are spent, this is the general belief amongst a people not deficient in good sense and intelligence, but credulous of every fact related to them by their priests, or read by them in their Catholic newspapers. We naturally, going direct to them from Rome, are eagerly beset with questions regarding the health and condition of the cruelly suffering head of the Church, who has become to their imaginations as a second crucified Saviour; and, but for the credit which we have established in that one little village, our statements would not be accepted, for how should we who are Protestants, know better than the priests? They believe us, however, and their simple hearts are comforted; but they are only a mere few out of the many thousands who are imposed upon by these outrageous fabrications. As regards the extent to which this fraud is carried in Belgium, I give a letter from the Corriere Evangelico, written by Signor Carrelli, and dated Rome, April 11th, 1874: You cannot imagine the trade which is made in Belgium, and especially in Antwerp, of the damp straw said to be taken from the prison in which the Holy Father lies groaning. I, who have lived for many years in that city, have not only seen the beguines with little bundles of this straw, but even people of the higher classes, who keep them in caskets as relics. What cries of horror against his gaolers! what pity for the illustrious victim do those straws excite in the hearts of the believers! If you venture to tell these good people that all this is false, that the Pope is free, and has his guards of honour, you only excite in them an incredulous smile. The straw is there before their eyes, and that is an undeniable proof. One Sunday in Lent a preacher having painted in most vivid colours the maltreatment, the sufferings, the imprisonment of the head of the Church, cried out,How is it possible to deny all this when here is the straw on which lies in chains the Holy Father?' "At these words the whole congregation burst into sobbing and weeping, and, rushing forward to the priest, secured for themselves little bundles of the straw, which he sold at half a franc a bundle. Almost all the parish priests sell these, and it is said that half the money goes to the Vatican. "But this is not all. At Ghent they sell photographs, in which is represented the Pope, in chains, looking out from between strong iron bars from a little dismal cell, a bersagliere standing guard over him with his musket. This photograph, the priests say, was taken from the life, therefore it cannot be false, and there is shown the Holy Father suffering in one of the most horrid dungeons of Rome. These photographs are sold to members of the Catholic Association at half a franc each, and to other people at one franc and a half. The half of this money goes to St. Peter's. They sell thousands of copies. The one I procured bears the number 45,343 of the ninth series. "On returning to Rome, I determined to prove for myself whether there was any truth in this. I went therefore to the Vatican, and obtained admission through a Swiss guard. I saw hundreds of Papal soldiers, all armed, and soon ascertained that the whole pretended imprisonment was a farce and a gross fraud-a mere scheme for raising money. Money, and always money!" "Can one," says the writer, "forbear exclaiming, Oh, what knaves are the clericals!" And, we may add, What a false and degrading system is that of the Vatican! Do they call this religion? It is a singular fact that the Pope at this present time-spite of what might naturally be supposed most oppressive anxieties and sorrows-the determined efforts of Germany, Italy, and the elder Papal governments to subject the Church to the laws. of the State-has never for years been so well in health as now, never so merry or so free. Hundreds of people, both Catholics and Protestants, see him every weekalmost daily-in his luxurious palace, full of joke and lively repartee, as is his wont. This cannot last long, at his age; but at the time I write, he walks about his spacious gardens at a pace which tries the breath of the well-fed cardinals in attendance; visits his aviaries, is attended by his favourite black cat, and knows no imprisonment which himself or his priests, the Jesuits, have not imposed upon him. And all the while, through the distant places of Europe, the priests are selling the pretended damp straw of his dungeon, and the poor, ignorant, but devout peasants are breaking their hearts over the lying pictures which represent him behind his prison bars! MARY HOWITT. TROJAN ANTIQUITIES. BY THE REV. W. F. WILKINSON, M.A., RECTOR OF LUTTERWORTH, THE exploration of the ruins of great Eastern cities has been attended in our time with very remarkable results. Most readers are aware of the researches made by Mr. Layard on the sites of Nineveh and Babylon, and of the important discoveries which have rewarded his exertions. Monuments, works of art, inscriptions, articles of use and ornament, and other records of the past, have been brought to light, many specimens of which are in the British Museum. Not a few of these have supplied undoubted corroboration of the statements made by ancient writers, and especially in Holy Scripture, with respect to the extent, grandeur, and wealth of those cities, and the actions, and order of succession, of various eminent monarchs of whose dominions they were the capitals. More recently, under the auspices of the committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, excavations in Jerusalem have revealed the foundations of Solomon's temple, and confirmed the accounts given