EXCAVATIONS IN HERCULANEUM.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 520, 18 May 1869, Page 4

EXCAVATIONS IN HERCULANEUM.

" the Athemeum)) £' " ? |f Na?ibs, Feb. 10. ,F*ave s^me interesting intelligence to coTnmtiiuca|e. On Moncjay last the King paid an unexpected visit to Herculaneum, and made arrangements, for the immediate commencement or recommencement of the excavations of that rioji treasury of antique art. His Majesty was accompanied by his Ministers, and by the Commendatore Fiorblli, who ha 3so long and so ably directed the excavations of Southern Italy, and who is now reorganising the M'iseum "in such a way as to render it one of the moat precious monuments of Italy. Of course the subterranean threatre was brilliantly lit ; but the attention of the King was directed principally to what has been long a desideratum, the disinterment of treasures of incalculable value. You will remember that several years since I announced that all difficulties had been surmounted, and that only the completion of the formalities by the appropriation of some garden was needed to commence operations ; but year after year has passed away, and Herculaneum has fallen into oblivion. The story, I believe, is as follows : — The garden belonged to a priest, ! who begged hard for his bit of ground, saying that he would soon die if it were taken from him. The publio service,, however, was alleged as the necessity .for action ; proceedings were commenced, the ground was alienated after the long and tedious deliberation of the tribunala, and the Directory put in possession of the land." The poor priest soon died after. But there was no money to pay for the excavations, and it is just this which his Majesty has supplied out of his own purse. He has promised to give for this purpose 6000 lire annually for five years, " and if anything more be wanting," he said to Fiorelli, " you may apply to me !" The Director then offered " the King a small spade. " What ! must I work too ?" said he, and struck the spade into the ground, so that the excavations may be said to have commenced, not only under the auspices, but with the hand labor of Victor Emmanuel. The facts are more especially interesting,, as they show that the warrior King, whose life has been and still is one of continued political agitation, is uo less the patron of art. It ia forty years since this mine of wealth was worked, or rather since the works in it were suspended. How great a revolution in taste the beautiful objects found in Herculaneum produced the world well knows, an influence which has not yet ceased to exist. We all antipate fresh discoveries eagerly, and I shall probably have to record many " eurekas" which will make your mouth water. The' ground to be worked is a continuation of the present long line of street or streets in the direction of thesep f After the oeremony of inauguration, if so may be called the plunging of a spade into the soil by Royal hands, the Marchesa Gualterio, Master of the Household, made a short address, winding up by reading the decree which appears in to-day's papers. The Bourbons declared the Museum and all that was found in the excavations to be the private property of tho Crown, by Royal decree. Victor Emmanuel, on the contrary, commences his decree in thefol> ing all great national designs, and to guard the decorum of whatever forms the secular patrimony of the glories of Italy, we have decreed, and do decree," &a The contrast between the two decrees marks the difference between an absolute and a constitutional Sovereign,