the languages of its various inhabitants, and their connection with the Sclavonian and German. He intends afterwards to proceed by Mount Caucasus and Persia, into India, beyond the Ganges. The term of his travelling tour to be three years. GERMANY. A Geographical Society has been established at Vienna, the object of which is to facilitate the execution of different labours projected in the interior of the Austrian monarchy, and to concentrate various means of information relating to geography and statistics. M. the Baron de Schwitzen, counsellor of state, has been occupied in the formation of this Board, which is placed under the immediate direction of the Council of State. ITALY. M. the BARON DE ZACH, in his periodical Journal, at Genoa, remarks on the cataract of Riukan-Fossen, previously known, but only lately made public and described, that it is inferior to a waterfall in the Pyrenees, at a place known by the name of Le Cirque de Marboré, which, from the measurements of Messrs. Vidal and Reboul, is of 1,256 feet; whereas the Norwegian cataract does not exceed 800 feet. SWITZERLAND. In the month of August, 1819, M. the curate of Gressoney, with a few others, scaled the ascent of Mount Rosa, having previously supplied themselves with instruments proper for making observations. The height of its summit was determined at 2,320 toises above the level of the sea. The great platform of Mount Rosa forms an immense glacier, and the party have given it the name of the sea of ice. It is crested with a number of needles or sharppointed peaks, the chief of which are to the number of twenty. The one which these travellers ascended, was not the most elevated, and they were not a little surprised to discover other mountains of an extraordinary height rising above this elevation. It will follow from the trigonometrical observations made on the spot, to ascertain, by approximation, the height of the surrounding eminences, that their elevation must exceed that of Mount Blanc; so that the result of fresh discoveries will probably transfer to Mount Rosa, the title of being the loftiest on the European continent, which has hitherto been exclusively assigned to Mount Blanc. CHINA. M. Perrocheau, bishop of Maxula, arrived at Macao, on the 8th of March last, with the intention of proceeding into China. After some previous study of the Chinese language, he embarked on the 7th of April, with M. Thomassin, for Upper Cochin China, whence he was to repair to Tonquin, and there wait for conductors that would introduce him into the country of China. Thomassin was to remain in Cochin China. M. A letter from a Catholic Missionary, at Macao, dated April 1, 1819, affords some details relative to the persecution of the Christians in China. Every European priest that is discovered is instantly seized and put to death; Chinese Christian priests undergo the same fate. Christians of the laity, unless they will apostatize, are first dreadfully tortured, and then banished into Tartary. This year, 1819, in the prisons of one province alone, Sutcuen, two hundred Christians were expecting the orders for their exile. A Chinese priest had just been strangled, and two others were also under sentence of death. Throughout the whole empire, there are but ten missionaries, five of whom, at Pekin, have no communication with the inhabitants unless it be secret. The emperor has moreover declared that he will no longer tolerate either painters or watch-makers, or even mathematicians. The bishop of Pekin has in vain attempted to introduce himself, under this title, into his diocese. The only way left to the missionaries to penetrate into the country, is by gaining the messengers or couriers that pass from Mocao to Pekin, but if discovered, both the missionary and the courier suffer death on the spot. AFRICA. There is now in Senegal, and along a great part of the coast of Africa, a species of carabus, which the negroes can reduce to a composition that has all the qualities of soap. M. Geoffroy de Villeneuve, has lately transmitted a quantity of this to Paris, with the following note appended: 66 Being in the village of Postudal, a few leagues from Senegal, employed in collecting insects, and inviting the negroes to procure me supplies, one of them presented me with a pot containing many thousands of a small insect of the carab genus. They were ready dried, and the number shewed that they had been collected for some particular purpose. On enquiry I learnt I learnt that this insect entered into the composition of the soap used in the country; the same negro also shewed me a ball of this soap, which was of a blackish colour, but had all the properof our common soap, and I learned, in the sequel, that these insects are converted to the same purpose, all along the coast of Senegal. This carab is black, but the edges or borders of the corselet, and also the elytres are of a reddish colour; the feet and the antennæ of a pale colour." UNITED STATES. The soil of the lands on the Missouri, and in the territory of Alabama, is very highly spoken of in the American Journals. The population on the Arkhansas, and towards the sources of the Red River, is augmenting in a ratio scarcely to be paralleled. The soil is so fertile and well adapted for every species of culture, that ten thousand emigrants have already removed thither, and it is expected that vast numbers out of the other States will follow their example. Ere long, their boats and lighters will be seen coming down the river, with their products of tobacco, cotton, &c. A statistical description of the newly founded town of Detroit, in the United States, lately presented to