295] 300 miles. Its expense, after minutely considering the cost of similar undertakings in Europe and this country, they estimate at six million of dollars. Ten or fifteen years it is supposed will be occupied in completing the work; making the sum to be paid by the state about half a million annually. The subscriptions in land, by individuals, which have been already made in aid of this object, or which are confidently anticipated, will exceed, it is supposed, one million of dollars. Monday, Jun. 15.-A committee was appointed to inquire into the state of the folTowing Scientific and Literary Societies, viz. the Masschusetts Historical Society, the Linnean Society, and the Boston Athenæum, and any other Scientific Societies, that the committee may find it adviseable to include in the investigation. deaths during the year 1815 was 109. Of The average annual increase of population in Charlestown for the last 27 years has been 150 souls. The whole number of births in that period has been 3625; and of deaths 1583. Of those who have died, 180 (less than 1 in 8) had passed their 70th year; more than one third of the 180, their 80th year; and 22 survived their 90th year. The deaths in Baltimore, in 1815, were 1349-of which, 218 were of Consumption, 167 of Cholera Morbus, 108 of Pleurisy, 158 of various fevers, none of malignant, 98 of old age. We understand that the Pews on the ground floor of St. George's Church Greekman street, (lately rebuilt) were sold yesterday for nearly 24,000 dollars.~(Boston.) Springfield, November 2.-Great Increase. Aaron Smith of Granby, (Mass.) raised this year from one seed, thirteen Pumpkins, weighing in the whole One Thousand and Ninety pounds and a half, the largest weighed 148 lbs. The Cotton Manufacturers of Providence have agreed upon a petition to Congress for the prohibition by law of the importation of all Cotton Goods, (nankins excepted) the product of places beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and for additional duties on other coarse cottons. They state that in a circle of 30 miles from Providence, there are no less than 140 manufactories, containing 150,000 spindles; that they conume 29,000 bales of cotton annually; There was two or three years since a which produce 27,840,000 yards of cloth; the weaving of whieh costs 2,227,000 dol- singular emigration of turkeys and squir Jars; and which in value exceeds six mil-rels, from the lake country towards the lions of dollars. The persons employed are computed at 26,000. river, for a width of a thousand miles. Tens of thousands were taken on the banks and in the river, and thousands were Hurricane, Sept. 23, 1815.-It is contended by writers on the late storm, that the salt which was deposited on house windows and trees, to a great distance from the ocean, was not spread from the spray of the sea, because the quantity of salt ap Improvement upon turning coats.A gen-drowned in crossing. tleman in Boston, (Mass.) who lately purchased a ready made London coat, discovered on beginning to wear it, that it was made out of an old one. By scouring, scraping, carding the thread-bare parts, and new dressing, an actually new cloth had been made out of the old garment. It had been so metamorphosed by these several opera-peared to be more than is contained in tions, and by the addition of new trimmings, that its former services would not have been suspected, but from the discovery of a bit of old news-paper in the corner of the new starched pocket, and the entire destruction of the thread in some spots, in the production of the nap to which it principally owed its novel appearance, it having been wisely thought, as the garment was fitted up not so much for use as for sale, that show was of more consequence than substance. The peninsula of Charlestown (Mass.) and a district including a few families beyond it contain a population of nearly 5000 souls. Within these limits, the number of ocean water. We have heard persons say, who have resided on low islands exposed to the Atlantic, that the islands have often been covered with spray in storms, but they never witnessed similar effects on the houses, or on vegetation, as those noticed on the Continent in that hurricane. From the Dedham Gazette.-At New London many wells were entirely dry during the blow, Sept. 23, and small streams In Montville, or a nearly ceased to run. contiguous town very near New London, the stones of a bridge over a little brook, weighing three or four tous each, were removed up stream several feet. This could not have been done by the wind. The rocks at Point Judith were also removed from the beds, in which they have lain since the discovery of the country. All these circumstances seem to prove beyond doubt that there must have been an earthquake-and render it much less probable, that the salt was driven from the ocean, than that it was generated in the air by the changes which that element must have undergone during so remarkable and awful a convulsion. Poetry. SONNET. FROM THE ITALIAN OF DANTE. BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. Dante Alighieri to Guido Cavalcanti. Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend wend, We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; And that no change, nor any evil chance, That even satiety should still enhance Vanna and Bice and my gentle love, TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. Ταν άλα ταν γλαυκαν όταν ὧνεμος ατρέμα βαλλη, κ. τ. λο WHEN winds that move not its calm surface sweep The azure sea, I love the land no more ; Whose house is some lone bark, whose toil the Whose prey the wandering fish, an evil lot Moves the calm spirit, but disturbs it not. Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: We rest :-A dream has power to poison sleep; We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; THE PRINTER. WHO is it, "Gentle Reader," who, Who tells you of th' affairs of State, Ye politicians, truly tell Then, in no case should you delay, 299] The Gatherer, NO. XI. NEW SERIES. value but as you are going to India to look after your out-standing concerns, should fortune further persecute you, draw upon me for any sum of money you may stand in need of, seal it with this signet, "I am but a Gatherer and Dealer in other sign it with your own hand, and I will pay the money." Men's Stuff." An instance of liberality not to be overJooked, but worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, is related by a Gentleman, whom we know to be incapable of violating truth. We depend on his affirmation with entire assurance; nor let this be esteemed singular, though it must be acknowledged to rank high among the unusual. CHINESE LIBERALITY. (From Forbes's Oriental Memoirs.) "I think it very probable you may meet our friend Cat Tellicherry or Cochin, in one of the Portuguese ships from Macao, which generally arrives about this time. You have heard of his late misfortunes, but it is possible you may not know by what means his affairs are likely to be retrieved; and therefore with exquisite delight I relate an anecdote which does honour to human nature. The story is true, and in my opinion equals any thing of the kind upon record. You, who were formerly well acquainted with this worthy man in India, know that he afterwards resided many years highly respected at Canton and Macao; where a sudden reverse of fortune lately reduced him from a state of affluence to the greatest necessity. A Chinese merchant, to whom he had formerly rendered service, gratefully offered him an immediate loan of ten thousand dollars, which the gentleman accepted, and gave his bond for the amount; this the Chinese immedately threw into the fire, saying, • When you, my friend, first came to China, I was a poor man; you took me by the hand, and assisting my honest endeavours made me rich. Our destiny is now reversed; I see you poor, while I am blessed with affluence.' The bye-standers had snatched the bond from the flames; the gentleman, sensibly affected by such generosity, pressed his Chinese friend to take the security, which he did, and effectually destroyed it. The disciple of Confucius, beholding the renewed distress it occasioned, said he would accept of his watch, or any little valuable, as a memorial of their friendship. The gentleman immediately presented his watch, and the Chinese, in return, gave him an old iron seal, saying, Take this seal, it is one I have long used, and possesses no intrinsic Economy is the Order of the day: the Nation is economical of its money; Lord A. is economical of his tongue; his cousin, Sir John B. is economical of his temper; Alderman C. is economical of his coat; and D. Esq. is economical of his recollection; for scarcely can he remember one of his promises made to his constituents; or one of his constituents to which he made them. Some are so economical of their labour, that all their business is done by deputy; and their duty is discharged, when they have counted their salary, and signed proper receipts. And a very convenient principle of action-no of repose, it is:-for, what can be easier than a deputation? It is a fiction of state-"by yourself or your sufficient deputy;" it is a fiction of law"shall appear by your lawful attorney;"my it is an Ecclesiastical fiction, also, Curate does duty for me, to day;"-in other words, I preach, and I pray, by deputy." But of all devices for "doing duty" by deputy, that of the Mills for grinding prayers, on the principle of a perpetual motion, leaves every other far behind it, in ingenuity, application, constancy, and perseverance. It is the invention, too, of hordes which we please to call barbarous:-barbarous! no surely; in this, at least, they have refined on the refinements of civilized life; and so far from being deficient in ingenuity, they have reached the very armé of intellectual exaltation; the ne plus ultra of 'pious invention. To say truth, what a labour is prayer!the laity shift it off from themselves→ "the clergy pray for us;"-the Rector transfers the office to his inferior;-and his inferior would transfer it to the