veh and Caleh; the same is a great city.* by three horses in full gallop, and guided by But when we learn more fully what there is a charioteer. The king is discharging an at Nimroud, we may conjecture with better arrow at a lion, which is springing upon the hope of success what has been. Nimroud chariot; a second lion, wounded by several occupies a large circuit, ten times that of arrows, is lying under the horses' feet. Khorsabad, of artificial mounds: the largest Another relief represents the king in a of these, no doubt the tope or pyramid of chariot hunting wild bulls. It is inferior in Xenophon, is about 1800 feet in length, 900 spirit and life to the first. The battle-pieces in breadth, and 60 or 70 in height. On this represent the king and his warriors in their mound Mr. Layard made his first attack. chariots with three horses; some of the On digging down into the rubbish, chambers horses prancing, others at full speed. Two of white marble, covered with cuneiform of the chariots carry standards, with figures inscriptions, came to light, but at first with not unlike coats of arms upon them. In no sculptures-fragments, however, in the another is a movable tower on wheels with rubbish seemed to promise that at length the a battering-ram, pushed up to the walls of sculptures would make their appearance. a castle; the castle is defended by warriors That the mound had once been a magnifi- in various attitudes; among the assailants is cent palace appeared manifest, and no less the king. In another the king is receiving than that it had been destroyed by means of the captives. In another he is triumphant; fire, either by an enemy or by some other Sardanapalus, who, in Byron's words,

in this blazing palace,

And its enormous walls of reeking ruin,
Had left a nobler monument than Egypt
Hath piled in her brick mountains o'er dead kings,

Or kine

surrounded by musicians, with his eunuchs and warriors, he is pouring a libation over a dead lion. In one apartment is a procession of mountebanks, or something of the kind; one man, seven feet seven inches shoulder, the other walking on his hind-legs. high, has two monkeys, one standing on his They are capital,' writes Mr. Layard. A great part of the marble first discovered Some of these, which could be more safely had been calcined,† or reduced to lime, and and easily removed, are, we rejoice to say, the earth was mixed with immense quan- on their way to England. In a letter dated tities of charcoal. But richer treasures July 27, Mr. Layard announces that he has awaited Mr. Layard. The first sculpture, opened ten chambers, and that as he adwe believe, was a gigantic bull, fourteen or fifteen feet high, unfortunately without his head. We presume that it is another bull which Mr. Layard describes as the first of his grand discoveries :

There

vances the sculptures are becoming finer and more perfect. Besides these sculptures, Mr. Layard has turned up in his researches on the Mount and in other parts almost a Pompeian collection of smaller curiosities, lamps, daggers, idols, copper ornaments, The human head of a magnificent winged bull, ivory figures, and sepulchral vases. which is just now above the ground, to the utter are quantities of painted bricks, in one place amazement of the Arabs, who flock in crowds to a whole floor, of which the colours, especigaze on it, and have made up their minds that it is old Nimrod himself appearing from the infernal ally the greens and yellows, are still fresh regions. The head alone is five feet high, and brilliant. Besides these are specimens so you may form some idea of the size of the body, of armour, and among them a pointed helmet, like those represented in the sculpture. There were also sixteen small bronze lions, quite perfect and extremely well executed, found all together under a great bull, which had fallen down. But the crowning discoveries of all, announced in a letter dated December 28, 1846, we must describe in the words of Mr. Layard :

and the whole cut out of one block of marble.'

Then came two large winged lions, with human heads, eleven feet and a half long and eleven feet high. These Mr. Layard describes as very extraordinary specimens of Assyrian art. The bas-reliefs then began to appear, two of which were hunting-pieces and battle-scenes-the dimensions seven and a half feet long by three feet. Of these the finest, in point of design and execution, is a lion-hunt. The king is in a chariot drawn

'During the last month the discoveries have been of the highest interest. I have now two palaces of different epochs; one contemporary with the building at Khorsabad, the other prior to it. Mar

bles from the latter have been used in the construction of the former, and sometimes even resculptur* Gen. x, 12. This identification of Larissa with ed on the back. I have already thirteen Resen is, however, as old as Bochart, who suggest-pairs of the gigantic winged human-headed lions † From M. Botta's letters it appears that in and bulls. But the most remarkable discovery is, Khorsabad there are manifest proofs of the action perhaps, that of a black obelisk, about seven feet of fire. P. 35. high, which I believe to be one of the most inte

ed that the 'La' was the demonstrative article.

