The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-05 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 5, 1851.

THE TUES SITE OT NINEVEH.

We come now to consider the localities from which most
of the monuments have been obtained, and which Major
Kewlinsou's sagacity in the interpretation of the inscrip-
tions and his accurate acquaintance with the remains of
Ichosical antiquity, have Vomits gnat light. In the tint
place, Nimrod, the great treasure-house which has fur-
nished as with all the most remarkable sass:imams of
Assyrian sculpture, although, very probably, tormiug one
tol that group of cities whit h, in the time of the Prophet
Jonah, were known by the Gammon name of Nineveh, has
no claim, in Major Itawlimem's opinion, to that particular
appellation. The title by which it is designated he mad.
with some hesitation as Levekh, probably the original form
of the name which appears as (Utah in Genesis, and Hulett
in the Books of the /Xing and Chronicles, and which, a. the
capital of the Italie Celachenis, must have been somewhere
to the immediate vicinity. lie Samaritan version of the
Pentateuela uses fur the Hebrew Calati the term Lachisa, a
term which the Babylonian orthography shows to have
he, n absolutely identiell with the Greek name Larissa where-
by Xenophon it, noted the great ruined capital which was
passed by the Ten Thousand, a kW miles to the N. of Orel
Lyetis. It has, indeed, been asserted that the Calechene,
of the Greeks was a mountainous region, yet such descrip-
tion as we have, would rather seem to imply the contrary. !
Thus, Strider, lib. lei., in describing Assyria, classes tug,-
ther, Td wepl vbr Wear Tibia, &Aomori Tll, MY KMASXIIII*
seal XaCsarita atai evidently intending to express, s
j that all thew places were in the low country between the
mountains and the Tigris.. In mother part of his work he
pasitisely excludes Catmliene from the mauntain district,
tor he sacs, lib. xi., ban Tit KaAaeoritt sal rat 'Alhafilosir,
Ito rim 'Apaisriaciiir Spew.
Major limbo:sin conjectures, that the real and primitive
Nineveh, which is frequintly mentioned in the inscriptions,'
and appears to base been the proper scat of Assyrian
royalty, occupied the side opposite to Mosul, where we now
see the huge mount!, surmouuted by the pretended tomb of
Jonah. There is historical proof that this mound has been
locally called Nines, 11, from the time of the Arab conquest
i down to, a period comparatively recent ; for Ibn .tthir,
! quoting from Belaillwri, speaks of the forts of Ninawi on
toe east, and of Mosul 1111 the west of the Tigris, in the
. accounts of the campaign of Abdullah Ibn blu'etenter iu
A. 11. 16, and of 'Oda+ ba Parked in A. H. 20.

Again, we may gather from the inscriptions themselves,
that the ruins u little to the northward, now called Koyun-
jik, were not those of the true capital, but probably one of
its suburbs. What was the original name of Koyunjik hat
not been yet determined, but one form in which it occurs
upon the bricks jesestibles the title Meldla, where it was
1 designated by Xenophon. The suburb may, as Major Raw-
holism suggests, hate outgrown the original capital before
the .0111(.6o/1 of the empire, and have given its own name
of Mespila to the whole nets of ruins, which would account
watislitoorily fur the firtak historian not mentioning
Nineveh; wink., in the em., antiquity may have re-asserted •
its right, and have thus revived the ancient and indigenous
name of Nineveh. It seems, indeed, hardly possible that •
Koyuujik ld shou ,have been the true and original capital,'
as it iv clear from the inscriptions that it was built by the
sou of the king, who built Khornabad ; while, on the other
hand Nineveh is repeatedly mentioned so the royal resi-
dence, in the inscriptions of the king who set up the
Obelisk, and who probably lived a century curlier. No ,
excavations have us yet been mode upon this presumed site
of Nineveh, and it is doubtful whether Europeans will
ever be permitted to dig 'ben., owing too the extraordinary'
sanctity werewith this mound is invested in the eyes of the
Muhanameduns, us the supposed place of the sepulture of
the Prophet Jonah.
Khorsabuil, the site of the French excavations under M.
! Matta, was a dependency of the great capital ; anti had a
particular title, being nutted after the King who founded I
it. The name of the King has not been made out for err-
! tam how the monuments; hut, under one form in which it
! occurs' it may perhaps be Sargon, a name which we learn
front Isaiah, was in use among the Assyrian monarchs,
and which, curiously enough, is the actual designation
applied by the early Arabian geographers to these ruins.
Yakut, quoting from some unknown ancient author, speaks
of Khurstabadh as a Village east of the 'I iv's, opposite to
Mosul, among the dependencies of Niuetalt, and adjoining
ithe old ruined city of Sarghun.
The chronology of Ausyritt has hither baffled all
attempts ut reconstruction. The latest and best

cepted as a sufficient history of the revolutionary
period. It is a vivid condensation of events described
in the public journals of the time; but, except here.
and there, when the writer's persoual experience
comes to his aid and gives reality and life to the I
page, the work contains no information which may I
not be gathered from a file of any considerable public
journal. But then every body does not keep files of the
Daily News or the Times, and this volume has thus is!
value of its own. The most interesting portion of the I
work is that where the doings of " the three glorious
daysof March" are described. Here we find a true local
colouring which reanimates the scone. The intro-
duetory passages Which describe the obvious influ-
ences which led to the Vienna outbreak of are
well condensed. Mr. Peake describes the Austrian
monarchy surrounded by friendly nations, where the
constitutional system had been gradually displacing
the ancient forms of government, and the Austrian
people, as gradually imbibing the liberal ideas of
their neighbours. How these ideas were gradually
sown, how they took root and spread; how,
us the light of knowledge brightened it re-
sealed the pupil's fetters ; how the government
endeavoured to oppose constitutional demands
for reform by unconstitutional tyranny; how the
press was crippled and degraded—these are ques-
tions
which have deep sources, which the author has -
not fathomed. Hay by day the government became
more at variance with the mass of the people in'
matter' on which it is important for social harmony
to maintain a cordial agreement. But the tam of
Metternich and his coadjutors was not to conciliate
and to reconcile. He put his faith in the strength!
of cold steel; and put yet another rivet on the slave !
who ventured to complain. It was not given to him I
to understand, on a high patriotic ground, the ma-
jesty
of the popular will; with him the Austrian !
people existed only for the support and dignity of,
the imperial crown. The lesson which was given to
the government, however, by an exasperated people,
sufficiently proved the danger of endeavouring to'
use a nation merely for the benefit of its sovereign. I
It is curious to note how the discontented classes
gradually amalgamated—how the individual sense of
oppression raised a revolution-working power
The formation of the " Legal and Political Read-
ing Association," in Isl 7, which was joined, accord-
ing to Mr. Peake, by merchants who were discon-
.. tented with the absolute control of the minister of
1 finance over the Lining of the National Rank; by
numerous classes of literary men, writers, and ekti:s
in the service and pay of the government, who com-
plained of the restraint put on their mental energies I
and literary productions; by bankers, and many of,
the professors of the arts and sciences in the Vielllitt
university, who exercised au extraordinary influence
over the industrious and lower classes ; the limmatiom!
of au association so constituted, and the open discon-
tent of the nobles would naturally have aroused an
enlightened government to examine into the nature
and justice of the popular discontent. It is well
know n, however, that it was only after blood had
been shed in the streets of Vienna that the Austrian
government gave way—that while Metternich was
consenting to retire from the government, Win-
dischgraetz was donning his uniform to direct the
troops against the Austrian people. Mr. Peale gives
the following interesting details relative to