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however, so abstracted from the world as to lose sight altogether of its opinions; and, interesting himself in the controversy between the two great sects of the Romish church, the Jesuits and the Jansenists, he wrote his "Provincial Letters," as they are called, in opposition to the former body. "These letters," says Voltaire, be considered as a model of elo- who say, may quence and humour. The best comedies of Moliére have not more wit than the first part of these letters; and the sublimity of the latter part of them is equal to any thing in Bossuet."

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a great fund of humour, which his infirmities could never entirely destroy. In company, he readily indulged in that harmless and delicate raillery which never gives offence, and which greatly tends to enliven conversation; but its principal object was generally of a moral nature. For example, ridiculing those authors My book, my commentary, my history;' they would do better,' said he, to say our book, our commentary, our history, since there are in them much more of other people's than their own.' We add one more remark of this wonderPascal was about thirty years of age ful man, which we think is rather happily when these letters were published; yet selected from his writings, to illustrate the infirmities of a premature old age ap- the chief characteristics of his style of pear to have increased upon him to such thinking and writing-viz., ingenuity a degree as to incapacitate him for con- and profundity. "It seems," says he, tinuous labour. He, therefore, gave him-" rather a fortunate circumstance that self up to devotion, and, as his weakness some common error should fix the wanand irritability increased, mingled with derings of the human mind. For init much of asceticism and superstition. stance, the moon is supposed to influence As his life drew near its close, he em- the disorders of the human body, and to ployed himself almost exclusively in re- cause a change in human affairs, &c., flection upon religion, and morals, and which notion, though it be false, is not committed to the first scraps of paper he without its advantage, as men are thereby could find such thoughts as he deemed restrained from an inquiry into things to worthy of preservation. These were found which the human understanding is after his death, arranged and published, competent, and from a kind of curiosity under the title of "Pascal's Thoughts," which is a malady of the mind.” and constitute one of the most curious, profound, and inestimable works of which French literature can boast. At the early age of thirty-nine Pascal expired at Paris, on the 19th of August, 1662.

Of his character the Abbé Bossut, who collected and edited his works, has left the following interesting notice :— "This extraordinary man inherited from nature all the powers of genius. He was a geometrician of the first rank, a profound reasoner, and a sublime and eleIf we reflect that, in a very gant writer. short life, oppressed by continual infirmities, he invented a curious arithmetical machine, the elements of the calculation of chances, and a method of resolving various problems respecting the cycloid -that he fixed, in an irrevocable manner, the wavering opinions of the learned respecting the weight of the air-that he wrote one of the completest works which exists in the French language-and that in his Thoughts' there are passages, the depth and beauty of which are incomparable, we shall be induced to believe that a greater genius never existed in any age or nation. All those who had occasion to frequent his company in the ordinary commerce of the world acknowledged his superiority; but it excited no envy against him, as he was never fond of showing it. His conversation instructed, without making those who heard it sensible of their own inferiority; and he was remarkably indulgent towards the faults of others. It may easily be seen, by his Provincial Letters,' and by some of his other works, that he was born with

HURRICANE AT BARBADOS,

11TH AUGUST, 1831.

asunder in the middle. The lightning, instead of darting through the air, skimmed along the ground in broad flashes, and seemed to sweep every thing before it. Meteoric balls and pillars of fire were seen in many places. The clouds, whenever the lightning gave a sight of them, appeared to touch and mingle in thick masses with the ground. Even the earth itself was moved, and more than one shock of an earthquake was distinctly felt.

The noise of the storm was unearthly. No Many who were driven from their houses and description can convey a just notion of it. exposed to the full beat and rage of the elements, compared it to the mingled, shrieks of an innumerable crowd of persons in the air above.

The extreme fury of the wind can be estimated only by its effects. As soon as the day opened, the eye could discover nothing but ruin and devastation. In the country very few trees were standing, and these were much broken, and completely stripped of their foliage. The ground was scathed and parched on every side. In one night the luxuriance of summer had given place to the dreary and leafless aspect of a northern winter. The few houses which remained were all unroofed and otherwise extensively damaged.

Between five and six in the morning, my house, the walls and floors of which had withstood the fury of the tempest, afforded a temin-porary shelter to the wounded and dying in the immediate vicinity. Of six persons who

As this hurricane was singularly destructive, and perhaps more violent, considering the time it lasted, than any experienced within the memory of man, or recorded in history, a short description of it from an eye-witness may not be uninteresting—

----Ipse miserrima vidi.