resting and unique monuments of antiquity known. Upon it are twenty bas-reliefs, and a very long inscription containing many names of persons and places. It was probably erected to celebrate the conquest of some country-India or a part of Africa; for with the prisoner who is brought before the king, there are animals which can alone belong to those regions. We have the elephant, the rhinoceros, the lion, the Bactrian or two-humped camel, several kinds of apes and monkeys, the stag, the wild-bull, the ibex, horse, &c. There are numerous figures bearing various objects, probably the productions of the country subdued. There are in all about eighty figures, all in the finest preservation and capitally drawn.'

we trust, before long be able to form our
own judgments on many of the most curious
of the antiquities themselves. We have
readily seized this early opportunity of bring-
ing this subject, however imperfectly, before
the attention of our readers, not merely in
order to gratify their curiosity, not merely
in justice to Mr. Layard, whose extraordi-
nary enterprise, activity, and management,
are deserving of all praise; but in order to
express our earnest hope that the discovery
will not be allowed to languish for want of
support and encouragement (in urging that
encouragement we are urging the reward
which will be most acceptable to Mr. Lay-
ard); that the Government will spare no
expense in securing for the collections of
this country the acknowledged riches so
strangely brought to light.

ART. VII.-Official and other Dispatches of
Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington.
Second Edition. 8 vols. 8vo. London,
1847.

To return to the Inscriptions. We rejoice to find by the last advices that Major Rawlinson considers himself to have made great progress in deciphering the Babylonian inscriptions. We hear, indeed, only of names, so that we are yet ignorant how far he may have solved the great problem of the language. According to the writer in the Malta Times,' the Khorsabad inscriptions are in this character, and probably, therefore, in the language of the second columns at Van, and at Bisutun. Should this be the case, if the ruins are Assyrian, the language can hardly be properly Median, and what is supposed to be Median is a form. It would be idle at this time of day to dilate of Assyrian. Major Rawlinson's studies on the treasure our country possesses in the have been of the Babylonian bricks, of Duke of Wellington's Dispatches, or the which his residence at Bagdad has given wisdom which sanctioned their publication him, no doubt, great command. According in the lifetime of their illustrious author. to his interpretation, the inscriptions, which But there is a melancholy interest attached vary but little, ascribe the foundation of to the present edition, which, independently Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabonassar: thus agreeing with the book of Daniel, iv. 30. Mr. Layard also states that both Major Rawlinson and himself agree in finding names of the first Assyrian dynasty in the inscriptions of the earlier buildings of Nimroud, and the name of a king of the second in those of Khorsabad.

of the improvements it exhibits, seems to demand that it should not go forth altogether unnoticed. The fate of Colonel Gurwood has been one of the saddest which the tale of literary labour, often a sad one, ever told. A mind constitutionally excitable, operated upon by a frame of very peculiar organization, could not sustain the wear and tear of over-exertion in a new department:We here break off, anxiously awaiting the minute anxieties of literary detail worfurther communications on the subject of the ried him by day and by night-made society Inscriptions from Major Rawlinson. From tasteless, and robbed the pillow of repose; his energy, perseverance, and sagacity, we-and the gallant soldier who had braved may expect everything to be accomplished many a wellfought field, who had been first which can be accomplished. We trust that and foremost in at least one of the most to him we are to owe, as the fullest insight perilous enterprises of the Peninsula-found into the character and language of ancient himself unable to hold out against the insiPersia, so also of some glimpses at least of dious attacks of a morbid depression of the records of older Assyria; that Babylon spirits. It appears, moreover, that the exand Nineveh, like Persepolis, will reveal to pense of getting these volumes through the us, through his studies, the names and ex-press broke down the little fortune which ploits of their kings. With regard to Mr. Layard, we have been favoured not only with the communication of extracts from his letters, but with the sight of drawings, from some of the objects which he has excavated at Nimroud. Ourselves and the public will,

habits of strict economy had enabled him
to accumulate; and that his widow and
daughters inherit from him hardly anything
except the legacy of a good name.

