Schools connected with the New Meeting House in this town, in a letter which was inserted in your number for June, 1818, vol. 45th. p. 499. It is now my intention to lay before your readers a short account of a Society which has been formed since these Schools were first opened, and which consists exclusively of the teachers engaged in the Sunday-Schools belonging both to the New and Old Meeting-Houses.

The Institution to which I refer, is called, "The Old and New Meeting Brotherly Society;" it was established in the year 1796, and at present consists of fifty-seven members, most of whom have received their education in the Schools, and are now engaged ingratuitously imparting to their younger brethren the benefits which they have themselves derived from this source.

The members of the Brotherly Society hold monthly meetings, for the purpose of deliberating on the affairs of the Schools, &c. and at each meeting, one of the members is expected to read an essay of an improving moral tendency, but whether borrowed or original, is left to his own choice; it is an established rule in the Society, that each member in his turn shall thus contribute to the edification of the rest.

When any member leaves the Society, a Committee is appointed to draw upan outline of his character, both as it regards his behaviour in the Society, and his conduct in the world at large; this is afterwards submitted to a general meeting of the members, and if deemed a correct statement, is entered on their minutes.

On the first Sunday in January in each year, an annual general meeting of the members is holden, at which the Pastors of the two congregations, and other friends to the Institution, are invited to attend; an appropriate address is always prepared on these occasions, by an able member, previously nominated for the purpose, and the minutes of the past year are recapitulated.

In the year 1798, a new association was formed in conjunction with the members of the Brotherly Society, for affording pecuniary relief in cases of illness, to persons connected with the Sunday-Schools, whether as pupils or teachers. The fund appropriated to this purpose, is supported by weekly contributions of from one half-penny to three-pence from each person; the total number of subscribers is now about two hundred, and the annual sum thus

The payments

raised is about 467. made in cases of illness, are after the rate of four shillings per week, for every penny in the weekly subscription, and although there appears to be so great a disproportion between the receipts and disbursements, a fund has actually been realized amounting to 4607. for which the Society is now receiving interest. As the total amount of the payments does not on the average exceed 201. per annum, the interest upon the capital has alone been, for a considerable time past, more than sufficient to discharge every claim.

Should any of your readers be desirous of seeing a more detailed account of these plans, I would refer them to a recent publication, entitled "Moral Culture," by Mr. James Luckcock of this town, a gentleman who has long distinguished himself as a zealous and active supporter of the Old Meeting Sunday Schools, and as a leading member of the Brotherly Society.

THOMAS CLARK, JUN. Birmingham, March 9th, 1820.

For the Monthly Magazine. ACCOUNT of a NEW SECT in INDIA, and of RAMOHUN-ROY its Founder.

(From the Revue Encyclopedique.) SINCE the English have established a

Christian Church in India, with episcopal authority, at Calcutta, Christianity is spreading rapidly in proportion to the increase and consolidation of their civil and military power. Under such circumstances, the statement by M. Acosta, relative to the rise of a new Indian Sect, will not be devoid of interest.

Rammohun-Roy-Banoudia, some of whose productions have been given in our pages, is the son of a rich Bramin, who, to avoid the despotism of the Mogul Governors, had quitted Marchedabad, the ci-devant capital of Bengal, and fixed his residence within the English territory. In 1780, he had a son, whom he caused to be instructed in the Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit languages. His masters in Arabic, gave him lessons out of Aristotle and Euclid, which he was competent to understand; after which, in some conversation with certain learned Mussulmen, he began to entertain doubts as to the religion of Brama, and this led him to an investigation of the religious doctrines of India, of Mahomet and of Christianity.

After the death of his father, being only five-and-twenty years of age, he

removed

removed to Marchedabad, and there drew up a writing, proscribing idolatry in all religions; this appeared in the Persian language, with an Arabic preface. He had now to encounter a series of persecutions, both from the Hindoos and Mussulmen, so that he was obliged, in 1814, to take refuge in Calcutta. There he purchased a house built in the European style, employed himself in learning English and Latin, and took lessons in the Mathematics from a German of the name of Makay, a person of merit, and a philosophic turn. Some few of his com-patriots, to the number of a dozen, of the same rank in the cast of Bramins, and of equal opulence, adopted his religious opinions, and in consequence of this, he is now become the head of a Sect that can muster about a thousand adherents.

He calls his system the Creed of Unity; but he declares that as for morals, he respects only those of the Christian Gospel. His disciples frequent his house every Sunday, eat, drink, and chant hymns, in Sanscrit, or in the language of Bengal, to the honour of the only true God. The Hindoos, whose religion he despises, have lavished persecution on him in all its different kinds; but his intellect, his firmness, his extensive connections, and his wealth, have hitherto prevented his excommunication from the cast. He wishes to avoid this not to lose the society of his wife and only son. He exercises great hospitality to a number of the Bramins, who, eat

ing once at his table, may become liable to the above-mentioned expulsion. At his charge he maintains a school of fifty children, who receive instructions in the Sanscrit, in the English language, and Geography. His principal attacks are levelled at the casts of the Hindoos, and to these he attributes all the corrupt notions and practices of the nation; but he derives his proofs and arguments only from the books held in estimation by the Indians, and he avails himself of his rank and consequence, as a Bramin, to enlighten his fellow-countrymen as to the true sense of their sacred books.

