our country has been favoured, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down, unimpaired, to our latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us then unite in offering our most grateful acknowledg November 17, 1818. ART. 11. DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES. MASSACHUSETTS. THAT edifice which was the boast of Bos ton, the Exchange Coffee-House, was entirely consumed by fire ou the evening of the 3d Nov. It caught in the seventh story, in the billiard-room, and first broke out at 7 o'clock; at 12, all was a heap of rains, together with a few adjoining houses. The building belonged to a company, and cost about half a million of dollars. Its destruction is another costly caution against much wood work in our public buildings; and we sincerely regret this great loss to enterprizing individuals. The Exchange Coffee-House covered 12,753 feet of ground; was 84 feet long on its east front, and 132 on the north, and 7 stories high. From the principal floor to the dome, which covered the centre of the building, was 83 feet; and in the whole building there were nearly 300 rooms, many of them very spacious, and splendidly furnished. The fall of the dome produced an awful effect. The remaining walls, much crack ed by the heat of the fire, have been carefully pulled down; and all that remains is a mighty mass of ruins. Most of the printing offices being in the neighbourhood of the Exchange, were removed; and it is stated that fifty bushels of types," were to be seen in the street the next day. RHODE ISLAND. At the late session of the Legislature of Rhode-Island, the annual returns were made of the situation of twenty-seven Banks in that state. The amount of bills of those Banks in circulation, is about 600,000 dollars; and the deposits amount to nearly the same sum. The amount of specie on hand, is about 1,400,000 dollars; and the amount of debts due to the Banks, including public stocks, and demands on other Banks, is about 3,300,000 dollars. Three other Banks made.no return, and another, making the whole number thirty-one, has been incorporated since the date of the returns. NEW-YORK. Mr. Marrat, author of a Treatise on Mechanics, and teacher of navigation, 39 Fulton-street, New-York, has invented an instrument for learning the lunar distances; by means of which, the longitude can be determined without any calculation, excepting the corrections of the altitudes, and the proportion which ascertains the difference of the time at the ship and Greenwich, after the true distance has been obtained. The same instrument will, also, in modethe difference of the azimuths of the objects rate weather, determine the altitudes, and and with one observer; and the true dis(sun and moon, or moon and star,) at once, tance is there obtained as above mentioned, without the help of any other instrument. A very considerable settlement of squatters has been made upon Grand-Island, principally in the course of the last season. There are now, we are informed, more than one hundred families, collected from all quarters; many from Canada and the midimprovements are making. The Island is dle counties of this state, and considerable situated in the Niagara River, and comand extends to within a mile and a half of mences about three miles below Black Rock, the Falls. It is twelve miles long, and from two to seven miles broad. The whole of it, heavy timber of an excellent quality. The before the recent inroads, was clothed with soil is said to be strong and rich, well adaptbeen determined by the Commissioners, but ed to cultivation. The title to it has not yet it is generally admitted to be within the territory of the United States. Our readers will probably recollect that the Indian title to this and the other Islands in the Niagara, was ceded to the state of New-York, by tember, 1815, between governor Tompkins treaty made at Buffalo, on the 12th of Sepand others, commissioners on the part of the state, and the Chiefs, &c. of the Seneca nation. The state paid one thousand dollars down, and secured an annuity of five hundred dollars. This Island will probably, at no distant period, become very populous and highly cultivated. The number of persons who visited Ballston springs, during the past season, amounts to 2,500; of whom, it is stated, more than 1,200 reside south of New-York. The amount of expenditure by them, is estimated at $125,000. Mrs. Brown, the mother of Maj. Gen. Brown, obtained a premium on several pairs of stockings of her own manufacture. SOUTH-CAROLINA. A letter from Charleston states, that all the bridges are burnt between Oendeau and the Sixteen Mile House. The stage has to go four miles out of the way, through the woods on fire, to get along. The sun, in mid-day, is not to be seen for the smoke." GEORGIA. We have intelligence from the Florida posts on the east of Appalachicola, in the Occupancy of our troops, to the 5th inst. The hostile Indians amounting, it was supposed, to about 1000 warriors, who had not come in, were in a state of starvation: many had died of hunger. A woman arrived at St. Marks the first of this month, with intimations from some of the principal out-ly ing chiefs, of a wish to surrender, provided their lives were spared, and their little remaining property, of which the friendly Indians are inclined to rifle them, should be secured. These dispositions have been humanely encouraged by the commanding of ficer of the post; and little doubt is entertained but there will soon be a final termination of the Seminolian war, which has acts existed on our borders, and with many of cruelty, for nearly two years past. Gen. Gaines has transferred his head quarters from Fort Hawkins to St. Mary's. ALABAMA. The place where the city of Blakely now stands, was, at this time last year, covered inbawith a thick heavy forest, with no bitants and but one house." It is now said to have 80 houses, 10 large warehouses, and the largest hotel in the territory, with from 300 to 500 inhabitants." A very respectable printing establishment has now gone out from New-York, and a paper will be printed weekly, or semi-weekly, called the Blakely Sun and Alabama Advertizer. $600,000 worth of goods and produce was deposited there from December, 1817, to June, 1818, and 48 vessels loaded and unloaded, mak ing a tonnage of 4000 tons. Ships have unloaded there directly from the West-Indies. One house in Boston shipped to this one place $100,000 in goods in the course of five or six months. One hundred brickmakers, and fifty ship-carpenters left NewYork to work at Blakely, a short time ago. Three steam-boats are now building; two to ply from Blakely into the interior, and one of 600 tons to go to New-Orleans-Capital $200,000. LOUISIANA. About seven leagues up the river Trinity, and in the vicinity of the ground chosen by Gen Lallemand for his military camp, is a town containing near 500 houses, occupied by Indians and Spaniards, called Trinity, distant from St. Antonio, in the province of Mexico, about 120 leagues. The number of Lallemand's followers still keeps increasing, by the adhesion of fu i Frenchmen, who find an asylum in his establishment. Neither provisions, money, nor arms, are said to be wanting, and the Patriot privateers, cruising in the Gulf of Mexico, deposit their surplus prize goods, the produce of the West-Indies, at this spot; between whom and the new settlers the most friendly relations subsist. It is calculated that the exports from NewOrleans this year, will amount to twenty millions of dollars, which will be nearly one-third of our total exports. OHIO. Cincinnati has a population of 9129 souls, of whom the males of 21 years of age and upwards are 2364, and the females only 1632. ART. 12. CABINET OF VARIETIES. (From the London Literary Gazette.) INTRODUCTION. 'Tis manners make the man, their want, the fellow, The rest is all but leather and prunello. Pope altered. a man who has lived many years THAT must have seen a great deal, is a vulgar, but not less true remark. Suppose to yourself, then, gentle reader, one whose years have rolled imperceptibly by in drawing. rooms, in parties, and in what is called the world; whose looking-glass now begins to make unpleasant reflections, and whose hair reminds him of the utility of such men as Mr. Ross, in Bishopsgate-street; and Mr. Bowman, in New-Bond-street. Such is the author of these pages: too old to be an Exquisite or a Coxcomb, yet neither old enough nor wicked enough to sigh over and to frown upon the past. He can now not only enjoy the pleasures of memory, but sit by calmnly and observe the present day without being blinded by tumultuous passions, or soured by age and infirmity. It may easily be conceived that such a man must have seen and felt all the enjoyments of life. With these his accounts of the past must necessarily be filled; nor would it be possible for him to vegetate in the seclusion of woods and forests, or to become the solitary of a desert, or of a monastic retreat. A time, however, must come, when the fire of youth will decay; though, with such a man, the warmth of friendship suceeeds to the flame of love, the glow arising from a love of society, survives the ardent pursuit of pleasure. Such a man will certainly be the little hero of his tale; but he will neither be difficult nor querulous; and although he be a little prone to telling his own history, yet will he be so attached to fashion and to society, that he will have learned how to listen and how to observe. There will naturally be a little more distance and retirement in his habits, in the very midst of the world, than there was when he was more of an actor than of a looker on; but such a man's retirement is the corner of a well-filled drawing-room, a niche in a reading-room, the back row of an opera box behind a sexagenaire dutchess, unenvied and almost unobserved, or in the deep shades of the shady side of Pall Mall. From these circumstances the author had acquired the name of the Hermit of Pall Mall; for, living in that vicinity, and still moving in the circles which he has described