Congress, thus details the particulars. Its situation is 42 254 of North latitude, on the North-west bank of the River Detroit, at the distance of nine miles from Lake St. Clair, and eighteen from Lake REPORT OF CHEMISTRY AND B ARON Cagniard de la Tour, has invented a new Acoustic Instrument, designed to measure the vibrations of air which constitute sound. The wind of a pair of bellows is made to issue through a small orifice, covered by a circular plate, moveable on a centre placed at a little distance from the aperture. The circular plate has a number of oblique equidistant holes made through it, in a circle round the axis, which passes over the orifice of the bellows when this plate is made to revolve, (which by the obliquity of the holes, may be effected by the current of the air, or otherwise by proper mechanism) the aperture is alternately open and shut to the passage of the air; and thus a regular series of blows are given to the external air, and sounds analogous to the human voice are produced, and more or less acute according to the velocity with which the plate revolves. In place of one aperture many are used, which are opened and shut simultaneously, by which means, without interfering with the height of the Erie. The population, exclusive of the garrison, amounts to 1110 individuals, of whom 596 are men, and 444 women; there are also 70 free men of colour. The houses are in number 142; the public buildings and store-houses or stalls, 131; 2 catholic priests, one protestant; 12 attorneys, 3 physicians, 5 teachers of the languages, 170 students, and 174 mechanics. The value of their exportations, in 1818, was 69,330 piastres; and their importations, 15,611. piastres. NEW SOUTH WALES. Mr. Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales, has erected a light-house, with rotatory wheels to the lamp, on the most elevated point of land bounding the southern coast of Port Jackson. The Sydney Gazette of June, 1818, announ ces the light as being 76 feet above the base of the tower or building, which base is 277 feet above the level of the sea, giving a total height of 353 feet. A report is subjoined from Capt.. Watson, detailing the utility of this construction. "After observing it, for the first time, on Tuesday last, at 3 in the morning, I found that we were in a W.S.W. direction from it, at the distance of eleven leagues, or 38 miles. The light was so brilliant, that one might have mistaken the distance for 12 miles, or 4 leagues. It appears to be a certain guide for vessels, and at a considerable distance looks like a luminous star." EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. sound, its strength is increased. The instrument is a circular copper box four inches in diameter. Its upper surface is pierced by 100 oblique apertures, each a quarter of a line in width and two lines long on the centre of this surface is an axle upon which the circular plate turns: this plate has also 100 apertures corresponding to those below, and with an equal obliquity, but in an opposite direction. The obliquity is not necessary to the production of the sounds, but it serves to give motion to the plate by the currents of air. The box is, by a tube, connected with the bellows that supply the air. In the experiments to ascertain the vibrations for each sound, the plate was made to revolve by wheel-work moved by a weight. The bellows were then used only for the purpose of judging whether the sounds of the machine accorded with the notes of a standard instrument, namely, the Harmonica, consisting of an arrangement of steel bars made to vibrate by a bow. Thus arranged, the machine was made Mineralogists and chemists are aware of the existence of naphtha in Persia, and of the many wonderful stories that have been related of its volatility and combustibility. "I have," says Dr. Thomson, in his Annals, "been lately favoured, through the kindness of a gentleman, who has spent many years in the neighbourhood of Persia, with a specimen of the naphtha in the purest state in which it occurs. It is colourless as water, has the specific gravity 0-753, and precisely the same smell and taste as the naphtha which is made in this country from the distillation of coal. Indeed our artificial naphtha and the Persian naphtha resemble each other in all their chemical properties as far as I have compared them together. I have never got any naphtha made in this country from coal quite so light as the Persian. The specific gravity of the lowest which I have met with was 0.817, but probably had it been rectified once or twice more, it would have become as light as the Persian." In Mr. Accum's description of the process of manufacturing coal gas for the lighting of streets, he observes, "that this gas is usually considered as carburetted hydrogen gas, and it always contains a portion of that gas;" but says he, "I have never met with any coal gas, consisting of pure carburetted hydrogen. It has always proved, in the cases where I had an opportunity of examining it, a mixture of carburetted hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and hydrogen gas, the proportions of which vary according to the nature of the coal and of the process. When the heat is applied suddenly, and when it amounts to a good red heat, the proportion of carburetted hydrogen is greatest, and when the heat is low, the portion of pure hydrogen is greatest. Olefiant gas and sulphuretted hydrogen are probably likewise present; though in small and variable quantity. There is another circumstance connected with this gas, which has not hitherto been noticed; but which must have some influence upon the light which it