It seems to have wanted many of the usual indications which precede and mark the approach of a convulsion of this kind in the West merely a lowering sky, and a few showers of Indies. The day of the tenth closed with rain. About one in the morning of the eleventh the wind was observed to blow strongly from the north, and in a short time it veered towards the west with a perceptible increase of force. Between two and three it had exceeded the violence of a common storm; but it was not until after three that the hurricane raged in all its fury, with its full powers of destruction. The uproar of the elements became now terrific. No one was secure from danger, nor could the mind be relieved from the certainty that almost every blast brought with it death to a fellow-creature. Between three and five the wind shifted in eddying and furious gusts, noise, from north-west to west, and then to and with a roaring which drowned south. During these two hours, houses built apparently with strength sufficient to resist any external violence were tumbled to the ground, covering the inmates under a mass of stones and rafters. In one family alone, twenty-two persons who had taken refuge in the cellar were thus crushed to death. Trees of an immense size, and of the growth of ages, were either torn suddenly up by their roots, or snapt

every other

were brought there, one only survived the injuries occasioned by the storm. At the distance of a few hundred yards, a little village had recently been built, and the houses were tenanted chiefly by free coloured persons. On the morning of the eleventh not a single house was standing. The whole was one mass of ruin and complete desolation. I passed over could scarcely discover even the site of the the ground between seven and eight, and I buildings.

I went out immediately after the abatement lad evidently in a state of delirium. Excessive of the storm. The first person I met was a fright had given a shock to his mind which deprived him, for a time, of his senses. He addressed me in incoherent and unmeaning language, and ran from me when I approached him. A few steps further brought me to a child lying dead in the road, by the side of a killed by the storm: very near them was a goat, which was also lifeless both had been ing help. A ragged splinter of wood had woman on the ground, most piteously implorstruck her below the knee, and passing through nearly the middle of the leg, it protruded about six inches on the opposite side. She died within a very few days.

In the town and its environs, the desolation striking. Walls, roofs, beams of wood, furniwas more concentrated, and therefore more ture, brute animals and human beings, were huddled together in an apparently inextricable mass. The wounded and the dead were prominent and most painful objects amidst the general confusion.

of life was greater within the houses or in the open air. The extent of the evil rendered it impossible to ascertain the cause of death in each particular instance. We merely know that many were crushed under the ruins of

It is difficult to determine whether the loss

* This was a distinctive feature of the Egyptian plague of hail. "The Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground.”—Exodus ix. 23.

their own houses, and many destroyed by the falling of stones and rafters in their attempt to escape. The lightning killed some, while others were blown away by the gusts of wind, and either dashed with violence against the walls and trees, or else carried into the sea and drowned. Some idea may be formed of the danger occasioned by the scattered stones and fragments of wood, from the fact, that in one of the buildings belonging to his Majesty's government, a piece of timber was forced by the wind into the solid stone with so much violence, and to so great a depth, that it was found impossible to wrench it out with the hand.

The ships were all driven from their moorings, and hurried, without the least power of resistance, towards the shore. They were immediately stranded on the beach, and were raised so high that the following day a person could walk round many of them without difficulty. The violence of the wind allowed no time for their striking and gradually breaking to pieces.

On the morning of the eleventh there was a kind of wild amazement among the people, like that which attends the first awakening from a most frightful dream. It was long before they recovered their steadiness of mind, and their wonted powers of exertion. Meanwhile the wounded and mutilated were in many cases left without succour, and even without notice. I believe some were not extricated from the ruins until the third day. For several days the stench arising from the unburied dead bodies was most offensive.

No correct returns* were made of the persons killed by the hurricane. The conjectures were for the most part vague and unsatisfactory. Some estimate the loss at three thousand; others at five thousand, or even more. Some approximation may, perhaps, be made to the truth, by our knowing that in the garrison, which contained about twelve hundred soldiers, more than fifty perished in the hurricane, or from injuries received by it. The wounded exceeded one hundred and thirty.

Most signally did the Almighty remember mercy in the midst of his judgments. Had the wind continued with unabated violence a few hours longer, and extended over the space of time usual in visitations of this kind, few persons would have been spared to relate the tale of almost universal destruction. Even another hour would have added fearfully to the loss of lives, and have perhaps completed the ruin of buildings and other property.

