In attempting to trace the earliest commerce of the world, it would appear that manufactures formed a considerable part, and, admitting that by "of blue, and of scarlet, and of purple," were meant woollens of those colours, they are distinctly stated; but with a view of giving Dean Prideaux's account of ancient commerce, it will be useful to copy a great part of that most important chapter on the trade of Tyre, from Ezekiel, 27th chapter :

1. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

2. Now thou, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus. 3. And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.

should be pointed out with so much care as a suitable offering upon God's altar, was it not distinctly understood what sheep and what tail was intended. The directions indicate that the fat-tailed sheep were usually offered in sacrifice, if the flocks of the Hebrews were not wholly composed of them. This species is particularly abundant in Syria and Palestine, equalling or out-numbering the common Bedouin species. Even the latter, though in other respects much resembling the common English sheep, is distinguished by a larger or thicker tail than any British species possesses. But the tail of the species peculiarly called fat-tailed, seems to exceed all reasonable bounds, and has attracted the attention of all travellers from the time of Herodotus to our own. Those tails, or rather tails loaded on each side with enormous masses of fat, are often one-fourth the weight of the whole carcase, when divested of head, intestines, and skin. The tail seem to attain the largest size in the countries with which the Hebrews were most conversant; for in countries more eastward, we never saw them quite so large as the largest of those described by Dr. Russell, in his Natural History of Aleppo. He says that a common sheep of this sort, weighed, without offal, 60 or 70 lbs., of which the tail usually weighed 50 lbs. or upwards; but he adds that such as are of the larger breeds, and have been fattened well, sometimes weigh 150 lbs. the tail 50 lbs. These last very large sheep are kept in yards, where they are in no danger of injuring their tails, but in some places where they feed in the fields, the shepherds sometimes affix a thin piece of board to the underpart of the tail to prevent it being torn by the bushes or thickets, as it is covered underneath with thick wool like the upper part: sometimes the board is furnished with small wheels to enable the sheep to drag it along more easily. The mutton of these sheep is good, and the fat of the tail is the most grateful animal fat the writer ever tasted; it is rich and marrowy, and is never eaten alone, but it is mixed up in many dishes with lean meat, and in various ways employed as a substitute for butter and oil. The standing oriental dish, boiled rice, is peculiarly palatable when lubricated with fat from the tail of this remarkable species of sheep. Viewed in its various applications, the tail is an article of great use and delicacy and could be no unworthy offering.”—Extracted from a note in the Pictorial Bible.

4. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

5. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.

6. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars: the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.

7. Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.

8. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.

9. The ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof, were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.

10. They of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut, were in thine army thy men of war; they hanged the shield and helmet in thee they set forth thy comeliness.

11. The men of Arvad, with thine army, were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.

12. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.

13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.

14. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses, and horsemen, and mules.

15. The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony,

16. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.

17. Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants; they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.

18. Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

19. Dan also and Javan, going to and fro, occupied in thy fairs; bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.

20. Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots. 21. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats; in these were they thy merchants.

22. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.

23. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.

24. These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. 25. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market; and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst

of the seas.

26. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.

33. When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches, and of thy merchandise.

And

Ezek. xxviii. 12. Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

From this description of the trade of Tyre, an opinion can be formed of its vast extent, and the great variety of merchandise sold there. White wool and blue cloths are distinctly mentioned; and it may be inferred that they, as well as other manufactures, would form part of the investments of David and Solomon in the trade with Ophir and Tarshish.

FROM DEAN PRIDEAUX'S CONNECTION OF the old and new TESTAMENTS, ON THE ANCIENT COMMERCE OF THE EAST.

"Ahaz continuing hardened in his iniquity, notwithstanding all which he had suffered for the punishment of it, would not seek the Lord his God, or return unto him from his evil ways; but putting his confidence rather in man, pillaged the temple of all the gold and silver that was found therein, and sent it to Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, to engage him to come to his assistance against his enemies, promising thereon to become his servant and to pay tribute to him.

"The king of Assyria having an opportunity hereby offered unto him, of adding Syria and Palestine to his empire, readily laid hold of the invitation, and marched with a great army into those parts, where, having slain Rezin in battle, he took Damascus, and reduced all that country under his dominion. And hereby he put an end to the kingdom of the Syrians in Damascus, after it had lasted there for ten generations, i.e. from the time of Rezin, the son of Eliadah (1 Kings ii. 23. 25.) who first founded it, while Solomon was king over Israel.

"After this, Tiglath Pileser (2 Kings xvi) marched against Pekah, and seized all that belonged to Israel beyond Jordan, and also all the land of Galilee, and then went forward towards Jerusalem; but rather to get more money from Ahaz than to afford him any real help. For he assisted him not for the recovery of any of those places which had been taken from him during the war, either by the Philistines, Edomites, or other enemies; but when he had got from him all that he could, (for the raising of which Ahaz cut the vessels of the temple into pieces, and melted them down), he marched back to Damascus, and there wintered, without doing any thing more for him. So that in reality he was rather distressed, than any way helped by this alliance, the land being almost as much exhausted by the presents and subsidies which were extorted from him by his pretended friend and ally, as it was by the ravages and pillages of his open enemies. And moreover, two lasting mischiefs followed thereon. For

"1. Instead of two petty princes, whom he had afore for his neighbours, and with either of which he was well able to cope, he had now this mighty king for his borderer,

against whom no power of the land was sufficient to make any resistance, and the ill effect thereof both Israel and Judah did afterwards sufficiently feel, for it became at length to both of them the cause of their destruction.

"2. From this time the Jews were excluded all their traffic into the southern sea, which had hitherto been one of the chiefest foundations of their riches.

"This had been long carried on through the Red Sea and the Straits of Babelmandel, not only to the coasts of Africa on the west, but also to those of Arabia, Persia, and India on the east, and reaped a prodigious profit. King David was the first (about 1040 years before Christ) who began it; for having (2 Sam. viii. 14.) conquered the kingdom of Edom, and reduced it to a province of his empire, he thereby became master of the two seaports on the Red Sea, Elath and Esiongeber (1 Kings, ix. 26.) which then belonged to that kingdom; and seeing the advantage which might be made of the situation of these two places, he wisely took the benefit of it, and thereby begun his traffic.

"There are two places mentioned in scripture to and from whence it was carried on, that is Ophir and Tarshish. From the former of them, David in his time drew great profit. The three thousand talents of gold of Ophir, which is said (1 Chron. xxix. 4.) to have been given to the house of God, seem to be of that gold of Ophir which he himself had by his fleets, on several voyages, brought to him from thence; for what he had reserved for this work out of the spoils of war, the tributes of the conquered nations, and the public revenues of his kingdom is before mentioned, (Chron. xxiv. 14.) and amounted to a prodigious sum.*

"The three thousand talents of the gold of Ophir which he added, was over and above this, and out of his own proper goods or private estate, which he had besides what belonged

* This sum is so prodigious as gives reason to think that the talents whereby that sum is reckoned, were another sort of talents of far less value than the Mosaic talents, for what is said to be given by David (1 Chron. xxii, 14-16, and xxix, 3-5.) and contributed by his princes, (xxix, 6-8.) towards the building of the temple at Jerusalem, if valued by those talents, exceeded the value of eight hundred millions of our money, which was enough wherewith to have built all the temple of solid silver.