he

petent knowledge even of the language of the country in which they had resided, without any acquaintance with its institutions, its habits, or its modes of thinking; and, in short, would be simply ill-educated specimens of their own countrymen, whose foreign residence had served no other purpose than to "throw them off the rails." As matters stand at present, the chief difficulty which is experienced by Englishmen in sending their sons to be educated in France, consists in their own ignorance of the details of the educational institutions of that country, and the difficulty which they find in procuring accurate and trustworthy information. Even when they visit France personally for the purpose of making inquiries, the investigation is found to be by no means an easy one by persons only partially acquainted with the language, and wholly ignorant of the institutions which it is their object to examine. Very often an error is committed; the lad is sent to a wrong school, or to a wrong class in the school; he takes up his residence in the family, or under the care of an unsuitable person; becomes discontented, and writes letters, to which either too much or too little importance is attached; and in short, with the best intentions on all sides, the scheme miscarries. In place of acting as an encouragement to repeat the experiment, either in the family to which the youth belongs, or in the circle of his relatives and acquaintances, it has a totally opposite effect. He is pointed out through life as a beacon to all who would venture on so dangerous and unknown a sea. Now, all these inconveniences would be obviated by the arrangement which we propose. The boy would be sent at once to the superintendent of the international establishment, whose duty it would be to ascertain what classes in the national school or college he was in a condition to join; to find suitable masters for him, public and private; to see that he passed the regular examinations at the regular times; and otherwise to conduct his studies in such a manner as to secure for him the full educational advantages of the country to which he had been sent. The age at which it would be proper that pupils should be received into such establishments would be a subject of anxious consideration, on which we do not conceive it to be necessary that we should at present express a definite opinion. Speaking loosely, it is obvious that they ought not to be sent at so early an age as to interfere with the formation either of their domestic habits or national character, nor at so late an age as to be incapable of acquiring the language, and taking on the habits and feelings of a foreign people.

The chief difficulty, which has been pointed out to us by several distinguished and enlightened Frenchmen, and by other persons minutely acquainted with the social arrangements of France, with whom we have had the honour from time to time of discussing the scheme which we have here sketched, has always consisted in the extremely rigid character of the system of examinations which prevails in that country, and which meets the young Frenchman at every stage of his career. That a similar difficulty, though in a lesser degree, would stand in the way of young Englishmen thus educated in France, will equally strike our own countrymen. But in neither case does it seem to us that the difficulty is insuperable. When the educational insti

tutions of the one country came to be examined in the other, it would not be difficult to attach certain national values to foreign degrees, or other certificates of proficiency. By the arrangements which we have suggested, complete guarantees might be obtained for the bona fide character of the examinations which were passed, either in the one country or in the other; and there are few departments either of learning or of science which may not be cultivated with almost equal success in both. But should this expedient be regarded as too great an innovation on French institutions, another very obvious one suggests itself. Let a board of examiners be appointed in France, for the purpose of testing the acquirements which had been made in England, and let the education of those youths who were sent to England be conducted with a view to their submitting to this ultimate test on their return. If placed under the superintendence of a resident Frenchman, no great difficulty would probably be experienced in thus shaping their studies. In any case the difficulty is one which, however great it might prove to private persons in present circumstances, admits of an easy solution by the Governments of the two countries.

As an inducement to parents to avail themselves of these institutions, we should propose that the career of diplomacy in all its branches should in future be open only to those who had been thus educated. Nor can we see any reason why such an education should not be regarded as a special recommendation for employment in other branches of the public service.

Moreover, it is by no means necessary that it should be from the side of his own country alone,-of the country, that is, in which he was born, and which, in the general case, he would no doubt continue to regard as his home,-that inducements to avail himself of these institutions should be held out to the young Englishman or Frenchman. We should propose, on the contrary, that as a necessary consequence of having passed through the complete course of training which they furnished, their pupils should be declared to be citizens of the country in which they studied-that they should be legally as well as actually naturalized-and that thus, in so far as they were concerned, the idea of mutual citizenship, which, shortly after the Crimean War, was contended for by Professor Craik of Belfast, should be realized. We cannot but think that a scheme for connecting the grant of citizenship with the fact of education, residence, or some similar guarantee for a knowledge of the country, and a partial recognition and acceptance of its institutions, has very considerable advantages over Professor Craik's proposal to confer it, without any such guarantee, upon all the inhabitants of both countries, in the hope of drawing them more closely together. It is a general principle of legislation that you never can make a fact by simply declaring it to be, and it seems to us that in the present instance Englishmen and Frenchmen would be pretty much where they are at present, though an act were to be passed by the Parliament of England declaring all Frenchmen to be Englishmen, and a corresponding decree by the Government of France declaring all Englishmen to be Frenchmen. The Scottish statute of 1558 (c. 65), which was passed after the marriage of Mary Stewart

