friend Eliza beth : And as the Bishop of Rome is wont on this Good Friday' and every Good Friday, to accurse us as damned hereticsi we here curse not him, but pray for him, that he, with al• his partakers, either may be turned to a better truth, or else, we pray thee, gracious Lord, that we never agree with him in doctrine, and that he may so curse us still, and never bless us more as he blessed us in Queen Mary's time ! God of his mercy keep away that blessing Irma us ! it is especially for this, its truly Christian tone, that we cordially recommend "The Sisters of Soleure " to all who have young readers and young thinkers to provide with wholesome in tellectual food. PAMPHLETS. H'orks of the Rev. Thos. APCrie, D.D. Part VII. Black wood and Son—Owc nu Man Anything. Longtnans—The Public Prosecutor. Butterworth—Rudiments of Musical Grammar. John Hallah. J. W. Parker—Sunday lours: A Holiday Companion. Addey and Co. PERIODICAL. The Newspaper Press Directory. Mitchell. DR. ROBINSON, AND THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE HOLY PLACES AT JERUSALEM. TO THE EDITOR OF 44 THE PRESS." Sir,—While admitting, as every one must do, the learning, the acuteness, and the laborious research of Dr. Robinson, it appears to me his mode of deal ing with the presumptive evidence in favour of the authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre amounts to special pleading. Considering the high position of the American divine, his crusade against the Hill of the Cross is unfortunate, because, should he fail in convincing unprejudiced inquirers, his want of success will tend indirectly to support the preten sions of more apocryphal sites and relics. As many of your readers may not have studied the evidence on this subject, perhaps you may find room for a tew remarks in reply to the argument of 1)r. Robinson as recently quoted in THE PRESS In doing so I presums only to take a plain, and as I imagine a common-sense, view of evidence which has been collected by persons more learned than myself; and I do not pretend that after an anxious personal examination of the localities I was able, from so doing, even in my own mind, "to confirm, or shake, or make a faith " in reference to the subject. It must be observed that all Dr. Robinson's re marks apply as much to the site of the Crucifixion as to that of the Holy Sepulchre. " The evidence," as Dr. Robinson says, "on which the whole question turns is of two kinds, topographical and historical." With regard to the first, it appears to me that no positive conclusion can be arrived at. I admit that the supporters of the site have failed to establish, by any topographical research, the exact position of the ancient wall of Jerusalem. The investigations of 1)r. Robinson have been attended with no better success. Both parties have, in fact, suggested bourn• duties to suit their own preconceived ideas. Time, and the shocks of war, have obliterated the remains of several successive walls ; and the debris of ages has so altered the levels as to change the relative positions of some buildings, and utterly extinguish others. So early as the tenth year after Our Lord's crucifixion the wall of Jerusalem was extended, in a northern direction, by Agrippa ; and the supposition is at least probable that Calvary was at that period included within the city. The most, however, I would contend for under this head is, that Dr. Robin son has discovered no fact which can be cons►dered as in any respect conclusive in support of his case. Turning to the historical part of the argument, the position of Dr. Robinson is entirely negative. He does not advance one single direct prcof, but relies exclusively upon the supposed silence of certain comparatively obscure authors. Dr. Robinson admits that the church of the Holy Sepulchre occupies the site of that built by Constantine, and therefore the last fifteen hundred years are not involved in the controversy. Thus (again to quote Dr. Robinson's words) "the single question at issue is this,—Did there exist in the time of Constantine any such his torical evidence or tradition respecting the place of Our Lord's sepulchre, as to lead to the selection of the present site as the true one ?" I submit that Dr. Robinson fails to meet this inquiry when he declares " F.usebius to be the first and chief witness," and endeavours to settle the point by a reference to one or two authors whose pages, as they have come down to us, are silent on the subject. Our Lord suffered A.D. 33. The scene of the Crucifixion was called Golgotha, from its being the common place of execution, or from its resemblance to a skull. In either case it was a natural eminence. We know, from the Book of Hebrews, that the spot was perfectly well known during most of the century, and, as Jerusalem was at the period of the Crucifixion crowded with strangers, that knowledge must have been generally diffused over Judea. In the year 70 Jerusalem was taken by Titus ; but its destruction was by no means complete, and we Lave direct testi mony that many of its chief landmarks were pur posely preserved by the conqueror. The Christian inhabitants almost immediately returned to the city, and were permitted to establish themselves under the episcopal superintendence of Simon, who, being the son of Mary and Cleophas, was the cousin of Our Lord. From this period to the revolt of the Jews, A.D. 131, it is utterly impossible to suppose that Calvary was not perfectly known to the inhabi tants of Jerusalem. The Jewish rebellion was crushed by Hadrian ; and now, turning to Dr. Robinson's authority, Ensebius, we learn that the Romans, wishing to obliterate all traces of what they 43 conceived were the superstitions of both Jews and Christians, erected a temple to Jupiter where the Holy of Holies once stood, and dedicated another to Venus on the spot where the crucifixion took place. This fact is repeated by Soyotuen. From the epoch of the Jewish rebellion to that of the fonniation of the church by Constantine a period elapsed of 190 years. 