After being encamped for ten days at the foot of the Babylonian Mound of the Kasr, employed in a careful examination of the great mass of the ruins and the surrounding topography, I took advantage of the first break in the weather to pay a flying visit to the Birs-Nimrud, where excavations had been carried on for above two months, under my directions and on account of the British Museum, by an intelligent youngman, M. Joseph Tonietti by name, with a view of ascertaining the general features of thebuilding, and thus finally disposing of the many difficult questions connected with this remarkable ruin. Crossing the river at the village of Anana, a ride of three hours and a quarter brought our small party, which consisted of Dr. Hyslop, the Rev. Mr. Leacroft, and myself, to the spot in question. We found our tents already pitched at the camp, or village, which our labourers had formed a short distance to the north of the mound, but without alighting we proceeded on at once to inspect the excavations. That day was consumed in making a careful inspection of the various works in progress, and in endeavouring to realize and restore a general plan of the original building from a comparison of the various sections of exterior wall, and interior strata of brickwork, which had been laid bare by the vertical and horizontal trenches now seaming the mound.

The last number of the Society's Journal (Vol. xvii, part 2) winch has been very recently issued, has appended to it a Memoir, by Sir H. Rawlinson, on the inscribed cylinders discovered by him at Birs Nimrud.

This very curious inscription was discovered by the traveller Michaux in the ruins of a palace on the banks of the Tigris, one day's journey below Bagdad, not far from the site of the ancient Ctesipbon. It was brought by him to Paris, where it is now preserved. It was published many years ago in a little work entitled “Notice des Monumens du Cabinet du Roi,” where it occupies two plates. A note (p. 71) informs us that these are taken from Millin's “Monumens inédits,” 2 vols. 4to. Paris, 1802. This copy, though rudely executed, is tolerably exact, and is creditable to the work in which it appeared.

In the year 1856 I printed, not for publication but for private distribution, a few pages entitled “Assyrian Texts Translated,” of which I did myself the honour to present a copy to the Royal Asiatic Society. It commenced by a translation of Bellino's, Cylinder, as represented at plate 63 of the first volume of inscriptions published by the British Museum, in several parts of which, however, the cuneiform signs are very incorrectly and confusedly represented. Most of these imperfect parts I omitted, though of some I attempted a translation.

The matter of the ensuing essay may be regarded as two-fold. First, we undertake to vindicate the chronology of Ptolemy's Canon for the first 212 years of that table of reigns at Babylon; that is to say, from the first of Nabonassar to the third year of the nine which the table gives to Cyrus. Next, we propose to show that Nineveh was taken, and, with that capital, the proper Assyrian empire was overthrown, by the Babylonians and Medes, iu the year B.C. 608. In connection with this latter subject are treated several important historical topics; the expeditions of Nekho, king of Egypt, first, in B.C. 609, against the falling Assyrian, and, secondly, in B.C. 605, against the growing Babylonian power; the complete establishment of the Babylonian supremacy by Nebukhadrezzar, in the years from B.C. 606 to B.C. 604; the true relationship, unconsciously attested by Herodotus, between the Medes and the Scythians for twenty-eight years; that is, as will be shown, for twenty-two years before and for six years after the fall of Nineveh; the true dimensions of the war which, according to Herodotus, Cyaxares, king of the Medes, waged with Alyattes, king of the Lydians; the entire trustworthiness of Herodotus's Median chronology; and, a criticism showing the probable Herodotean date of the conquest of Crcesus and his Lydians by the Medes under Cyrus the Persian.

In March, 1857, the Royal Asiatic Society received from Mr. Fox Talbot, in a sealed, packet, a translation of a Cuneiform inscription on a cylinder, bearing the name of Tiglath Pileser; the first of the inscriptions lithographed under the superintendence of Sir Henry Rawlinson by authority of the Trustees of the British Museum under the sanction of the Government. The object of Mr. Talbot in sending his translation in this manner to the Society is best explained by the following note, with which the packet was accompanied:—

The subject of this Memoir was born in the year 1779. He was the fourth son of the eleventh Lord Elphinstone, by Anna, daughter of Lord Buthven. The Elphinstone family is one of great antiquity in Scotland, and many of its members took a considerable part in the political events of their times. It maybe sufficient, as connected with the present sketch, to mention that Mr. Elphinstone's father was a General Officer in the British army, was for some time Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and sat for several Parliaments as one of the representative peers of Scotland; also, that several of his relations were connected about the middle of the last century with the trade and settlements in the East. Mr. Elphinstone's uncle, Mr. Fullerton Elphinstone, was, for many years, a Director of the East India Company; and to this circumstance we may attribute the destination of Mr. Elphinstone, and one of his brothers, to the Civil Service of India.