Clerk, if he durst. Now this invention we are about to recommend, would suit the Church clock, exactly; and, we humbly propose that the machinery of that useful appendage to a Church, be qualified, by means of an additional movement, to "do duty" in the absence of the Clerk, of the Curate, of the Rector, and of the congregation. The machinery would be but simple; and the cost might be divided between the clergy and the laity: as the benefit would be equal and mutual. Not that we mean wholly to dismiss the Clerk, who should be bound to wind up this machinery once a week ;—nor the Curate, who should be bound to see that he does it properly; nor the Rector, who should be bound to receive a report on the performance of said Clerk, Curate, aud Machinery, a string, which, when it is once set a-going, keeps it with the help of the stick, in constaut motion. Such-like prayer-wheels, neatly wrought, are fastened upon short sticks to a small wooden pedestal, and stand upon the altars for the use of pious persons. While the prayer-wheel is thus turned round with one hand, the devotee takes the rosary in the other, and at the same time repeats penitential psalms. This invention distinguishes one of the nations in the range of the Caucasean Mountains; but, we decline inserting its name; as we feel some reluctance in acknowledging that any nation, in any part of the globe, has excelled, or can excel our own, in the Article of---Machinery.structed on the same principle as those A fourth kind of these Kürda is conand why should we immortalize our rivals? which are turned by wind; only it is somewhat smaller, and the frame is adapted to be hung up by a cord in the chimneys of the inhabitants or huts of the Mongols. When there is a good fire, they are likewise set in motion by the smoke and the current of air, and continue to turn round as long as the fire is kept up. PRAYING MACHINES. tants of a whole district. They have a reference to all aquatic animals, whether alive or dead, whose temporal and eternal happiness is the aim of the writings contained in them; in like manner as the object of the fire-Kürdä is the salvation of all animals suffering by fire.' Among the most remarkable of the sacred utensils of the temples, is the Kurda, a cylindrical vessel of wood or metal, either very small, or of immense size. In its centre is fixed an iron axle; but the interior of the cylinder, which is quite hollow, is filled with sacred writings, the leaves of A fifth kind of Kürda is erected on a which are all stuck one to another at the small stream of water, upon a foundation edge, throughout the whole length. This like that of a mill, over which a small paper is rolled tight round the axis of the house is built to protect it from the wea cylinder, till the whole space is filled up. ther. By means of the wheel attached to A close cover is fixed on at each end, and it, and the current, the cylinder is in like the whole Kürda is very neatly finished, manner kept in a constant circular mopainted on the outside with allegorical re- tion. These water-Kürda are commonly presentations, or Indian prayers, and var- constructed on a large scale, and mainnished over. This cylinder is fastened up-tained at the joint expense of the inhabiright in a frame by the axis; so that the latter, by means of a wheel attached to it below, may be set a-going with a string; and with a slight pull kept in a constant rotatory motion. When this cylinder is Jarge, another, twice as small, and filled with writing, is fixed for ornament on the top of it. The inscriptions on such prayerwheels commonly consist of masses for elements, fire, water, air, gravitation, and O, pious people, who constrain even the souls, psalms, and the six great general velocity, to become religious-to repeat litanies, in which the most moving petitions are presented for the welfare of all penitential psalms, without intermission; creatures. The text they sometimes reto cry aloud without whining or bawling; peat a hundred or even a thousand times, without utterance,-to shew forth praises to petition without a voice,-to intreat attributing from superstition a propor-in dumb silence and all this, merely by tionably augmented effect to this repetition, the revolution of a wheel !! ' and believing that by these frequent copies, combined with their thousands of revolutions, they will prove so much the more efficacious. You frequently see, as well on the habitations of the priests as on the whole roof of the temple, small Kürdä placed close to each other, in rows, by way The last week, passed through this town, of ornament; and not only over the gate, in a horse waggon, a Mr. Skinner and his but likewise in the fields, frames set up ex-wife, with twelve hardy, ragged children, pressly for these praying machines, which, instead of being moved by a string, are turned by means of four sails, (shaped and hollowed out like spoons) by the wind. • Other similar Kürdä are fastened to sticks of moderate thickness; a leaden weight is then fastened to the cylinder