Original Correspondence.

ignorant ancl unlearned ; and to refute it , therefore , " would be waste of labour , for which " the Professor has " no inclination . " Nevertheless , Professor Rawlinson , animated by a praiseworthy desire to do good , leaves his professor ' s chair , and his profounder studies , for a time , in the

hope of " preventing , in the future , the recurrence of such idle and unprofitable exercitations as the ' identifications ' on our Israelitish Origin , " and in " checking such speculations , and curtailing the waste of time and thought which at present takes p lace in the reading of them . "

Those who are so unfortunate as to entertain the views thus characterized and tabooed by the Professor , might readily submit to the imputations of stupidity or folly , of unlearning and ignorance , thus put upon them , if , in following this great luminary for " more light , " or in the hope

of finding something which might induce them to re-examine the foundation upon which they rest , they did not , instead , find themselves in the condition of the poor countryman who wearied himself , all day , in toiling up " a long rode that led noware . " The " teachings of history , " by which the Professor undertakes to correct our

errors and stop " our waste of time and thought , " do not comprise a single fact or incident with which those who have studied the subject have not long since become familar ; and which I may add , have not all and often been "thoroughly discussed , examined , sifted , argued out , and put away as ' clone with . ' "

It is somewhat mortilying when looking for a piece of bread t : > have a stone thrust upon one ; and scarcely less so , when a learned Professor , who , in his own department of knowledge , is inferior to few , condescends to go out of his way , with the laudable purpose of "putting down "

false and ignorant teachers , who are causing men to waste their time and strength , but who , though opening in a style which makes one tremble as in the presence of an infallible authority , gives one nothing but the chaff" which has been thrown aside , as waste , by manv labourers , who

have been in the field before him . The Professor ' s exevciuvtitm is as barren of arguments as it is of facts ; and furnishes another proof that a man may be an industrious student of history and an accomplished arch .-rologist , revelling amongst cuneiform writings , and exploring the ruins

of ancient cities , and yei no . be able to read or truly apprehend the text of a book which is familar to millions of his fellow countrymen , who know no more of Assyria or Babylonia , where Professor Rawlinson is at home , than they do of Timbuctoo or Japan .

Bui lei me glance at the Professors " teachings of history , " which are produced with as much apparent confidence , ancl as little attempted proof , as if they had not all been examined and answered , over and over again , between 18 45 and 1870 . Professor Rawlinson ' s first " teaching of

history is , that the Pen I ribes were " not carried away wholly into captivity by Tiglath-Pileser and the Assyrian King who took Samaria , whether he were Shalmaneser or Sargon . " Before I offer a word on this " teaching ol ' history , " 1 may be permitted to say that the sentence I have quoted

affords no favourable example of style , 111 an historical investigation . It is on the contrary , careless , loose , and calculated to produce a false impression . A mere child who has read his Bible knows that Tiglath-Pileser did not carry away wholly into captivity the Ten Tribes of Israel ,

for he has read in 2 Kings xv . 29 , " In the days of Pekah , King of Israel , came Tiglath-Pileser , King of Assyria , ancl took , Ijon , and Abel-beth , Maachah , and Janoah , and Kedesh , and Hazor , ancl Gilead , and Galilee , all the land of Naphtali , and carried them captive to Assyria . " He could

not have read the historical books of his Bible and not have known that these were but a few places in the extreme north of Galilee and of the trans-Jordan country . This was not the overthrow of the Israelitish nation , though a prelude to it . That was accomplished by a subsequent

king of Assyria , and it is a proof of the carelessness with which the Professor has treated this subject , to find him writing , " the Assyrian king who took Samaria , whether he were Shalmanezer on Sargon . " He knoivs—for no man , perhaps , is more familiar than he with the results of the researches which Mr . Layard and others have

Original Correspondence.

made in the Assyrian ruins , that it is no question as to what Assyrian king completed the conquest of Israel . We are not left in doubt whether it was Shalmaneser or Sargon , for the discovery of Sargons' Palace , at Korsaban , by M . Botta , in 1842 , and the decyphering of an inscription on

the wall of the great hall there , and which , there is reason to believe was written or dictated by Sargon himself , says , " I besieged , took , and occupied the city of Samaria , ancl carried away 37 , 280 persons who dwelt in it . " Thus much for the Professor ' s precision ; now for his facts ,

arguments , etc . What may be meant by the phrase , " carried away wholly into captivity , " I will not undertake to determine ; if it be meant that every individual Israelite was not carried away , it is not to be disputed . But that is not the question .

Was the carrying away such as to transplant the ten tribes , as a nation , into the territories of the Assyrian conqueror ; or was it that only the flower of the people were taken away , leaving a considerable portion of them in their own land ? I submit , with all deference to so great an

authority , that the carrying away of the people was so general as to justify the statement , that Israel was carried away wholh ) into captivity , leaving the land in a state of desolation . My reasons are ( 1 ) That it is so stated in the only record to which Professor Rawlinson refers . When the

wife of Jeroboam went to consult the Prophet Ahijah , the old man uttered this terrible threat , " the Lord shall smite Israel , as a reed is shaken in the water ; and He shall root up Israel out of this good land , which He gave to their fathers ; ancl shall scatter them beyond the river ,

because they have made their groves , provoking the Lord to anger . "' ( i- Kings xiv . 13 . ) Surely no language could more clearly pourtray the extinction of the nation , and the scattering of the people beyond the river , whither they were afterwards carried . Nevertheless , we have in chap . xvii .

of the Second Book of Kings , language if possible still more explicit , as describing the carrying away of the people : " Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel , and removed them out of his sight ; there wtis none left , but the tribe of J udtih 011 fit . ' " And the Lord rejected all the

seed of Israel , and delivered them into the hand of spoilers , until He had removed Israel , out it / His sight . " So was Israel carried away out of their own land into Assyria . " If this language is not intended to describe the carrying away of all Israel into captivity , no' language could do so .

