sessed in common, are so very unproductive, as to be hardly worth the trouble and expence of cultivation.

That your Petitioners, however much despised by the inconsiderate, yet amount, in extent, to at least ten millions of acres, (about one-fifth part of the kingdom), and contain in their bosom the greatest treasure that the country is possessed of. That if properly improved, they would produce more wealth to the Crown and people of Great Britain, than could be derived from the possession of Mexico, Peru, and Chili, or than any foreign empire, however valuable, or however extensive, could possibly furnish.

That your Petitioners, tired of the degraded state in which they have remained for so many ages, earnestly pray to be rescued from a situation of such thraldom and obloquy; which can only be effected by the passing of a General Bill of Inclosure; and, if gratified in this respect, they solemnly pledge themselves-1. To prevent the possibility of another scarcity taking place for a century to come.-2. To furnish supplies that will pay off the national debt in less than fifty years.-And, 3. To make Great Britain the happiest and most powerful country in the universe. And your Petitioners shall ever pray. Signed by

GEORGE EPPING FOREST. JOHN BAGSHOT HEATH. HENRY HOUNSLOW, his mark. PHILIP FINCHLEY COMMON. &c. &c. &c. N.B. Our Brethren in Scotland would have joined in this Petition (for we have the satisfaction of hearing that they heartily wish well to the cause), but they lie at too great a distance to have obtained their signatures in proper time; and they already enjoy the benefit of a bill of the same nature, which would long ago have brought them into a state of cultivation, had they not wanted in that part of the united kingdom, a certain article called money, which is an essential ingredient in improvement. We are extremely apprehensive, however, that if the General Inclosure Bill does not pass into a law, that this valuable ingredient, which would otherwise be employed in promoting our improvement, may find its way to other countries, and be lost for ever to OLD ENGLAND.

WASHINGTON.

The parish of Washington lies in the County Palatine of Durham. "At the

"Mr. Malone, one of the characters of 1753," says Mr. Grattan," was a man of the finest intellect that any country ever produced. The three ablest men I have ever heard, were Mr. Pitt (the father), Mr. Murray, and Mr. Malone; for a popular assembly, I would chuse Mr. Pitt; for a privy council, Murray (Lord Mansfield); as a wise man, Malone." This was the opinion Lord Sackville, the secretary of 1753, gave of Mr. Malone, to a gentleman from whom I heard it.

Among other instruments used by Mr. C., ought to be enumerated the machine known by the name of Cavendish's balance, by which he was enabled (as he vainly supposed) to determine the gravitation of balls of lead towards each other. By repeated experiments, he supposed he found, that the mean density of the earth is five times and a half as great as that of water. To prevent mistakes, however, it ought to be remarked, that the instrument in question was originally invented by the Rev. Mr.

* Wessyngton. Willielmus de Hertburn tenet Wassyngton excepta eeclesia et terra, &c.

+Wessington. Wills de Wessington miles tenet maner, et villam de Wessyngton per servic. forin. redd, iiijii.-Hatfield's Surrey. Mitchell,

Mitchell, F.R.S., and was purchased at his sale. It was not used with any effect till 1798, in the meantime Colomb conceived the idea of a similar instrument in France, to which he gave the name of Balance of Torsion; which, by the twisting and untwisting of a thread or wire, affords a measure for forces that are too small to be appreciated by any other means. In short, it is a miniature of the power. It is not a little remarkable, that the same instrument produced different results in the hands of the English, and of the French Philosopher, and an attempt has been made to reconcile the varying accounts, by the suggestion, that the degree of gravitation measured by the former, may have been effected by magnetism, and the latter supposes this not a property peculiar to certain bodies, but one that exists in all. Doubtless the supposed attraction of Mountains and of Mitchell's balls, and Colomb's balance, are all so many phenomena of atomic motion, and are in no respect. mundane. But if they were, the very same effect would be produced by the mere rotation of the earth on the principle of necessary equilibrio; and therefore the argument drawn in favour of the existence of the superstitious phantom of Universal Gravitation gains nothing, even if the results were uniform.

LORD MONBODDO.

There is one part of this philosopher's conduct as a judge, that will not meet with general approbation.

A negro, called Joseph Knight, a native of Africa, having been brought to Jamaica in a slave slip, and there sold in the usual manner, had attended his master to Scotland, where it was suggested to him that he had ceased to be a slave. He accordingly brought his action in the court of session, and the principle that came before that court, was the investigation of the general question, whether a perpetual obligation of service to one master, should be sanctioned by the law of a free country. Mr. Maclaurin and Mr. Henry Dundas, were advocates for the negro, and a great majority of the lords of session decided for the client. But four of their number, among whom was Monboddo, declared for the master, and for slavery?