A striking effect of the extreme fury of the storm appeared in the great destruction of birds. On the morning of the eleventh the ground in many parts was strewed with the common field birds of the country, either dead or severely wounded. The quantity killed immediately round Codrington College was so great that, to prevent the stench arising from their decay, persons were employed to collect and bury them in trenches dug for the purpose. The horses which escaped from the ruins of the fallen stables were, in many instances,

The returns of the wounded and killed by the hurricane, although not given until after an interval of some months, were singularly and unaccountably inaccurate. It is stated of the parish of St. Michael, that there was only one free coloured person wounded. Yet it is notorious that some hundreds of this class of the inhabitants were severely injured and disabled by the storm. In the Cathedral alone there were thirty or forty under surgical care, and on many amputations were performed.

the rank in their work.

hurried with irresistible violence over the severely, while I was present, for falling behind cliffs and other abrupt precipices, and were killed.

The natural causes of hurricanes seem to

have eluded the researches of philosophy They are among the hidden sources of chastisement by which He who rideth upon the wings of the wind afflicts for just and salutary ends an entire people. No combination of the elements with which man is at present acquainted, is able to produce these tremendous convulsions, which seem to affect, at one and the same time, the earth, the sea, and the air. The rapidity with which the wind passes from one point of the compass to another is peculiarly characteristic of the hurricane. Virgil has seized on this fact in one of his allusions to a storm.

Adversi rupto cen quondam turbine venti
Confligunt.-En. ii. 416.*

And it is noticed with a striking accuracy in the book of Job, chap i. ver. 19. There were many in the island of Barbados who literally and fatally experienced the great wind, which smote the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon them.-Christianity and Slavery, in a Course of Lectures by Archdeacon Elliot, preached at St. Michael's Cathedral, Barbados,

SLAVERY IN JAMAICA.

I asked one of the drivers what were the offences for which these people had been condemned. He replied that some of them were convicts from Tre

lawney parish, who had been concerned in the

late rebellion; others were thieves and runaways; and, pointing out three individuals (two men and a woman), he added that these had been taken up while martial law was in force-for praying. I asked if I might be permitted to speak to these three persons; and, meeting with no objection, I went forward and conversed with them. One of them, whose name was Rogers, in reply to my inquiries, informed me that he had been condemned to the workhouse gang for meeting with other negroes for prayer. The other man, whose name I that he had been sent to work in chains solely for have forgot, told me that this was the second time this offence-namely, joining with some of his friends and relatives in social prayer to his Maker and Redeemer! In order to assure myself further of the truth of this extraordinary fact, I made inquiry respecting it of some of the most intelligent negroes on New Ground estate, to whom the particulars connected with these people's condemnation were known, and received such full corroboration of their statement as left me no doubt whatever of its truth. Indeed, I soon found good reason to believe that on many estates there are few offences for which the unhappy slaves are punished with more certainty or severity than praying.

About a fortnight after my return from my last visit to the attorney, a deputation from St. Ann's Colonial Church Union waited upon me. This WE have already made some extracts from took place on one of the militia muster days. I the pamphlet of Mr. Whiteley, who was an observed that day that a number of overseers and eye-witness of the events he relates, with re- book-keepers called at New Ground estate, as spect to the unheard-of miseries entailed by they returned from muster, and I noticed a great the system of slavery on those who are the deal of whispering among them. Just at dusk subjects of it. We will now make a few more two persons, under the character of a deputation extracts from the same work, showing the reli-pearance, and demanded an interview with me. from the Colonial Church Union, made their apgious bearing of the system.

Ann's work-house gang (of convict slaves) was During my residence at New Ground, the St. employed in digging cane-holes on the plantation. I had thus frequent opportunities of seeing and conversing with them. I shall never forget the impression I received from the first near view of these wretched people. The son of the captain, or superintendent of the work-house (a person named Drake), accompanied me to the field the first day 1 went out to see this gang; and, as we went along, he remarked that I should probably be somewhat shocked by their appearance, but ought to bear in mind that these negroes were

convicted malefactors-rebels, thieves, and felons. affecting and appalling spectacle. The gang, conOn approaching the spot I witnessed indeed a most sisting of forty-five negroes, male and female, were all chained by the necks in couples; and in one instance I observed a man and a woman chained together. Two stout drivers were standing over them, each armed both with a cart-whip and a cat-o'-nine tails. Nearly the whole gang were working without any covering on the upper part of their bodies; and on going up to them, with a view to closer inspection, I found that their backs, from the shoulders downwards, were scarred and lacerated in all directions, by the frequent application of the cat and the cart-whip, which the drivers used at discretion, independently of severer floggings by order of the superintendent. I could not find a single one who did not bear on his body evident marks of this savage discipline. Some were marked with large weals, and with what in Yorkshire we should call wrethes, or ridges of flesh healed over. Others were crossed with long scars; on others, again, the gashes were raw and recent. Altogether it was the most horrid sight that ever my eyes beheld. One of them had on a coarse shirt or smock frock, which was actually dyed red with his blood. The drivers struck some of them

* See also En. i. 89.