But to pass from these painful topics.
This edition is considerably cheaper than

1

the former; and being published in parts, the Duke of Wellington's opinions on subit comes much more within the reach of or- jects connected with the organization and dinary purchasers. Further, it is enriched discipline of the army would be entitled to by a large quantity of new and valuable let-the utmost respect: but just at this moment, ters which were supposed to be lost, but when we seem to have entered upon a new had been recovered through the indefatigable state of things-when the claims of the industry of Colonel Gurwood, and the readi- soldier are advocated in Parliament by Seness of individuals and public departments cretaries-at-War, and out of doors by the to open to him their archives. Again, the whole public press-it is in the highest dearrangement is infinitely better. As many gree interesting to observe how the greatest most curious papers, relating especially to General of his age spoke, fifteen or sixteen India, were not obtained till the earlier vo- years ago, of points which are now at length lumes of the first edition had been printed fixing the most serious attention of the comoff, Colonel Gurwood was forced either to munity. With what admirable sense his omit them altogether, or to present them in Grace expresses himself on every question the awkward shape of a supplement. All that is submitted to him! How just and the letters, old or new, appear now in the clear are his views of things as they then proper order of date; and the continuity of existed! How consistent his reluctance the narrative is preserved by the introduc- to abandon the right of appeal to the haltion, in the shape of foot-notes, or of quota-berts, till the soldier should have been so tions in the body of the page, of extracts trained and disciplined by moral influences as from the adjutant and quarter-master-gene- to render such an appeal unnecessary! Let ral's directions; and yet, though so much matter is added, by judicious alterations in type and size of page, in place of twelve volumes the whole is compressed into eight. This book, considered either as a literary curiosity or as a monument of character and wisdom, has still further distinctions. There is an important addition to it in the form of a miscellaneous correspondence from 1816 to 1834; also, of his Grace's instructions to officers commanding brigades of cavalry in the Army of Occupation; of three deeply interesting orders referring to military arrangements in 1827; of the Duke's opinion in 1829 in regard to a plan which was then proposed for altering the discipline of the army; of selections from his evidence given before the Commission for inquiring into Military Punishments; and of a paper, addressed in 1833 to Lord Hill, concerning the uses of military governments, which have since been abolished. The Duke's letter to 'The Officers, calling themselves the remnant of the Captains and Subalterns of the Peninsula,' on the long agitated subject of a War Decoration, is likewise given. Here is also a legitimate Appendix, wholly new, and adding very essentially to the permanent usefulness of the book; comprising a careful selection from the dispatches and correspondence of the generals to whom the Duke was opposed. Lastly, we have now a really admirable index, of which, in so ex-non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Indeed tensive a publication, the importance must

be obvious.

The seventh and eighth volumes, in short, are in great measure new; and we cannot but hail their appearance, at the present juncture, as a particularly fortunate event. At any time, and under any circumstances,

any one look back upon our troops as they were in 1813 and 1814, and he will not wonder at the Duke's saying, that nothing except a most severe discipline could have kept that, perhaps the finest army that the world had ever seen, from becoming quite unmanageable. So effectual was the dread of corporal punishment-managed as the Duke alone has been able to manage it-that the numbers of men flogged were fewer in the Peninsula than in any garrison of five thousand under an ordinary commandant :—but what could be done with forty or fifty thousand such men as he had to deal with, except to restrain them from committing outrages of every description by the terror of the lash? As to stimulating their better feelings by the hope of promotion to com missions, such a system was out of the question. Whatever could be safely done in this direction, the great leader tried; but he is obliged to confess that the beneficial result was small indeed. Read what his Grace wrote in April, 1829, and say whether a tittle of his evidence can be controverted:

We re

the nature of our officer, and compare him with the
Upon this point we ought to consider a little
Prussian. Our officer is a gentleman.
quire that he should be one, and above all that he
should conduct himself as such; and most par-
ticularly in reference to his intercourse with the

we carry this principle of the gentleman, and the
absence of intercourse with those under his com-

mand so far, as that, in my opinion, the duty of a subaltern officer, as done in a foreign army, is not done at all in the cavalry, or the British infantry of the line. It is done in the Guards by the serjeants.-Then our gentleman officer, however admirable his conduct on a field of battle, how

