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member of Cacoban's Cabinet, opposes it in every way, thwarts and impedes its every action, and encourages resistance to its authority.

If England would boldly assume the sovereignty of the Fijis, we should very shortly witness the extinction of the slavetrade, and the cessation of the native feuds, the civilization and settlement of the islands, the spread of the Christian religion, and the protection and welfare of the British subject. Had she accepted the offer made her in 1859, the South.

Seas might have been spared the horrors and atrocities perpetrated by British manstealers. The bulk of the white population would now gladly see her assume the sovereignty. Neither Cacoban nor his natives can feel very strongly about their Constitution or the Ministry of the day; and the Pacific Islanders would find established in their midst a power which would protect right by might.

EDWIN GORDON BLACKMORE. House of Assembly, Adelaide.

IVORIES, ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL. -The [are of the utmost rarity. The British Museum earliest carvings on ivory extant are those found fortunately possesses several examples which in the caves of Le Monstier and La Madelaine may fairly be considered the work of Greek artin the Dordogne, consisting of fragments of ists. Early Roman specimens are also exmammoth ivory and reindeer's bone incised or tremely scarce. The South Kensington Museum carved with representations of various animals. has a plaque of the second century, part of a cup, These were probably executed, says Sir John representing a sacrificial procession; and one Lubbock, at "a time so remote that the rein- leaf of a Roman diptych of the third century (the deer was abundant in the south of France, and other portion being in the museum of the Hotel probably even the mammoth had not entirely de Cluny), upon which a priestess is shown disappeared." Of course the celebrated Egypt-standing before an altar, sprinkling incense in a ian and Assyrian ivories in the British Museum fire kindled upon it. In the Mayer Museum, at are modern compared with these. There are Liverpool, two leaves of a diptych are preexamples in that collection of the time of Mo-served, upon which Esculapius and Hygieia ses, or 1800 B.C. Fifty Assyrian ivories, also are carved. These fine examples are probably there, show the characteristics of the art at that of the third century. The following remarks period. When sent to England by Mr. Layard, by Mr. Maskell will show the interest and imthey were in a state of decay, but the decompo-portance of mediæval ivories:-"From the midsition was arrested, at the suggestion of Profes- dle of the fourth century down to the end of the sor Owen, by boiling them in a solution of gela-sixteenth, we have an unbroken chain of examtine. The various substances included under the term ivory are the tusk of the elephant, the walrus, narwhal, and hippopotamus. To these we must add the fossil ivory, so often used in early carvings. This was obtained from Siberia, where the tusks of the mammoth are found along the banks of the large rivers. It is a curious fact that the largest tusks of ivory now procured would not furnish pieces as large as those which were used in the Middle Ages. There is every probability that the ancients softened the ivory, and could then enlarge the pieces. A fifteenthcentury recipe in the British Museum directs that the ivory should be placed in muriatic acid, and it will become as soft as wax. By being placed in white vinegar, it hardens again. The Greeks used ivory to decorate their couches, and also shields and arms. Greek sculptors did not think it beneath them to work in the substance. Pausanias has left us an account of some of these early statues which he saw on his travels, among them an ivory statue of Venus, at Megara, by Praxiteles; one of Hebe, by Naucydes; an ivory and gold example, the work of Phidias, at Elis; and the coffer which the Cypselide sent as an offering to Olympia, c. 600 B.C. Ivories of this period

ples, still existing. Individual pieces may, perhaps, in many instances be of questionable origin as regards the country of the artist, and sometimes with respect to the exact date within fifty, or even a hundred years. But there is no doubt whatever that, increasing in number as they come nearer to the middle ages, we can refer to carved ivories of every century preserved in museums in England and abroad. Their importance with reference to the history of art can not be overrated. There is no such continuous chain in manuscripts or mosaics, or gems or enamels. Perhaps, with the exception of manuscripts, there never was in any of these classes so large a number executed, nor the demand for them so great. The material itself, or the decorations by which other works were surrounded, very probably tempted people to destroy them; and we may thank the valueless character of many a piece of carved ivory, except as a work of art, for its preservation to our own days." The word diptych means anything doubled or folded, and, among the ancients, referred to tablets upon which wax was spread for writing. A diptych was in two portions, a triptych in three, and the outer portions of the leaves were orna mented with carving. — Chambers' Journal.

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