The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-12 00:00:00

MR. SEIVARD AT HOME.

The following letter from Secretary Seward on
the "Factions and the Rebellion" was published
in the New York papers :
" Department of State, Washington, Aug. 19.
" Dear have had the honour of receiving your
letter of the 14th inst., together with the three papers to
which it refers, two of them being appeals written by your-
self, and addressed by the Democratic State Central Com-
mittee to the Democrats and all other friends of the con-
stitution in Pennsylvania,' and the other being a call for a
mass meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia, the objects of
which meeting will be to express a firm purpose to stand
by the maintenance of the national constitution with devo-
tion to the American Union,' and, further, 'to declare hos-
tility to the policy and measures of all who seek to prosti-
tute the country to the purposes of Abolitionism, and for-
mally to express the intention of the Democratic party to do
as it has always hitherto done—namely, to support the
Federal Government in the exercise of its constitutional
power, and to defend it. at whatever peril, against the
insidious and treasonable teachings of Abolitionists.' You
tell me that some influential journals connected by political
friends of mine censure one of these papers as treason-
able, and the others are convinced in the same spirit with
the one which is so harshly judged. You desire me to
read them and weigh them for myself. You further inti-
mate a hope that the perusal of the papers will have the
effect of producing exertions on my part to induce the Presi-
dent to favour a policy to put down the demon of Abolition-
ism. I have read the document thus submitted to ma with
a high respect for the authority by which they were issued,
and with a full confidence in the sincerity of the devotion to
the Union which, as their author, you have avowed. You
will allow me to say that this nation is now engaged, notin
a political canvas tetween opposing parties about questions
of civil administration, but in a civil war, carried on by
opposing armies on an issue of national life or death. If
the resolution prevail, there will be no questions of ad-
ministration left to settle. If it fail, there will be
time enough to settle all such questions. lam not to dic-
tate a course for others to pursue in this crisis. But I
must say for myself that neither as a public officer, nor as
a citizen, can I know with favour or disfavour parties
among the supporters of the United States any more
than I can make a distinction between factions which
unite in aiding the rebellion. A nation, like an indivi-
dual, can do only one thing effectually at one time. It
cannot wisely turn aside from the chase of the fearful
demon of disunion to pursue an inferior demon, whether
imaginary or real. I think that the wrangles which occurred
among the Crusaders about their respective creeds, when
they sat down to the siege of Jerusalem, were just as ra-
tional and just as wise as disputes about Abolition would.
now be in the army of the Potomac in front of Richmond
What is unwise in the camp at such a moment cannot be
wise in the Cabinet or in the assemblies of the people. I
am occupied here either in mediating between differing
parties and jealous sects or else in watching and counteract.
ing the intrigues of traitors in Europe. But I sometimes
think that if, instead of being charged with these duties, I
were at liberty, as you seem to be, to serve the country in
my own way, I could make an appeal to Democrats and Re-
publicans, Abolitionists ant slaveholders, in behalf of our
distracted country that would bring the whole people at
once under arms, and send treason reeling back into the
den of darkness whence it sprung. Ido not know how this
would be, but I do know that if I were in your place X
should try.

" I am very respectfully your obedient servant,
" WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
" To Mr. F. W. Hughes, Headquarters of the
Democratic State Central Committee of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia."