1t must have been during these two centuries, if ever, that Calvary became neglected and forgotten. Jerusalem had, however, alway,s numbered among its inhabitants a large society of Christians, chiefly Gentiles, who were governed by Gentile bishops. Latterly the Christian religion became triumphant, and was adopted by the State, as well as by vast numbers of the people. The early Christians, cling ing to their faith in spite of adverse circumstances, were not likely to forget that revered mount where their Redeemer was crucified ; and all classes of Hebrews might well remember the spot where the " good magician," the "false prophet," or the "King of the Jews," was cruelly put to death. A German author, writing in 1778, describes Tyburn as being distant about two miles from Lon don. In 1978, will not tradition alone be able to indicate its site, though it may then be in the centre of the city ? L► the year 8.8, Constantine having at his command all the records, plans, measurements, and statistical facts regarding Jerusalem, which the matchless civil administration of Rome had most undoubtedly collected and preserved, fixed upon the ruins of the Temple of Venus as the spot where Our Saviour died, and, minutely searching the ground around it, discovered a tomb, hewn in the rock, cor responding exactly to the description given in the Scriptures of the sepulchre of Our Lord. Should a mistake as to the tomb have been com mitted, it is difficult to conceive that the blunder could extend to the better-marked and still more sacred spot where the salvation of mankind was accomplished. According to Dr. Robinson, that blunder was glaring and prodigious. Not alone was the place mistaken, but it was mistaken for a locality that was at the period of Our Lord's death within the walls! The tombs of kings and prophets, buried ages before the birth of Christ, were remembered, whilst the Pool of Siloam, and the Garden of Gethsemane, and many a spot beside, retained the more recent reverence they had received from being associated with scenes in the life of Him whose death was yet unable to fix upon the minds of men the memory of its locality ! At the close of the third century the Christians were equally unacquainted with the Gospels and with the recent history of their city, and the Jews knew nothing of the not very remote topography of their loved Jerusalem ; whilst the pagsn, whose hand had obliterated the landmarks, forgot to expose the palpable ignorance of both ! All this Dr. Robinson requires us to believe.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, East Lothian. R. S. S. RUSSELL'S MODERN EUROPE. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—ln your notice of Routledge's new edition of " Russel'►'s History of Modern Europe," inserted in THE PRESS of last Saturday, the reviewer state" that the only new portion of the work is the history of six years, from 1850 to 1856, and that the othtr part, from 1809, lias been rewritten. Such, however, is not the case. The former edition published 1 y Messrs. Routledge concluded with the death of Alexander of Russia in 1825, and I have added th• history of the thirty years that have elapsed since..— I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, Jan. 5, 1857. G. 11. T. THE DISCOVERER OF BOSWELL'S LETTERS is thus week named by Mr. Hornby, of Weybridge, into whose hands the letters ultimately passed, and by whom they were partly prepared fur publication. Mr. Hornby writes to the Times:— Several years ago a Major Stone, of the Hon. East India Company's service (the printer has by mistake printed " clergyman " instead of " gentleman " in the preface, as in my manuscript), resided at Boulogne, and obtained the letters exactly as stated. At his death they passed into the possession of his nephew, Mr. Augustus Boyse, of the Inner Temple, an old friend of my own, and from this gentleman I obtained them ; and having carefully examined and arranged them, was preparing them for publication when I wat ordered to Constantinople on offi cial duty, which prevented my completing the task I had undertaken. I left therefore the labour of editing and seeing the volume through the press to a friend, who be- stowed no inconsiderable amount of labour and research on the performance of this friendly office. I again repeat that the account of the circumstances under which those letters were preserved is strictly true. As to the authen ticity of the letters themselves, I have placed them in the hands of Mr. Bentley, the publisher, so that any critic who may have the curiosity to inspect them may also have the means of judging for himself.