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

EGYPI-lAN ANTIQUI7IES.

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 duke'
—the combination of useful with entertainiig 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' gooses
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 recuscita-
Lion 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
oroerhie 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 prizefighter 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 lecturer 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 coles-
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 historYS
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, devs"
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 Pharoalis.
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 Merano'
'Thins Medinet Abu, and Quorneh--comprising tbe t-ha"
roah of the Exode, Moods, Alemnon,Danaus, 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. Clai kson 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 uls'
questionable Pharoah of the Exotic, as depicted in the tomb
of Roechere, 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 250,00')
men ; and once again in the reign of Sesank (Sesonchis),
of the 19th dynasty, :000 11. F., 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 Phil"
roah at Karnak, as one of his vanquished tributaries.
Three great colonisations teok place during tho 18th
dynasty - first, that ,
of the e 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, friliths, rock-hewn galleries, and irregular
courses of Etone)--left also political institutions embracing
the widest extent of human freedom ; that it was from theta
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 rounietpal
institutions, and her balanced form of popular suffrage, a°
British Constitution is derived.

* No other queens appear in Manethoa chronology.

THE CATASTROPHE AT THE LIVERPOOL WORg-
HousE.—ANoTHER IricTlm.—lt was stated at a meeting
of the Liverpool workhouse committee, held yesterclalt
that there was still achild missing, and that its body must
be covered by the ruins of the dormitory. Yesterday work'
men
were employed in removing the most dangerous pa'
tions of the ruined buildings, and a search will be conl:
menced at once amongst the debris, The adjourned
inquest NI ill be held IDA Tuesday.