The overseer introduced them-a Mr. Dicken and a Mr. Brown. The former I had previously met with, but to my salutation he now made no response. Mr. Brown was spokesman, and commenced by informing me that they came as a deputation from more than a hundred gentlemen at St. Ann's Bay, to state to me,-1st. That they had heard I had been leading the minds of the slaves astray, by holding forth doctrines of a tendency to make them discontented with their present condition. 2ndly. That I was a Methodist, and that my relative who had sent me to Jamaica was a dd Methodist. And, 3rdly. That they had a barrel of tar down at the Bay to tar and feather me, as I well deserved, and that they "would do so, by G--d."

In reply, I acknowledged that I was undoubtedly a Methodist; but added, mildly, that I was altogether unconscious of any act, since I arrived in the island, whereby I could have given any reasonable offence to the planters or any other class of men; and I begged them to specify my offences. Mr. Brown then stated, that in the first

ney, I had said,

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place, I had written a letter to the Rev. Thomas Pennock, Wesleyan Missionary. 2ndly. That in a letter I had written to Mr. the attorThe Lord reward you for the kindness you have shown me, and grant you in health and wealth long to live." 3rdly. That I had said to a slave who had opened a gate to me at a certain place, "The Lord bless you." 4thly. That I had asked the drivers of the work house gang questions respecting the offences of the negroes of that gang. 5thly. That I had made private remarks about the way in which I had seen Mr. McLean, the overseer, treat the slaves. (Here Dicken, who was an overscer at Winsor, a neighbouring plantation, told me he had two negroes at that moment in the stocks, and added, with a brutal oath, if I would come over in the morning he

The planters of all ranks, with very rare exceptions, are shocking swearers; the more vulgar sort interlarding their profaneness with the most revolting obscenity.

would let me see them properly flogged.) 6thly. That I had preached to a hundred and fifty slaves at one time. To all these charges I pleaded guilty, except the last, which was without foundation-without even a shadow of truth; though, if it had been true, it would have been difficult for me to admit its criminality. Dicken then drew his hand across my throat, and swore by his Maker that he would be the first man to cut it if I should

dare to talk to the slaves in the same way again. He then pulled out a pistol, which he cocked, and held out (but did not point it at my person), saying, that if he was to fire it off, there would be twenty men in the house in one minute, ready to do what everthey chose with me. Mr. M Lean, the overseer, here spoke up, and said, with considerable vehemence, that before he would see me

abused he would rather have a ball through his

own breast.

I then told them that there was no occasion for violence; that I was quite willing, under the circumstances in which I found myself, to leave the island by the very first conveyance; and should be glad if they and their friends would only permit me to do so quietly. They promised to report this reply to their Society, the Colonial Churchi Union, and so departed.

GOETHE AND MADAME DE STAEL.

THE following amusing remarks on the conversational habits of Madame de Stael are from the pen of her great contemporary, Goethe.

To philosophize in company is to speak with liveliness about problems which are inexplicable. This was her peculiar pleasure and passion, and her philosophizing spirit was carried, in the heat of talking, into matters of thought and sentiment, which are only fitted to be discussed between God and one's own heart. Besides this, like a woman and a Frenchwoman, she adhered obstinately to her own positions, and shut her ears against the greater part of what was said by others.

All this had a tendency to rouse the evil spirit within me, so that I generally received with objections and contradictions every thing she brought forward, and sometimes, by my determined opposition, drove her to despair. In this situation, indeed, she generally appeared most amiable, and displayed in a striking light her quickness in thought and power of reply. I had several continuous têteà-tête conversations with her, in which, in her usual style, she was tiresome enough; for she never would allow a moment's reflection even on the most important suggestions, but would have had the most profound and interesting matters discussed with the same rapidity as if we had been merely employed in keeping up a racket-ball.

