The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-05 00:00:00

THE WRECK. Or ANCIENT GLORIES.

The greatness and glory of Carthage have passed away ;
her majestic edifices have perished; the din of mirth and
of joy have long since ceased within her ruined walls, and
the very enemies who sought her destruction have disap-
peared. The grave and lazy Arabs stroll over the remains
of her once sumptuous buildings, which have become the
abode of the hymna and the jackal, The solemn silence
which pervaded her shattered ruins, hitherto only inter-
rupted by the howling of wild boasts, the shrill blast of
the wind, or by the rude and unmelodious songs of the
Bedouin ploughman and shepherd, are now changed for
the sound of excavating tools Entombed relics of great
Carthage are disinterred, vestiges of a once mighty empire
are brought to light, and nations which have been brought
into existence during the long interval—during the lapse
of ages, which have become mighty and .powerful, and
succeeded to the position which the Phoenician Republic
once occupied—have now an opportunity of learning a pro-
fitable lesson which the fate of that once powerful State
presents to them. To avoid that destiny they must seek
to avoid her errors and failings, otherwise their fall and
their ruin will not only be doubly merited, but they will
lack that sympathy which, for want of having an example
before her, is so readily extended to the empire of Dido.
The excavations attracted the attention not only of the
literary world, but of the speculative also. Means for
turning the ruins of Carthage to account were not want-
ing, and a very prominent feature for successful. specula-
tion presented itself the famous aqueduct. . . . . .
At the time we took our sketches of the aqueduct, French
labourers were busily engaged in blasting, and pulling
down portions of the masonry on the banks of the Mitzana,
preparatory to building a bridge across the river. A few
days after our visit to the spot the noble pillar to the right
in our sketch, and on the right bank of the Mitzana, was
to submit to the same destiny. The destruction of such a
work borders upon sacrilege, particularly so as the object
assigned is to obtain stones for the bridge ; whereas, within
a hundred yards of the river there are materials in abund-
ance for the purpose, from the fallen portions of the
aqueduct. But the Government take no interest in this
magnificent relic of antiquity ; and the contractor, who
studies economy and looks after his profits, is permitted to
act according to his own pleasure. The Son of Baba Ali,
the Moslem antiquarian, was with us at the very time we
visited this spot, and, though by no means very bright,
made on this occasion the following remark :—" You
Naaarines surprise me. When you see us Moslems destroy-
ing any of the works of the johala (pagans), you are as
angry with us as if you saw us commit murder; but here
you come deliberately to break down this chancy. (aque-
duct), which is so beautiful that I doubt whether, with all
your wisdom and knowledge, you could build it up again.
If injuring the work of ages gone by is wrong in us, why
is it not also wrong in you ?" This was, of course, ad-
dressed to me as representing the whole of Christendom;
and for the honour of Christendom I told Sadek that we
considered such an act even more barbarous in Europeans
than in Moslems ; that, unfortunately, Christians, like
Moslems, were often induced, from a love of gain, to com-
mit acts which, under other circumstances, they would
deprecate ; that the intelligent portion of Christians would
highly disapprove of such Vandalism, whereas among
Moslems it was almost universally sanctioned. .