with the Dauphin, was a measure precisely of the kind suggested by Professor Craik, and we are not aware that it produced any sensible influence on what was already the very intimate relation of the two countries. But by educating a certain portion of the inhabitants of each country in the other, you make them citizens in fact, before you declare them to be citizens in law, and all that the Legislatures do, is all that ought ever to be done by a Legislature, viz., to recognise and vindicate a result which society has already worked out. By attending to this consideration, the risk is avoided of either bringing the Legislature into conflict with the prevailing current of public opinion, or of having its enactments reduced at once to the character of dead letters. In the present instance, if the citizenship of each country were conferred on those who had been educated in that country, it is not unlikely that important effects would follow almost immediately. Such persons would be in a condition at once to avail themselves of the privilege. Whether Professor Craik's anticipation of seeing an Englishman Archbishop of Paris, and a Frenchman Chancellor of England, were realized or not, there cannot be a doubt that the prospect of having the public career of both countries thrown open to them, would act as a powerful stimulus to the more ambitious portion of the youth on both sides of the channel. Those who know to how large an extent Scotchmen once sought fortune in France, and found it, will have some notion of what might still be possible for their descendants and fellow-countrymen; and, on the other hand, even Frenchmen probably know enough of the vastness of the field of enterprise, which lies open to all the members of the Anglo-Saxon family, to be able to appreciate the reciprocal benefits which their adoption into it would confer.

There are endless phases in which this subject presents itself, in which we cannot afford even to glance at it at present. We have spoken of the establishment of international education chiefly between England and France, partly because they lie nearest, and partly because, viewing the one as the most Romanized of the Teutonic, and the other as the most Teutonized of the Romanic nations, we regard them as furnishing the natural point of meeting for the others. But we have no notion that the interchange of national life should be confined to these countries. The other countries of Europe stand all more or less on the same footing to each other, and to us. To a Russian, for instance, what could be more beneficial than an English or a French education acquired in the institutions of the countries themselves, instead of being communicated by French and English tutors and governesses in the heart of Russia? Or in what way are we ever so likely to get at the real condition of a half-oriental people like the Russians, who differ from us and from other Europeans widely, both in blood and in language, and whose historical roots even are not Roman like ours, but Greek, as by sending a portion of our youth to be educated within the range of their traditions and their sympathies? Even as regards missionary labour, perhaps the most fruitful form which it could take would be that, not of Christians going to teach, but of heathens coming to learn. The number of those

nominally baptized might be smaller at first, but we should have far surer guarantees for the reality of conversion; and the missionaries ultimately sent forth, combining the characters of Orientals and Occidentals, might probably be able, without sacrificing anything of the intrinsic character of Christianity, to present it in a form which would be at once more intelligible and more acceptable to the Oriental mind than can ever be done by those who are Europeans only.

Amongst European countries, the expense incurred by the original establishment and subsequent maintenance of such institutions as we have suggested, in so far as they were not self-supporting, would fall, of course, to be defrayed by the Governments of the respective countries. But if the objects which we anticipate were in any degree attained by them, the saving, even in a pecuniary point of view, would very soon be placed beyond all question. The expense of maintaining a single ship of war, to say nothing of a regiment of the line, far exceeds what would probably be required for the support of such an establishment in every capital town in Europe.

JAMES LORIMER, Jun.

XII. SENNACHERIB AND HEZEKIAH.

A TRANSLATION FROM AN ASSYRIAN INSCRIPTION.

