of the Acra city, it seems natural to suppose that the crucifixion took place outside of all, and not in the midst of the houses. Traditional evidence is more favourable to the supposed locality: but Eusebius speaks of the discovery as something wonderful and surprising, and of the monument, found, as rescued from oblivion;-language evidently incompatible with any certain previous knowledge of the site. The same tradition authenticates as strongly the invention of the Cross, and most of the other lying legends of the time. Indeed a fourth century tradition is in itself a cause of suspicion, and, set against topographical evidence, is not worth a straw. In regard to the temple area, Josephus and the Rabbins agree in asserting that it was a square; the side being about 400 or 500 cubits. But the Haram is an oblong of much larger dimensions. Dr. Robinson accounts for the discrepancy by supposing that the fortress of Antonia, with its dependencies, occupied the whole of the Northern end. Mr. Williams again strikes off a corresponding portion on the South, which he supposes to have been added by Justinian, to whom he attributes the vaults and arched passages under the mosque El Aksa, from which the celebrated arch of Dr. Robinson springs. Dr. Wilson hesitates as to Antonia, but withholds his assent from Mr. Williams. He is inclined to place the pool of Bethesda in the large trench north of the Haram. In one of his notes is a quotation from Jerome, having an important bearing on this point, which seems to have escaped his notice. The trench separated Moriah from the neighbouring suburb of Bezetha: but Bethesda and Bezetha are so obviously identical that Jerome spells the pool Bezatha. This very simple supposition would at once determine the locality, and account for the name of the suburb; as well as form another and a most important fixed point in the topography of Jerusalem. His view of the extent of the third wall is novel, and, has much to recommend it, and his theory, that the tombs of the Kings are the Herodian sepulchres, and not the monument of Helena, is, we think, satisfactorily made out. At Nabulus he found a remnant of the ancient Samaritans, from whom he collected much curious and interesting information. We have space only for the following: “Our host was much disappointed to find that we had strong doubts about the propriety of ranking the Bene-Israel of Bombay among the Samaritans. That we might make no mistake in forming a judgment of them, he would repeat, he said, the articles of the Samaritan creed, which he did in the following terms :— 1. Ja, U-Allah Wahid-God is one. 2. نبيه ur-Músá Nabíyah-Moses is the prophet. 3. 8),,~)—Et-Toráh hí el-Kutáb—The Law is the book. 4. ä-Karízím el-Kiblah-Gerizim is the Kiblah. يوم الكتاب ... القيامة والدينونة ... There will be a day of resurrection and judgment. He also repeated some Arabic verses, in which this creed was given at greater length, but without any addition to its substantial meaning. When we said that the Bene-Israel do not view Gerizim as a Kiblah, he said, Then, most assuredly they are not Samaritans." This concession, however, he made only to ourselves. To some of the members of his flock, who had begun to collect around us, he said, "These gentlemen have brought me tidings of the Samaritans of Bombay." We felt much interested in the avowal of the doctrine of the resurrection by the Samaritans. When I asked the priest, on what passage of the Law he founded this important tenet, he quoted the verse," See now that 1, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive," with a great air of confidence in the correctness of his interpretation, and asked us, "Do you think that men are to remain in their graves, after they are made alive again?" In answer to a question which we afterwards put to him, he supplemented his creed, by declaring his belief in the existence of Satan, as a malignant and injurious spirit having access to the souls of men, to tempt and allure. When we asked him to point out the authority in the Pentateuch, the standard of his faith, for this doctrine, he said, "The Náhásh which addressed Eve was evidently more than a serpent. It was Satan who spoke within that animal." "True," we said, "but have you no more direct proof for the personality of Satan in the books of Moses?” Verily, we have," he replied with great emphasis, "look at these texts, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you;' Beware that there be not a thought in thy heart of Belial.' We could not but be much struck with his application of these passages of holy writ. With all due deference to Gesenius and others, I am more than inclined to believe, that the translators who render Belial as a proper name, have better authority for so doing, than those who render it abstractly, worthlessness,' "evil," and so forth. It remains to be proved, that it is either a late or New Testament usage merely, which sets it forth in a personal sense.