by Puff extraordinary, which may put all our Lottery Puffers to the blush :-Can they do any thing like it---No-(From a Boston (N. A.) paper.) A happy but hard Case. on their way to the Ohio country, having come from the eastern boundaries of Maine, a distance of 450 miles, and still going from 12 to 1500 more, in hopes to find a farm more fertile than the hard climate of Maine can give. It really made charity rise is the bosoms of all who saw them, National Register : FOREIGN. AMERICA: BRITISH. yet contentment and cheerfulness sat on their brow. Any one who wishes to assist such as are situated like Skinner, or who, by a small loss may call it hard, but feel willing to risk to obtain the happy case, are invited to buy a ticket or share, in the Plymouth Beach Lottery, which in a few days will bestow $20,000 on some one of its adventurous travellers; or those who Conflagration of the town of St. John's Newfoundwish a short jaunt only, try the Union Canal, which will give shortly two of "The fire broke out on Feb. 12, about $5,000-Apply to the Lottery and Ex-eight o'clock in the evening, and conchange Office of Gilbert and Dean, Old State House, South Side. ne of Bigamy triumphant: Equality indisputable. Lately died in Cambridge, New-York, Mr. Solomon Crouch, of a wound in the hand by the cut of a scythe. Among the Memorabilia of the times, it is mentioned of the deceased, that he married two sisters, nearly at the same time, lived alternately, a week at a time, with them, and had by each thirteen children. The two families lived a short distance from each other in affection and harmony; and the two widows and twenty-six children followed him to the grave! There was in London--and perhaps, he may be still living, an instance of the same kind. The husband was a man in extensive business; and made a point of always purchasing the very same things in quality and in colour-whether, caps, bonnets, gowns, or ribbands, for his two wives: He made no difference, in the most minute particular. But, if we recollect rightly-he was not so equally favoured as the aforesaid Mr. Solomon Crouch; he had no children by one wife; but by the other, only In what manner, or state, he was followed to the grave-if he be dead-we do not know. Curious Appeal, Determined at the Middlesex Sessions John Nash, a pauper, had rented a house for more than 20 years, standing partly over a drain, in the hamlets of Acton and Hammersmith. A model of the house was produced, as well as one of the bed-room in which the pauper slept: the length of the bed was two feet nine inches and a half at the top, and three feet five inches and a half at the bottom, making the bedroom six-feet three. The room being in both parishes, the question was, to which should he belong? land. Several sumed between 130 and 140 houses. What increased the danger, and added to the extent of this calamity, was the way in which the town of St. John was built. The houses are entirely of wood, not a brick being used, except in the chimneys. They are also irregularly built, and huddled together, as suited the conveniency of their various owners, and without regard to safety or order. A tremendous gale from the south-east was blowing when the fire commenced, and threatened the total destruction of the place. Towards morning, however, a heavy snow which had been falling up to this period, changed into rain, and materially checked the rapidity of the progress of the devouring element. The extraordinary exertions of the navy, army, and public departments, is represented as beyond praise. houses were pulled down before the flames reached them, and thus the communications being cut off, the injury was limited to the number of habitations specified.— We are sorry to say that the lower orders of the populace gave themselves up to plunder, instead of assisting their wretched fellow-creatures, of whom 1500 have been rendered destitute, during a rigorous and inclement season, by this awful visitation. Their houses and provisions are destroyed, and what augments their distress is the impossibility of vessels entering the port with supplies, in consequence of the ice. The other inhabitants share their store with these unfortunates, but so heavy a loss must be felt by all. A liberal subscription was entered upon, which af forded a temporary relief, and we have no doubt but it will be benevolently aided, by a similar measure in England. The rapidity with which the houses were consumed is described as almost inconceivable. Many of their inmates had barely time to escape naked, or merely covered with blankets, and stood shivering in the storm and snow, while all that they had The Court Mr. Watson and Mr. Ser jeant Sellon decided, that presuming the body when stretched out, would have its greater proportion in that part of the roor. the world perished before their eyes. which belonged to Acton, ordered the apWe rejoice to add, that report speaks of peal to be allowed, thereby fixing the set-only one life lost on this melancholy occa tlement in Acton. sion," |