in the Book of Kings concerning its materials, and the circumstances and mode of its construction. And within the last few months the complete discovery has been reported of the whole area, with massive remains, of the famous temple of Artemis, or Diana, at Ephesus, one of the reputed seven wonders of the world, the actual site of which has long been matter of dispute, although the edifice was standing in its full glory so lately as the second century of the Christian era. the archeologists and the whole literary world are startled by the announcement of a discovery which, if real, will go far towards settling one of the most important, most interesting, and most fiercely debated questions of archæology and literature. Dr. Heinrich Schliemann, a German antiquarian, has just published a work in which he gives an account of explorations carried on by him for three years in the region called the Troad, on the north-west coast of Asia Minor, and by which, he affirms, he was enabled, in July, 1873, to ascertain the exact site of the celebrated city of Troy. He professes to have But now found the ruins of the palace of its last monarch, and | tory to be gathered from the Homeric poems, which has extracted from them, and safely conveyed to are, by several centuries, older than any other docuAthens, a vast accumulation of articles-more than ments preserving traditions on the subject, we find a 20,000-consisting of gold, silver, and copper vessels series of events recorded of which the following may and ornaments, military implements, and objects in be accepted as a summary. terra-cotta and other material. It is upon the topographical and relative position of these ruins, the nature and style of the buildings of which they are the remains, and the character and approximately known age of the articles found in them, that he challenges belief in the reality of the great discovery to which he lays claim. No story recorded in verse or prose, mythological or historical, with the exception of that which forms the basis of Christianity, has exercised so widespread and powerful an influence over the human intellect, and so extensively and deeply permeated the ancient and modern literature of the western world, as the story of the siege and capture of Troy. Its principal events form the subject of the most ancient and grandest of epic poems-the Iliad of Homer. They are the groundwork of the Greek epic next to the Iliad in rank and date, if not its contemporary, and by the same author-the Odyssey. They supply the materials for the construction of the majestic and pathetic compositions of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the greatest Greek tragedians, and, in fact, the patriarchs of the dramatic art. The Eneid of the Roman poet Virgil, the second epic poet of the world, is, like the Odyssey, a sequel of the Iliad, having for its theme the adventures of the Trojan refugees under their chieftain Æneas, a prince of the royal house of Troy, and the reputed ancestor of the founder of Rome. But notwithstanding this celebrity, and the almost universal reception of "the tale of Troy divine" as substantially a record of facts, not only by poets, but also by historians, philosophers, geographers, and writers of every class, among the Greeks and Romans, it has become a question in modern times whether the expedition known as the Trojan war was ever undertaken, and whether the city of Troy ever existed. The doubts which have arisen on the subject were founded partly on the fact that no ruins or relics of any credit for genuineness, such as might have been expected to be found, had ever been discovered, although the locality of the war and siege had been repeatedly searched. But the principal objections to the historical character of the Trojan war are drawn from the improbabilities and inconsistencies which, it is alleged, may be detected in the essential elements and the main thread of the story, as well as in its numerous details. So convinced is Professor Max Müller that the whole story is a myth, that he ventures to assert that, whatever ruins or relics may be discovered in the region of the Troad, they cannot be the ruins of the Homeric Troy, nor the relics of treasures possessed, or weapons wielded, by Homeric heroes. It becomes important, therefore, before proceeding to discuss the material results of Dr. Schliemann's investigations, that we should consider the grounds of belief and expectation which impelled him to undertake his researches, and inquire whether they suffice to render credible the conclusion that the remains, whether fixed or movable, which he has discovered, we do not say must, but may, belong to the Troy of the Iliad and Odyssey, of the Greek dramatists and historians, and of the Eneid of Virgil. Confining ourselves to the accounts of Trojan his In the fifth generation, perhaps 200 years, previous to the date of the story of the Iliad, which is generally admitted to be about 1200 B.C., a city was built in the north-west of Asia Minor, between the Hellespont (Straits of the Dardanelles) and the mountain group of Ida, in the recesses of one of its northern slopes, and called Dardania, from Dardanus, its founder, who was evidently of Greek origin or affinity. His descendant, Laomedon, in the generation immediately preceding that of the story, built, or rather completed and fortified, another city farther to the north, and therefore nearer to the Hellespont, which received the name of Ilios (Ilium, in Latin), from Ilus, the father of Laomedon, and was also, as well as the surrounding region, called Troia (Troy), from