One anecdote of this kind may find a place here. One evening at the court, Madame de Stael advanced to me, and said, with a lively feeling, "I have important news for you; Moreau has been arrested, along with some others, and accused of treachery to the tyrant." I had, like others, for a long time taken much interest in the personal concerns and actions of that noble man; I now recalled the past to my remembrance, in order, in my own way, to examine the present, and to draw some conclusion as to the future. The lady changed the subject, directing her conversation to a thousand different matters; and when she perceived that I, wrapped up in my own meditations, was not answering her with much interest, she assailed me again with her usual reproach, that I was sulky, as usual, this evening, and no cheerful talk to be had with me. I got a little angry, and told her she was in

capable of real sympathy-that she might as well break into my house, give me a box on the ear, and then tell me to go on with my song, as dance from one topic to another. This burst was quite after her own heart; she wished to excite passion, no matter what. In order to pacify me, she described to me the whole particulars of the accident; and, in doing so, displayed her deep acquaintance with the situation of affairs as well as character. Her intercourse with society in Germany has, in its results, been of deep importance and influence. Her work on Germany, which owes its origin to such social conversations, has been like the march of a powerful expedition, by which a breach has been effected in the Chinese wall of those antiquated prejudices which separated us from France, and been the means of extending a knowledge of us over the Rhine, and even across the channel, and of spreading our influence into the distant

west.

Edited by the late W. GREENFIELD, Superintendant of the Editorial Department of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

THE

HE PSALMS, Metrically and Historically Arranged. Stereotype Edition. 4s. 6d., boards. the metrical arrangement, the type is as large as that used The peculiarity in this Edition is, that, in addition to in the largest Edition of the Comprehensive Bible, while the size of the volume is small.

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No. 545 contains a Sermon by the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, A.M., on "The Expiatory Sacrifice of Christ." Preached on Good Friday, April 5, 1833-A Sermon by Sunday Morning, March 24, 1833. An Account of the the late Rev. R. Hill, A.M., preached at Surrey Chapel, Life and Death of the Rev. Rowland Hill, with some very

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BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH, KING'S
CROSS, NEW ROAD, LONDON.
MORISON'S UNIVERSAL VEGETABLE
MEDICINE.

Cure of Cholera Morbus.
Mr. Charlwood,

Sir,-With a due sense of gratitude, I beg to acknow ledge a cure performed on me by use of Morison's excellent Pills. I was taken with the Cholera Morbus about a fortnight ago, attended with the usual accompaniments; having been recommended to use Morison's Pills, I instantly applied for them at your agent's, Mr. Tuxford, Back of the Inns; the second dose gave me immediate relief, and brought up a quantity of nauseous bile from the stomach. I then took a third dose of fifteen pills, and fell into a sound sleep, and rapidly succeeded to a restoration of good health.

I remain, Sir, with grateful respect, your obedient serJ. DUTCHMAN.

vant,

Norwich, Crook's-place, Sept. 28, 1832.

Eure of Epilepsy.

To Mr. E. Giles, Tavern-street, Ipswich, Sir,-With heartfelt thanks to the Almighty dispenser the use of Mr. Morison's Universal Medicines, I coralez of all good, for that return of health I now enjoy fren it my duty to suffering humanity to give every possible publicity I can to my extraordinary case and cure, in i hope of inducing others, who may despair of rele k similar cases, to reap the same benefit.

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For seven years I was afflicted with fits of the most vions to my taking the Pills, they came on from tw alarming description, and in the last twelve months prefour times a week, and lasted from one to three ho this state of suffering I called on your sub-agem a time, requiring several persons to hold me. It Backett, of this place, who recommended me to t "Universal Medicine," and I commenced with gradually up to twenty-four in a day, then reducing No. 1 and 2 alternately, night and morning, inere down to three or four, until I left off. When I had the Pills three days, 1 had a slight attack for abov an hour; but from that time till the present, which months, I have not had the least symptom of a relapst took the pills six weeks.

Of the correctness of this statement, I will convince one who may please to call on me.

I am, Sir, your humble servant,

Kelsale, Oct. 1, 1832.

3

C. BROWN

Cure of Ulcers in the Neck, with Blindness. To Mr. E. Giles, Tavern-street, Ipswich.

TH

Stradbroke, Oct. 1, 1832. Sir, I saw a little patient of mine yesterday; his name is George Fisher, at Laxfield, aged about four years, who had been blind of both eyes for nearly two years, and bad three large ulcers in his neck; he is now restored to his sight; his eyes, otherwise, nearly well, and the ulcers are perfectly cured. All this was effected by the "Universal Medicines." Your obedient servant,

LOT SMITH, Agent for Stradbroke.

