PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

ALTHOUGH the whole of the First Edition of The Watches was disposed of in a very short time, yet, as had been anticipated, the cost of production exceeded by forty pounds the proceeds of the sale.

Some charitable friends kindly made good this deficit. The expense of printing this Second Edition will be somewhat reduced. But as efforts have been made to secure better paper and binding at a lower price, and as the number of the Plates is increased and an Index added, it is still doubtful whether the income will equal the outlay. It seems better, however, for the honour of our Lord and His Holy Mother, and for the good of souls, to secure a wider circulation by keeping the price as low as may be.

Some surprise has been expressed that more use has not been made in these volumes of the discoveries of Sir Charles Wilson, Sir Charles Warren, Captain Conder, and other distinguished Explorers.

One answer to this objection is found in an article published by Captain Conder in the Scottish Review for January of the present year. He there tells us that in that portion of Jerusalem with which these volumes are chiefly concerned, the ground is covered with houses; and that, consequently, the Explorers have not been able there to make any excavations. He adds that much further excavation will be necessary before it can be possible to induce all parties to accept the conjectures put forward by the Explorers with regard to the site of Calvary and the Sepulchre.

May we not then delay to adopt these novel theories till the Explorers have been able to make such excavations as shall justify their most revolutionary views?

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From Captain Conder's showing, the Explorers have made absolutely no excavations whatsoever in the quarter of the city where the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre now stands; and, consequently, have nothing to offer us but conjectures and theories utterly subversive of all the old Catholic traditions. Would it not then be, at present, quite premature to give up these Sacred Traditions, and take in exchange rash conjectures, which are not as yet in any way supported by what Captain Conder calls "the logic of the spade”?

Monuments unearthed by the spade are no doubt witnesses whose testimony might upset many traditions till now accepted. And so long as the Explorers are content faithfully to record all that the pick-axe and the spade discover, they render excellent service. But if the Explorers begin to publish, confidently, theories and assumptions which run far ahead of their spades, they may easily be changed from most valuable friends into enemies peculiarly dangerous. For the authority which deservedly belongs to them as Explorers is extended by the unwary to theories exceedingly reckless.

I venture to use the word " reckless," because the Explorers, before they have been able to make any excavations whatever on the ground so hallowed in our eyes, call upon us to believe (1) that St. Helen and Constantine knew nothing about the true site of Calvary; (2) that the faithful ever since have been in gross error on this point; and (3) that the honour paid to the true Cross by Holy Church and to the sacred Nails is all based on imposture; since they never could have been found on this site.

Again, is it not quite premature and reckless, before the necessary excavations have been made, to publish maps in which Calvary is placed close to Gethsemani, on the eastern side of the city? These maps may not be published by the Explorers themselves, but they are

at least the work of disciples who wish to propagate their doctrine. Surely the publication of such maps does not fall short of rashness and recklessness. For even the English and American writers themselves, who are combined in the attack on the old Catholic tradition, are not at all agreed as to the site to be substituted. For while some of them, as has just been said, place it on Mount Moriah, near Gethsemani, not a few among them have been anxious to raise a subscription in order to secure a site to the north of the city, near the convent of the Dominican Fathers, and there to establish an Anglo-American Calvary.

Such an enterprise is perhaps less astounding if we look at the map of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and the adjacent grounds, prepared by the celebrated antiquarian Mr. Schick, at the command of the Sultan. From this map we see that while the Greeks, the Latins, the Copts, the Armenians, the Russians, and the Germans have all secured plots of ground, smaller or larger, round about the Sepulchre, the English and Americans are the only ones left out in the cold. What wonder, then, if they bestir themselves?

Captain Conder and others who incline to the northern site for Calvary, adduce in its favour arguments of this kind :

First, Captain Conder has there discovered a Jewish tomb which might very well, so he thinks, have been the Tomb of our Lord. Second, the lie of the ground would make it a likely place to be selected for the Crucifixion. Third, Captain Conder adds that he found a tradition existing among the Jews that this was of old the place of execution; and of this tradition he makes great capital.

It will be observed that none of these arguments are based on "the logic of the spade". They are not the outcome of excavations; they are sheer conjectures. Wherefore, why we should abandon the time-honoured

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Christian tradition for this Jewish tradition, now for the first time brought to light, does not appear.

There is only one thing more to be added. It is this. While Sir Charles Wilson boldly asserts that no trace has ever been discovered near the Christian Calvary of the western city wall, which must have been there if this be the true site; and while Captain Conder tells us that the Explorers have never been able to make excavations in this quarter-which fact may well account for Sir Charles Wilson's mistaken notionthe well-known architect and antiquary, Mr. Schick, to whom the Explorers very much defer, and who is considered to know more about ancient Jerusalem than any living man, assures us that he has seen undoubted traces of the wall in question.

Mr. Schick has worked as an architect in Jerusalem for forty years; and before that period served under his father, who was also an architect in that city. In the course of his long career he has often made excavations on the ground which the Explorers have not been permitted to approach; and he assured the author of these volumes with his own lips-and he has made the same statement, illustrated with careful drawings, in his printed publications-that he was able to trace accurately the Fosse that ran along this portion of the city walls. He further adds that the reason why more remains of the foundations of the old wall are not extant is this, that the materials were used for the Great Basilica of Constantine and St. Helen. He states, moreover, that the foundations of an ancient gateway, probably the Judgment Gate, are to be seen on the ground purchased by the Russians, and now covered with houses.

All this being so, would it be prudent to alter this Second Edition in conformity with the views of our new masters?