ever honourable to himself, however glorious and
advantageous to his country, is but a poor creature
in disciplining his company in camp, quarters, or
cantonments. The name, the character, the con-
duct, the family and relations, the fortune, the sit-
uation, the mental acquirements of each of the
men of his company, are not the sole objects of
his thoughts, as of the Prussian officer, who car-
ries into execution this same discipline in the
company to which he belongs, with the men of
which he lives as a companion, friend, and
adviser. The army of Prussia, besides, is at
all times regularly organized :-each battalion
in its regiment, each regiment in its brigade,
each brigade in its division, each division in
its corps d'armée ;
the whole under the per-
sonal inspection of the King: so that there is
not a corps, division, brigade, regiment, battalion,
company, or individual, whose conduct is not
checked and controlled by his superior, as well as
by the view and knowledge of the whole of
the profession. Compare this with the
British army; with our detachments in Ireland and
the West Indies, Honduras, &c,. &c.; with our de-
tachments in transports guarding convicts to New
South Wales; with our total want of inspection
and control over either officers or men, in nearly
all parts of the world; and we shall see cause
for astonishment that there is any discipline in the
army at all, notwithstanding the severity of the
system of which we complain. If we can, let us
make our officers do their duty, and see that the
non-commissioned officers do theirs. But mind!
this is a system of prevention. We shall thus
avoid punishment in the best way, by preventing
irregularity and crime. But I earnestly recommend
not, by law or order, to say that Courts Martial
are not to judge of the nature and degree of the of-
fence or irregularity; or that, if there should be
irregularity or offence, it should not be punished
with severity according to its nature and degree;
in which words must of course be included the
consideration of time, circumstances, &c., &c.'—
vol. viii., pp. 346, 347.

men to come into the service, a few persons of better education and of a better description, but I do not think in large numbers.-The real truth is, there are very few commissions to be given away. The General Commanding in Chief would tell you that the number he has is scarcely sufficient to enable him to provide for those well reported of from the Military College; at the present moment, I do not believe he has a sufficient number to provide for all those well reported of at Sandhurst. Now, if that is the case, although thirty or forty commissions a year might be to be given in this way, it would hardly produce any effect upon the number in the army.'

In point of fact, did you recommend many persons for commissions during the service in the Peninsula ? A great number. I gave commissions to a great number of non-commissioned officers; and those that were not given away to non-commissioned officers were given to volunteers serving with the army at the time. With respect to those non-commissioned officers, have they generally remained in the army, or have they retired? A great number have retired. In truth, they do not make good officers: it does not answer. They are brought into society to the manners of which they are unaccustomed; they cannot bear being at all heated with wine or liquor. I have known them when I was serving in the ranks of the army, and I think, in general, they are quarrelsome, they are addicted to quarrel a little in their cups, and they are not persons that can be borne in the society of the officers of the army; they are men of different manners altogether.' Does that make them feel uncomfortable in the new situation in which they are placed "I think so; punctilious and uncomfortable. There are very few indeed that stop any time, or that ever rise beyond the subaltern ranks of the army.'-vol. viii., pp. 358, 359.

These sentences, so full of consummate good sense, will be remembered hereafterbut the state of things they sprung from will ere long, we hope and believe, be mere matter of history. The attention of the Government is at length fixed on the moral training of the army; and the manner in which the Secretary-at-War's late announcement to that effect was received, cannot fail to strengthen his hands in the work to which he is devoting himself.

Before the retirement of Sir Robert Peel, his Secretary-at-War, Mr. Herbert, applied himself with zeal to the task of working

It has been suggested to the Commission that a system of ensuring a certain number of officers' commissions to the privates and non-commissioned officers of the army would be a means of inducing persons of a more respectable class of life to enter: is that your Grace's opinion ? That is more a out a scheme for the better education of the civil and political question than it is a military soldiers. He found in Mr. Baring, at that one. I believe now there is a great want of em-time Paymaster-General, a willing co-opeployment for young men of education in the coun- rator; and these two humane gentlemen try, and some might be induced to enlist as pri- were not slow in arranging a plan which vates, with a view to obtain commissions: but at the same time, I beg the Commission to observe, there are here the Life Guards, the Horse Guards, who are called gentlemen of the Life Guards and Horse Guards; and I believe that they do not get many of that class of men among them. It is possible, 1 think, that you might get a few gentle.