in these pages, he is now a guest the more welcome in fashion's haunts, from his no longer being the rival of any one. A celibataire more from chance than from determination, he has no domestic concerns to perplex him, no wife to promote or to impede his welcome in the gay world, no train to carry after him, no addition to his unity in an invitation card, and he is therefore the easier provided for, and the more generally invited than a family man. Without assuming any peculiar merit, a well-dressed and a well-bred man, whose face has become common at parties bien composées, will be asked to one party merely because he was seen at another where the same class of society moves; and thus must the scenes of high life multiply infinitely in the course of years, making up an almost imperceptible experience. A beautiful young unmarried lady can with safety honour his arm, as the companion and protector of her morning walk, without fear of exciting either ambition or passion in his breast, or of raising jealousy or uneasiness in the bosom of a more favoured swain. The flaunting married woman of quality can take such a man in her carriage to make the round of her morning visits, or to kill time by shopping, without fear of wearing out his patience, or of furnishing chit-chat at some distinguished conversazione, where the tongue of scandal might have canvassed the connexion and society of a younger ci * We have altered it to that of the Hermit in London, as more applicable and comprehensive. -EDITOR. cisbeo. He might also be consulted as to dress with a certainty of relying on the sincerity of his advice; and he might be allowed to witness a tender glance, a hand pressed, or a significant look given to a youthful beau, without fear of rivalry, or any chance of scandalizing him. A Donna atempata will sit with him in a negligée of morning attire, having no designs upon him An Exquisite and a Ruffian will unrestrainedly play off their parts before him, considering him as a good-natured, gentlemanlike old fellow; or, in other words, a cypher in the busy scene of high life. Lady Jemima's at home, or Mrs. Fashion's fancy ball must be numerously attended; and precisely such men are the materials for making up the corner figures of the belle assemblée." Hand me to my carriage," will say a disappointed belle to such a man; and to him she will recount the object of her disappointment and disgust, the coldness of a favourite, the flirting of a husband, the neglect with which she expected not to meet, the killing superiority of a rival, the giving way of the lace of her corset, the mortifying bursting of the quarters of her satin shoe, her loss of temper, or her loss at play, an assignation which calls her away, or vapours arising from the dissipation of the preceding night. If such a man see and observe not much, it must be his own fault; for, no longer blinded by his passions, nor quitting the world in disgust, he can reason upon the past, correctly weigh the present, and calculate thereby what may occur in time to come; for life is a drama more or less brief, with some more gay, with others more insipid; all men are actors of some part or other, from the prince on the throne to the little tyrant of his domestic circle; nor is it given to those actors to see and learn themselves, but only to those, who, like the Hermit in London, occupy a seat in the stage box, and are the calm spectators of the piece. Whilst the fashionable novels, (for alas! nothing is so fashionable as scandal) are hewing away, à l' Indienne, on every side, and cutting up not only public but private characters, it is the intention of the following pages to pursue an entirely different plan, namely, to strike at the folly without wounding the individual-to give the very sketch and scene, but to spare the actor in each; so that, upon every occasion, personality will be most sedulously avoided. To blend the useful with the laughable, and to cheat care of as many moments as possible, are the chief and favourite views of the HERMIT IN LONDON. (To be continued.) REMARKABLE DAYS. 1st. St. Giles. Giles, or Egidius, was born at Athens. He resided two years in the early part of his life with Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, in France, and afterwards retired 1 1812. into solitude. Charles Martel, when hunting, found him in bis cell, and pleased with his unaffected piety and sanctity of manners, erected an Abbey for him at Nismes, of which he was constituted Abbot. He died in the year 795.-2d. London burnt. For a most faithful and curious account of this destructive fire, see Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 371. The fire of London broke out on Sunday morning, Sept. 2, 1666, o. s. and being impelled by strong winds, raged with great fury during four days and nights; nor was it finally extinguished until the fifth morning after it broke out. The conflagration began at the house of one Farryner, a baker, in Pudding-lane, within ten doors of Thames street, and carried its devastation as far as the Temple, westward, and to the entrance of Smithfield, north. The immense proper ty destroyed cannot be estimated at less than ten millions sterling.