yields. Coal gas has always the very same smell as the oil or naphtha which coal yields when distilled; certain therefore, it obviously contains a portion of naphtha mixed with it in the state of vapour. When naphtha is put in contact with a quantity of common air, or indeed of any gas whatever, a portion of it mixes with the gas in the state of vapour, and communicates to it the peculiar smell by which it is distinguished. Gas thus contaminated with the vapour of naphtha is not easily purified again. It may be allowed to remain in contact with water, or even passed through water without losing any of the naphtha vapour. The quantity of this vapour con tained in coal gas depends upon the temperature of the naphtha and gas when placed in contact. At the temperature of 55° the bulk of air, when placed in contact with naphtha, is increased 3 per cent. I find that the specific gravity of vapour of naphtha is 2.26, that of common air being 1.00. From this it will not be difficult to determine the quantity of naphtha with which coal gas is usually contaminated. One volume of vapour of naphtha for complete combustion requires rather more than 2-4 volumes; but not quite so much as 2.5 volumes of oxygen gas. As carburetted hydrogen gas, carbonic oxide, hydrogen, and olefiant gases, are all destitute of smell, and as coal gas has always a strong smell of naphtha from which it cannot be, or at least has never yet been deprived, ceive, that the presence of the vapour of naphtha in it will not admit of a doubt." con Mr. Accum divides coal into three classes: 1. Those kinds that contain much bitumen. The following table exhibits the maximum quantity of gas obtainable from coals belonging to this class: BRITISH LEGISLATION. ACTS PASSED in the SIXTIETH YEAR of the REIGN of GEORGE THE THIRD, or in the SECOND SESSION of the SIXTH PARLIAMENT of the UNITED KINGDOM. CA JAPS. I. II. IV. VI. VIII. and IX. as political acts, were given in a former Number. CAP. III. For continuing to His Majesty certain Duties on Malt, Sugar, Tobacco, and Snuff, in Great Britain; and on Pensions, Offices, and Personal Estates in England; for the Service of the Year one thousand eight hundred and twenty. CAP. V. To amend an Act of the last Session of Parliament, to make further Provision for the Regulation of Cotton Mills and Factories, and for the Preservation of the Health of young Persons employed therein.-December 23, 1819. Í. In case of Mills being destroyed, Persons belonging to them may be employed by Night in other Mills. II. Hour for Dinner to be between Eleven and Four. CAP. VII. To amend an Act of the Forty-second Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, for regulating the Trial of controverted Elections on Returns of Members to serve in the United Parliament for Ireland. December 24, 1819. ANNO PRIMO GEORGII IV. REGIS, CAP. X. To indemnify such Persons in the United Kingdom as have omitted to qualify themselves for Offices and Employments, and for extending the Time limited for certain of those Purposes respectively, until the Twenty-fifth Day of March Öne thousand eight hundred and twenty-one; and to permit such Persons in Great Britain as have omitted to make and file Affidavits of the Execution of Indentures of Clerks to Attornies and Solicitors, to make and file the same on or before the First Day of Hilary Term One thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, and to allow Persons to make and file such Affidavits, although the Persons whom they served shall have neglected to take out their Annual Certificates.--February 28,1820. CAP. XI. For the better Regulation of Polls, and for making further Provision touching the Election of Members to serve in Parliament for Ireland.— February 28, 1820. CAP. XII. To continue, until the Twenty-fifth Day of June One thousand eight hundred and twenty, such Laws as may expire within a limited Period.February 28, 1820. made in the last Session of Parliament, CAP. XIII. For continuing an Act intituled, An Act for punishing Mutiny and Desertion, and for the better Payment of the Army and their Quarters. -February 28, 1820. CAP. XIV. An Act to remedy certain Inconveniences in local and exclusive Jurisdictions.-February 28, 1820. NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN MAY, Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early notice of their Works, are DR.AIKIN, the distinguished author of numerous critical and biographical works well known to the literary world, has recently published Select Works of the British Poets, comprising within a single volume, a chronological series of our best classical writers from the time of Ben Jonson to Beattie. To each portion of the poetical extracts, is prefixed much valuable biographical and critical notice of the respective authors. The design appears to be entirely new, and upon so comprehensive a scale, that little of what is excellent in our finest poets has escaped the intelligent research, the taste and experienced judgment of the author. The preliminary remarks upon the genius and character of the poets, are written in the same unaffected and eloquent style, by which the former writings of this gentleman are distinguished. The work will form a valuable addition to the libraries of young people, as well as to seminaries of education. In a most elegant work, entitled Winter Nights, we find the classical pen of DR. DRAKE again busy in providing amusement and information for the public. His powers of invention are strongly evinced in an interesting little tale, entitled Kirton Priory, which occupies several numbers of his work. We wish he had given us more frequent opportunities of estimating his abilities in this line of composition. In one number he has given a specimen of a new translation of Tasso, in blank verse-we hope and trust that we shall hear more of this. It is executed with uncommon grace and felicity. The eritical observations (particularly those on Mr. H. Neele's Poems, of which he has appreciated the merits) which are scattered through these volumes, evince the extensive reading und elegant mind of the author. On the whole, we doubt if there are any two volumes in the compass of modern English literature calculated to give more unalloyed delight to the liberal and accomplished reader. The first part of PRINCE MAXIMILIAN's anxiously expected Travels in Brazil, with superb engravings, have appeared in quarto, at 21. 