The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-25 00:00:00

exploration. He had - enabled to do so
chiefly by the great encouragement which had
been extended to him by Sir Stratford Canning—
which he should l
with the deepest gratitude. They
pronounce
must remember
that the. mounds to which he had referred consisted of
vast platforms of earth, beneath which the
palaces lay entombed. The mode of consterrreuescmtioainnesmof-
ployed in those edifices accounted for the p
of their ruins. They were chiefly erected in
the midst
stae
of great plains, where the want of stone rendered
masonry exceedingly difficult and expensive. solidtl
The
consequence was, that the builders were driven to the
us 3 of mere mud in the erection of those palaces,
mixing it up with chopped straw, and making it into
bricks, which they dried in the sun. Those temples were
used as great national records. Upon these walls the
people of those days engraved the history of their na-
tioaal exploits. The artof prioting being unknown, they
were compelled to record their history on the walls of
their public edifices. With that view the lower
storeys of those edifices were built of alabaster, a sub-
stance exceedingly well calculated to perpetuate the
pictorial representations of their great national events,
and the explanatory descriptions with which they
were accompanied. The upper parts of the building
were constructed entirely of the sun-dried bricks
which he had described, and the consequence was,
that when in the lapse of time the' materials of the
upper storeys decayed, they eventually fell in and
buried in their debris the imperishable memorials
beneath. So soon as the sun-dried bricks which
had once formed part of the masonry were exposed
to the atmosphere, they returned to their original
state, Which was nothing but earth; and thus those
heaps of ruins became covered with a kind of soil
susceptible of various kinds of cultivation adapted to
the wants of
the population. That would explain to
them the state
of those ruins, and would also account
for the excellent preservation of the monuments which
were found beneath them. Excavation at last esta-
blished the existence ofihose monuments ; and the
meeting might conceive the gratification and pleasure
he experienced when on the -
vere
art, which
of reaching a mag-
nificent specimen of ancient
i, Lich showed him
that he bad at last found one
ofr the monuments of the
people for whose remains he had instituted a search.—
(Cheers.) (The enterprising
ra
then gave an interesting account of
ovfethlleeirenhaenad annsttaileleun.a..nybry.
oil the
Colonel Rawlinson and himself t
de;
pem
goal inscriptions, &c., found er the trihh.
orials
which
were excavated, and of the beautifullabyrinthine
chambers discovered among the ruins.) The result
of those discoveries had been completely to silence
the common remark, that there was no human confir-
mation of many of the historic facts
related in the
Bible. They possessed now a valuable collection of
contemporary records, executed at the
time when
many of the most important events mentioned
in the Scriptures were performed, inscribed by
those who were actors in those events, and
completely tallying with the facts described by
the sacred historians. In conclusion, they would
allow him to say be was convinced that institutions
like that with which they were identified tended more
than any other to advance the progress of human
knowledge among all the classes of the community,
and therefore it was that he felt proud to be called
on to move the resolution which had been put into his
bands :—" That the best results had arisen from the
formation of mechanics' institutions, as is shown by
their tendency to soften the inequalities of condition,
by the influence they lend to harmonize discordant
opinions, and by their assisting to unite together the
great family of mankind in the bonds of mutual
confidence and love."_(cheers.)
Mr. CHARLES; KNIGHT, in speaking to one of the
resolutions, after passing an eulogium on the late Lord
Spencer, with whom he was intimately associated
during the existence of the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge, and who had taken an especial
interest in .the welfare of the Northampton Me-
chanics' Institution, proceeded to refer to a
sentiment which fell from Mr. Cobden recently
at a public meeting in Manchester, in which he
advised the young men of that city to
read newspapers, and not to trouble them-
selves much with the perusal of books. No man
could respect the newspaper press more highly than
he (Mr. Knight) did as a great instrument of civili-
sation, but he thought the advice given by the Hon.
Member for the West Riding on that occasion was,
to say the least, narrow and injudicious. He (Mr.
Knight) moat sincerely believed, that if their reading
was confined to newspapers, excellent as was that
reading, various as was the information they
gave, and infinite as were their resources to convey
knowledge, a man's mind would be narrowed, de-
based, and degraded by being so limited.—(Hear,
hear.) He believed, moreover, if that bad been the
general tone of the mind of this country, and if the
reading of newspapers had superseded the reading
of all other literature,' the newspapers themselves
could nut have been what they were, but must, on
the contrary, have been greatly deteriorated. Leav-
ing that point, he would say, in reference to the
general question, that knowledge was in a great de=
gree happiness, and that the man who had a taste fur
reading had got an instrument in his power that
would stand him in the place of many a vain and
empty pleasure, preserve him from many a tempta-
tion, serve as a satisfaction to him under every cala-
mity, and, in connexion with that higher cultivation
which belonged to religion, lift him up to his proper
position in this world, both in reference to his
Creator and to his fellow-men. With regard
to the presence of Mr. Lay ard that evening, he (Mr.
Knight) might, in conclusion, be permitted to relate
a little incident. He had the happiness and honour
of a spring morning walk with the great poet Words-
worth, in the vicinity of his own Rydal, a few months
before his death, and, talking of literature, the poet
said, " Sir, I have only read one modern book during
the last two years, and that is Mr. Layard'a
Nineveh,' which has given me more pleasure than
any book I have read in my life."—(Cheers.)
The meeting was subsequently addressed by
.Mr.
V. Smith, M.P., Mr. George Cruikshank, Dr. Co-
nolly, Lord Henley, the Hon. G. Fitzwilliam, Lord
Wodehouse, Earl Aboyne, the Rev. Lord Alwyne
Compton, the Mayor of Northampton, and several of
the local clergy.