Dr. Johnson, expresses himself as follows on this interesting subject, in a letter to Boswell, dated Jan. 24th, 1778: "You have ended the negro's cause much to my mind. Lord Auchinleck

and dear Lord Hailes were on the side of liberty."

INSURRECTION OF THE FIFTH MONARCHY FANATICS.

In this vile insurrection, says an author of the Life of Blood, were slain twenty-two of the King's men, and as many of the traytors, most of them in houses, and some others taken prisoners, were afterwards shot for refusing to tell their names.

There were twenty taken, besides some few upon suspicion; the twenty were as follows, viz. Thomas Venner, the wine cooper, their captain; Roger Hodgkins, a button seller, in St. Clement's-lane, Lombard-street; Leonard Gowler, Jonas Allen, John Pym, William Orsingham, William Ashton, Giles Pritchard, a cow-keeper, Stephen Fall, John Smith, William Cocket, John Dod, John Eleston, Thomas Harris, John Gardener, Robert Bradley, Richard Marten, John Patshal, Robert Hopkins, and John Wells, five of whom had been formerly in a design against Oliver Cromwell.

These were all brought to their tryal together; the wounded men had chairs allow'd them, and their indictment was for high treason and murder.

Thomas Venner was first call'd, who, when he had held up his hand at his arraignment, being ask'd guilty or not guilty, began a wild phanatick discours about his conversation in New England, and concerning the Fifth Monarchy, and the testimony within him for above twenty years, with such like impertinent ramble. He confessed he had been in the late rising, but was not guilty of treason, intending not to levy war against the king; and then sally'd but the court pressing him to plead diout into nonsensical pleas, as at first: rectly to the indictment, he answered, Not Guilty, and put himself upon his country. rambling from the business in hand, and In like manner Hodgkins, after some the court's threatening to record him mute, pleaded to the indictment; the rest of his fellows submitting, after some previous excursions in their frantic way. The witnesses being then sworn, two against every particular person, made it appear, that Venner, Tuffney, and Crag, the two last whereof been slain in the action, did several times persuade their congregation to take up arms for king Jesus, against the powers of the earth, which were his majesty, the duke of York, and the general; that they were to kill all that opposed them; that they had been praying and preaching, but not acting

for

for God; that they arm'd themselves at their meeting-house in Coleman-street, with blunderbusses, muskets, &c. besides other particular evidence against each of them to matter of fact. The proof against Martin, Hopkins, and Wells, was not so full as against the others, and against Patshall there was but one witness, whereupon they were acquitted by the jury. The other sixteen being found guilty, and brought to the bar, were requir'd to shew cause why judgment should not be given against them, &c. The lord chief justice Foster charging Venner with the blood of his accom. plices, by seducing and leading them, he answered, He did not. To which, the witnesses being produced again, he blasphemously quibbl'd, and said, It was not he, but Jesus, that lead them. Three of them confess'd their crime and error, and begged mercy. All the sixteen were condemn'd to be drawn, hang'd and quarter'd.

According to which sentence, on Saturday, January 1661-2, Venner and Hodgkins, both uncur'd of their wounds they had receiv'd in their rebellion, being guarded by two companies of the train'd bands, were drawn on a sledge from Newgate through Cheapside, over against their meeting-house in Swanalley in Coleman-street, and there executed. Venner spoke little, and that in vindication of himself and his fact, and something of his opinion, being confident the time was at hand, when the other judgment would be; and reflect

ing much upon the government. Hodgkins rav'd and curs'd by way of praying, calling down the vengeance from heaven upon the king, the judges and the city of London: nor would he give over, tho' forbid by the sheriff, 'till the hangman was hasten'd from his employment of quartering Venner, to turn him off. Thus they dy'd in the same mad religion they had liv'd. Their quarters were set upon the four gates of the city, by the late executed regicides, whose quarrel and revenge they had undertaken in this their fanatick attempt. Their heads were also set upon poles, by some of the others, on London Bridge.

On Monday the 21st of the same January, nine more of them were executed, all in one morning, at five several places, by the same executioner; two at the west end of St. Paul's, two at the Bull and Mouth, two at Beech lane, two at the Royal Exchange, and the last, Leonard Gowler, a notable fellow at Bisshops-gate. They all obstinately persisted in their villany, especially the last, who began with imprecations, like Hodgkins, and was silenced the same way, by the command of the sheriff. Only one young man, who was hang'd in Redcross-street, did repent of his sin, and the blood he had spilt; but yet dy'd in his opinion of Chilianism. When cut down, the sentence was not executed on them to the full; but only their heads cut off, and set upon Londonbridge.