2s. and in the Journal of Voyages and Travels, with more of the engravings, at 3s. 6d. It ranks among standard works of this class, and, the second part, which will appear in a few weeks, will complete the work. Among the subscribers appear the names of almost every Sovereign and Titular Prince in Europe. A Sicilian Story, with Diego de Montilla and other Poems, have recently hailed the light, the elegant offspring of the delicate muse of our favourite nom de guerre, Barry Cornwall, whose Dramatic Imitations had previously met with considerable and by no means undeserved success. Though this might in part be owing to the novelty of restoring and more closely imitating the language and manner of our old dramatists, than any modern had yet attempted, it must be allowed, that in the execution of it, he has produced something better than a superior genius, unaided and alone, could have promised himself to achieve. This is indeed but a secondary title to praise, as the test of real genius is invention. Next to the power, however, of producing works of art,a happy imitation of them is deserving of regard, and in some respects is preferable to original mediocrity. Mr. B.'s poetry is not without power, but we think it would lose considerably if unsupported by a tone of modern affectation, united to an imitation of the simplicity and strength of antiquity. Though he possess none of the higher faculties that constitute a great and superior genius, there is yet a wildness and enthusiasm of feeling that shews he is not destitute of imagination. With nothing of the sublimity of sentiment and character, abounding in the stories of Byron, he still interests us in the fate of his lovers, Isabel and Guido, by the excitation of pity alone. The dream; the distraction of Isabel, the maniac song in the woods, and her return to the scene of her youth, with her heart-broken death, are described with much of the sweetness, and dramatic pathos that characterised the writings of Otway. The story is rather too simple, even for the poetical simplicity of the age, and of too little intricacy to bear any powerful developement of the passions. In a few passages we observe rather too strong a resemblance to the Endymion of Mr. Keates, who is the precursor of Mr. C. in the mythological and classical style of poetry, engrafted on that of the present age. S. W. NICOLL has published A second Letter to the Members of the York Whig Club, including a general view of Parlia mentary Reform, in which he considers the question rather in reference to the feelings of the Whigs, than to the rights and privileges of the people. Thus, while he acknowledges the necessity of some change in the administration of affairs, he deprecates the radical system of reform, and maintains that it is altogether a visionary theory to think of recurring to any fixt principles of ancient date, existing in the British constitution. Triennial Parliaments, and some slight mitigation of the power of borough influence and court corruption, are the summit of his wishes. JOSEPH STORNS FRY has recently published A concise History of Tithes, &c. in which he enters into a consideration of how far a forced maintenance for the Ministers of Religion is warranted by the examples and precepts of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. In order to effect this object, the writer has necessarily had recourse to sundry authors. After giving a learned account of the origin, nature, and tendency of tithes, with arguments that shew them to be perfectly unauthorized by scripture, he thus concludes a masterly treatise, in whose doctrine we for the most part agree. "I am aware that to the preceding questions respecting the right or title of the clergy, as well as to the further questions, whether the practice of taking a tenth of produce, instead of a tenth of increase, be, or be not a departure from ancient practice-whether the present system, does, or does not operate to the discouragement of agriculture, as well as to many other collateral considerations-a ready answer may be given; and that is, the law of the land. It was no part of my professed intention to inquire whether our ecclesiastical system is or is not consistent with these laws; but to inquire how far it is consistent with the examples and precepts of the founder of Christianity, and of his Apostles." If it be admitted that the contrary has been satisfactorily proved in the foregoing pages, it becomes a question for the serious consideration of the professors and teachers of Christianity, for Christian legislators, and for Christian magistrates, whether they are authorised to enforce any laws that stand opposed to the laws and injunctions of Jesus Christ. How they can answer in the great day of account, for being instrumental in perpetuating a system of usurpation, instituted in the darkest ages of ignorance and superstition, |