The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-22 00:00:00

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

Nov. 19.—The Right Hon. Holt Mackenzie in the
chair. This was the first meeting of the session.
A communication from Colonel Rawlinson was read,
which consisted chiefly of some notes on Assyrian no-
menclature, in rectification of the statements published
by Dr. Hinckes in the Literary Gazette in April and
August last. As regards the chronology of the reign of
Sargon and Sennacherib, Colonel Rawlinson agrees gene-
rally with Dr. Hinckes in placing their dates from B.C.
722 to 680; it must net be forgotten, however, that these
dates are derived entirely from Ptolemy's canon, and
should, therefore, any error exist in the dates of the canon,
the conclusions arrived at, though relatively right, will
be positively wrong. Col. Rawlinson therefore defers pro-
nouncing any further *pinion until the verification or
otherwise, of Ptolemy's dates has been shown by the astro-
nomical calculations which Mr. Bosanquet proposes to
apply in test of the various eclipses recorded by Ptolemy.
Col. Rawlinson agrees with Mr. Hinckes that there were
probably two distinct sees of Sennacherib, the eldest
named Asshur-nadin-iddin, and not simply Assur-nadin,
as read by Dr. Hinckes, and the younger, Asshur-akh-
iddin, who was the Esar-Haddon of Scripture. Colons].
Rawlinson reiterates what he published in the I thenceunt
of the 18th of March last, that Esar-Haddon was suc-
ceeded by his son Asshur-bani-pal, and proceeds to show
that of the three eons which Dr. Hinckes has attri-
buted to Esar-Haddon under the names of Assur-
yuchura-bal, Assur-bani-bal, and Shamas-ake-iddan, the
two former represent the same individual, and the latter
no other than Esar Haddon himself. Dr. Hinckes
represents the first two as reigning in Assyria succes-
sively after the death of their father, and the third con-
temporaneously in Babylonia ; but this triad is cer-
tainly fictitious, and depends altogether on a mistaken
reading of the cuneiform names. The name Nabu-
bin-yuchur, which Dr. Hinckes has applied to Nabopo-
lassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, involves a double
error—first an erroneous reading of one of the charac-
ters, which has led him, in the second place, to assign
the name to Nebopolassar instead of Nabonidas.
The reading of the name in question as Nabunit,
and the identification of it with Nabonidus, which
Colonel Rawlinson published more than three years ago,
has since been abundantly confirmed by a hundred
examples. There is, however, just a possibility that the
name may be phonetically rendered as Nabo-imduk or
Nabo-induk. Dr. Hinckes's reading of this name being
erroneous, the other readings founded upon it are equally
wrong, so that the names of Nabu-bin-yuchur, Shanlsi-
bin (Ben Hadad), and Assur-yuchura-bal, together
with a number of historical illustrations, must be aban-
doned. The enly addition Colonel Rawlinson has to
make to his sketch cf Assyrian history is that of the
son of A.sshur-bani-pal, many relics of whom have
been found in the south east palace at Nimrod. The
name of this prince may be provisionally read as Asshur-
emit-ili, and as he probably reigned from B. C. 645 to
625, the Scythian inroad and the destruction of Nine-
veh by the Medes must both be placed in his reign.
A considerable portion of the Birs.i-Nimrud has been
. .

laid bare, so that the architecture and plan of the temple
are clear, but the results of the excavations hare not
equalled the expectations formed of them.

A communication was also read from Professor
Wilson, consisting of a correspondence between him-
self and Sir J. Bowling, upon the subject of
the Buddhist books known to have been carried
from India and translated into Chinese, in the first
six or seven centuries of the Christian era. Sir John

has taken up the inquiry with much zeal, and, with the
assistance of Mr. Elkins, a gentleman who is devot-
ing himself especially to this particular field of Chi
nese literature, has succeeded iu obtaining copies of
several of the works in question. These works have
been seat to England, and with them some notices of
their contents. They are of an interesting character,

but are evidently not among the most ancient of the
Buddhist authorities. One of them is raid to be a

Chinese version of the work translated by Burnout horn
the Sanscrit, under the" title of " Le Lottus de la bonne
loi." Inquiries for other works of this kind are being
actively prosecuted, and it is extremely desirable that no
hone should be lost, as the Tae-ping-vrang people (the

insurgents) everywhere destroyail-librai:is; and books
excepting their own, which are compositions of the most
♦ulgar character.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—Return of admissions for six days
ending Nov. 18 :—Number admitted, including season 100
ticket holders, 5,906; amount received for admissions, 10)
2761. Gs. 6d. 100
_ _

THE COAL PORTS.—SHIELDS, Monday Night. —The
weather has moderated considerably, the sea is down, 20
and, the wind having got round to north, about 200 sail 120
of laden colliers left the Tyne for London this evening. -2
The screw colliers got out yesterday afternoon. If the
weather is as promising to-morrow, another large fleet of
collier vessels will leave the harbour. Several colliers
have also sailed from Sunderland, Hartlepool, Blyth,
' and the other coal ports to-day. The shipwrights are still
out of the building yards. Tuesday Afteraoen.—The
wind is from the west, and the weather looks mere
i settled than *hen I sent my despatch away last evening.
All the coal-laden vessels that are ready for sea will go
out of the northern ports this tide. There are several
large vessels for the ports of North Europe and the Me-
diterranean which will go to sea with the fleets. The
tides are good. Coal freights on Nervcastle-quay are
from Bs. to Bs. 4d. for London, with long turns, 401. a
keel with coals to Constantinople for the fleets, 421. from
Cardiff. There is every reason to fear that a brig, the
Wbitwell Grange, trading between the Tyne and Ham-
burg, has been lost in the North Sea in the late bad
weather, with all hands. Her quarter board has been
picked up on the Dutch coast, and, as she is much over-
due, those concerned in her entertain but very slight
hopes of her safety.
A FRIEND OF RUSSIA.—A. gentleman, living not a
hundred miles from Devonshire-place, High Harrogate,
and whose sympathies in favour of the Emperor of Russia
have made him notable amongst his neighbours was
much astonished the other morning to find that his re-
msidence attracted a very unusual degree of notice. Peo-
ple passed and repassed, and then sent others to look ;
1
each exhibiting the evident signs of merriment, and a
crowd was fast beginning to accumulate, when the party
in question began to think it. high time to discover the
cause of this unwonted display of public notice. The
feeling of the Czar's friend may be better imagined than
described on his finding a large placard, on which were
printed, in letters of enormous size, the words "Russian
Embassy !" Some wag had fastened it on his door dur-
ing this night. —Leeds Intelligencer.
A PLEA FOR TOBACCO.—We read in the Journal de
ifontfort—" A short time since the wife of a working
Mal of our town being suddenly seized with the pains
of labour her husband ran to fetch a doctor. It was a
difficult birth, and the accoucheur was compelled to have
recourse to the terrible forceps. The operation termi-
nated, he declared that the child had ceased to live,
gave the usual directions for the treatment of the woman
and went away. The father, however, was not satisfied
that the child was dead, and resolved to try a resusci-
tating process which he had known to be practised with
success on a former occasion. Taking the infant on his
Knees befalls, the fire ho rubbed it all over with a soft
brush, and, having lighted his pipe, puffed several whiffs
in its face. Under the influence of the friction and the
tobacco smoke the child's lungs presently dilated, and it
is to this hour alive and well."
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