Tros, his grandfather. This city was stormed and sacked by a Grecian armament under Herakles (Hercules) during the reign of Laomedon, but had recovered from the disaster, and had become the capital of a flourishing State under his son Priamos (Priam). Priamos (Priam). Paris, called also Alexander, son of Priam, visiting Laconia, in Peloponnesus, carried off Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of that district, with much treasure. All the petty kings or chiefs of Greece combined their forces under Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, in Peloponnesus, brother of Menelaus, and sailed in a fleet of upwards of 1,000 ships, with an army of 100,000 men, to the coast of Troy, where, having defeated the Trojans who opposed their landing, they held the city in a state of siege for ten years. Priam was aided by the troops of many adjacent countries in Asia Minor, led by their kings, some of whom were partly subject to him, others independent allies. He also received important assistance from Thracians and Pelasgians, inhabitants of Europe, the latter being a kindred race to the Hellenes or Greeks, a circumstance which corroborates the supposition of an original affinity between the Trojans and their invaders. Large detachments of the Greek forces were employed, until the last year of the siege, or blockade, in plundering-expeditions against the countries of Asia Minor in alliance with Troy. But in the tenth year they were concentrated before the city. While in this position, a pestilence broke out in the army; an occurrence reasonably to be accounted for by the accumulation of numbers, and the marshy nature of the plain on the borders of which they were encamped, though referred by the poet, as we may readily believe it would be by themselves, to supernatural influences. A quarrel aroso between the commander-in-chief and Achilles, the mightiest warrior of the host, about the cause of tho pestilence, and, in connection with this, about a female captive, two very natural occasions of dissension in such an age and in such an army. Achilles declared he would take no further part in the war. Agamemnon, however, immediately afterwards, under an infatuation ascribed by Homer to the malignant impulse of a deity, but a not improbable effect of pride and passion, marshalled his forces for an attack upon the city. After some days of hard fighting, with varied success, the Trojans so far prevailed against their besiegers as to drive them to their camp and ships, Hector, son of Priam, their leader, actually setting one of the ships on fire. In this emergency, Patroclus, a chieftain under Achilles, and renderly beloved by that prince, obtained his permission to appear in his armour at the head of his troops, that he might repulse the Trojans. He ceeded; but they rallied, and Patroclus was slain by Hector. This aroused the wrath of Achilles; he again took the field, and, after making a great slaughter of the Trojans, killed their great commander. With his death and funeral the story of the Iliad is concluded. We learn from the Odyssey that Achilles himself was afterwards slain in battle, and that the city was at last taken by stratagem. Troy was burnt and demolished, and Helen recaptured and restored to her husband Menelaus. The whole Grecian armament then quitted the scene of their long campaign, without attempting to take possession of the conquered country. Homer cannot have been distant more than two or three miles from the coast of the Hellespont, which lay to the north, and along which the Grecian army was encamped, and the fleet drawn up, between two suc-headlands, represented by Homer (II. xiv. 34) as not far apart, enclosing a space inconveniently small for their numbers, and by no means twelve miles long, as stated by Gibbon. The River Scamander, or Xanthus, flowing from Ida to the Hellespont, passed to the westward of the city, through the plain which spread between it and the shore. Another smaller river, the Simois, held its course eastward of the city, but not far from that of the Scamander, and at one point near enough to communicate with it in a flood. Two springs (one a hot spring) rose near the city, and are called by Homer the springs, but hardly in the sense of main sources, of the Scamander. The topography of the poem is not always Such is the outline of the story of Troy, contained consistent with itself; but on the whole, as Mr. in poems composed, according to the historian Hero- Gladstone has observed, "the number of the natural dotus, who flourished 450 B.C., about four hundred features portrayed, and the actual correspondence of years before his time, and therefore nearly 900 B.C. most of them, when taken individually, with those we The war is represented by the poet to have occurred now discern, establish the general authenticity of the several generations before his own age, and to have scene" ("Juventus Mundi," p. 473). We have the been previously the subject of narrative and song. testimony of the historian Xanthus, a native of Various poems, short fragments only of which have Lydia, a country in Asia Minor, who flourished 460 been preserved in later writers, succeeded the Iliad B.C., that a Trojan State survived the fall of Troy; for and Odyssey, some in continuation of them, others he gives an account of its destruction by a Thracian supplementary, all assuming a historic foundation for tribe. This is indirectly confirmed by Homer, who the chief events of the war. Herodotus, though represents Poseidon (Neptune) predicting that the sceptical about the presence of Helen in Troy, evi- posterity of