The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-09 00:00:00

faculty was afterwards fully excited "by the appal

ing sight of slabs with the noblest sculptures and the
finest in,criptions, crumbling into dust before his
eyes. No draughtsman had been provided to help
him ; and had he not instantly determined to arrest
by the quickness of his eye and the magic of his pen-
cil these fleeting forms, which were about to dis-
appear for ever, many of the finest remains of ancient
arc would have been irrecoverably lost."
Lay ard returned from I:aly to his native country
for education. That being completed, be devoted
himself to the study of the law, which, however,
proved little attractive to him. Pope, paying an ele-
gant compliment to the accomplished Murray, after-
wards Lord Mansfield, exclaims—
" How sweet an Ovici waa in Murray lost!"

For our part, we should not greatly grieve if we
knew that even a second Mansfield was lost in the
Layerd.
About the age of 18, Layard's travels in Italy, Rus•
sia, and other countries, Excited in,him a strong passion
for still more extended adventure, which, accom-
panied by a❑ ardent desire for knowledge, and an
energy which " knew not what it was to intermit,"
decided him upon abandoning his profession, and
settling in the East, where he had family connexions.
In the summer of 1839, with a friend for a coin-

panion, Dr. Layard left England. Traversing Ger-
many, they passed through Dalmatia into Montene-
gro, where Dr. Layard was induced to stay for a
brief period, having engaged to aid a young and
energetic chief in civilizing and otherwise improving
the condition of bis brave but semi-barbarous
subjects. From Montenegro his friends made their
way as they best could through Albania and Roumelia,
an enterprise in which they encountered many adven-
tures, and finally, and at the end of the year, arrived
by Adrianople at Constantinople. We are informed
that Dr. Layard proceeded to Bagdad and into Syria
but we have no means of following his footsteps with
accuracy or certainty during this period of his wan-
dering and eventful life. At this time bis friend
quitted him, and now he was left to pursue his course.
We earnestly hope that some day—and that not a
distant one—Dr. Layard will give to the world an
account of the extraordinary adventures which befel
him, when the eager wish to acquire knowledge
which he desired to exercise for the profit and benefit
of his fellow-creatures, carried him into strange and
many Linda. If other men have acquired a larger
expe:ience of diversified life, few have encountered
and surmounted greater difficulties , and none have
ever engaged themselves to the attainment of a nobler
by wild Arabs, and was object. Wandering in the Desert,. he was frequently
attacked and plundered.
con-
stantly in peril. Now he might be found settling
disputed points of geography, or seeking historical
remains—now making his way as a Hakim over
wilds hitherto untrodden by the foot of Europeans, or
some small
li zi eg knowledge a
sjourning with the barbarous Bactyari in their moun-
ain s
ndteaof chimngedticne ahiep,eop
. eing the life of
~
their chief's only son. le; and, having
The foregoi •
ng are but brief and faint indications of
the varied life and adventures of Dr. Layard previous
to the happy accident which enabled himlsuccessfully
to prosecute that undertaking which
resulted in the
extraordinary discoveries that have rend' •
so famous. As early as 1841, Dr. Layard
name
ii- . had
..n-
-, sp. cted the ruins on the east bank of the• Tigris, which
have been generally believed to be the ruinsg
vet'. Let the DLcror himself describe the of
'Nine-
sensations
will which he viewed them :
" He (the spectator) has left the land where
nature
is still lovely, where, in the mind's eye, he can re
re-
build the temple, or the theatre, halt doubting whe-
ther they would have made a more grateful impres-
s sion upon the senses than the ruin before him. He
is now at a loss to give any form to the rude heaps
upon which he is gazing. Those of whose works
they are the remains, unlike the Roman and the
Greek, have left no visible traces of their civilization
or of their arts. Their influence has long since

passed away. The more he conjectures the more
vague the results appear. The scene around is worthy
of the ruin he is contemplating. Desolation meets
desolation. A feeling of awe succeeds to wonder, for
there is nothing to relieve the mind, to lead to hope,
or to tell of what has gone by. These huge mounds
of Assyria made a deeper impression upon me, gave
rise to more serious thoughts and earnest reflections, '
than the temple of Balbec and the theatre of lonia."
Shortly afterwards Dr. Layard had a second oppor-
tunity of viewing the ruins of Nimroud, and of ex-
amining them ; and it was upon this occasion that the
thought suggested itself to him, and impressed itself
upon his mind, of making excavations. He had. he
tells us, hopes that some persons in England might
have been induced to aid in the undertaking.
It would seem, however, although we are not ex-
pressly told so, that despairing of fulfilling the vision,
or of realising the hopes, which the sight of these
mysterious mounds had excited, he had determined
upon abandoning his project and returning home.
He had reached as far as Constantinople on his way
back to England, when, in a happy moment, he ob-
tained a letter of introduction to Sir Stratford Can-
ning, her Mjesty's Ambassador at the Sublime
Porte. It is not at all wonderful that so distinguished
a statesman at once perceived that no ordinary person
had been presented to his notice, or that h. should
have invited him to prolong his stay in the East, and
discharge some extra duties of the embassy to which
he has now become officially attached. Neither is it
surprising, when the character of Sir Stratford is re-
membered, and the interest he takes in such re-
searches* as Dr. Layard had at heart is known, that,
in the autumn of 1845, he should have mentioned to
Dr. Layard his readiness to incur, for a limited period,
the expense of excavations in Assyria, in the hope
that, should success attend the attempt, means would
be found to carry it out on an adequate scale.
During Dr. Layard's stay in England he suffered
greatly from an aguish fever, which recurred
monthly, and which he had caught in the damp
chambers it was necessary he should inhabit at Nim-
roud. In -pite, however, of this severe indisposition,
so inimical to literary or intellectual pursuits, he pre-
pared for the press, during his brief residence in this
country, the "Nineveh and its Remains," and " The
Monuments of Nineveh, from Drawings made on the
Spot ;" besides a volume of inscriptions in the cunei-
form character, for the British Museum, which we
trust will soon be published and submitted to the ex-
amination of the learned world.
Our readers know the already triumphant result of
Dr. Layard's enterprise and perseverance, which have
brought into the possession of this country treasures
beyond all price.