--7th St. Eunerchus. Eunerchus was Bishop of Orleans, and in that capacity was present at the council of Valentia, A. D. 375.-8th. Nativity of the Virgin Mary. This festival was appointed by Pope Servius, about the year 695-14th. Holy Cross. This festival was first observed in the year 615, when Cosroes, King of Per sia, plundered Jerusalem, and brought away some pieces of the Cross, which superstition had represented as the identical one on which Jesus Christ suffered, which had been left there by the Empress Helena, Heraclitus, the emperor, soon after engaged and defeated him, and brought back the Cross, upon which he caused the day to be commemorated.-17th. Saint Lambert. Lambert was Bishop of Utrecht, in the time of king Pipin I. but reproving that king's grandson for his irregularities, was murdered at the instigation of an abandoned woman→→→→ 21st. Saint Matthew.-22d. Coronation of king George the Third, which took place in the year 1761.-26th. St. Cyprian. He was an Áfrican by birth, of good family, and well educated; but he resigned all his property to the use of the poor, and was elected Bishop of Carthage, A. D. 248. He suffered martyrdom under Valerianus and Gallienus, in 258.-29th. St. Michael.-30th. St. Je rome. Jerome was born on the confines of Pannonia and Dalmatia. He translated the Old Testament into Latin. This Version is Now called the Vulgate, and is exclusively used by the Roman Catholics. He died in the 80th year of his age, A. D. 422. (From the London Literary Gazette.) Translated from LA PRIMA MUSA CLIO. the Italian of Cesare Avena de, Valdiere. By George Baldwin. Or, the Divine Traveller; exhibiting a series of Writings obtained in the Ecstasy of Magnetic Sleep. 8vo. pp. 614. We earnestly hope that our readers are of acute understandings, for humiliating as it is fo professional critics, we are forced to conVOL. IV.-No. 11. 20 fess that we cannot understand one of the six hundred and fourteen pages of which this Koran of Magnetism consists. Never were we so completely defeated. We cannot believe that this copious volume, well printed, hotpressed, and with all the outward semblance of a rational work, is nothing better than a collection of such rhapsodies as might be obtained by an accurate short-hand report of what transpires in the cells of Bedlam; but, in sincerity, though we strain our faculties to the utmost, we can make out nothing of the sense or hidden meaning which, we suppose, must be concealed under these extraordinary inspirations. The work is divided into Sessions; each of which gives, as we are led to imagine, the visions of a person magnetized. They are all of the same cast, and any passage of the book affords a perfect specimen of all the rest. We open it at random. "SESSION XLVIII. "A serpent doth himself about me circumvolve: now, into an eagle he is transformed: now with his immeasurable wings doth he cover me: with him am I lifted up. In the dark, forasmuch as I can judge, am I: velocious do we go. leave me nothing do I see.—In a sea of anguish am I. Now he doth "Now, fluttering his wings; a simple ray doth effract; but very dim: the horizon beginning to unfold, doth disclose objects that, as far as I can discern, do appear beautiful! Do I mistake not, night doth yet o'er-rule. Again I do ascend: what bersaglio! As we do proceed, the eagle, another semblance doth take: but what semblance? Of a Nymph, as unto my lumes should appear; but how simple her looks! In her gremb am 1. "Now she doth put me into the delicious cesto: how fragrant!" We said this book had no meaning, and we hope it will not be thought to have too much. We try another sortes: « SESSION VI. "SIXTH NONade-First DAY. "Upon a heap of garlands of blue and white flowers tessuted together, accepted am 1: what placidness! Four, do suspend the garland, innocent Genií: those also winged with blue but what lovely semblances! Now do they cover me, and thus within their gremb, half dosing, follow them I must: they are, I do feel, upon the wing. The gentle breezes restling, do, to my seeming, accompany them. "A suave, that scarcely is audible, celestial harmony do I delighted hear; that, to repose, the sound doth placidly invite me: but what repose? Thus, and no more! No more would I require; but more is not al lowed! The time will come, but too frail am I for the present, such exquisito delight to endure. areanum. "I do begin (but whither?) in a scarcely discernible space, to see, what unto my mortal lumes thus covered an Now, insensibly it doth diradiate. The coro, that not long since I did scarcely hear, now again, by echo the delicious voices unto mine car do come conveyed. The air is humid Ponderous therein do I feel. By the motion I am sensible of, we do I think descend: now some one doth touch me: ab me, enrapt am I: what bliss! They do take away the veil what light! I do begin to perceive an immensity of