PEARL FISHERY at PANAMA.

(From the French Journal des Voyages,

TH

Aug. 1819.)

HE Isthmus of Panama (according to the editors) if in the possession of an enterprising people, would be a source of immense national prosperity, A canal should be formed that would unite the two seas, with a city at each extremity, and the commercial advantages would be incalculable.

At the bottom of the Bay of Panama, there is an archipelago of at least fortythree islands; between the Isles Del Rey and Tobago, the sea is perfectly smooth, and not far from the coast, lies a bank, pretty considerable, that contains the objects of the pearl oyster fishery.

The oysters here produce pearls that are larger, but inferior in point of regularity and beauty, to those of the Indian

ocean. Lima is the port to which these pearls are conveyed, and from thence, they are distributed through the provinces of Peru and Chili.

All such inhabitants of Panama and the neighbouring districts as possessing the competent means, keep in their employ, negroes that are in the habit of diving for pearls, on account of their masters. They are sent to the islands, where tents and boats are provided for their use, Eighteen or twenty of these unfortunate captives, that are expert swimmers, and constitutionally long-winded, are put under the orders of an inspector; and thus they proceed to sea, till they find an oyster bank, where the water is not deeper than ten, twelve, or fifteen fathom. Having fixed on an eligible point, they cast anchor, and the negroes, throwing round their bodies, a cord fastened to their boats, and loaded with a

little weight, to sink the sooner, plunge into the abyss. When at the bottom, they pluck the oysters, and placing one under the left arm, another in the left hand, a third under their right arm, a fourth in their right hand and another in the mouth, they ascend to take breath, and store their oysters in a small sack kept in their boats. Having reposed a little, they plunge again, and so continue their labours, either till they are fatigued, or have procured a sufficient number of oysters.

These diving negroes are obliged to furnish a daily supply of oysters to their masters. When a negro has fished up 'the number he deems sufficient, he opens his oysters, in presence of the inspector, and delivers to him the pearls, great or small, perfect or imperfect, to the stipulated number; the surplus belongs to the negro, who sells them commonly to his master.

Besides the labour and care requisite to detach the oysters from the bottom of the sea, where they often stick among rocks and stones, they have dangers to dread from the tintoressas or taburones, fish of a monstrous size that devour the divers, as well as from the conuetas or mautas, an enormous species of ray that gripe the divers so violently as to strangle them, or by falling on them, with all their weight, crush them at the bottom of the sea.

The diver frequently takes with him a sharp-pointed knife, wherewith to pierce these fish, and thus extricate himself. The negro inspector that remains in the boat, when the water is clear, will give warning, and often plunge in, to the help of the diver.

Notwithstanding these precautions, the negroes will sometimes come up with the loss of an arm or a leg, and sometimes they lose their lives, in these perilous encounters.

In the aggregate, this traffic in pearls, gives circulation to a capital, the profits of which may be rated at 250,000 pias

tres.

RURAL CULTURE in the United States.

The Sugar Cane is spreading rapidly in Georgia. Mr. T. Spalding has contributed very much to this, by his 1ecommendations and example, influencing the practice of it, in marshy districts, and near the sea or the banks of rivers, Experience has proved that sugar is produced there with less expense, and a more certain product than cotton.

In Louisiana, all along the rivers Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio, the

soil is found to be very favourable to the growth of the sugar cane, which possesses the additional advantage of neutralising the deleterious exhalations that arise from the marshes. acre of these lands, the planter will commonly collect, at least, ten quintals of sugar.

On an

On the 30th of April last, the state of Louisiana, celebrated the sixteenth anniversary of its annexation to the union. The province, in general, is rapidly improving, both in the abundance and goodness of its productions, and in the extension of its commerce. The city of New Orleans, which, in 1803, contained only 9000 inhabitants, can now reckon up 38,000.

Congress, on the 3d of March, 1817, had conceded to the French refugees, an extent of territory in the province of Alabama, that comprised 92,000 acres, at the rate of two dollars each, payable without interest, in the space of fourteen years. (In December, 1818, Alabama was constituted the twenty-second state of the Confederate Republic). As but a small number of the emigrants took advantage of the concession, Congress is now inviting foreigners and families that are well practised in husbandry, and in the cultivation of vegetables adapted to the soil and climate, to form establishments there. Every assemblage of one hundred families to receive, in perpetuity, the grant of a land or common, in freehold right.

