Irritated against France, they were equally offended with every thing allied to the European system; and M. Melling was obliged to withdraw, not without regret, from the palace of the Sultaness. The fate of the unfortunate Selim is known to our readers; and has met with their sympathy in various articles in our work: it may be proper to add an additional hint on the situation and condition of his sister, the patroness of M. Melling. was a lively brunette, whose activity, sion. M. Melling was further engaged not only to direct whatever related to architecture and design, but whatever was purchased for the Harem, and also with several acquisitions. The Sultan became increasingly fond of the European Arts. When M. Melling had finished the Kiosk of Beschik-tasch, the Sultan was so pleased with it, that he proposed to nominate him Architect to the Sultan, according to the request of his sister. Different views which M. M. had taken on the banks of the Bosphorus were thought so pleasing by the Sultan, and by Sultaness Hadige that they did every thing to enable him to complete his collection; and this was the origin of a work which the European public has received with great satisfaction and applause. The daughters of the Royal Ottoman Family are, in early life, either married to Bashas, who are already governors of provinces, or the husbands to whom they are given are made governors, and are obliged to maintain these wives of honour, at a great expense. The Basha of Erzeroum, honoured with the hand of a princess of the blood, had a palace adjoining this of the Sultaness, in which he resided when at Constantinople: it had a single door into the precincts of her palace, which was opened only to himself, by her great black eunuch, whenever she thought proper to send for him.-Au honour, which, whether our readers would or would not receive on these terms, must be left to their own decision, as meu, and as Englishmen. FISHERIES: FURTHER PARTICULARS IN THE HISTORY A short time ago we thought it right to lay before our readers a sketch of the History of the Fisheries, as lately published in France, by M. Noel,* We take this opportunity of inserting a selection of further particulars from the same work. The luxury of the Romaus, as the Empire advanced, was certainly prodigious: some of the instances are very striking. At length, the Grand Siguior conceived the project of building a magnificent palace, in the European taste, at the The Scarus was reckoned among the deSeraglio point, in Constantinople. The licacies of the table before it was naturalfinest marbles were at the command of the ized in the seas of Italy: Horace mentions Architect; and neither care nor expense it as such; but under the Emperors the were to be spared to render the edifice liver of this fish brought astonishing prices: worthy of that most admirable situation. it was served in the center of dainties M. Melling found his courage falter at so obtained from Persia and India. While great an undertaking. He consulted M. Carthage was the rival of Rome, the FishKaufer, an Architect of consummate abili-eries were followed only as a supply of ties, (then with the Comte de Choiseul Gouffier, Ambassador from France, at Constan: tinople,) and who had recently engaged in the Turkish service. That Artist entered warmly into the intended scheme. But, the sudden invasion of Egypt by the French dissipated every hope of the two Architects: the war, alone, occupied every mind. The government had made no preparations to repel this aggres food; but after the destruction of that city, they became objects of luxury. The table groaned under Fish of the most costly kinds; and chiefs newly enriched by the spoils of Asia and Africa knew no bounds to their indulgence. Fish were brought in light vessels from the coasts of Sicily and of Ionia: the peo * Com. LIT, PAN. N, S, Vol. VII. p. 262. ple of the latter country invented the manner of forming holds, in which the Fish were preserved alive during the passage to Rome. Nevertheless the seasons and storms would sometimes prevent a supply; vast basins were therefore constructed, adjoining the sea; with strong dykes to resist the waves, and immense excavations in the sides of mountains. In these were kept Fishes from Syria, Egypt, the islands of Rhodes, and Crete, ready on all occasions. These reservoirs were of two kinds: fresh water and salt water. The first were called plebeian, as the patricians mostly affected the others, which cost in their construction as much as a sea-port. Lucullus, as a further refinement, caused deep caverns to be formed, to which the fish might retire for shade and coolness during the heats of summer-that they might lose nothing of their flavour and delicacy for the table. After this extravagance the next fashion was to obtain tame fishes: and this incurred a most ruinous expense: for these inmates lived on no ordinary food. More was bestowed on these objects than on the children of the family. loss, than for the death of three of his children. These fishes were rendered so tame, that they would come when called by their owners. The gills of these favourites were adorned with rings, like the ear-rings worn by the Roman ladies; and little golden murenæ combined into chains and collets became the fashionable ornaments, necklaces, and bracelets, of the dames of the highest quality, which continued down to the eighth century, and even later. Such was the fondness of the ancients, for the acquisition of what were difficulties by nature. After all, these fisheries were but child's play to those which were carried on by the northern nations: they administered indeed to