Notes

Abstract

ONE of the most cheering Ministerial outcomes that we have read for a long time is to be found hi Mr. Gladstone's speech, on Tuesday, at the Society of Biblical Archaeology, an outcome which indicates, we take it, on the part of the Government, that the lamentable condition of research in England has at length forced itself upon them, and that the policy which has done such an infinity of harm, and the fruits of which we are reaping, is at length to be reversed. In the speech to which we refer Mr. Gladstone said:—“I do not at all deny that many fields of inquiry have been so much widened and deepened of late years, that it is both becoming and proper for the Government from time to time, according to circumstances and occasions, to take part in, and give encouragement and assistance to, those tilings, many of which indeed cannot be prosecuted without that assistance.” The paper read at the meeting to which we refer was one by Mr. G. Smith on a Chaldean account of the Deluge which he has recently deciphered. This communication was of such high importance that we hope to be able to refer to it at length next week.