for building a new structure on the Thames Embankment between the Temple and Blackfriars Bridge. Mr. Hunt, land valuer to the Treasury, when going over the Mint with Mr. Fremantle, found that the total area is about five acres, of which nearly one-half is let to Sir Anthony Rothschild, as a refinery for the precious metals. The sale of the site, Mr. Hunt estimated, would produce money enough for a new site, new buildings, and new machinery : insomuch that the change would be no expense whatever to the public. The Government would require 180,000l. to do all that is necessary on the Embankment; but he had no misgivings that this and even more would not be realised by the sale of the property on Tower Hill.

In 1870 a letter was addressed by the Treasury to the First Commissioner of Works, stating in some detail the reasons for the proposed change, and requesting him to prepare a Bill for this purpose, to be introduced into Parliament the next following ses. sion. In 1871 a Committee of the Commons decided in favour of the Bill. Mr. Fremantle, in evidence before the Committee, stated that the present buildings are so scattered as to render supervision difficult; that there are twenty-five residences for officials within the walls; that two or three would be quite sufficient; that the spot is 3 miles 330 yards from the Treasury, and 1 mile 480 yards from the Bank of England-whereas the new site would be only 1 mile 113 yards from the Treasury and 1,460 yards from the Bank. Five stations on the District Railway would be found very convenient for going to and fro between the new Mint, the Bank of England, and the Treasury. Mr. Lowe was Chancellor of the Exchequer at that time, and about that time also the Chancellor assumed the functions of Master of the Mint, leaving the practical superintendence to the Deputy Master. He warmly advocated the new scheme; nevertheless the Bill was thrown out. Many inhabitants of Whitefriars feared that the coining processes would contaminate the atmosphere. Mr. Roberts, the Mint chemist, however, clearly explained that there is nothing deleterious in the operations. Refining, it is true, gives off poisonous fumes; but the precious metals are refined before they reach the Mint. Refining is absolutely necessary, to get rid of the small percentages of arsenic, antimony, lead, and bismuth which nearly always accompany unrefined gold; one ounce of any of these would render 2,000 ounces of gold too brittle for coining. But, as we have said, none of the refining processes are, or are to be, conducted within the walls of the Mint; they are managed for, not by, the establishment.

Again and again was the attempt repeated. In 1872 a Bill for a new Mint was thrown out, and another in 1873. In 1874, when a new Government came into office, Mr. Fremantle (the really responsible official for everything at the Mint) put in an earnest plea for the new buildings. Another Bill was brought in, but only advanced to a second reading. In that year an entire cessation of coining for twelve weeks resulted from a breakdown of some of the old machinery. Another and more serious breakdown, in 1876, occasioned no less than five months' cessation of operations. Fortunately a large mintage of gold had just been completed, else the consequences might have been serious; the Bank of England might possibly have been unable fully to meet the demands made upon it by the public for gold in exchange for notes. The responsible heads of departments at the Mint urge that there ought to be double sets of machines to make provision for either set being disabled; but that it is not worth while doing this in the present buildings.

In 1876 another Bill was introduced in Parliament; but a difficulty arose about obtaining possession of the new site, and the Bill had to be withdrawn. Foreign affairs have since then absorbed so much public attention that the new Mint scheme has gone pretty well out of sight, and the Deputy Master has appealed to the Government in vain. In his latest report (June, 1879), Mr. Fremantle adverted to the hitch that has checked the progress of the negotiations, and thrown a cloud over his anticipations. In a country like France, such a hitch would hardly have presented itself; the Government having much more direct control than in England in all these matters. It occurred between the First Commissioner of Works, the Metropolitan Board, and the City Corporation, respecting the acquisition of the site; and he somewhat mournfully adds, "I do not propose again to dwell upon the insufficiency and obsolete nature of the machinery of the present Mint, to which attention has been called in many former reports; nor need I urge upon their Lordships the necessity, which they have uniformly recognized, of putting an end to the difficulties by which the department has for many years been surrounded, and which have so greatly impaired its efficiency." We may be pretty certain that, notwithstanding all the present obstacles, this very desirable public improvement will eventually be carried into effect. It is not creditable to us that England should be behind many foreign countries, and even colonies, in the perfection of her Mint machinery. GEORGE DODD.

24

CYPRUS.

THE following brief sketch of the island of Cyprus is intended merely as a summary of the past history and the present capabilities of the most recent addition to England's dependencies. The space available is too limited for more than a mere outline of facts; and anything else would indeed be superfluous, seeing that so much has been written on the subject by many able men, some of whom have spent a large portion of their life in the island, and have devoted much patient research to the study of its past and present condition.