Once more , Jeremiah , depicting the desolating judgment that was coming upon Judah , uses these expressive words ; " And 1 will cast you out if my sight , as I have cast out all your brethren , eeen the whole seed of Ephraim ; " that is , the Ten Tribes , ( Jer . vii . 13 ) . If words have any

meaning , or were intended to be understood in their ordinary meaning , both the historian and the prophet describe the carrying away of the tribes , as a whole , and the utter extinction of the kingdom . ( 2 ) The same conclusion is to be drawn from these two circumstances , first the

Assyrian king sent people from his own dominions to colonise the kingdom of Samaria , instead of the children of Israel , whom he had deported , ( 2 Kings xvii . 24 ) ; and second , that even after this immigration , the land was so sparse of people that the wild beasts multiplied in the

towns and villages , and slew many ( ver . 25 ) . After looking at these circumstances and the authority upon which they rest , we are hardly prepared , at the Professor ' s bidding , to admit that the carrying away of the Israelites into the dominons of the Assyrian king was so partial as

to represent only a " small community or several small communities" there—that being the inference we are suggested to draw from the circumstances of the captivity . But Professor Rawlinson finds proofs in " many passages of Scripture , " that the

deportation ot the Israelites was but a partial one . ( 1 ) The first of these is deduced from the fact , that , eighty years after the captivity , Josiah , king of J udah , made " a progress through the cities of Manasseh , Ephraim , and Simeon , even unto

Naphtali , cutting down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel , " ( 2 Chron . xxxiv . 6 . 7 . ) But this surely furnishes an argument the other way , for had not the kingdom been completely overthrown , and the Israelites reduced to so few

Original Correspondence.

in numbers as to be termed a remnant , the Judaites with whom they had so long lived in ' enmity . and with whom they were engaged in a desolating war , up to the crowning of their calamities b y the Assyrians , would never have been permitted to march through the land unmolested , and " break

down the altars and the groves , and beat the graven images into . powder , and cut down all the idols , throughout all the land of Israel . " ( 2 ) "The great Passover celebrated b y Josiah was attended not only by all Judah , but by the children of Israel that were found , " ( ch . xxxv . 17 , 18 . ) But ,

I submit here , as I have done on the Professor ' s first proof , that the argument points in the other direction . Indeed , the very phraseology employed to represent the presence of Israelites at this great Passover in itself determines the

question . Upon the approach of Shaltuanezer upon Samaria , many of the Israelites , no doubt , tied into Judea , as well as into the coasts of Tyre ancl Sidon , and such as were at Jerusalem and such of the remnant as were left in the cities of

Israel , as were disposed to do so , joined in the celebration of the great festival . The authorised version says " such of the children of Israel a .- > were present , i . e ., in Jerusalem , kept the Passover at that time ; " or , as the translators have it in the margin , more literally , such as were fojnd . —

their number being so few in the land , that they had to be " searched for , " " and found . " One may certainly concede to the Professor and to Dr . Davidson , whom he quotes , that " th . ; country had not been so depopulated as to posses- ; no Israelite whatever , " but we cannot permit anv

mere inference from the fact just noticed , to s * -. i aside the unequivocal statement of the sacred text , that " the Lord was very angry with Israel , and removed them out of his sight , so . that there was none left The Lord rejected all . the seed of Israel , and delivered them into the hand of spoilers , until he had cast them out of his

sig ht Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sig ht So was Israel carried away out of their own land , to Assyria unto this clay , " ( 2 Kings xvii . 18-23 . ) In these verses the total carrying away—the entire removal of Israel out of sig ht—is four times repeated , as if in anticipation of such objection thereto as that urged by the Professor .

I must ask for a little iurther space to com plete what I have to say in reply to Professoi Rawlinson . Yours fraternally , WILLIAM CARITNTER .

Libelling The Prime Minister.

LIBELLING THE PRIME MINISTER .

The following paragraph appeared in the Echo . As it might have led some to suppose that the Freemason had so far strayed away from its legitimate course as to take part in politics , it was deemed necessary to request a correction : —

" Colonel Knox , amid great laughter , drew attention to an article which had appeared in the Freemasons' Journal reflecting upon the character of the Prune Minister , charging him ' The People ' s William " with persecuting the priests ,

ancl stifling the attempts made for their defence . The hon . member wished to know whether it was the intention of the Irish Government to prosecute the newspaper in which the scurrilous article appeared . "

At our request the Editor of the Echo courteously inserted the following correction : — " PARLIAMENTARY REPORT . —The editor of the Freemason asks us to correct a misprint in

our Parliamentary news of Thursday last . The newspaper in which the alleged libel on Mr . Gladstone appeared was the Freeman ' s Journal , and not the Freemason , from whose columns all articles of a political nature are excluded . "

"After some days' severe suffering with neuralgia and influenza in the head , I was induced to try your Vegetable Pain Killer for it . In less than five minutes it gave me ease , and by continuing the use of it according to the directions . I have quite lost the pain , and my general health has since rapidly improved . —S . J . SMITH , teadealer , Norwich , Feb ., 1870 . —To Perry Davis & Son , London , W . C . "