Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1886-04-03 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

RENAN ON THE GREAT SPHINX. In an appeal for the funds now needed to clear sway the sand which half buries the Great Sphinx of Ghizeh, M. Renan says "The Great Sphinx of Ghizeh,at two steps from the Pyramids, is, in my opinion, the most astonishing work of the hand of man which past ages have bequeathed to us. It is an immense bed of carved rock, about 70 mares in length. The height of the monstrous edifice, if it were cleared, would exceed that of the highest houses. No fashioned monument, either in the rest af Egypt or in the rest of the world, can be compared to this strange idol, the vestige of a stage of humanity which baffles all our ideas. The impression which such a spectacle must have produced on imaginative races, and who were dominated by the senses, may be understood from that experienced by the Egyptians of the present day when standing before that enormous head, e merging from the sand, and casting across the desert its sad look. The Arab, at this sight, flee terrified, either throwing a stone, or firing a gun at the strange being. The Temple opposite the Sphinx, if it is a temple, has also a character of its own. This fantastic construction resembles less the other Temples of Egypt than the I Pattheon resembles Notre Dame. But that all this ensemble, which is unique in the world, must be of j the remotest antiquity, is indisputable, since the statues found there are those of King Chepren, thus taking us back to ages which, everywhere but in Egypt, would be called fabulous." M. Renan, in concluding his appeal, points out that to lay bare the Sphinx will bete restore to the light of day the most ancient work which bears the trace of human thought, and he anticipates that "the descent which it will afford into a world now more than 6,000 years old will push still further back the limits of a historic past that seems to fly with each step taken to reach , it."  A bag of money, oontammg snout EMU, nu been stolen from the guard's van of a train whilst being taken from Victoria to the officials at Queenborough Pier Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company. The money is supposed to have been stolen while the train was at Chatham.  The Shet7and Conservatives, who less than a year ago started a newspaper in Lerwick to support their political views,are now being sued by the editor of the journal in question for £l5O, as damages for wrongful dismissal, his services having been summarily dispensed with immediately after the election. A disappointment in love was the cause of a strange attempt at suicide in Bristol the other night. A young man who had been denied the house of the parents of the young woman of his choice, hung himself to the knocker of the door by his pocket handkerchief. His struggles occasioning a violent rapping, brought out the girl's father, who cut the handkerchief and then handed the young man over to the police. Application was made on Friday to Mr. Justice Chitty to issue a writ or attaclimvnt against Mr. John Thomas Campbell, a solicitor. Last year an order wal made by the court against Mr. Campbell in the ease of Edgell v. Campbell to uay into court a large sum of money.:That order had not been complied with. up to the present tires. An vder attaching him was therefore applied for. Mr. Justice Chitty made the. order for the issue of the wiit.