CAUTION TO THE PUBLIC. · MORISON'S UNIVERSAL MEDICINES having superseded the use of almost all the Patent Medicines which the wholesale venders have foisted upon the credulity of the searchers after health, for so many years, the town druggists and chemists, not able to establisk a fair fame on the invention of any plausible means of competition, have plunged into the mean expedient of puffing up a "Dr. Morrison" (observe the subterfuge of the double r), a being who never existed, as prescribing a "Vegetable Universal Pill, No. 1 and 2," for the express purpose (by means of this forged imposition upon the public), of deteriorating the estimation of the "UNIVERSAL MEDICINES" of the "BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH."

KNOW ALL MEN, then, that this attempted delusion must fall under the fact, that (however specions the pretence), none can be held genuine by the College but those which have "Morison's Universal Medicines" impressed upon the Government Stamp attached to each box and packet, to counterfeit which is felony by the laws of the land.

The "Vegetable Universal Medicines" are to be had at the College, New Road, King's Cross, London; at the Surrey Branch, 96, Great Surrey-street; Mr. Field's, 16, Airstreet, Quadrant; Mr. Chappell's, Royal Exchange; Mr. Walker's, Lamb's-conduit-passage, Red-lion-square; Mr. J. Loft's, Mile-end-road; Mr. Bennett's, Covent-gardenmarket; Mr. Haydon's, Fleur-de-lis-court, Norton-falgate; Mr. Haslet's, 147, Ratcliffe-highway; Messrs. Norbury's, Brentford; Mrs. Stepping, Clare-market; Messrs. Salmon, Little Bell-alley; Miss Varai's, 24, Lucas-street, Commercial-road; Mrs. Beech's, 7, Sloane-square, Chelsea; Mrs. Chapple's, Royal Library, Pall-mall; Mrs. Pippen's, 18, Wingrove-place, Clerkenwell; Miss C. Atkinson, 19, New Trinity-grounds, Deptford; Mr. Taylor, Hanwell; Mr. Kirtlam, 4, Bolingbroke-row, Walworth; Mr. Payne, 64, Jermyn-street; Mr. Howard, at Mr. Wood's, hair-dresser, Richmond; Mr. Meyar, 3, May's-buildings, Blackheath; Mr. Griffiths, Wood wharf, Greenwich; Mr. Pitt, 1, Cornwall-road, Lambeth; Mr. J. Dobson, 35, Craven-street, Strand; Mr. Oliver, Bridge-street, Vauxhall; Mr. J. Monck, Bexley Heath; Mr. T. Stokes, 12, St. Ronan's, Deptford; Mr. Cowell, 22, Terrace, Pimlico; Mr. Parfitt, 96, Edgware-road; Mr. Hart, Portsmonth-place, Kennington-lane; Mr. Charlesworth, grocer, 124, Shoreditch; Mr. R. G. Bower, grocer, 22, Brick-lane, St. Luke's; Mr. S. J. Avila, pawnbroker, opposite the church, Hackney; Mr J. S. Briggs, 1, Brunswick-place, Stoke Newington; Mr. T. Gardner, 95, Wood-street, Cheapside, and 9, Nortonfalgate; Mr. J. Williamson, 15, Seabright-place, Hackneyroad; Mr. J. Osborn, Wells-street, Hackney road, and Homerton; Mr. H. Cox, grocer, 16, Union-street, Bishops gate-street; Mr. T. Walter, cheesemonger, 67, Hoxton Old Town; and at one agent's in every principal town in Great Britain, the Islands of Guernsey and Malta; and throughout the whole of the United States of America.

N. B. The College will not be answerable for the consequences of any medicines sold by any chymist or druggist, as none such are allowed to sell the "Universal Medicines."

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No country is more unhappily exposed | tides were on this occasion swept away to the north-east, and back again to the to inundation, and that of the most cala- by the united vehemence of winds and mitous kind, than Holland, in conse- waves, and the whole south of Holland quence of its lowness and flatness. To was flooded and devastated. Besides the obviate the danger arising from these mansions of the nobility, seventy-two local peculiarities, the inhabitants have villages were swept away, and one hunintersected their country with dykes, con- dred thousand souls perished. Such an structed with prodigious labour and inge-event, but attended with less loss of life, nuity. Art has thus striven to oppose the power of nature, and in most instances has done it successfully. In some cases, however, nature has, in a terrific manner, asserted her own supremacy; and the engraving prefixed to this article represents one of these dreadful occasions. The event took place on the 19th of November, 1421, and its horrors were if possible increased by its occurring in the night. The barriers formed against the

occurred in 1430. The vast expanse of
water called the Zuyder Zee was formed
by one of these inundations, and the Bies
Bosch by the one represented above.
Another occurred in 1686, and is de-
scribed as follows in the London Gazette.