THE following is a faithful translation of the most interesting passage in an Assyrian inscription which has yet been found. It was copied by me from the Cylinder in the British Museum, formerly in the possession of Colonel Taylor, columns 2 and 3. There are some defects in my copy, and there are some passages where I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the sense. I have here indicated omissions by dots. Where a single word was unknown, or where the meaning of a clause was highly probable, I have used italics. Biblical names are spelled as in the English version, the Assyrian being tran scribed within brackets. For other proper names the transcriptions alone are given. The reader should observe that in these transcriptions h is always an auxiliary character, forming with the letter or breathing which precedes it the representation of one Semitic letter. Italics indicate uncertainty, either as to the character in the text or as to its value. I have translated the first sentence, perhaps, too literally, and have accompanied it by a transcription of the original. This will serve as a specimen of the language. In a few other instances I have given transcriptions of the original within brackets. As respects the transcriptions, I would observe that, for brevity, 'ha, yi, and wu, when they commence words, are written a, i, and u.

mitlutiya

ishkhupusu-va

ana

'hina salsi girriya, ana Khatti lu allik, Luliyi sar Zhidunni, In the third of my campaigns, to Syria when I went, Lulî, King of Sidon, pulkhat milammi fear of the presence of my majesty had overwhelmed him, and to ru'huqqi qabal uddim

innabid-va mada-su inhzib.

a distance beyond the sea he fled, and his country he abandoned.

Sidon the greater, Sidon the lesser, Bit-zittiy, Zarephath [Zhariptu] Makhalliba, Samsuwu,* Achzib [Akzibi] Accho [Nhakkuwu] his strong cities and the castles ... the whirring of the arrow of Assur my lord overwhelmed them, and they submitted to my rule. Tuba'hlu I made to sit on the throne of dominion over them, and the tribute and presents to my majesty . . . . I laid upon him. As for Menahem of Samaria+ [Minkhimmu Yushimurunaya] Tuba hlu of Sidon, Abdili hti of Arad [Arudaya], Yurumil . . . of Gebal [Gublaya], Mitinti of Ashdod Ashdudaya], Pudu'hil of Bit-'Hamman, Kammushunadbi of Ayakummu of Edom ['Hudummaya] kings of the Western country. . . . they brought with them their large contributions to my presence, and they kissed [issiqu] my yoke.

But Zhidqaya, King of Ascalon [Asqalluna], who did not submit to my yoke, I carried away the gods of his father's house, himself, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his brothers, the seed of his father's house, and I brought him to Assyria. son of Rukipti,

their former king, I placed over the people of Ascalon, and I imposed upon him the payment of the former tribute to my majesty. He also paid a fine. In the course of my campaign BethDagon [Bit-Daganna], Joppa [Yappu'ha], Bene-berek [Banaya-barqa] and Azura, cities of Zhidqaya I looked at, I captured, I carried off their spoil.

....

The priests, the magistrates, and the people of Ekron‡ [Nhamqarruna] who had put fetters of iron upon Padiya, their king, a holder of the covenants and goodwill of Assyria [binhil a'hdiy u ma'hbiy] and had delivered him to Hezekiah [Khazhaqiya 'hu] of Judah [Ya'hudaya] Their hearts fearing, they called on the Kings of Egypt and on the foot soldiers, the chariots and horses of the King of Milukhkha,§ a force which was not to be counted, and they came to their help. In the district of Eltakon [Altaqu'hu] they were arrayed before me. They caused their arrows to fly. In dependence upon Assur, my lord, I fought with them, and I effected their destruction. Such of the riders in chariots, and of the young men (i.e., the infantry) of the King of Egypt, and of the riders in chariots of the King of Meroe, as

* Samsuwu was probably Beth-Shamesh of Judges i. 33. It was the place (as ap pears from an inscription copied by Mr. Layard) where Sennacherib received the tributes mentioned in the next paragraph. It is possible that "Sidon the lesser " (literally, "the child") may have been Tyre, but I rather think that Tyre escaped. In the inscription just mentioned it is said that Luli fled from Tyre [Zhurri] to Yavan, i.e., Cyprus or Crete.

In the inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser II., the name Minikhimmi Shamirinaya occurs, which I long since identified as that of the Biblical Menahem. The king or chief here named may have been his grandson; compare what is said a little after of Askalon. The two names of countries agree as to their four consonants, though they are differently vocalized; and I can scarcely doubt their identity.

There can be no doubt as to this identification. When b, g, d, dh, or q is doubled, it is usual to substitute a nasal for the former letter; mq is therefore to be read as qq. The Septuagint vocalize the word 'Aккар, which perfectly agrees with the Assyrian.

In the inscriptions of Esarhaddon this name is interchanged with Kus. It is evidently meant for Meroe. Tirhaqa is the king intended; and it is certain from this text that at the time of Sennacherib's invasion he was not king of Egypt, though he afterwards (in 689 B.C.) became so. The reading, 'kings" of Egypt in the plural is curious and important. The Sethos of Herodotus was one of them.