The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-03 00:00:00

1131114 small knowledge of medicine, saving the life of their
chief's only son.
The foregoing are but brief and faint Indications of the
eluded life and adventures of Dr. Lapsed previous to the
happy accident a h.ch enabled him successfully to prosiest.°
that undertaking which fruited in the extrsordinary dis-
outfits that have rendered his same so re me te. As early
as Mil, Dr. Layard bad inspecti d the ruins on the CM
bank of the fiTtiTi4tio, which have been generally believed
to be the ruins mt Nineveh. Let the doctor himself describe
the 'cautions with which he viewed (h. m :
"He " (the spectator) "ha left the land where nature is I
still lovely, where, is his OULU'S eye, be can rebuild the
temple, er the theatre, half doubting whether they would
have made a more grateful impremion upon the Beaus than
the ruin before We. He is new at a lose to give any form
is the rude heaps upon which he is guing. Those of whose
works they ere the notelets, unlike the It man and the
Gr. ek, have left no visible traces of their civilisation or of
their arts : their influence has long educe passed away. The
more he coejectures the more va.ue the results
spew. The seen. around is worthy of the ruin he
is contemplating: desolation meets desolation : a feeling of
awe succeed* to wonder ; for there is nothing to relieve the
mind, to lead to hope, or to tell of what has gone by. These
huge mound. of Mayen' made a deeper impression open me,
gave rise to more serious thoughts aid tersest ri flectione,
than the temple of Belbee and the theatres of lonM."
Shortly etterwarde, Dr Loyard hed a second opportunity
of viewing the ruins of Nimroud, end of 'Remitting ,hem ;
and it 11101 upon this occas:on vat the thought sugursted
itself to bin, sod impressed Pull upon his mind, of making
excavations. He had, he tells us, hopes that some persons
in England might have been Induced to aid in the under.
taking.
It would seem, however, although we are not expeenly
told so, that despairing of fu:filliog the vision, or of realising
the hopes, which the sight of these mysterious mounds had
excited, h^ had determined upon abandoning his project and
returning home. lie had nulled as for as Constantinople
on his way back to England, when, in a happy moment, he
obtained a letter of introduction to Sir Stratford Canning,
her Majesty's ambassador at the Sublime Porte. It is not at
all wonderful that so distinguished a statesman at once per-
ceived that no ordinary person lad been presented to hie
notice, or that he should have invited him to prolong his
stay its the ease, end discharge some extra duties of the em.
bassy to which he has now become cfiicially attached.
Neither is it surprising, whoi4the character cf Sir Stratford is
remembered, and the interest be takes in such researches* as
Dr. Llyard bed at heart is known, that, in the autumn of
1845, he should have mentioned to Dr. Layard his readi-
Delli to incur, for a limited period, the expense of excava-
tions in Assyrie, in the hope that, should succese attend the
attempt, means would be found to carry it out on au ad, quite
scale.
During Dr. Lanyard's stay in England he suffered greatly
from an aguish fever which recurred monthly, and which
he tad caught in the damp chambers it was necessary he
should inhabit at Nintroud. In spite, however, of this
severe indisposition, a, inimical to literary er intellecuel
pursuit., he prepared for the press during hie brief reel-
demos in this country, the Nineveh and its Remains," and
The Monument. of Nineveh, from Drawings made on the

Spot;' besides a vOume of inscriptions in the cuneiform
character for the British Museum, which we trust will soon
be published and submitted to the ezaminetion of the
learned world.
Our reader' know the already triumphant result of Dr.
Layard's enterprise and perseverance, which have brought
iota the possession of this country treasures beyond all price.

• In. Layer(' °Menet In bie " Nineveh," "I need scarcely re-
mind the reader that it is to Sir B. Cunning we owe the marbles of
Ilehetreaasae now in the British Mumurn. The &flit oh:et which
.Wed in the way of the acquisition of them invaluable relics, and the
skill which was required to obtain them, are not generally known. I
can testify to the efforts and labour which were neemeary for nearly
three years, before the repugnance of the Ottoman government could
be omitting, and petaltssion obtained to extract the eculptures irons
the walls of a castle, which was more ,naleuely guarded than any
InMitar edifies to the empire. Ther rt mond, notwitbstandmg the
stir met instonnountable diMeultice raised by the euthorioes and in-
habitants of Badman, was most succeselully ,fretted by Mr. klison.
The Elgin marbles, and all other remains from 'turkey and Greece,
now in Europe, were obtained with comparative ease.