60

Groningen, Nov. 26.-On Friday, the 22nd instant, it blew the whole day a most violent storm from the south-east; towards night the wind changed to the west, then to the north-west, afterwards

north-west. The weather continued thus tempestuous all night, accompanied with thunder and lightning; the chimneys and roofs of a great many houses were blown down, and much more mischief was done; but it was not comparable to that which followed; for the dykes, not being able to resist the violence of the sea, agitated by these terrible storms, the whole country between this and the Delfziel, being about eighteen English miles, was the next morning overwhelined with water, which in many places was eight feet higher than the very dykes, and many people and thousands of cattle were drowned, the water breaking even through the walls of the town of Delfziel, to that height that the inhabitants were forced

away.

to betake themselves to their garrets and every morning, a certain quantity of incense, upper rooms for shelter. The whole vil- and of gold and silver paper. The sailors are divided into two classes; a few, called Tow- | lage of Oterdam is in a manner swept muh (or head men), have charge of the anAt Termunderzyl, there is not chor, sails, &c.; and the rest, called Ho-ke (or one house left, above three hundred peo- comrades), perform the menial work, such as ple being drowned there, and only nine-pulling ropes, and heaving the anchor. A teen escaping. Hereskes, Weywert, Wol- cook and some barbers make up the remaindendorp, and all the villages near the der of the crew. Eems, have suffered extremely. The western quarter has likewise had its share in this calamity, and the highest lands have not escaped. On Sunday and yesterday it reached this city; the lower parts whereof are now all under water. From the walls of this city we can see nothing but the tops of houses and steeples that remain above water. In a word, the misery and desolation is greater than can be expressed.

think

ter temper.

The several individuals of the crew form one whole, whose principal object in going to sea is trade, the working of the junk being only a secondary object. Every one is a share holder, having the liberty of putting a certain quantity of goods on board, with which he trades, wheresoever the vessel may touch, caring very little about how soon she may arrive at the port of destination.

All these personages, except the second class of sailors, have cabins, long, narrow holes, in which one may stretch himself, but cannot stand erect. If any person wishes to go as a passenger, he must apply to the Tow-muh, in order to hire one of their cabins, which they let on such conditions as they please. In fact, the sailors exercise full control over the vessel, and oppose every measure which they terest; so that even the captain and pilot are may prove injurious to their own infrequently obliged, when wearied out with their insolent behaviour, to crave their kind "It is impossible to describe the pre-assistance, and to request them to show a betsent sad condition of this province, occasioned by a most terrible inundation that happened on the 22nd instant; the like has not been known these hundred years. The whole province, except the higher parts of this city, lies under water; whole villages have been swept away, and a great many people, with abundance of cattle, drowned; and those that have escaped, sheltering themselves in garrets and upper rooms, are in great distress for want of relief; nothing but lamentations, and the jangling of bells for help, is heard through the whole country; and though all possible care is taken to assist them from hence and other places, yet, there not being boats enough to afford help to all, it is to be feared many will be lost for want of it. At Oterdam, near Delfziel, but twenty-five persons have escaped; in the village of Peterborne there are but three houses left standing; and, in general, all the houses that stood near the dyke have been swept away."

CHINESE VESSELS, OR JUNKS. CHINESE Vessels have generally a captain, who might more properly be styled a supercargo. Whether the owner or not, he has charge of the whole cargo, buys and sells as circumstances require, but has no command whatever over the sailing of the ship. This is the business of the Ho-chang, or pilot. During the whole voyage, to observe the shores and promontories are the principal objects which occupy his attention, day and night. He sits steadily on the side of the ship, and sleeps when standing, just as it suits his convenience. Though he has, nominally, the command over the sailors, yet they obey him only when they find it agreeable to their own wishes; and they scold and brave him just as if he belonged to their own company. Next to the pilot (or mate) is the To-kung (helmsman), who manages the sailing of the ship; there are a few men under his immediate command. There are, besides, two clerks: one to keep the accounts, and the other to superintend the cargo that is put on board. Also, a comprador, to purchase provisions; and a Heang-kung (or priest), who attends to the idols, and burns,

very slender.

tain nothing but dry rice, and have to provide The common sailors receive from the capfor themselves their other fare, which is usually These sailors are not, usually, men who have been trained up to their occupation, but wretches who were obliged to flee from their homes; and they frequently engage for a voyage before they have ever been on board a junk. All of them, however stupid, are commanders; and if any thing of importance is to be done, they will bawl out their commands to each other till all is utter confusion. There is no subordination, no cleanliness, no mutual regard or interest.