The wicked policy of the Absentees,' as Miss Edgeworth calls them, is the primary and principal cause of all these disturbances, as may be exemplified by the following fact:-Sir ** ** being officially employed at Dublin, let an estate to a gentleman near Athlone, for one pound an acre per annum, but this gentleman, after taking what he requir ed for himself, let the remainder in small farms for eight pounds per acre, and some even for more!-These are what are called "MIDDLE MEN," their cupidity is the great evil of Ireland,— The RIBBON MEN, as they are called, want to have grass and arable land at five guineas, and potato grounds at four, demands, which, if made in a proper way, are fair.

There is, also, another oppression which I think might be removed. The Catholics are forced to pay tythesand to the Church repairs, in support of a religion which they are taught to detest; and as they would pay taxes to the same amount without a murmur, the remedy is an easy one, and at least ought to be tried.

In regard to the former grievance, I agree with many of your Correspondents, that speculations in land ought not to be tolerated, and that a remedy ought to be applied by the legislature. Ballinasloe, R. W. MORRIS.

March 15th, 1820.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

BY inserting in your Magazine the

following article, you will much oblige me: it is taken from the Philosophical Magazine for November last,

66

Dijon Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Belles Lettres.” This academy has proposed the following question as the subject for the prize to be awarded in 1820,"What may be the most effectual means of extirpating from the hearts of Frenchmen that moral disease, a remnant of the barbarism of the middle ages, that false point of honor, which leads them to shed blood in duels in defiance of the precepts of religion, and the laws of the state?" I wish the people of this nation may follow the example here set, and take into consideration this subject, and adopt some means for preventing this kind of murder. If a few persons would form themselves into a society, and collect subscriptions for the purpose of diffusing knowledge on the subject of duelling with a view to prevent

it, I

For the Monthly Magazine.

RECENT OBSERVATIONS respecting the HEIGHT of MOUNT ETNA, by M. the Baron de Zach, of Genoa. MOUNT Etna may be seen very distinctly, from the island of Malta, when the atmosphere is clear. It is a kind of index there to the points of the wind, from the direction taken by the smoke issuing from it. In the eruptions of this volcano, the flames blaze forth in a manner truly terrific, and to this may be added the reflections from the sea, which impress on the tremendous scene, tints still more lugubrious, magnifying and multiplying the distances of the surrounding objects.

No passage occurs in the ancient writers, wherein mention is made of seeing Mount Etna from Malta; but nearly three centuries ago, the celebrated Maurolico takes notice of it in his Cosmography, in his third dialogue. Riccioli in the third volume of his Almagest, reports, that he had been assured by the Knights, that the summit of Etna could be seen from the island and still further off, at the distance of a hundred and twenty-six Italian miles and more. He adds, that his brother Jesuit, Kircher, had made the same remark, in a letter of Feb. 17, 1647, of seeing Etna from Malta, and he proceeds to explain this visibility from the effects of refraction.

Admitting the height of this mountain, as ascertained by Captain Smyth, the visual ray from its most elevated point will extend one hundred and thirty miles, which is in exact accordance with the testimony of the Knights. With respect to refraction, it may be shewn from calculation, that it produces the effect of elevating the mountain near seven thousand feet; that is to say, that if there was no refraction to see Mount Etna from Malta, it would require in addition twice the height of Mount Vesuvius to be seen.

The travellers who have scaled Mount Etna vary much in their reckoning as to its height above the level of the sea. The Canon Recupero, an indefatigable traverser of Mont Gibello, assigns to it 15,000 French feet, but this is too much. The Canon has been in the habit of making observations on the Volcano, near forty years successively, making his ascent once every year. M. le Comte de Borch, in his letters on Sicily, assigns only 9,660 feet, but this again is too little. M. de Saussure approaches nearer MONTHLY MAG, No. 338.

the truth, and finds the height by a barometrical observation 10,032 feet.

Captain Smyth makes it 10,203 feet. All travellers who have ascended Etna agree, that you may see from it the rock of Malta, the Æolian isles, the Ionian sea, the entrance of the Adriatic, and the coasts of Albania.

Account of a remarkable CATARACT in

NORWAY.

No ract or waterfall, much superior to that of Schaffhausen on the Rhine, or even to the famous fall of Niagara in North America. It was discovered or noticed for the first time, about eight years ago, by Professor Esmark; a circumstance which is attributed to its very remote situation in the most lonely part of the interior, and to the very scanty number of curious travellers that resort to the Hyperborean regions, for the purpose of making observations.