§-Vol. II. pp. 48-49. Dr. Wilson saw the mysterious island in the Dead Sea, near the embouchure of the Jordan, which Dr. Robinson did not see, and concerning which there is so much positive and contradictory evidence. It was but a few hundred yards from the shore, and too large to be only a floating mass of bitumen. Very probably it will be found to be a shoal, sometimes appearing above water, and having its bottom covered with pieces of bitumen. He has not been able to add any thing to our previous knowledge of this extraordinary and deeply interesting lake. Indeed all that is novel in the geography of Palestine seems to have Deut. xv. 9. The English version gives it, in this instance," beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart." See Gesenii Lex. sub voc. fallen exclusively to the share of the Americans; and the later discoveries of Wolcot and Thomson are scarcely inferior in interest and importance to those of Dr. Robinson himself. One cannot help regretting, that, while science has contributed richly and copiously to our knowledge of the Holy Land in every other department, not a site within its bounds seems yet to have been astronomically determined. Dr. Robinson indeed speaks of the longitude of Jerusalem as found approximately by a lunar observation, and Seetzea took three at different times, but unfortunately they differed about seventy miles from each other! It is a little mortifying, and not a little ludicrous, that our best maps of the Holy Land have no better authority than a pocket compass. A sextant, an artificial horizon, and a telescope giving sufficient power to observe the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, would add very little to the luggage of a traveller, are not likely to be injured, and would do more for the topography of the Dead Sea and other unsettled sites, in a few days, and without risk or labour, than has been done for the last 2,000 years. Let us hope that the proposed American expedition to the Dead Sea is something better than the caricature given in the newspapers, and that we are about to have a creditable and intelligent survey of its waters. So strong is the interest felt in regard to it, that the sale of the journal of such an expedition would speedily repay the whole expense of the undertaking. In connection with his journey to the sources of the Jordan, Dr. Wilson borrows from the journals of Mr. Thomson, an account of an extraordinary little lake, described by Josephus, and supposed by him to be the true source of the Jordan : "Now Panium," he says, "is thought to be the fountain of Jordan, but in reality it is carried thither after an occult manner from the place called Phiala; this place lies as you go up to Trachonitis, and is a hundred and twenty furlongs from Cesarea, and is not far out of the road on the right hand; and, indeed, it hath its name of Phiala [vial or bowl] very justly from the roundness of its circumference, as being round like a wheel. Its water continues always up to its edges, without either sinking or running over; and as this origin of Jordan was formerly not known, it was discovered so to be, when Philip was tetrarch of Trachonitis; for he had chaff thrown into Phiala, and it was found at Panium, where the ancients thought the fountain-head of the river was, to which it had been therefore, carried by the waters." Of this lake we have a particular account by Mr. Thomson. It is," he says, about one hour and a half due east from the (upper) castle (of Bániás;) and consequently nearly three hours from the fountain of Bâniâs The path climbs over a high mountain, aud then leads across a plain covered with lava, and divided by the deep channel of a brook, which runs down S. W., and falls into the marsh of Hûleh. The Birket is the most singular basin of water I have ever examined. It is manifestly the mouth of a perfectly round crater filled with water to within about eighty feet of the top. This great volcanic bowl is about three miles in circumference, and the sides are so steep. that it is difficult to get down to the water. It does not appear เ to be very deep; since, in most parts the surface is covered with weeds, upon which thousands of ducks were feeding. The circumstances which identify the Birket er-Râm with the ancient Phiala, are its bowl-like shape, and the fact, that it has neither inlet nor outlet, is fed neither by a running stream nor by any visible fountain, and has no known channel of escape for its surplus waters. It neither increases nor diminishes; but what it is now, in the hottest and driest season of the year, the line on its lava-built margin clearly proves it to be, during the rains and snows of winter. This is a singular fact, and I leave others to explain the curious phenomenon. The examination confirmed my former doubts. It is scarcely possible that the Phiala is the more distant appearance, much less the source of the stream at Bâniâs. The