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Education Committee. I

BOARD OF GUARDIANS. I o———

mmmm ———— Burry Port District…

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EUROPEAN POLITICS. I -0- I

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

EUROPEAN POLITICS. I -0- I TWO tTEWS. j i TIN FROM CORNWALL I We now deal with Cornwall as being the .-souice from whence the ancient Tyrians ob- tained their tin supplies. And as the Scrip- ture says that Tarshish was the source from whence Tyre obtained her tin supplies, we are thus able to identify the Scripture Tarshish with Britain. (The ultimate aim is to shew, the work of Britain in the world-startling -events near at hand and outlined to us in the sure word of .prophecy relating to the per- 5(mal.advent of Christ.) We quote again from the work Yefe rr-ed to in last article: Messrs Lysons, in their account of Corn- wall, in speaking of the trade carried on in < .ancient times with the Phoenicians, say:— 'Cornwall lias been celebrated for its tin mines from very remote antiquity. We learn from Strabo, Herodotus, and other ancient writers, that the P'hoeaicians, and after them the Greeks and Romans,-traded for tin to Cornwall, under the name of the Cassiterides, from a very remote period. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in the reign of Augustus, gives a particular description of the manner in which that -valuable metal was dug and prepared by the Britons.' Gold ornaments for the neck, similar to those found in Ireland, have been found in Cornwall. A circle. of brass, about six inches diameter, inlaid with gems and ornamented i with zigzag patterns, shaded with dots was found in a stream nook called Trenoueth in 1802. In Cornwall there are occasionally discovered fragments of ancient weapons and other in struments, and it is remarkable as sliowin their original owners, they are called celts, of > which the following is given from Lyson's CornwallCelts: the instruments of mixed(: metal, commonly called celts, apparently cast in imitation of the stone hatchets and chisels of the early inhabitants of our island, nearly j resembling those used, by the natives of the South Sea Islands, and in all probability ap- plied to the same uses, have been found in greater abundance in Cornwall than in any other pait, of the kingdom. In the parish of Lalant, four miles north of St. Michaal's? Mount, in the year 1802, a farmer discovered about two feet below th, surface of the earth a quantity of celts, weighing about fifteen pounds, with pieces of copper swords and heavy lumps of line copper, evidently brought thither for fusion; at the bottom of the soc- ket of one of the celts were some small bars I of gold, none of them thicker than a straw. Another large quantity of celts, with spear- heads and broken pieces of copper swoTds, with several lumps of metal, weighing alto- gether about eighty pounds, were discovered 'in the parish of St. Hilary, about the year 1800." "By corn paring these relies with the ancient aTlllour of the Greeks, described by Homer in the Iliad, we shall find they are in metal, and manufactured the same. Their arms and ar- mour are commonly of hrass-the same, mixed metal as the celts Occasionally they were adorned with gems, and shaded like the orna- ment found in Cornwall in 1802 THE MEANING OF BRITAIN. The similitude which exists between the arms of the Greeks and the relics found in Britain can only be accounted for upon the supposition that there existed s, communica- tion with the Mediterranean Sea, and that the same civilization which was cultivated in Greece and its neighbouring nations was con- veyed to Britain, and maintained by constant intercourse regularly kept up by the Pliceiii- cian merchants. All history—and traditions older than history—point to them as the chan- nel through which civilisation flowed in upon. these islands. The names of the islands and of the metals speak the same language, and confirm the truth of historical and other evi- dence. Dr. Rees, in his' Cyclopaedia, says: 'In the Chaldee language the name of tin signi-f ties slime, mud. or dirt. And when the Phoenicians came into Cornwall and saw this metal iu its ancient slimy state, they called it. the mud, and hence some hayo said the name of tin—in Cornu—British stean is de- >• rived.' This metal, named cassituos by the Greeks, fnd to which Aristotle hae applied' the epithet Xeitetron, or Celtic, indicates plainly the country from which it was pro- cured. In the Syriac language, varatanae, or baratmae, signifies 'land of tin.' from which the name of Britain is supposed to be derived. MOSES AND BRASS. I Had iron been used in the time of Moses it I is singular that it should have be-en omitted in constructing1 the tabernacle. The only metals employed were gold, silver, and brass. The latter w as extensively used for rings and pins, hooks, sockets, and all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels; and the basons, and the flesh hooks, and the fire-pans: all the vessels thereof he made wjth brass" 'Ex. xxxviii ). From whence could the Egyp- t utns (from whom the Hebrews in the time of Moses obtained their metals) and anc,.iei-it, :I Greeks have obtained all the brass which we find to have been so commonly employed for domestic arts and martial arms,—from the East, or from the West? Dr. Vincent, in his treatise on the Com- merce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, says, that "tin is mentioned as an import into Africa, Arabia, Scindi, and the coast of Malaba. It continued an article of Commerce brought out of Britain, in all ages, conveyed to all the countries in the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians, Greeks and I Romans, and carried into the Eastern Oceans from the. origin of commerce." Thus it appears that the ancients obtained all their tin, and consequently aU their brass from Britaiu; and as far as history can be traced, its testimony seems to establish such a conclusion. If we examine the Scriptures we find EZJkiel (xxvii. 12) recounting amidst the merchants of Tyre—" Tarsliish was thy merchant—by reason of the multitude of an kinds of riches: with silver, iron, tin, and lead." Was thi" Tarshish hi the East or in the West?" (To be continued, God willing.)

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