that you take a great interest in archæology sacred, as well as profane, in which investigations I myself also delight.

I am, my Lord Archbishop,

Your humble and obedient servant.

&c.

&c.

I forwarded a copy of this letter to the Right Rev. Dr. Stanley, late Bishop of Norwich; and, in order not to divide this interesting question into different volumes and places, I subjoin here an extract from a letter I addressed to the same prelate on the subject, at a subsequent period, in answer to some queries, which furnishes my mature views on the very absorbing theme, Wady Mokatteb.

LETTER III.

TO THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH.

My dear Lord,

Alexandria, June, 1848.

Permit me to thank you most sincerely for your very kind epistle with which you have been pleased to honour me; I received it the day before I left Jerusalem. I would have acknowledged your Lordship's kindness ere this, had I not waited for an opportunity to be able, at the same time, to comply with your request. I cannot conceal the fact that I feel highly gratified at your Lordship's approbation of my view of the Wady Mokatteb inscriptions, as well as of my criticism on Num. XI. 26. Your Lordship was pleased to express a great desire to

know my mature opinion of the Sinaite inscriptions, which have occupied much of your thoughts since you read the copy of my letter to the Archbishop of Dublin. Also, how I account for the Greek and Latin inscriptions which occur in some places; as well as for the appearance of the cross in various forms in different places in the celebrated Wady, &c. I venture to submit to your Lordship, that the inscriptions bear self-evidence that they have been executed at various dates. It is true, that by far the greater number of them display indubitable marks of remote antiquity; but there are some which must be pronounced juvenile, when compared with the great majority. The latter resemble, in the execution, the inscriptions on the ancient Obelisks; the former are rude and superficially cut. I take, therefore, the Greek and Latin, and indeed some of the yet unknown, inscriptions, to have been engraved at comparatively a modern date. Who knows whether Cosmas Indecopleustes and his contemporaries did not try their hands at a few?

Why should it be thought improbable that the different Monks on Mount Sinai, who occupied the convent there at different ages, should have done their quota to puzzle the modern palæographist and traveller? Is it absolutely impossible that the prefect of the Franciscan missionaries of Egypt, who visited the Wady in 1722, and his companions-who were well instructed in the Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Armenian, Turkish, English, Illyrian, German and Bohemian languages-should have chisled a few in the characters they were most expert? In the same manner might the occurrence of the cross be accounted for, without precipitating oneself to the conclusion that "the occurrence, in connexion with the inscriptions of the cross in various forms, indicates that

their origin should be attributed to the early Christians." Besides, is it possible that such antiquarians as Drs. Beer, Lepsius and Wilson should be ignorant, or affect to be ignorant, that the cross was an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic, long before the Christian era, and signified, among the Egyptians, "life to come."

I am not prepared to say that the Hebrews did not adopt that hieroglyphic, or that it is unlikely that the former borrowed it from the latter. On the contrary, there is presumptive evidence that something of the kind took place; for, when we take into consideration the fact that the letter Tau, in the Hebrew-mintcharacter, is in the shape of St. Andrew's cross x; we shall be led to conclude that the form of the cross was not unknown to the Hebrews, and therefore the arguments of the above palæographists be pronounced non sequitur. I trust your Lordship will consider this brief explanation sufficient to remove the apparent difficulties to my views expressed in my letter to the Archbishop of Dublin.

I leave Egypt most reluctantly, because of my being obliged to return to England without deciphering those astounding chronicles; but the task would require no less a period than six months. The copying them alone would consume two months of unremitted labour. Unless I had the means to do it, that is, a couple of likeminded colleagues, who would have no objection to spend that period in a tent, to submit to great privations -always concomitant in such undertakings - and last, though by no means least, the wherewithal, to be able to defray the many expenses which an enterprise of this kind entails; I say, unless I had all these means to do it, I could not even attempt the undertaking. Had I those means, your Lordship may depend upon it, that

England would not see my face until I could offer to her National Museum-the finest in the world-transcripts of all the inscriptions which embellish Wady Mokatteb. I have often wished that the Right Rev. Dr. Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, were now alive. That prelate was very solicitous that proper persons, equal to the task, should be sent to copy all the inscriptions, and nobly and generously offered to contribute largely towards the undertaking. But alas, he is no more.

All the specimens that have been hitherto given of the inscriptions, are no more in comparison with the vast numbers, which literally cover the highest mountains, than a drop out of a bucket, including even those given in the "Philosophical Transactions" of 1766, and in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature" of 1832. Professor Beer's deciphering must be considered as very arbitrary; and I protest against travellers speaking positively about the intent and purport of those records, who have had but a very short and inadequate period of time allotted to view a sufficient number of them. I omitted to mention that the celebrated Eastern traveller of the last century, Dr. Thomas Shaw, gives the following extract from Fra Tomaso de Novara, respecting those inscriptions. "INSCRIPTIO ANTIQUA RUPIBUS INSCULPTA PROPE DESERTUM DE SIN.

כורתך

i. e.

מטר Pluvia Manne מן

"Queste lettere trovai intagliate in una pietra grande nel deserto de Sin, dove Dio mandò la Manna alli figlioli d'Israel; sotto lequali pareva anco intagliata la figura del Gomor, misura della Manna, che si doveva raccoglere, come appare nel Essodo al c. 16. e di sotto a detta figura vi sono molte altre lettere, mà per l'antichità quasi per se e guaste, ne si possono interamente; mà vicino a detta pietra ve ne sono delle altre pur scritte in diversi lati, quali pietre si trovano alla parte Orientale del deserto de Sin nella bocca propria della Valle, per dove si passa da Sin per andar in Rafidim.”

I have thus given your Lordship, very candidly, my "matured opinion of the Sinaite inscriptions." I trust you will kindly excuse my off-hand style. I cannot get rid of it. Whatever the efforts I make to write in a different strain, I imperceptibly fall back into fall back into my natural tone. Having made this confession, I crave indulgence.

LETTER IV.

TO LADY MARY LINDSAY.

My dear Lady Mary,

&c. &c.

Paris, August, 1847.

You expressed, in your last letter to me, a kind "wish to hear from me now and then; and you said that my communications would be hailed, in Glasnevin House, as tokens that in my case, at least, the old English adage-' out of sight out of mind'-does not hold true. Your wish, dear Lady Mary, I at once comply with; and, if the whole truth must be told, partly from selfish motives. It always affords me great pleasure to commune with my flock. flock. I