water of the Phiala is so insipid and nauseous, that it cannot be drunk, while the fountain at Bâniâs pours out a river of cool, sweet, and delicious water. The Phiala is so crowded with leeches, that a man can gather 6000 or even 8000 in a day; while the fountain at Bâniâs is not infested by a single leech. This could not be, if the river of Bâniâs drained the lake Phiala. Besides, the size and position, of the mountains, and the depth and direction of the intervening valleys, interpose physical and geological obstacles which render the supposition incredible. And, moreover, so vast a discharge of water, as the fountain of Bâniâs requires, would draw off the whole lake of Phiala in twenty-four hours; or, if the supply from some hidden source be equal to the demand, it would at least change the stagnant character of the lake, and manifest its operation on the surface."-Vol. II. pp. 179-181. With this extract we most reluctantly conclude. The remaining portion of Dr. Wilson's tour embraces the tempting names of Nazareth, Tiberias, Safed, Damascus, the Lebanon range, Tyre, Sidon, Beyrut, Joppa, Tripoli, Baalbek, Smyrna, Constantinople, and the Danube. On all these, and the many other interesting localities which Dr. Wilson has visited, the reader will find in these delightful volumes not only the personal observations and researches of a richly furnished truthloving and sagacious mind, but an elaborate, learned and distinct digest of whatever is most valuable in former writers. The latter portion of the second volume contains most valuable materials, for the historian, the Christian, and the Missionary. The various Christian sects and churches of the east, the eastern Jews, the Samaritans, the present state and prospects of Mahomedanism and various questions connected with the ancient peoples and languages of the east, are treated of in the laborious, clear and exhausting method of the Germans; and the information regarding them, amassed by Dr. Wilson, leaves the general reader nothing to desire. The work indeed in all its details, is more like an Encyclopedia than the labour of a single individual. We look upon it, as an enduring monument of Dr. Wilson's talents and piety, an honour to our Indian literature, and to the Church, which can afford to send forth such men as Missionaries to the Heathen. ART. VIII.—Evidences relative to the Efficiency of Native Agency in the Administration of the Affairs of this Country. Calcutta. 1844. THE " wisdom of our ancestors" has become a bye-word. There are very few political or commercial principles on which they prided themselves, which have not been exploded under the fearless investigations of the present more practical age. There can scarcely be a greater contrast between the magnificent steamers which now cross the Atlantic in a fortnight, and the coracles of England in the days of Cæsar, than between the maxims which modern experience has established and those which were considered as the maturity of wisdom in the days of the Stewarts. The history of exploded opinions would form one of the most. interesting, as well as instructive, of works. In no department, however, is this improvement of principles more visible, and in none does it open larger prospects of happiness to the family of man, than in our colonial policy. It is matter of sincere congratulation that the establishment of these sound and beneficent principles should be contemporary with the unprecedented expansion of our colonial system, and that the most extensive empire the world has ever seen should be held by the nation which has made the greatest progress in the science of colonial Government. For more than a century and a half, and, indeed, down to a very recent period, colonies were regarded as existing exclusively for the benefit of the mother country, and this idea predominated in all the measures which were adopted in reference to them. The object of that policy was to render all colonial settlements subservient to the interests of the country by which they had been planted, with very little regard and often without any regard whatever, to their individual welfare. This selfish principle may be considered as lying at the root of our quarrel with America. It was the attempt to make the colonies contribute to the revenues of the parent state, which brought on the disastrous war of the Revolution, and led to the independence of the United States. Hence, we find Mr. Hastings, when reproached for his proceedings in India, making it his boast that while England was losing one empire in the West, he was creating and consolidating another empire in the East, and that the revenue which she had failed to obtain in America would henceforward be furnished from India. Whatever improvements were sanctioned sanctioned in the colonies themselves had exclusively to their increased value as dependencies, and the liberal idea of administering their affairs with the view of promot an eye |