The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

grtlant.

THE DEATH OF THE EAF.I, OF BANDON leaves a
vacancy in the representation of Bandon, Viscount
Bernard succeeding his father's title and estates. It is
believed that the Hon. Captain Bernard, the younger
brother, will offer himself.

LORD SEATON, accompanied by a numerous staff,
has again left Dublin, with a view of following up
a close inspection of all the military and naval posi-
tions in the kingdom. The first posts to be visited
on the tour are Limerick and all the forts on the
river Shannon. The noble and gallant general
arrived at the former place on Monday from Dublin,
and at once entered upon an inspection of the new
barracks, the military prison, &c. On the follow-
ing forenoon his lordship and staff returned to the
metropolis.
AIR. WHITESIDE, Q.C., will be leading counsel for
the petitioners in the celebrated Tipperary Bank
case of " O'Flaberty v. M‘Dowell.'- This case, No,
37 on the list, it was decided by the Chancellor on
Monday should be placed at the top of the list for
the present term, and be heard immediately after the
cases standing over from last term.
THE DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, in the
course of his late address to the students of the
Queen's College in Cork, remarked upon the success
of the college :
This college has been only a few years in existence, and
already are its students holding positions of honour and
respectability in nearly every port of this empire and I
am proud to say that if their reputation is not sufficiently
matured to reflect back a lnstre on the place of their edu-
cation in no instance has •heir conduct been such as to
bring on it discredit. Students and professors alike feel
that they are nursing the infancy of a great institution,
destined, ere long, to raise this country to the highest in-
tellectual eminence. It has not antiquity to recommend
it, neither are there venerable names associated with its
history, to give an artificial value to its degrees. lint, on
the other hand, it is free from the abuses which time has
rendered sacred in other institutions, and which impede
their action there. This college has no claim to respect
or support except its utility. Taking human knowledge
in the advanced state to which it hail arrived in the middle
of the nineteenth century, there is here everything neces•
sary for its diffusion, in the shape most suitable for the
wants of society, as at present constituted. Without
egotism or flattery I may confidently state that the autho-
rities and professors have performed the part assigned to
them. If the public do not perform theirs, if they show
an insensibility to advantages, the greatest ever conferred
on a community, advantages so long and so clamorously
sought for, with them rests the reproach, on them will
fall the consequences.
THE FIRST PUBLIC ENCUMBERED ESTATES COURT
SALES for the season took place on Tuesday before
Mr. Commissioner Longfield. Four estates were
put up, but the gross amount realised during the
day did not exceed 7,0001.

THE JUDGE OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT has given
notice that he will, on Wednesday, the 12th inst.,
give judgment in the important will case of the
" Attorney General v. Wilson," which involves a pro-
perty of several hundred thousand pounds.
THE QUEENS COUNSEL is, it is said, to be rein-
forced by three additional calls to the inner bar.
The names of the gentlemen are Mr. Alexander
Norman, Mr. John Edward Walsh, and Mr. James
Lawson, the first of the North-West and the others
of the Leinster Circuit.

THE GOVERNMENT has bestowed upon Mr. Nicholas
Kelly, R.M., a good-service pension of WO/. a year
for the zeal and ability exhibited by him in reference
to the discovery of the murderer of Miss Hinds.

AN EXPRESSION occurring in the following letter
from the Emperor Alexander to General Luders has
excited some remark on the part of the continental
press .

Taking into consideration the indispensable necessity
hou are under of seeking a cure of the grave malady which
as affected you for many years, I have consented to accord
you a year's leave of absence, to enable you to repair
abroad, conserving to you your present emoluments.
Acceding, further, to your second request, I have relieved
you from the duties of Commander-in-Chief of the Second
Army, retaining to you, however, the dignity of my Adju-
tant-General. Appreciating your efficient services, I hope
that if circumstances give me occasion to steal you to employ-
ment before the expiration of the period named, you will come
to resume your duties with the same zeal and alacrity
which have ever signalised your military career.—l am
always your affectionate _ _

ALEXANDLA Nicouaiwacu.