Eneas, the chief of Dardania, should dently had no doubt as to the actual occurrence of reign over the Trojans after the race of Priam should the expedition and siege. And Thucydides, the most be extinct (II. xx. 306). But we are not expressly accurate and critical of Greek historians, while simi-informed whether the chief town, or any town belonglarly discrediting some of the statements of the poet, ing to this State, occupied the site of the ancient city. Accepts his main facts as indisputable. "The reality The exact position of Troy was, however, supposed of the siege of Troy," says Bishop Thirlwall, in his to be determinable in the time of Xerxes (477 B.C.), History of Greece, has been questioned without who, according to Herodotus, visited the citadel of sufficient ground, and against some strong evidence. Priam (called by him and Homer, Pergamos), and According to the rules of sound criticism, very cogent sacrificed to the Trojan Athena (Minerva). Alexander arguments ought to be required to induce us to reject the Great also is related to have made a pilgrimage as a mere fiction a tradition so ancient, so universally to Ilium, and to have sacrificed to Athena in a temple received, so definite, and so interwoven with the existing there. He is also said to have been shown whole mass of the national recollections, as that of the suits, or pieces of armour which were alleged to be Trojan War." Mr. Gladstone, in his "Juventus relics of the great war; though, as he was also shown Mundi," gives eleven reasons for the belief that Homer the lyre of Paris, we cannot attach much credit to is historic with respect to his chief events and persons. their authenticity. And he ran a solemn course Professor Max Müller founds a principal objection to round a tumulus, supposed to be the tomb of Achilles, the truth of the story on the alleged fact that "if we as is a similar mound, probably the same, to this day. take away from the Iliad all the miraculous and im- Thus Lord Byron says:possible elements, the whole poem collapses and vanishes." But if the reader will recur to the summary above given, compiled exclusively from the Homeric poems, of the story of the Iliad, and the supplementary events recorded in the Odyssey, he will observe that a very probable and consistent narrative may be constructed without the necessity of introducing any supernatural element. The counsels and deeds of deities are, indeed, interwoven throughout the poems with those of mortals; but a thread of ordinary and credible transactions can be easily disentangled from the strands of mythology and miracle which form with it the complex line of the Homeric narrative. It appears, therefore, that the evidence preponderates in favour of the existence of the city of Troy, and the reality of its siege and demolition by a Greek army, about twelve centuries before our era. The next preliminary question is the site of Troy. Numerous local indications are given in the Iliad, some of which have been referred to The Troy of 66 "I've stood upon Achilles' tomb, And heard Troy doubted; time will doubt of Rome." A town, doubtless on or near the site of the village visited by Alexander, was built by Lysimachus, one of his generals and successors, and called New Troy. It was peopled, as the whole region had been long before, by Greek colonists. But this town and its inhabitants were considered by the Romans representatives of the original Trojan State; and when the place had been destroyed by Fimbria, a lieutenant of Cinna, it was rebuilt at the public expense, and the people exempted from taxation. Julius Cæsar, after his victory at Pharsalia, is reported by Lucan to have visited the Troad, and to have searched for vestiges of the old walls, but could find none. very ruins," says the poet, "have perished." We learn, however, from the historian Suetonius, that Cæsar, and infer from an ode of the poet Horace that Augustus. cherished a design of not only building a "The THE PLAIN OF TROY, WITH THE MOUND OF HISSARLIK, SITE OF THE DISCOVERED TREASURES OF PRIAM. EXCAVATION ON THE SITE OF ANCIENT TROY. LARGE WINE OR OIL VESSELS. sea. city in the locality, but of making it the seat of em- | pire. The same design was certainly formed by Constantine; and buildings were commenced on the plain of Troy, but abandoned in favour of Byzantium (Constantinople). Strabo, the geographer, following Demetrius, a native of Skepsis, a small town in the Troad, maintained that the place known as New Troy was not the site of the old city, but that it was to be looked for at a much greater distance from the The French traveller Le Chevalier, in the year 1786, found near the village Bunarbashi (Springhead) two springs which, in his opinion, answered so exactly to the two sources of the Scamander mentioned by Homer, that he had no hesitation in fixing the site of Troy on the heights called Bali Dagh, a mile from the village, and about eight or nine miles from the shore of the Hellespont. This place has been, since that time, generally shown and visited as Old Troy. Mr. Grote, however, in his History of Greece, after a careful review of the evidence on both sides, gives a very decided opinion in favour of New Troy, so long considered as occupying the site, or part of the site, of the Homeric city. The ruins to be seen above ground at New Troy, which are, of course, only those of the town or towns known by that name in historic times, are on a plateau called Hissarlik (corresponding to our local name Castle-ton), two miles from the sea. Dr. Schliemann, having satisfied himself, by reading and personal investigation, that