seemed to give excellent promise of success. It was determined to begin by a considerable change in the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea. The method of training pursued there was to be carried forward, per saltum, from that which people used to admire in

1810, to the point at which the art had ar- examination was conducted with perfect imrived in 1846. The old schoolmaster-ser- partiality and great strictness, the choice fell jeants who, for thirty years or more, had upon individuals whose superiority could not kept the intellect of the place in a state of be disputed. The consequence is, that, as relethargy, were to be pensioned off at once; gards its staff of teachers, there is, probably, and new masters, the best whom liberal not in Great Britain-if there be in Europe terms could secure, were to be engaged. -an institution better supplied than this alOn the boys' school, which should become a ready is; and the whole has been placed under model school for the whole army, a train- the superintendence of one who, though but ing institution was to be engrafted: it was collaterally allied to them, seems to possess to consist of a principal, doing also the duty all the educational talents of the Coleridges. of chaplain, of an assistant-master, and It was next determined to institute a close thirty pupils. The pupils, when duly qua- inquiry into the methods adopted in other lified, were to be sent out, one by one, to services. The Inspector-General was diofficiate in the schools of regiments and rected to proceed to those countries on the depôts. Fresh candidates were to be re- Continent in which the moral and intellecceived as these from year to year went off; tual education of the soldier was believed to and a permanent college thus established, be most carefully attended to; and he in due from which-by degrees, indeed, but in the time gave in a Report-of which however end completely-the educational wants of only a portion has been laid upon the table the army should be supplied as far as effi- of the House of Commons. Nor have we cient schoolmasters could supply them. any doubt but the Secretary-at-War exerFinally, a new office was created that of cised a sound discretion here. The educaInspector-General of Military Schools; and tion question, as it affects troops, is a wider to the gentleman selected for it, Mr. Gleig, one than it may be convenient for any Gowas committed the care of watching the vernment, particularly in times like the growth of education in the army-of mak- present, to discuss all at once in its integrity. ing periodical inspections and reports-and The education of the soldier is by no of recommending from time to time such means limited to the class-room; in dealing fresh arrangements as should seem most with him our object is scarcely so much to likely to foster its development. sharpen his intellect as to improve his Mr. Sidney Herbert, having thus far ad- moral tastes-and these are far more likely vanced the matter, retired from office. Few to take their tone from the associations by Secretaries-at-War had exhibited a greater which he is surrounded out of school, than aptitude for business than he, none a better from the lectures of his schoolmaster. The feeling in regard to the soldier's true interests, inquiry therefore embraces not only him as well moral as physical; while his personal but his superiors. We may hope, however, manner had been on every occasion such as to that the Inspector had accumulated observawin the confidence of all who came in contact tions, of which, by degrees, the public will with him. But the good work did not stand have to recognise the benefit in successive still. Mr. Fox Maule took up the arrange- steps of practical reform. ments exactly where Mr. Herbert laid them On his return, a fresh advertisement apdown ;'and being well supported by Lord John peared, whereby thirty unmarried men, beRussell, he has prosecuted the business to tween the ages of nineteen and twenty-five, an issue. All the measures which his pre- were informed of the intentions of Governdecessor had determined upon are now com- ment in regard to regimental schools, and pleted. The Military Asylum has become invited to compete for admission into the the fountain whence knowledge, and the Training Institution. The multitude of anmeans of acquiring it, are to pass off by swers which poured in upon the War Office many streams into the ranks of our army; was quite extraordinary. Young men most and the roots are planted of a tree which, if respectably connected the sons of clergyit be judiciously sheltered in its early growth, men, surgeons, officers in the army, and cannot fail of bringing forth invaluable fruit. such like-offered themselves by dozens and Late in last summer, an advertisement scores. As many as lived within an easy invited candidates for the offices of assistant-distance were directed to present themselves master in the Training Institution, of head- forthwith-each coming provided with a master and under-masters in the Model- testimonial of good character, to which the School, and of master of the Infant-School, to signatures of three householders must be present themselves before a board of examin-attached, together with that of the clergyers at the Privy-Council Office. Many aspi- man of the parish or minister of the conrants of excellent character and attainments gregation to which the applicant belonged. accepted the invitation; and as the process of An examination followed (we are told a