BOOK II, he joined with NELSON in the vain endeavour to induce the CLASSICAL King to return to Naples, while that course was yet open ARCHEOLO GISTS AND FROM NAPLES. to him. a On the 10th of June, 1800, Sir William took his final DEPARTURE leave of Naples, which had been his home for thirtysix years, and where he had mingled in a departed world. In company with the Queen and three princesses, the HAMILTONS sailed in the Foudroyant for Leghorn, on their way to Vienna. A few days after the embarkation, fellow-passenger writes thus: Sir William HAMILTON Miss Knight appears broken, distressed, and harassed. He says that he shall die by the way, and he looks so ill that I should not be surprised if he did.' When the Admiral struck his flag (13th July) at Leghorn, the party set out for Vienna. Between Leghorn and Florence, Sir William's carriage met with an overturn, which increased his malady. At Trieste to Lady Berry, July 2, 1800. SIR WILLIAM LAST DAYS. the physicians were inclined to despair of his life. But he rallied sufficiently to reach England at last, and the change from turmoil to rest prolonged his life for two years to come. During the long interval between the acquisition of the first Hamilton Museum and the return of its Collector to his country, he had marked his interest in the national Collection by repeated and valuable gifts. To make yet one gift more—trivial, but possessing an historical interest-was one of his last acts. On the 12th of February, 1803, he sent to the British Museum a Commission given by the famous fisherman of Amalfi to one of his insurrectionary captains. On the 6th of April Sir William HAMILTON died, in London. He was buried at Milford Haven. The kindly heart had left many memorials of its quality at Naples. The ambassador had lost a part of his fortune. But many poor dependants, in his old home, enjoyed pen- BOOK 11, sions from his liberality. Chap. II. CLASSICAL ARCHEOLO GISTS AND NELSON, when writing to the Queen of the Two Sicilies upon the death of their common friend, made this remark EXPLORERS. on his testamentary arrangements :-The good Sir William did not leave Lady HAMILTON in such comfortable circumstances as his fortune would have allowed. He has given it amongst his relations. But she will do honour Nelson to the to his memory, although every one else of his friends calls Naples loudly against him on that account.' This comment, however, expresses rather a temporary feeling than a wise judgment. Sir William had settled a jointure of seven hundred pounds a year upon his widow. During the few months of life that yet remained to the great seaman himself, the highest encomium known to his vocabulary was to say, 'So-and-so was a great friend of Sir William HAMILTON.' Queen of (Nicolas, vol. iv, p. 51). THE INSTIEGYFT;' AND TUTE OF ITS RE SEARCHES SITIONS. As the British Museum owes one choice portion of its archæological treasures to the man who was NELSON'S type of friendship, so also it owes-indirectly-another portion of them to the man who was NELSON's favourite AND ACQUI aversion, and whose very name, in the Admiral's mind, served to sum up all that was most detestable. The Battle of the Nile, and the military operations which followed it in the after years, would have counted no antiquarian riches amongst their trophies, but for that ardent love of science in NAPOLEON which prompted him to plan the Institute of Egypt' as an essential part of the Campaign of Egypt. The intention with which the Institute of Egypt was founded embraced every kind of study and research. The scholars of whom it was composed included within their number men of the most varied powers. What they effected BOOK II, Chap. II. CLASSICAL ARCHEOLO GISTS AND was fragmentary, and yet their researches, directly or indi- In the end, the harvest was to France herself none the EXPLORERS. less abundant from the fact that NELSON's achievement, and what grew thereout, set Englishmen and Germans to work with increased vigour in the same field, and divided some of the tools. 