RELICS FROM THE HOLY LAND.
An admirable proposal has just been made for the foundation of a Museum of Antiquities and Curiosities from the Holy Land, and of all museums such a one as this would surely prove of the deepest interest. Already there appears to be a room in the Louvre at Paris devoted to this purpose, and containing about a couple of hundred objects. The British Museum possesses various articles, such as lamps, vases, &c.; but a very much larger collection is known to belong to the Palestine Exploration Fund, and is partly in the keeping of that association both in London and Jerusalem, and partly at the South Kensington Museum; the whole collection probably may number about a thousand objects of all kinds. Coins would of course form an important part of the collection. Many very ancient and curious Jewish coins are still in existence; but perhaps the three of the greatest antiquity and consequent interest—two copper and one silver—bear the names of ‘Eliashib the Priest,’ four hundred and thirty-five years B.C., and ‘Eleazar the Priest,’ two hundred and eighty-one years B.C. To the coins might be added relics of the crusaders, and memorials of the Christian occupation of parts of Palestine, crests and arms of the Christian warriors, architectural relics, and fragments of sculpture. The aid of plaster-casts and photography, too, might be readily called in; and it may be reckoned that few travellers visiting this sacred soil would fail to bring back something with which to enrich the museum. Thus a good beginning might easily be made; and in the end, a large and curious collection of objects would be brought together, which would materially help to illustrate and throw light upon the history of Palestine and the study of the Holy Scriptures.