British Museum
1 Novr 1871
My dear Sir
Many thanks for the copy of your paper which has reached me safely and which will form an excellent one for our opening sessions My only regret is that you can not come up to London yourself to read it. We shall be very thankful for a paper on the name of Jerusalem as although we have another paper besides yours for the 7th – one by Mr Smith not on Assyrian but another subject Your paper on Jerusalem will be of great use for December the 5th for which there in nothing fixed at present. Smiths book looks very well and is no doubt useful as the texts are many unpublished and it is a good contribution to Assyrian research. It strikes me that we might hereafter print some texts only without translations in this form – as easier and less expensive than the system of lithography The work of Smiths shows that the size and printing would be much easier Without your generous assistance The work could not have been brought out as no publisher will undertake such works – and it is a great drawback to the study the expence of publications Photographs are not quite satisfactory for the purpose and are often more difficult to read than the original – but lithography might be used for the purpose
Yours vy Tly
S Birch
H. Fox Talbot Esqe
&c &c &c