Cyprus is believed to be the island referred to in the Bible as Chittim, and this idea is strengthened by the name of the ancient capital-Citium, now Larnaka. The expression "Isles of Chittim" in the Old Testament seems, however, to have been applied to the countries of Europe generally, perhaps so named because Cyprus was the nearest island to the Holy Land, and thus, as the best known, gave its name to other lands situated beyond it. Various derivations for the modern name, Cyprus, are given by different writers, the chief authorities deriving it from some of the natural products of the island. Thus some see its origin in the shrub Lawsonia inermis, in Hebrew gopher, Greek Kúpos, Latin cyprus, which grows abundantly in the island, and from which the dye "henna," used by Eastern women for their hair, eyebrows, and for the tips of their fingers, is made. By others it is considered to be derived from the Latin cuprum (whence the French cuivre, German kupfer, and English copper). It is certain that copper mines were worked in the island at a very early date, but it is as probable that both plant and metal may have derived their names from the island where they were found in such plenty as that it was named after them. This latter conjecture is somewhat strengthened by the term χαλκὸς Κύπριος, or Aes Cyprium (Cyprian bronze), which is frequently used by ancient writers, and from which it seems probable that the name of the metal copper was really derived.

Although we have no clear accounts of the earliest inhabitants of Cyprus, most modern writers are of opinion that they were of Semitic origin, and that they gave to the island its first name, Kittim or Chittim. However this may be, we have abundant evidence that the Phoenicians traded with the island and founded colonies there at a very early date, probably as early as

the thirteenth century B.C. They also introduced the worship of the goddess Ashtaroth or Astarte, almost identical with the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus. Cyprus was for many years famous for the worship of this goddess, and the ruins of many temples dedicated to her have been discovered. According to tradition, she was born from the froth of the waves at a spot on the seashore between Larnaka and Limasol, where the sea is constantly breaking and dashing up in white foam. Signor Corrodi exhibited lately in London, in his interesting collection of sketches in Cyprus, a picture illustrating this spot and the legend. According to other traditions, the first Greek settlements in Cyprus were founded by the Trojan heroes; but, as it is considered by many that the celebrated war of Troy was itself a myth, this does not give us any clue to the real date of their foundation; they are known, however, to have existed side by side with the Phoenician colonies, and the two languages seem to have long remained distinct, the only point in common between the two races being the worship of the goddess Astarte. During this period the Phoenicians appear to have introduced, as they did wherever they went, civilisation and certain arts and manufactures, while the Greeks established themselves by degrees as the military and administrative chiefs.

In addition to the Phoenician and Greek languages, there existed also a Cypriote language. Coins and tablets have been found with inscriptions in this ancient tongue, which have been the cause of much speculation and research on the part of antiquaries. A tablet with an inscription in two languages, Phonician and Cypriote, was discovered, in 1868, by Mr. Lang, who, with Mr. G. Smith, of the British Museum, succeeded in proving that the Cypriote language had great affinity with the Lycian, and that some of the letters in the two alphabets were identical.

Cyprus appears to have owed allegiance and paid tribute successively, with but occasional intervals of independence, to the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Persians; and in the reign of Xerxes we already hear of the importance of the island as a naval power, for Herodotus tells us (VII, 90) that “ Cyprus supplied 150 vessels to the Persian fleet under Xerxes." At the same time each of the principal cities in the island was governed by a king; of these there were ten or eleven, the King of Salamis being generally the chief. The island was wrested from Persia by Alexander the Great, but after his death it was conquered by Ptolemy, King of Egypt, and remained a valued possession of

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the Egyptian monarchs until B.C. 58 it was created a Roman province. Cyprus was one of the first places into which Christianity was introduced by St. Paul, and several bishoprics were established there. In 117 A.D. there occurred a memorable revolt of the Jews, who massacred 240,000 of the other inhabitants; this revolt was at last suppressed, and all Jews banished from the island under pain of death.

The division of the Roman Empire at length caused Cyprus to pass into the hands of the Byzantine Emperors, and with the exception of brief intervals during which it was successively governed by the Arabs and Greeks, it remained in their hands until near the end of the twelfth century. In 1184 Isaac Comnenus, a nephew of the reigning Byzantine Emperor, succeeded, by means of forged letters, in obtaining possession of the island and shortly afterwards proclaimed himself Emperor of Cyprus. Under his misgovernment the prosperity of the island continued to diminish, and in the year 1191, in consequence of the ill-treatment of the crews of some English vessels wrecked on the island on their way to the Crusades, and the endeavours of Isaac to make a prisoner of the Princess Berengaria of Navarre, the affianced bride of King Richard Cœur de Lion, Cyprus was invaded and captured by the English, and King Richard was married at Limasol to the Princess Berengaria. But Richard did not care long to retain possession of the island, and sold it after a few months to the Knights Templar, whose tenure, was, however, but brief. Cyprus then passed, partly by sale and partly by gift, into the possession of Guy de Lusignan, titular King of Jerusalem, the founder of the Lusignan dynasty, which continued to govern Cyprus for nearly three hundred years (1192-1489), with the exception of Famagusta, which was for upwards of ninety years in the possession of the Genoese.

In 1489, Catherine of Cornaro-widow of the King, Jacques II, and daughter of a wealthy Venetian-abdicated in favour of the Venetian Republic, and Cyprus remained in their hands until the year 1570, when the Turks invaded it, and landed a very large force under Mustapha Pasha, accompanied by a powerful fleet. The Turks soon reduced the whole island to subjection, with the exception of the capital, Nicosia, and Famagusta. Nicosia succumbed after a siege of only forty-five days, and its capture was the signal for scenes of violence, bloodshed, and robbery. Famagusta was now the only stronghold left to Venice; the fortress was commanded by the gallant Governor