NOVEMBER 8, 1856.

itcraturt.

Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and the
Adjacent Regions. By Edward Robinson,
LL.D., Professor of Biblical Literature in
the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
London: Murray.
OF late years there has been a quantity of
literature, of various degrees of merit, relating
to the geography of the ll* Land. The sub-
ject possesses enduring interest in those coun-
tries where, as in England, Germany, and
America, the Bible forms the foundation of
the national religion ; and the litterati of
Christendom, without any distinction of sect,
must always feel interest in whatever relates
to a region where events of so stupendous a
character, and of such eternal interest to the
human race, have been transacted. Forty
years ago the writings of Chateaubriand on
the Holy Land were read with great ardour,
and in our times the travels of Lamartine
found many admirers. In 1847 M. Carmoly
published at Brussels the well known work,
" Itineraires de la Terre Sainte," being seven
Jewish itineraires belonging to the thirteenth,
fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seven-
teenth centuries. The work of Colonel
Churchill has been reviewed in our columns ;
and the results of the United States' expedi-
tion, under Lieutenant Lynch, are familiar to
all who take interest in the geography of Pales-
tine. The printing-presses at Stuttgardt,
Leipsic, Berlin, and Paris have produced
many works of value on this great subject.
Last, and perhaps most important of all, Mr.
Stanley has added to our own literature on the
subject a work of utnivalled accuracy, power,
and descriptive beauty.
The volume before us is carefully written,
and is composed of solid matter collected, not
from books, but from direct personal observa-
tion. There is no showy writing no vivid
description in its pages ; its rhetoric is under-
written rather than overdone; sometimes we
would wish for more animation, but the
value of the volume will be found in its cool
statement and minute details. The author is
master of the subject: he has visited the
Holy Land for a second time, and meditates a
complete and still more extensive work.
Book-clubs, we think, will be disappointed in
not finding eloquent passages in its pages ;
but Dr. Robinson has written for the sake of
science, and this volume is addressed to theo •
logians, and to scriptural inquirers, rather
than to generil readers. To criticise this
work, from the vast quantity of its matter,
would be difficult within our space ; but the
former writings of this author on the geography
of Palestine have been copiously commented
upon in journals specially devoted to religious
subjects.
Dr. Robinson's journey included all the
points of chief interest in Palestine. Nearly
an octavo volume full of matter is occupied
with the chapters devoted to Jerusalem and
its environs ; and we cannot show the charac-
ter of this work bette►' than by extracting what
Pr•. Robinson has written on the site of the
Holy Sepulchre :
Having thus completed what I have to say respecting
the topography and antiquities of the Holy City in the
times of the New Testament and of Josephus, I turn for a
few moments to another monument of later celebrity ; first
known indeed to history in the fourth century ; but ever
since that time overshadowing in importance all other
monuments, in the estimation of much of the Christian
world. I mean the Holy Sepulchre.
It will not be denied that since the publication of the
"Biblical Researches" in 1841 this topic has been dis-
cussed with great fulness; and, in some parts, under a
new aspect. My purpose here is simply to ascertain, in
brief, what progress may have been male towards a final
determination of the question, whether the present site is
the true one.
The evidence on which the whole question turns is of
two kinds. topographical and historical. The particulars
of this evidence, so far as then known, were given in my
former work ; and the result which seemed to me to
follow, was against the authenticity of the present site.
I. In ies:iect to the topographical evidence, we have
already seen that the discovery of the ancient chambers at
the Damascus gate, and the general recognition of them
as belonging to an ancient gate of the second wall on that
spot, has wrought a change in the mode of treating of the
second wall among the advocates for the authenticity of
the sepulchre. The course of that wall is now laid down
by them along the street of the baaaar to the Damascus