The superficies of the whole territory of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Great Ocean, is estimated at 2,256,955 miles square, and the population at 11 millions. That part which lies to the east of the Mississippi, and comprehends the Floridas, may contain about 942,130 miles square. A calculation has been made, that if the whole territory of the United States were peopled in the same proportion that the state of Connecticut was in 1810, when the census was taken, it would contain 135,417,300 individuals; and that if it were as well peopled as Italy, the number of inhabitants would amount to 501,044,000.

The number of whites in the United States has increased in the following proportions: in 1790, there were 27 blacks to 100 whites; in 1800 the ratio was 20, and in 1810, only 19. The number of emigrants that arrived in the different States, in 1794, was about 10,000; in 1817, this number rose to 22,240, of whom 11,977 were British or

Irish.

Irish. From the British possessions in America, there arrived the same year, 2901 individuals; also 4169 Germans and Hollanders, 1245 French, 58 Italians, 1569 from the West India islands, and 321 from various other countries.

JEWISH COLONY IN CHINA.

It has long been the opinion of some learned men, that after the dispersion of the Jews, some remnant of the twelve tribes that composed the kingdom of Israel, had retired into the province of Ho-Nan. This opinion may seem to gather strength, from the following passage in a recent publication, the Journey of Mr. Morrison to Pekin.

"At one period of our journey through the interior of China, I entered into conversation with a Mahometan, who assured me, that at Kae-Fung-Roo, in the province of Ho-Nan, there lived certain families that went by the name of Jeaou-Kin-Keaou, or a sect that draws out all the nervous parts from the viands or flesh meat prepared for eating. They have a Le-Pae-Oze, or place of public worship, and they abstain from all labour, on the seventh day."

The fact of the existence of certain families isolated in the bosom of the vast empire of China, observing ceremonies that appear analogous to those of the Jews, and which essentially differ from the whole of the Chinese theology, is an interesting document, and may well sanction the object of ulterior researches.

AFRICA.

Last year was commenced, at Sierra Leone, a periodical journal, under the title of Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser. It contains a number of details relative to the civilization and prosperity of the colony, and occasionally pieces of a literary character. In No. 13, appears a poetical morceau, of a religious and pathetic cast, imagined to be written by Alexander Selkirk, when a solitaire in the island of Juan Fernandez. The Advertiser describes the present state of the schools and forms of worship in the different districts. The total number of pupils is about two thousand; for, exclusive of the schools appropriated to the children, there are others, every evening, for workmen, artisans, apprentices, &c. that have been employed in their daily occupations; there are also a few Sunday-schools. The assiduity, aptitude, and progress made by the African natives, are well deserving of notice. A

portion of religious culture and knowledge forms a principal object in these schools of mutual instruction; they often resound with hymns chanted in praise of the Supreme Being. The citizens are divided into various Christian societies; but, in the language of the Journal, they are held together by the common bond of charity, and an entire harmony reigns among them. The church known by the name of St. Charles, is the first Christian parish church that has been built on the coast.

WEST INDIES.

M. Moreau de Jonnes, in a Memoir on the Population of the Antilles, endeavours to appreciate the causes, and the annual diminution or augmentation of the different classes that compose it. From official data, this author calculates the mortality at 4 in 100 among the white Creoles, and the free Creoles of colour, and at 3 only among the Creole black slaves; but the proportion is very different among the fresh comers. Of English soldiers, 21 die in 100, and 33 of French, which is here considered as the effect of a better regimen observed among the former. The blacks regimented in Africa by the English, and conveyed to the Antilles, only lose in the proportion of 3 for the 100, but the slaves imported by the trade, were wont to lose 17; which after all does not come near to the mortality amongst the Europeans.

The estimate of reproduction among the whites, is 3 for 100; and 4 for the free people of colour;—a consequence of the cohabitation of the whites with women of African origin; but among the slaves at Martinico, two children only are born to about 100 individuals. This class, therefore, must diminish in the ratio of 1 to 100. The diminution would be double at Grenada, according to Colquhoun's calculation.

A NEW RUDDER.

M. Dussueil, captain of a frigate in the French marine, has published a pamphlet on a new helm or rudder of his own invention. This writer mentions with high eulogiums, three particular rudders antecedent to his own. 1. That of the pilot Olivier, somewhat in the shape of what the wild natives of certain islands use with their pirogues or canoes. Its main defect is, that it is soon broken off in a rough sea. 2. That of Bassieres, captain of a French frigate. It is a species of triangular raft, fastened by ropes to the stern-post. The

author