There is much to be said in favour of the constitution of a governing body like the Museum Trustees. A body of scientific men might expect and demand too much; they would violate Talleyrand’s caution about excess of zeal. On the other hand, it is desirable to relieve the executive Government from direct responsibility in such a matter.

Query—what is the oldest bilingual glossary of the Latin language? What is the earliest vocabulary in which Latin is explained by some other tongue? Is the earliest a Latin and Greek (not Greek and Latin) glossary, or a Latin and Gothic glossary, or a vocabulary in which Latin is rendered into the Lingua volgare? If so, what is the date of the latter? I hope you will not think this an unfair question to address to so distinguished a bibliotecario as yourself.

Yours, &c., &c.,

G. C. Lewis.”

That Panizzi was equally interested in other Departments of the Museum Mr. Newton could testify, if need were, for that of the antiquities, and the writer for his own.

Between Mr. Charles Thomas Newton, C.B., and Panizzi, there subsisted something more than an intimate friendship; a more proper term would be a warm attachment. We need no greater proof of Mr. Newton’s devotion to his friend than the fact that when in 1867 the latter was ill, and his life despaired of, the former devoted all his time to the care of his sometime colleague. The great number of letters before us, from the hand of Mr. Newton, would indeed fill a volume of most interesting matter, relating to his discoveries and travels in the Levant; for he was in the habit of communicating to his friend, it appears, all his adventures, whether at Rhodes, Mytilene, Budrum, or Rome. These letters make us wonder, by their freshness, how time and inclination could have been found to write them, and are certainly deserving of publication at some future time. So much important matter, from such a pen, would prove a treasure to future antiquarians and travellers.

Now Mr. Newton, who had been in the Museum since May, 1840, was, in February, 1852, appointed by Lord Granville to the Vice-Consulship of Mytilene.

Whilst there, he carried on various researches and excavations, sending home from time to time to the British Museum the fruit of his labours. In April, 1856, Mr. Newton received directions from the Foreign Office to proceed to Rome, to value the Campana collection then offered to the British Government. On his return from Rome to London he took this opportunity to submit his views as to further operations at Budrum; these he naturally explained to Panizzi, and, through him, it was arranged that the two should one day go to Brocket Hall, Lord Palmerston’s country seat, and there meet Lord Clarendon, to talk over the matter. Lord Palmerston, who was then Premier, with his usual savoir-faire, at once suggested that the Principal Librarian being present, and the two Ministers being both ex-officio Trustees of the British Museum, the meeting of this triad might be considered a quorum, for the settlement of a matter of so much consequence to the National Institution. It was then agreed that Mr. Newton should at once proceed to Budrum on special mission. Those were days when operations of this kind could be carried out with that secrecy and despatch which are necessary to insure success. In this particular case, there was the more reason for prompt action, because Ludwig Ross, a distinguished German explorer, had already visited Budrum, and noticed in his travels the Lions from the Mausoleum, then built into the walls of the Castle at Budrum.

Mr. Newton’s demands were surely not exorbitant; he suggested that a firman authorizing the removal of the Lions should be obtained from the Porte, declaring that the sum of £2,000, and the services of a ship-of-war, for at least six months, would be necessary to insure the success of the expedition. These suggestions were, without loss of time, acted upon, and H.M.’s ship “Gorgon,” commanded by Captain Towsey, was chartered, and she arrived at Budrum in the month of November, 1856.

It is unnecessary now to say that the finding of the ever famous tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus (Budrum) was an event of the first importance to Classical Archæology, or, what is better, that the recovery of part of the slabs of the frieze of this monument, along with other sculptures, was for the history of Greek sculpture in the age of Praxiteles and Scopas, of the same importance, as the marbles of the Parthenon for the history of sculpture in the time of Pheidias. Several of the slabs of the frieze from the Mausoleum had been obtained for the British Museum, through the late Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, some years previous to Mr. Newton’s expedition; but a comparison of them with the newly-recovered fragments at once shows how admirably the skill of the artist, lost and obliterated in the older slabs, had been preserved in Mr. Newton’s. It was not from the circumstances, perhaps, possible to affirm that this or that portion of the Sculptures was the work of Praxiteles, or of Scopas; but this at any rate could be said, that the Sculptures must be taken as works executed under the eyes of these artists, and, doubtless, greatly influenced by them. Here is what Mr. Newton says of them:—