THE GREAT CRYPTOGRAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9134, 16 August 1888, Page 3

THE GREAT CRYPTOGRAM.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir',—ln common with a large number of your readers, I have been greatly interested by the perusal of the review by Sir William Fox of Mr. Donnelly's book on the Great Cryptogram. I must, at the outset, acknowledge that I have not had the advantage of reading the book itself, but after a careful study of Sir William's one-sided articles, the only conclusion I can arrive at, presumptuous as it may seem, is that the book is an elaborate piece of Yankee humbug, concocted partly for the sake of a little ephemeral notoriety, but mainly with an eye to the breeches pocket. In the two introductory chapters, Sir William marshals with great industry and care all the circumstances that make for Mr. Donnelly's and his own view of the question, but as carefully shunts, or overlooks, every particle of evidence that might tell for the orthodox side, and aimost denounces in advance all who shall chance to differ from his conclusions. There was such a "cocksure" air about all his averments in the preliminary articles; all the parts and figureg on his side were arrayed with such workmanlike skill, with such order and vigour of understanding, that I began to tremble lest, in the final assault, yet one more of my long-cherished idols was to be brought low, and his name and fame levelled with the dust. Sir William's concluding article has quite restored my courage. His bomb-shell has exploded with no more effect than if it had been crammed with sawdust, and my idol remains unshattered. The loud blare of trumpets and banging of drums outside the show was but the prelude to a very poor performance inside. Sir William, in his concluding article, does not pi-ofess to understand the method by which Mr. Donnelly arrives at his " cipher rule," his "fixed arithmetical formula." The method, as he naively remarks, is not altogether clear in Mr. Donnelly's account, nor is Mr. Donnelly prepared to let the cat (the fixed arithmetical formula) out of the bac at present ! Yet Sir William, with a faith that would almost remove mountains, is convinced, believes, worships at Mr. Donnelly's shrine, and is ready to go forth as .the apostle of the new heresy ! " Tlje prejudice against circumstantial evidence," says Sir William in his second article, " is the prejudice of the crassest ignorance;" yet the one great circumstance, the one thing wanting to convince myself and other sceptics, Mr. Donnelly's " fixed arithmetical formula," his " primary root number," which would enable us to unlock for ourselves more of those treasures, some of which Mr. Donnelly professes to have revealed to us, those State secrets which we are to believe Lord Bacon with incredible pains and labour buried in his own works, on the mere chance of some Donnelly centuries afterwards finding the key and disentombing them, is withheld ! Surely this is a pretty big strand wanting in Sir William's " rope of circumstances." " And now," says Sir William, " Mr. D.onnelly claims to have solved the difficulty, and has given us this book to prove the facts. For this, involving as it does thousands of sums in multiplication, addition, and subtraction, we can only refer to the book itself." Thousands of sums in addition and subtraction ! and yet the "root number," the key to the whole problem, only to be found in Mr. Donnelly's pocket! This, indeed, is the very hocus - pocus of literary jugglery. "Flippant critics," Sir William goes on to say, both "in England and America have tried hard to " sit upon Mr. Donnelly," but let me ask in conclusion whether a single writer of eminence in the old land, one of those keen, skilled seekers after historical truth in the dust of centuries, like Mr. Froude or Mr. Freeman, has a word to say in favour of Mr. Donnelly's alleged discoveries. Not one. Is it then reserved for an individual of no literary reputation, in this little corner of the British Empire, to remove the motes from the eyes of prejudice, to confirm to the world the truth of Mr. Donnelly's finds, and to help him to hurl from the throne that Imperial genius to whom we have all, from our youth upwards, paid homage.—l am, etc., H. J. Blyth.

Greenhithe, August 14, 1888.