1798-1801. Mémoires sur l'Egypt, passim. Scarcely had General BONAPARTE established the military power of the French Republic in Egypt, before he was employed in organizing the Institute at Cairo. Its declared object was twofold: (1) the increase and diffusion of learning in Egypt itself; (2) the examination, study, and publication, of the monuments of its history and of its natural phenomena, together with the elucidation and improvement of the natural and industrial capabilities of the country. The Institute was composed of thirty-six members, and was divided into four sections. The section with which alone we are here concerned-that of Literature, Arts, and History-was headed by DENON, and amongst its other members were DUTERTRE, PARSEVAL, and RIPAULT. Its labours began in 1798, and were continued, with almost unparalleled activity, until the summer of 1801, when the defeat of BELLIARD near Cairo, and the capitulation of MENOU at Alexandria, placed that part of the collections of the Institute which had not been already sent to France at the disposal of Lord HUTCHINSON. DENON, on his return from Upper Egypt to Cairo, said, with French vivacity, that if the active movements of the Mamelukes now and then forced an antiquary to become, in self-defence, a soldier, the antiquary was enabled, by way of balance and through the good nature and docility of the French troops, to turn a good many soldiers into antiquaries. Had it not been for this general sympathy and r Chap. II. ARCHEOLO GISTS AND readiness, one can hardly conceive that so much could have BOOK II, been accomplished, even under the eye of NAPOLEON, CLASSICAL amidst perils so incessant. The Description de l'Egypte is for France at large, no less than for NAPOLEON and the men whom he set to work, a monument which might well obliterate the momentary mortification attendant on the transfer to London of a part of the treasures of the Institute. History, ancient or modern, scarcely offers a parallel instance in which war was made to contribute results so splendid, both for the progress of science and for the eventual improvement of the invaded country. To the labours initiated by NAPOLEON, and partially carried out by the Institute of Egypt,' the ablest of the recent rulers of that land owe some of their best and latest inspirations. Nor is it a whit less true that the most successful of our English Egyptologists have followed the track in which Frenchmen led the way. Such results, indeed, can never suffice to justify an unprovoked invasion. But they illustrate, in a marvellous way, how temporary evil is wrought into enduring good. By the sixteenth article of the Capitulation of Alexandria, it was provided that the Members of the Institute of Egypt might carry back with them all instruments of science and art which they had brought from France, but that all collections of marbles, manuscripts, and other antiquities, together with the specimens of natural history and the drawings, then in the possession of the French, should be regarded as public property, and become subject to the disposal of the generals of the allied army. VENTION OF The Convention was made between General MENOU and THE CONGeneral HOPE, on the 31st of August, 1801. Against ALEXANthis sixteenth article MENOU made the strongest strances, but General HOPE declined to modify it, other remon DRIA. 1801, August. BOOK II, wise than by agreeing to make a reference, as to the precise extent to which it should be carried into actual effect, to ARCHEOLO Lord HUTCHINSON, as Commander-in-Chief. CLASSICAL GISTS AND EXPLORERS. THE NEGO TIATIONS VICES OF Between MENOU and HUTCHINSON there was a long correspondence. The French General declared that the Collections, both scientific and archæological, were private, not public property. The since famous Rosetta stone," for example, belonged, he said, to himself. Various members of the Institute claimed other precious objects; some alleged, with obvious force of argument, that the care bestowed on specimens of natural history made them the property of the collectors and preservers; others threatened to prefer the destruction or defacement of their collections, by their own hands, to the giving of them up to the English army. The correspondence was followed by several personal conferences between MENOU and Colonel (afterwards General) TURNER, in order to a compromise. TURNER, who was himself a man of distinguished knowledge and accomplishments, advised Lord HUTCHINSON to insist on the transfer of the Marbles and Manuscripts, and to yield the natural history specimens, with some minor objects, to the posThe astute Capitan Pasha had contrived to place himself in possession' of one of the most precious of the marbles the famous sarcophagus which Dr. CLARKE SO strenuously contended to be nothing less than the tomb of ALEXANDER by seizing the ship on board of which the French had placed it, and he gave Colonel TURNER almost as much trouble as MENOU himself had given. sessors. The French soldiers were, as was natural, deeply mortified when they heard that the captors of Alexandria were to have the antiquities. Every man of them who had had to do with their excavation or transport had vindicated |