EGYPT AN

On Tuesday evening, Mr. Clarkson, a member of the
press of long standing, whose lectures The Sun has often
recorded, gave a summary lecture on the above subject at
the Holloway Literary Institute, He argued that the
subject, if treated popularly, as it ought to be, comprises
within itself the chief elements of that which is said to be
the " great want of the age "—the union of the utile et dulce
—the combination of useful with entertaining. knowledge.
He would take these characteristic features in their order;
and first, referring to the entertainment derivable from the
subject, by noticing the curious relics assembled in the
Egyptian department of the British Museum, viz., the
roasted duck and the well-curled wig, dolls, toys, and
games, draughtboard, painter's palette, and tailors' goose,
gown patterns and printing stamp, rouges, eye paints, per-
fumes (including a Chinese scent bottle) and toilette boxes
of the female aristocracy of "Hundred-gated Thebes"—he
contended that the ancient Egyptians, far from being the
sombre, unjoyous, gloomy people, wedded to bigoted diurnal
superstitious forms, were shown by the monuments to have
been a joyous, self-indulgent race, attached to creature
comforts, and fond of every species of amusement.
What a strange scene, for example, and what a bustling pleasurable social state, would be produced by a recuseita-
tion to the "mind's-eye" of Hundred-gated Thebes in
its "ancient high and palmy state ;" where the Indian
sedan stood beside the two- wheeled or four-wheeled chariot,
without the footman-crowded gate of the festive villa;
while beef, and pies, and beer, and healths in wine consti-
tuted the cheer within; where the sporting patrician had not
only his favourite leash of hounds (his huntsman being the
setter), but also his leopards and lions domesticated and
trained to the chase, and his " fowling piece " being
the boomerang, now used by the New Zealander ; where
cormorants were employed, as now in China, in catching
fish; where the amatory ritornello resounded by night in
the streets, and the "Harvest Home" chorus by day in
the fields; where the school boy's game of "Buck buck, rise
up," and the school girl's game of "la grease " were
played 4,000 years ago, as they are now; where the popu-
lace, ardent patrons of the prize-fighter and the wrestler,
applauded the negro minstrel, the tumbler, juggler, and
rope-dancer, and participated in the fun of the soaped
pole (or May-pole), amidst the lighted rotundas of their
Cremornes or Vauxhalls; while the favourite vocalists
and danseuses, the Taglionis and Grisis of the " City of
Thrones," danced and sung to their guitars and harps,
amidst the Almehs, or figure-dancers of the opera and ballet
—and while the Perrot of those remote times delighted the
applauding aristocracy with that gyrating pirouette which.
has been erroneously supposed to be a modern invention.
But the prolific theme would lead beyond a lecture's pre-
scribed limits; and therefore, the lectures- said, he would
limit himself to a brief and concluding glance at the second
division of the subject—its usefulness and importance.
Mr. Clarkson said he had always maintained that Egyptian
antiquarian research—if treated popularly as it ought to be
—comprises facts, inquiries, and results from which the
utilitarian philosopher and political economist may derive
new and necessary information. It lays open the whole
progress of early agriculture, art, trade, and manufacture—
the progress from serfdom to:freedom—the origin of judicial
and civil institutions, colonisation and taxation—of corn-
, law imports and exports—of the first division of the land—
,of the single direct tax, a land-tax, as in India, of 20 per
cent.—a tax commended by competent authorities as the
best for the purposes of Government. The subject, more-
over, opens out new and momentous views of early history,
or rather creates a new volume of history, fills up vast
chasms in the invention and progress of art and science,
and embraces perspicuous views of the foundation, deve-
lopment, the progressive tendencies, and consequently the
ultimate destinies of human political society. Take,
for example, the revelations connected with the
records of the eighteenth dynasty of Pharoahs.
It is to this chronological series of kings (whose heraldic
shields occupy the middle line of the sculptured stone of
Abydost), corroborated by the testimony of Josephus, and
by the chronological sculptures of Karnak, the Memno
Medinet Abu, and Quorneh—comprising the leha-
roah of the Exode, Maoris, Alemnon,Danaue and Sesostris,
all whose trustworthy portraits we possess—it is to this 18th
dynasty, so curious in its revelations, so important in its
associations, so substantially proved, Mr. Clarkson said,
that the concentrated interest as well as the importance of
the entire subject attaches. Three times the Jews appear
distinctly in the Egyptian monuments : once in the reign. of Osirtesen the Second, of the 17th dynasty, 1700 B.C.
as depicted in the tomb of Nevoptha, a general and fron-
tier governor under that Pharoah ; once in the reign of
Amenophis, second king of the 18th dynasty, and the un-
questionable Pharoah of the Exode, as depicted in the tomb
of Roschere, superintendent of public works under him and
his Queen Consort and successor, Amense,* on his sudden
disappearance after the entire loss of his army of 250,009
men ; and once again in the reign of Sesank (Sesonchis),
of the 19th dynasty, 1000 8.C., the father-in-law of Solo-
mon, whose son Rehoboam (entitled King of Judah) is
depicted on the walls of the sanctuary erected by that Pha-
roah at Karnak, as one of his vanquished tributaries.
Three great colonisations tcok place during the 18th
dynasty -first, that of the Jews; second, of the Argives;
third, of the Athenians; and the consequences of these
events on the whole stream of human civilisation require
no argument to demonstrate. It had been asserted by an
eminent modern writer that the Pastoral Pelasgian, or
Cyclopean, family of nations, which the 18th dynasty
superseded, founded in all parts of the world wherever they
left the relics of their peculiar architecture (pyramids,
cromlechs, fi iliths, rock-hewn galleries, and irregular
courses of stone)—left also political institutions embracing
the widest extent of human freedom ; that it was from them
that Sparta, Crete, and Carthage derived their common
labours, tables, and education • Athens her free organic
laws; and that from Athens (where universal suffrage,
ballot, and annual senates were in daily practical operation),
through Rome, her twelve tables, her excellent municipal
institutions, and her balanced form of popular suffrage, the
British Constitution is derived.

* No other queens appear in Manethos ebronolo

THE CATASTROPHE AT THE LIVERPooL WORK-
HOUSE..—ANOTHER VICTIM—It was stated at a meeting
of the Liverpool workhouse committee, held yesterday,
that there was still a child missing, and that its body must
be covered by the ruins of the dormitory. Yesterday work-
men were employed in removing the
most dangerous por-
tions of the ruined buildings, and a search will be com-
menced at once amongst the debris. The adjourned
inquest ill be hold vn Tuesday,