The navigation of junks is performed without the aid of charts, or any other helps, except the compass; it is mere coasting, and the whole art of the pilot consists in directing the course according to the promontories in sight. In time of danger, the men immediately lose all courage; and their indecision frequently proves the destruction of their vessel. Although they consider our mode of sailing as somewhat better than their own, still they cannot but allow the palm of superiority to the ancient craft of the "celestial empire." When any alteration for improvement is proposed, they will readily answer, "If we adopt this measure we shall justly fall under the suspicion of barbarism.”

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The most disgusting thing on board a junk is idolatry, the rites of which are performed with the greatest punctuality. The goddess of the sea is Ma-tsoo-po, called also Teen-how, queen of heaven." She is said to have been a virgin, who lived some centuries ago in Fuhkeen, near the district of Fuh-chow. On account of having, with great fortitude, and by a kind of miracle, saved her brother, who was on the point of drowning, she was deified, and loaded with titles, not dissimilar to those bestowed on the Virgin Mary. Every vessel is furnished with an image of this goddess, before which a lamp is kept burning. Some satellites, in hideous shape, stand round the portly queen, who is always represented in a sitting posture. Cups of tea are placed before her, and some tinsel adorns her shrine.

When a vessel is about to proceed on a voyage, she is taken in procession to a temple, where many offerings are displayed before her. The priest recites some prayers, the mate makes several prostrations, and the captain usually honours her by appearing in a full dress before her image. Then an entertainment is given, and the food presented to the idol is greedily devoured. Afterwards the good mother, who does not partake of the gross earthly substance, is carried in front of a stage, to behold the minstrels, and to admire the dexterity of the actors; thence she is brought back, with music, to the junk, where the merry peals of the gong receive the venerable old inmate, and the jolly sailors anxiously strive to seize whatever may happen to remain of her banquet.

priest, who never dares to appear before her with his face unwashed. Every morning he puts sticks of burning incense into the censer, and repeats his ceremonies in every part of the ship, not excepting even the cook's room. When the junk reaches any promontory, or when contrary winds prevail, the priest makes an offering to the spirits of the mountains, or of the air. On such occasions (and only on such) pigs and fowls are killed. When the offering is duly arranged, the priest adds to it some spirits and fruits, burns gilt paper, makes several prostrations, and then cries out to the sailors, "Follow the spirits," who suddenly rise ing out of a river, offerings of paper are conand devour most of the sacrifice. When sailstantly thrown out near the rudder. But to no part of the junk are so many offerings made as to the compass. Some red cloth, which is also tied to the rudder and cable, is put over it; incense sticks in great quantities are kindled; and gilt paper, made into the shape of a junk, is burnt before it. Near the compass, some tobacco, a pipe, and a burning lamp are placed, the joint property of all; and hither they all crowd to enjoy themselves. When there is a calm, the sailors generally contribute a certain quantity of gilt paper, which, pasted into the form of a junk, is set adrift. If no wind follows, the goddess is thought to be out of humour, and recourse is had to the demons of the air. When all endeavours prove unsuccessful, the offerings cease, and the sailors wait with indifference.

The care of the goddess is intrusted to the

Such are the idolatrous principles of the Chinese that they never spread a sail without having conciliated the favour of the demons, nor return from a voyage without showing their gratitude to their tutelar deity. Christians are the servants of the living God, who has created the heavens and the earth-at whose command the winds and the waves rise or are still-in whose mercy is salvation, and in whose wrath is destruction; how much more, then, should they endeavour to conciliate the favour of the Almighty, and to be grateful to the author of all good! If idolaters feel dependant on superior beings, if they look up to them for protection and success, if they are punctual in paying their vows, what should be the conduct of nations who acknowledge Christ to be their Saviour? Reverence before the name of the Most High-reliance on his gracious protection-submission to his just dispensations, and devout prayers, humble thanksgiving, glorious praise to the Lord of the earth and of the sea, ought to be habitual on board our vessels; and, if this is not the case, the heathen will rise up against us in the judgment, for having paid more attention to their dumb idols than we have to the worship of the living and true God.

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