snow; but what immensity! All is darkened; what ice! At the desired port are we. "What smoke! All the city, from the intensity of the cold, and the great quantity of snow that in this day did fall, hath the appearance of a dark cloud! "Now we are over the great square: therein are throngs of people: not in the area of the square, but in the houses forming the four sides thereof; making merry! And we, without the least demurring, shall go to the abode of Scheldt! Here we are: but he is not among them. At the present moment he is in the house of a protestant priest; and there they are staying, my four faithful genii do tell me, under the utmost inquietude; because in measure that we have approximated, the sentimetn thereof, hath moved them to return home to consult the oracle: but it hath so happened that they are sounding the lass, the organ; Minteo the harp; they cannot, all things considered, abruptly retire: but soon, with conveniency, he will be with us. We do not go there, because Minteo, if we were near unto him, in a company where, on account of his misfortunes, being well received, he could not with propriety quit: would fall, without any body knowing for what cause, into frightful convulsions: wherefore, not to give him uneasiness, we shall attend him here. "Here he is, coming upon a sledge, drawn by a black horse; with him a servant, and his innocent sacerdoless. What impatience, in their countenance, is expressed; now they do come up: Minteo doth open the door of the cell: the servant would enter to wait upon him, but he doth bid him to leave the room; and not to return while after three hours: he doth shut the door with the iron chain; also the window-shutters, withinside. Now he doth complain that the stuve is too cold: the lass in reality doth tremble a little: but now doth cover herself better. Minteo doth say unto her, My dear, wouldst thou be pleased to influence me; but I fear that thou must be cold: we will wait a little longer: but the lass, all anxiety, thus innocently doth reply: eh, kuowest thou not that with this movement of my hand, I do make myself, warm: let us commence. All is prepared: he is provided with royal paper; very white and large! Not having more suitable conveniency, he doth Now pone himself in an angle. they put on their canonicals. Minteo, doth not yet put on his tunic, because he doth intend first to pinch his harp; and the maiden the cymbal; which hath been lent unto her by a widow, relict of an officer. - Now they do cease their music, and each of them their vest doth pone. That of the maiden is most dark. Now she doth begin to cover Minteo with the veil: now she doth influence him: now he doth begin to perceive me he is received by a Diva that in beauty is like unto the sun with what majesty. Now the maiden doth comprehend that he, in sleep, is enrapt. She doth attend to what he doth write; and near unto him on his left side doth sit. He is covered. We are near to each other. I also am covered: what pleasure. : "He doth say unto me that shortly he shall depart for Hamburg, &c. Meanwhile, in the next session that we shall hold, he doth say unto me, that I shall see him again; but in the temple of illustrious men! For the present he doth say unto me, Seest thou that, of iron, rust-eaten chest? Therein is deposited, the, of heaven, imparted gift: Whereof the contents another time thou shalt learn." He then recites some verses against the Gauls, obtained from Minteo Scheldt in this mystic communion,-they are in high Dutch, but the visionary translates them into Italian, and concludes: "He now doth begin to awaken me up; and I, shall I remain alone? Ah no, let us together unto the light return. Awaken me." Such is the incomprehensible absurdity of this modern class of philosophers; and we assure our readers that we have transcribed this Session' faithfully, verbatim et literatim from the original. We would apologize for occupying time with a matter of this sort, but the part just copied is curious as describing the ceremonies of these wild eathusiasts; and it need not be stated that the subject acquires much importance from the multitude of votaries which magnetism counts in every quarter of the continent, and even in England. What we deem sheer madness, they call celestial inspiration; and Baron Swedenbourg is now but a simpleton in the intercourse of genii, spectres, divas, and superior intelligences which persons influenced by magnetizing enjoy. In their trances they see the siege of Troy, and describe minutely all its circumstances, or travel through ancient history with new readings, or receive medical advice (for example, to take a dose of Epsom salts in four days,) or write operas, or do a thousanđ fantastic tricks, or utter a thousand unconnected fooleries. These are magnetic oracles; and France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark, have each their societies founded on their faith in the divine origin of these insane or vicious mysteries. Yet this is the enlightened age of the world-the nineteenth century! |