ORWAY may boast of a cata

It is situated in the district named Tellemarken, and named Riakan-Fossen which in the Norwegian idiom, denotes the smoke of water falling. An immense cloud, formed by the drops of water in evaporation, to a spectator has the appearance of torrents of smoke.

Doctor Schouw, of Copenhagen, visited this cataract in the summer of 1812. This gentleman is one of the fifteen voyagers that have been dispatched by the King of Denmark into different parts of the world, for the purpose of illustrating the sciences. He was in Italy, in 1818. From his observations this account has been transcribed.

M. Schouw could not fail to be struck with astonishment at the view of this magnificent spectacle of nature, so imposing and tremendous to the sense, though the fall is by far the most considerable in the spring, when the snow melts from the mountains. This immense descent consists, properly speaking, of three falls, two upon inclined planes, each of which, separately, would form such a cataract as is no where to be seen, and the last is an abrupt and precipitate perpendicular. Professor Esmark made a measurement of this last leap, and rates it at 800 feet in height!

In general, such cascades as are most elevated have the least water, and such as discharge large masses of water have little elevation; but in the Riakan-Fossen, the rule is reversed. The volume of its waters is supplied from a very 2 D considerable

considerable river, called the Maamelven, into which the lake Mioswatten, which is eight or ten German leagues in extent, empties itself, not far from the cascade.

SPECIMEN OF CHINESE JUSTICE.

From the Indo-Chinese Gleaner,' a Periodical Paper at Malacca.

Peking Gazette, August 9, 1817. CHOW, the Yu-she (or Censor) of Ho-nan, kneels to report, with profound respect, in the hearing of his majesty, the following circumstances, and to pray for his sacred instructions.

The clear and explicit statement of punishments, is a means of instruction to the people; the infliction of punishment is a case of unwilling necessity. For all courts there are fixed regulations to rule their conduct by, when cases do occur that require punishments to be inflicted: in questioning, magistrates are not, by law, permitted to exercise cruelties at their own discretion.

But of late, district magistrates, actuated by a desire to be rewarded for their activity, have felt an ardent enthusiasm to inflict torture. And though it has been repeatedly prohibited by Imperial Edicts, which they profess openly to conform to, yet they really and secretly violate them.

Whenever they apprehend persons of suspicious appearances, or those charged with great crimes, such as murder or robbery, the magistrates begin by endeavouring to seduce the prisoners to confess, and by forcing them to do so. On every occasion they torture by pulling, or twisting round the ears (the torturer having previously rendered his fingers rough by a powder) and cause them to kneel a long while upon chains. They next employ what they call the beauty's bar; the parrot's beam;† the refining furnace; and other implements, expressed by other terms, which they make use of. If these do not force confession, they double the cruelties, the prisoner is restored to life again several

A torture said to be invented by a judge's wife, and hence the name. The breast, small of the back, and legs bent up, are fastened to the cross-bars, which causes the persou to kneel in great pain.

The prisoner is raised from the ground by strings round the fingers and thumbs, suspended from a supple tranverse beam. Fire is applied to the body.

times in a day, and when unable to sustain these cruelties, he is compelled to write down or sign a confession (of what he is falsely charged with,) and the case any how is made out, placed on record, and with a degree of self-glorying, is reported to your majesty. The imperial will is obtained, requiring the person to be delivered over to the board of punishments, for further trial.

After repeated examinations, and un

dergoing various tortures, the charges brought against many persons are seen to be entirely unfounded.

As, for example, in the case of the now degraded Taeu-tae, who tried Lewte-woo; and of the Che-chow, who tried Pih-keu-king. These mandarins inflicted the most cruel tortures, in a hundred different forms, and forced a confession. Lew-te-woo, from being a strong robust man, just survived-life was all that was spared. The other, being a weak man, lost his life: he died as soon as he had reached the board at Peking. The snowwhite innocence of these two men was afterwards demonstrated by the board of punishments.

The cruelties exercised by the local magistrates, in examining by torture, throughout every district of Chih-le, cannot be described; and the various police runners, seeing the anxiety of their superiors to obtain notice and promotion, begin to lay plans to enrich themselves. In criminal cases, as murder and robbery; in debts and affrays, they endeavour to involve those who appear to have the slightest connexion. The wind being raised, they blow the spark into a flame, and seize a great many people, that they may obtain bribes from those people, in order to purchase their liberation. Those who have nothing to pay, are unjustly confined, or sometimes tortured, before being carried to a magistrate. In some instances, after undergoing repeated examinations in presence of the magistrate, they are committed to the custody of people attached to the court, where they are fettered in various ways, so that it is impossible to move a single inch; and without paying a large bribe, they cannot obtain bail. Their oppressions are daily accumulated to such a degree, and for so long a time, that at last death is the consequence.

Since there is at this period particular occasion to seize banditti, if there be suspicious appearances, as the age or physiognomy corresponding to some offender described; it is doubtless proper to institute a strict inquiry.

But