The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-18 00:00:00

POLISH MEETING.

Yesterday being the eighth anniversary of the death of
Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart, a meeting of the Polish His-
torical Society was held at Sussex Chambers, Duke-street,
St. James's, to commemorate their loss, now classed among
the national events in that country.

In the absence from London of the president, Colonel
Szyrme, the chair was occupied by the vice-president, Major
SZI:LCZEIVSKI, who, of ter having paid a tribute of grati-
tude to the memory of the deceased for the services rendered
by him to Poland, reviewed the most important events
which have lately occurred in that country, contrasting the
moral and dignified attitude cf the people with the violent
and insensate policy pursued by the Russian Govern-
ment, a policy calculated to exasperate the Poles,
and drive them to commit acts hitherto alien to
their feelings and their past history. Whilst deplor-
ing the attempts at assassination made on the persons
of the Grand Duke Constantine and the Marquis Wielo-
polski, which he attributed to despair produced by wit
nessing the constant and atrocious acts of violence perpe-
trated by the Russian Government, the chairman strongly
reprobated the conduct of those who had, in cold blood,
approved of these lamentable acts of madness. No greater
delusion could have been practised upon the British public,
than to assert that the Poles, as a body, desire or believe
that the cause of their country can be promoted by such
means. In proof of this the Speaker mentioned the recent
melancholy circumstances under which Count Andrew
Zamoyski, the acknowledged leader of the moderate and
the larger portion of the country suffered for representing
the wants and wishes of the Pores, who, so far from having
recourse to any violent measures, insist on obtaining their
rights by honourable and legal ways. He hoped by this
declaration to remove the unfavourable impression which
might have been produced on the public here by the state-
ment he had alluded to, and to wash off the stigma which
might have attached to the Polish name—a declaration due
no less to the Poles themselves than to the people of these
hospitable shores, whose sympathy, as that of their de-
parted friend, they shall never cease to cherish gratefully.
Major Gielgud, Capt. Szumlanski, and Capt. Kozruian,
also spoke to the same effect, and the meeting separated
after a vote of thanks to the chairman.

THE PYRAMIDS or EGYPT.—The purpose for
which those colossal monuments were erected has always
been a subject of dispute among archaeologists. Were they
the tombs of kings, or observatories, or sun-dials ? Were
they erected as barriers against the sands of the Desert, or
were they mere granaries P Sir J. Herschel, having re-
marked both their orientation to the four cardinal points,
and the uniform inclination of their entrances at an angle
of from 26 to 27 deg., expressed a belief that they pointed
towards some star in Draco which, four thousand years
ago, must have been at a distance of only three or four
degrees from the North Star, and therefore on the axis of
the vaulted entrances. Mahmoud Bey, astronomer to the
Viceroy of Egypt, now explains the matter in rather a
novel manner. In his opinion, founded on personal obser-
vation, the pyramids were devoted to a divinity having
Sirius or the dogstar for its emblem. Among the ancient
Egyptians the stars were the souls of innumerable divini-
ties emanating from Ammon Re, the Supreme Being-
Sirius represented the dog of the heavens, Sothis, who
judged the dead, so that it was perfectly rational to devote
the pyramids, considered as tombs, to the star Sirius.
The inclination of the faces of the six pyramids of Gizeh is
on an average of 52} degrees ; and a plane inclined to the
horizon at that angle is perpendicular to the rays of light
emitted by Sirius when in the meridian. This is nearly true
now, but was exactly s 3,300 years before Christ, the pre-
cision of the equinoxes having since caused a slight devia-
tion. The heavenly dog Sothis, or Anubis, or Toth, has
been identified with Hermes. Small votive pyramids in
the catacombs bear his image, his symbol being a triangle
by the sido of a star. Thus Mahmoud Bey's hypothesis
fixes about 5,200 years from our time as the probable date
of the pyramids, a result in harmony with the calculation
of Arabian authors, who give three or four centuries before
the Deluge as the date of their erection. Bunsen fixes it
at between 3,460 and 3,310 years before Christ, and
Brugsch at 3,402.

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