The second Indian embassy to Rome was the consequence of an accident. Pliny tells the story thus. A freedman of one Annius Plocamus, while in the Red Sea collecting the tolls and customs farmed of Claudius by his patron, was caught in a gale of wind, driven past Carmania, and on the fifteenth day carried into Hippuros, a port of Ceylon. Here, though his ship with its contents seems to have been seized and confiscated to the king's use, he himself was kindly and hospitably treated. In six months' time he learned the language. Admitted to familiar intercourse with the king, in answer to his questions he told him of Rome and of Cæsar. In these conversations and from some denarii which had been found in the Roman ship, and which from the heads upon them had evidently been coined at different times and by different persons, and which nevertheless were all of the same weight, the Singhalese monarch learned to appreciate Roman justice. He became desirous of forming an alliance with Rome, and to that purpose sent over one Rachias with three other ambassadors to Claudius. And from their statements Pliny intimates that he derived that fuller and more accurate information with respect to Ceylon which he has embodied in his Natural History.

I beg leave to send a few Addenda et Corrigenda to my paper on Assyrian Inscriptions, which hare occurred to me on subsequent consideration. And I have added a fuller explanation of some words which I had omitted for the sake of brevity.

The Coles inhabit a great extent of country. In former times they possessed the whole of Chota-Nagpore, which may now be said to be divided between them and the Dhangars or Ouraons, who came from Rotasghur. The chief men in most of the villages are still however of the old Moonda or Cole tribe, and they do not intermarry with the Dhangars. The greater part of Singhboom is inhabited by Coles, and we find them numerous in Bamanghotty, and dispersed to the vicinities of Cuttack and Midnapore. The Lurka Coles, as they are termed, inhabit those extensive tracts as yet but little known, which go under the name of the Colekans. Part of these wilds is situated iri the Singhboom district, and the inhabitants pay a nominal obedience to the Maharajah of that province, but the greater proportion of this population is more under the influence of the Rajah of Mokurburj than of any of the other powerful chiefs in that part of the country. But even his orders are obeyed only where they are supposed to tend to the advantage of the Coles themselves. Upon the whole it may be said of this singular people that, living in a primeval and patriarchal manner under their Moondas and Mankies, they have managed to preserve a sort of savage independence, making themselves dreaded and feared by their more powerful and civilized neighbours. They have always been ready to fly to arms at the call of any enterprising and desperate adventurer.

So many attempts have been made to restore the original chronology of Manetho from the list of kings which have been transmitted to us, on his authority, by Africanus, Eusebius, and others, that it will naturally be considered presumptuous in any one to make a new attempt. And yet, even as respects the new kingdom, the attempts that have been hitherto made, are very unsatisfactory; and we find them to be at variance both with the chronology of the Assyrian Inscriptions, of Ptolemy's Canon, and of the 2nd Book of Kings,—all of which are in perfect harmony with one another. Even so late as the 25th, or Ethiopian dynasty, we find Lepsius and Bunsen opposed to one another. The cause of all these failures,—for such I consider all the attempts at restoring the true chronology which have hitherto been made to be,—I believe to be an unsound method of criticising the lists that have come down to us; and I ascribe the success, which I flatter myself I have attained, to my proceeding in a way which, so far as I am aware, is wholly new.

I have the honour to transmit to you, for presentation to the Society, two sheets containing collectively 143 symbols of Buddhism, whereof the first 33, occupying the two uppermost lines, are taken from coins published in the J.R.A.S., but all the rest from the Saugata temples and imáges of the Valley of Nepal. To these sketches of Buddhist symbols I add six separate ones of celebrated characters, either belonging to, or most closely connected with, the same creed, and which also were obtained in Nepal, the four first from images in stone; the two last from illuminated manuscripts. The numismatic symbols, presumably Buddhist, were brought together, from printed sources, many years back, with the view of obtaining explanations of their import from the learned Saugatas of Nepal; and with the same view, everything in the shape of a symbol, which my immense collection of drawings taken from the temples, statues, and pictures of Buddhism in Nepal, contained, was similarly brought together and added to the former series. Of the result I have no distinct recollection at this distance of time; but I believe that more pressing objects intervened to shut out from my view and memory this project, and that no explanations were obtained.

Shahin-Ghiray, the author of the ingenious ode here given, was the last khan of the Crimea, having been reinstated for a short time before the Empress Catherine the Second declared the annexation of the country to her own dominions.

In accepting the invitation of a friend to read you a paper on the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial resources of India, I wish to explain that during my short residence there of seven years—for seven years is but a short time for learning muchof that country—my attention was devoted almost exclusively to this subject, andas I carried out with me a practical knowledge of public works, their adaptation to particular purposes, their forms and cost, and their utility in developing the resources of a country, I feel some confidence in my ability to speak to the purpose of these coarse and material yet important affairs—important, because they affect not merely the physical comforts and enjoyments of a people, but also their moral and intellectual condition; the material prosperity of a man providing him not merely with food, clothing, andshelter, but also leisure, and its necessary adjuncts, for the promotion of his mental and social enjoyments. I have, therefore, accepted the invitation of my friend, not willingly alone, but gladly, partly from my having devoted much time to these affairs, but more especially as my strongest passion on any public question is the desire to promote the welfare of the people of India, particularly that of the predial classes, of whose simplicity of character, truthfulness, and honesty I have received the most favourable impressions.