in this locality, if anywhere, the remains of the ancient city would be found, commenced the work of excavation in 1871. The part to which his examination was directed was that which, from its situation and configuration, seemed to him most likely to be the citadel or acropolis, the Pergamos of Homer. This was the northwest angle of the hill of Hissarlik, rising about twenty-five feet above the rest of the elevation, and having an area of 325 yards by 235, or nearly sixteen acres. It was soon evident that the upper layer of the hill was composed of accumulated rubbish, the ruins, as was proved by the Greek coins and fragments of Greek pottery found among them, of the New Troy known to history. The foundations of a temple were laid bare, which, there can be little doubt, was that of the Ilian Athena visited by Xerxes and Alexander. Below these ruins, at the depth of six feet, were found remains of houses evidently destroyed by fire; and thirteen feet below this second stratum, a great quantity of stone implements, such as are generally considered indications of the remote and barbarous period of human history known as the "Stone Age." But after penetrating to the depth of ten feet more, Dr. Schliemann came upon a vast quantity of copper implements and weapons, of careful and fine workmanship, with pottery of the same character. Continuing his explorations laterally, at this level, he found the remains of a wall six feet thick, and laid open a tower of solid stonework forty feet in thickness and twenty in height. From this a paved street was traced, leading to a double gateway, the two openings of which were about twenty feet apart. At no great distance from the gateway, within the citadel, he discovered the remains of a building of very massive construction. Immediately adjoining this building, and under a thick crust of red ashes and calcined rubbish, he came upon a great copper object which turned out to be a shield; and, pursuing his research in the absence of the workmen, and with the aid of his devoted wife, an Athenian lady, he disinterred a large accumulation of objects in gold, silver, and copper. The most remarkable of these are the following:-A copper cauldron, sixteen and a half inches in diameter, and five and a half inches in height; three vessels, apparently goblets, of solid gold, weighing seven, thirteen, and nineteen ounces respectively; three silver vases, the largest eight inches in height and seven in diameter; two small silver vases of elaborate workmanship, and a silver dish; with several blades or ingots of silver. Beside these utensils were found thirteen lance-heads of copper, with an average length of eight, and breadth of two inches; fourteen axe-heads, the largest weighing three pounds avoirdupoise; several large daggers, and a knife of the same material. In the largest silver vase was found a wonderful collection of female ornaments in pure gold, among which were splendid head-dresses of chain-work, and a head-band, four highly wrought ear-rings, with fifty-six of inferior quality, six bracelets, and, as we are assured, thousands of rings, studs, and other small objects, all of gold. Attached to the longest chains of the head-dresses are gold pendants, one inch and a quarter long, being figures of a shape approaching the human, with owls' heads. Near this deposit of treasure was a helmet; and all the objects, more especially those in copper, had been affected by the action of fire. Dr. Schliemann claims to have discovered, in these undoubtedly very ancient remains, the wall and northern gate, the famous Scaan gates, of Troy; the palace of Priam, and its tower; weapons used by Trojan warriors; and a part of the treasure, most likely the royal treasure, evidently packed up for conveyance in flight, but, though escaping the search of the plundering Greeks, lost to its possessor, and probably with its possessor, beneath the crumbling and burning ruins of the city. A serious objection to the identity of this longburied city with the Homeric Troy arises from its small extent. The circuit of its walls does not seem to enclose a space much larger than Trafalgar Square. Its dimensions are those of a mere fortress; and it is difficult to imagine that an area so limited could contain a population capable of furnishing a force of even a thousand men-at-arms, or that it could give accommodation to the numerous contingents of allied troops whom Homer represents as uniting with the Trojans in defence of their city, and issuing from its gates. Its diminutive size is also inconsistent, not only with the general language of the poet, who calls it the great city of Priam," "the wide-streeted Troy," but with the details given by him of the number, character, and position of its buildings. He describes it as possessing an acropolis, or upper cityPergamos, in which were the vast palace of Priam, with its corridors, and at least sixty-two bedchambers, separate palaces of Hector and Paris, and a temple of Pallas Athene. And he implies repeatedly that a considerable portion of the city, and several streets, had to be traversed in passing from the citadel to the walls. Dr. Schliemann fully recognises this difficulty, and acknowledges his disappointment in finding that what at first he believed to be only the Pergamos, or acropolis, was the whole of the city, and that in fact the fortified place which he has discovered had no acropolis at all. He accounts for the discrepancies between the Homeric descriptions and present appearances by the excessive exaggeration and vivid and grand imagination of the poet. It may be ob |