Dr. Layard observes in his " Nineveh," .‘ I need
scarcely remind tilt reader that it is to Sir S. Canning
we owe the marbles of Halicarnasaus, now in the British
Museum. The difficulties which stood in the way of
the acquisition of these, invaluable relics, and the skill
which was required to obtain them are not generally
known. I can testdy to the efforts and labour which
were necessary for nearly three years. before the re-
pugnance of the Ottoman Government could be over-
come, and permission obtained to extract the sculptures
from the walls of a castle, which was more jealously
guarded than any similar edifice in the empire. Their
removal, notwithstanding the almost insurmountable
diffiAilties raised by the authorities and inhabitants of
Budroon, was most successfully effected by Mr. Alison.
The Elgin mai hies, and all other remains from Turkey
and Greece, now in Europe, were obtained with com•
partitive ease."

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
OLD COURT.
___

William Burgess Swift, 22, and Walter Scrivenor,
21, two Post-office clerks, pleaded guilty to indict-
ments charging them with stealing letters the pro-
perty of the Postmaster, General.
There were some mitigating circumstances in the
case of Swift, and he was sentenced to be transported
for seven years ; the other prisoner was sentenced to
be transported for ten years.
Henry Hooper surrendered to take his trial upon
an indictment which alleged that, while a certain ves-
sel named the Mary was upon the high seas, and
within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England,
the defendant maliciously and feloniously cut and da-
maged the rigging of the said vessel, with intent to
render her useless.
Mr. Bodkin appeared for the prosecution ; Mr.
Clarkson was instructed to defend the prisoner.
Mr. BoDairi, in opening the case, said that the pri-
soner was a person of respectability, arid be had
brought himself into his present position by commit-
ting an act which was one of great impropriety, al-
though it would be a question for their Lordships
whether it came within the scope of the Act of Par-
liament under which the present indictment was pre-
ferred, and which made it a felony for a person to
damage a vessel otherwise than by fire, with
intent to render her . useless. The circumstances
of the case were these :—The prisoner was a
mariner, and he was employed to put pilots on
board the vessels coming up the river, and on the
15th of December he was with bis boat off Dunge-
ness with a pilot, and on the look out for an Indiaman
which was expected. Another boat, the Mary, was
out with the same object, and it seemed that it was
the custom for the pilot to be taken from the first boat
which came up to the vessel, and when the ship that
was expected came in sight both the boats made the
best of their way towards her, and they both at-
tempted to lay hold of her ; but, in const quence of
the way filet was upon the vessel they were unable to
do so, and both the pilot-boats became entangled with
each other, and while they were in this position the
prisoner cut the halyards of the other boat, the effect
of which was to cause the foresail to fall. The object
of the prisoner in doing this was possibly to give his
own boat some advantage is getting to toe vessel first,
but he failed in that object, for the rival boat having
a small one with her, it was made use of; and the
persons in her succeeded in getting their pilot on board
the ship. The question would be, under these cir-
cumstances, whether the act committed by the prisoner
was done with an intent to render the vessel useless,
but it appeared to him that it would be more reason-
able to suppose that the prisoner only intended
to disable the boat for a short period, to enable his
own boat to get first to the ship, and that it would be
straining the law very much to say that such an act
as that imputed to the prisoner amounted to felony
within the meaning of the statute. The matter had
been investigated by a justice residing in the district,
and he had felt it his duty to seed the case for trial,
and, the grand jury having returned a true bill, he
was bound to appear and state the facts to the jury ;
but he apprehended that, now he had done so, their
Lordships would be of opinion that it would not be
necessary to proceed any farther.
Mr. Justice TALFOURD said the Act of Parliament
appeared to apply only to the intention to render a
vessel entirely useless, and the mere act of doing
something with the object of impeding her progress
for a short time for a particular purpose would clearly
not come within the statute.

Mr. CLARKSON observed that his Learned Friend
must " drop astern," as the boat did.—(A laugh.)

Mr. BODKIN—Yes, but without your cutting my
halyards.—(Laughter.)
The COURT ruled that the indictment could not be
supported under the circumstances, and
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
Mr. CLARKSON thought it right to state, on behalf
of the prisoner, that he was a hardworking, honest
fellow, and that there had never been the slightest
imputation upon his character up to the period cf this
transaction. It was, perhaps, to be lamented that the
prisoner should have been compelled to come all the
way from Dover to answer this charge, but it was
quite as well he should know that he had no right to
make use of a knife in such a manner.
Mr. Justice PATTRSON observed that it might be
rather a bevere lesson in this particular instance, but
he hoped it would have a good effect in future.
The prisoner was ordered to be immediately dis-
charged from custody.