LOST ON THE MOORS.

A young man residing in Sheffield had a very
narrovr escape last Sunday night of perishing by a
very miserable death. His name is Charles Strat-
ford, by trade a silver plater, lodging with his bro-
ther in Pitt-street, West-street. On Sunday morn
ing he and a companion of the name of James Blythe
walked over from Sheffield to Hathersage. Late in
the afternoon they set out from Hathersage to return
home. Instead of keeping to the main road they at-
tempted to cross the moors by a footpath. At five
o'clock in the evening, it being then dusk, on coming
to the head of a brook, they disagreed as to which
was the proper side of the stream to take, and they
separated, having first agreed to meet at Ringinglow.
Bly the soon found his way to the high road, and
arrived in due time at Ringinglow. Stratford was
not so fortunate. He had not been alone but a short
time when he found himself enveloped in darkness,
rendered complete by a dense fog. Not fancying a
night's lodging in such an inhospitable region, he
made great efforts to find a tangible track, or to at-
tract the attention of some passer-by. But forced
marches to and fro and loud shouts were unavailing.
Hour after hour passed away, seeming in length like so
many days, but no relief came, nor any change except
an increasing sense of fatigue and hunger, accompa-
nied by an evil omen—drowsiness. Not daring to
accept the cold damp ground as a couch, lest his
weary frame and heavy eyelids should enter on their
last long sleep, he rambled about the live long night,
now tumbling over a hillock and bruising himself,
then walking up to his vaist in a quagmire, and
with great difficulty dragging
out his stiffening
limbs
by the aid of adjacent tufts of ling. The hope efes"
cape during the continuance of the darkness gradu-
ally became weaker. Devoutly therefore did the poor
fellow wish for the return of daylight. Some time
about 4 o'clock in the morning be heard at a dis-
tance the noise of a vehicle, and he hailed it
bwia
He
cry of " Lost ! lost !" ;
wase heard y the man
with the vehicle, Who coal replied
be bad
that he might th
go
had no desire to visit.
to-----a certain place which
like length
appeared more an unhappy
A night whose h came to an end, but not so the op-
lifetime at length About 9 o'clock in the morning,
op-
pressive darkness.
P wheels of a cart, he summoned his re-
maininghearing the
strength and shouted lustily. The driver of
the cart heard him,
.and shouted in reply. As it was
impossible to see each other the man with the cart
told him to remain still and be would send his dog to
him. The sagacious dog soon found the way to the
weary rambler, and brought the two men together.
The humane owner of the dog assisted Stratford into
the cart, and conveyed him to the public-house at
Ringinglow, where he alighted in a truly wretched
plight from the combined effects of cold, fatigue,
hunger, and bruises caused by frequent falls. The
inhabitants of the locality consider his preservation
almost miraculous. None but a strong frame could
have survived. The people at the inn quickly pre-
pared him some hot ale, of which ha drank freely, but
his limbs were so, benumbed that they dared not per-
mit him to rest. He was compelled to continue skip-
ping about the room for a considerable time, andbeinl
quite overcome by fatigue and drowsiness fell
be
hurt one of his elbows very severely. ,Theinfluence
restored
of heat, aided by friction to the limbs in time.
shin
to his usual state.
th© young man to an approxiala
ht, and after a period
He remained at the inn allnneS
d to Sheffield on Tires-
of refreshing sleep he returned rsatisfaction of his friends,
day morning, to the greated a
bsence had been a source
to whom his utiexplain
We understand that his frame
of much uneasiness.
is so much affected that he is unable to work. The
time that he was r
amblimg about on the moor alone
was between 16 and 17 hours.—Sheffield Times,