The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-15 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON

THE EXPLORATION OF PALESTINE.

The following letter from Mr. George Grove, the
secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund, ap-
peared in the Times :
_

_ Since my last communication (in the Times of
December 21) I have received two reports from
Lieutenant Warren, R.E., dated at Jerusalem, the
12th and 21st of December. Ile is proceeding
vigorously with his researches. They divide them-
selves under three main heads :

1. The ancient double passage or tunnel running
from the so-called " Huldah-gate," in the south
wall of the Haram, below the mosque of the Aksa,
up to the platform itself of the Haram. It has
always been an object of anxiety to know whether
this Ns, as a mere tunnel, or whether it had subsidiary
passages branching from it either west or cast. Mr.
Warren seems to have shown that none such exist.
At the northern end of the tunnel he has discovered
on the east a vaulted chamber, 17ft. square, and on
the west some unimportant waterducts, five feet
below the present surface, and probably connected
with a tank beneath. These ducts he believes to
be older than the Aksa mosque. The square chamber
I understand him to say is later than the mosque.
The sides of the tunnel at its lower end are about
16ft. of solid masonry, very rough on its outer face.
2. In the Tyropaeon Valley, west of the south-
west corner of the Haram. Here galleries are being
driven to discover the depth and position of the
native rock of the ravine immediately below the wall,
and the position of the pier which supported the
western side of " Robiuson's Arch." The pier
seems to have been reached ; two courses of stone
were in situ, and I hope shortly to receive details of
its construction, and of the rock of the gully be-
tween it and the wall. Mr. Warren sees ground
for believing that this gully will be found to sweep
round eastward and descend to the " Virgin's
Fount," and thus to divide Moriah from Ophel—a
fact never before suspected.

3. The water supply of the ancient city.—ln this
an advance has been made. Researches at great
depth in the upper part of the Tyroprems seem to
point to the actual existence of the brook which
in the days of the monarchy " overflowed through
the midst of the land," and which Hezekiah stopped
or concealed when the city was besieged by Sen-
nacherib (2 Chronicles, xxxii. 4). This stream
would appear to be still forcing its ancient way
along its old channel, at the prodigious depth of
more than 60ft. beneath the present surface. A mile
west of the city, between it and the ancient village
of Nephtoah, Mr. Warren has explored, at (some
personal risk, a remarkable cleft which descends
into the earth to a depth of more than 150 ft., and
which may not improbably be one of the sources of
the water supply of Jerusalem. On the other
hand, in the valley of the Kedron, a mile and a half
south of the city, and 500 yards below the " Well
of Joab," a well has been examined, apparently for
the first time, which proves to contain passages,
staircases, and other contrivances, which it can
hardly be too much to assume will be found to be
connected with the waters of the city itself.
Fragmentary as are all those discoveries, they
indicate an amount of ancient remains below the
surface which cannot but excite the hopes and
stimulate the curiosity of all concerned, and incite
us to strain every nerve to lay bare such interesting
relics. _ _

-As I read Mr. Warren's accounts I seem to feel
the ancient city within my grasp—to know for a
y
courses, a
certainty
ltlhtahtei bLveei re:
tho lifeus es
of
aintsd
esttrrueeettos
raens
iwts aht s-
se some
beneath
to
ninchh.a nt
Theed
tmheh
sistreseetrs-
apnerdsoitns ravinns
tahraetlysiinnggubltiarrieadndliksoal
mn ioffn (tahse otthhee rDdeaayn) owf 1111Vc he sJtomaibn ste
climbed rsa ld,
hurried, the catacomb of the kings of ,
which David trod, and along which At
Judah
ldmahh was,
a
very Via Dolorosa itself, of which not evenirthoefshthae-
dow of a likeness can be found in upper
emv°dererAnlrc.itlyNTart
rdeluthpersoehaesre,
Ideotubhtimlessgtohdereeep there.
elnVoheegreh-,
and he comes on some solid substance of a curious
and ancient kind. They start into view in a truly
magical manner, more like the Arabian Nights
than anything else. A " stone suddenly rolls away"
and reveals staircases, passages, subterranean halls
in the heart of the rock, leading to who knows what
repositories of treasure. Au almost invisible crevice
in the hill turns out to be an enchanted cave 150 f t.
deep, concealing the " skeleton of an infant," and
containing, perhaps, the hidden fountain of the
II water supply of Jerusalem. The work has been
fairly and well begun. An explorer more daring
and disinterested, more indefatigable and intelli-
gent. than Mr. Warren seems impossible. Let
us back him to the utmost. .1 am happy to say
that the undertaking is relieved from present pecu-
niaary anxieties. But that is no reason for stop-
ping our contributions to a work the extent and
importance of which are daily becoming more obvi-
ous. The explorations at Jerusalem may be—will
be when the fine weather returns—pushed on simul-
taneously in more places at once, and a larger force
of labourers employed. Mr. Warren seems to have
gained the confidence of every one, high and low,
Jew and Gentile, and to obtain what labourers he
likes and what permissions he desires. And outside
of Jerusalem I hope the public will not forget how
much there is to do. There is the natural history of
the country to perfect, and the geology to examine,
the ethnology to discover. The explorers are wait-
ing for the signal to be off. Without diverting a
sovereign from those urgent calls nearer home
which this inclement season brings so closely before
us—without diverting a sovereign from these, there
is ample money to be obtained for the grand and
interesting object for which I plead.
GEORGE GROVE, Hon. Sec.,
Palestine Exploration Fund.
Lower Sydenham, Jan. 11.

SECOND LETTER FROM HISTORICUS ON
NATURALIZATION.

Historicuscitizenship. He h
haswritten another letter
that British lawettertotheTime
or s
on
British
citizenship is an outrageous absurdity ; and that
America has no ascertained doctrine, either legal or
political. The Supreme Court has managed to
escape the various attempts made to obtain a recog-
nition of the right of expatriation in American
citizens. For 70 years their judges have asked for
laws on this subject, which as yet her statesmen
have failed to supply. Ilistoricus says :
" Thus much may suffice upon the subject of the
legal doctrine of expatriation in the United States.
It is necessary now to consider a far more import-
ant subject, namely, their diplomatic doctrine. I
need hardly say that the diplomatic doctrine is
- conversant with a totally different aspect of the
question from that which is involved in its legal
bearings. The law has regard to the dutiesand the
rights of the citizen in respect of the State of which
he is a member. Diplomacy has to do with the
duties and the rights of the citizen towards a foreign
State in which he may happen to be resident or
concerned. To speak in general terms, the law has
to do with that which his own State can claim
against a subject. Diplomacy has to do with that
which the Government of the subject may claim in
his favour against a foreign Slate. Most Govern-
ments have thonght it necessary to observe some
measure and proportion between the domestic
doctrine they themselves enforce and that which
they seek to enforce against others. It would be
strange if a country which does not permit expa-
triation to its own citizens insists on enforcing such
a right in regard of the citizens of other countries
who had accepted its naturalisation. Yet this, or
something like, it is, in fact, what the American
Government claims to do. Though there is no law
of the United States by which any citizen of theirs
could divest himself of his allegiance to his country,
they do, in fact, claim to assert against other States
a right which they have not yet admitted in their
own. While their courts declare that there is no law
by which any American citizen who should have ac-
cepted the citizenship of a foreign State can divest
himself of his allegiance to his own country, the
American Foreign-office demands on the part of its
naturalised citizens, as against other States, that
their primitive allegiance should be treated as ab-
solutelyheads
win,ldissolved. This is a sort of game of
tails you lose," in which no Govern-