depraved taste; but, they neither supplied any proportion of food to the public, nor called out the energies and courage of those who engaged in them. It is among the storms and tempests of the north we must look for that contempt of danger which renders a fisherman or seaman fearless. Clessel has not scrupled to affirm that And further still: certain kinds were the Herring Fishery in particular was folconsidered as sacred, as well by the Ro-lowed on the coast of Norway, in ages mans as the Greeks. Of this the Mullus was a distinguished instance. To the elegance of its form, it united the property of a divine flavour, and of living both in fresh water and salt. Being known to quit the sea in spring time, for the natural lochs of the coast, the Romans availed themselves of the happy discovery, and placed this fish in their reservoirs, changing with the season: taking care to furnish it with those kinds of shell fish which they supposed to be its favourite food. In the prior to the historical epochas of the The Mullus was often sold for its weight in gold. The Emperor Tiberius, as Seneca relates, sold one by Auction between two bidders, Agicius and Octavius; it The following century affords new proofs weighed four pounds, and was bought by of the advantages derived by the Norwethe latter at the price of four thousand ses-gians from this pursuit. The ports distinterces. Asinius Celer paid eight thousand sesterces for a rarity of this kind; and Suetonius informs us that three of them were sold for thirty thousand sesterces. The Murena, or rather the Muremopha (for the Murena, in M. Noel's opinion, is an ancient name for the eel), was kept in reservoirs; its value was mightily increased from the circumstance of the lamentations and tears of Antonia, a lady of the first fashion, for the death of one, for which she had taken a fancy, in the reservoirs of Baiæ. Crassus was more afflicted for a similar * A Sestertius was nearly two-pence of our money. guished by this commerce, were Bergen, Tonsberg, and Nider-Aas, now called Drontheim. In Denmark the Lumford was so famous for the shoals of herrings which frequented it, that the inhabitants were reported to live on nothing else; deriving their subsistence from the sea, as elsewhere the inhabitants derive their's from the field. The preparation of such immense quantities of fish required the supply of a proportionate quantity of salt; the greater part of which was obtained from abroad; and principally from the merchants of Bremen. About this time, Iceland, which had been discovered by accident, was slowly but progressively peopled; at first by ad- minions: they took in one campaign Co venturers who addicted themselves to pi-penhagen, Helsingfors, Falsterbo, Skanoe racy; but the fisheries insensibly drew Nikoping, and many other places. Negothem off from that violent meaus o obtain- ciation became indispensible: a treaty of ing support, and they now followed the peace was concluded at Stralsund, which track of the Norwegians, though not with regulated the various interests,and comequal success. prized the Batavians also;-the cities of Amsterdam, Hardwick, Deventer, Middleburgh, &c. places destined to act a most important part in the history of the herring fishery. The senate of Deumark, in the absence of their king, signed a treaty, by which they transferred for fifteen years the strong places of Scania, with two-thirds of their revenues. The king being deprived of all resources, confirmed the whole, and died after a reign of thirty-five years, chequered with signal vicissitudes. Margaret of Waldemar, his daughter, married the King of Norway; and during her life, and that of her son Olaus, the superiority of her genius held the Hanse Towns in check, and proper respect; but Eric of Pomerania, who succeeded, had new troubles to strug At the period when the great herring fishery was stationed in the Baltic, and when the coast of Scania took its share in the profits, the export trade of the article I was in the hands of two nations: The Slaves exported by land, and the Saxons exported by sea. These people, and generally those of lower Germany, made this fish their principal food. But when the more regular appearance of the shoals off Skanor and Falsterbo, was ascertained, the Brandenburghers on one part, and the Hanseatic confederacy on the other, seized on this branch of commerce. It cannot be supposed, that the kings of Denmark could view, without jealousy open or seeret, this monopoly of a commerce so valuable, by strangers. Often they attempted to expel the Hause towns from their fish-gle against. eries at Skanor. Eric, one of these kings having caused some fishermen of Lubeck to be arrested, drew on himself the resentment of the whole confederacy. According to the Chronology of Cornerus, their troops besieged Copenhagen, took it by assault, pillaged it, rased the fortress, and returned, having loaded their vessels with wealth and plunder. A war was the consequence; and now for the first time are mentioned those famous Sound duties, which have always been the subject of dispute by the ma ritime powers; and which in former times might have taken rise in the obligation of the king of Denmark to protect foreign vessels from pirates, in the North Sea and in the Baltic. Whether this was the real intention of that monarch may be doubted. He was master of both sides of the Sound; and he exercised the right of proprietor over the waters included in his dominions: but, his chief purpose was to humiliate the Hanse towns, which far from submitting to duties he demanded for liberty of passage, determined in a general assembly to have recourse to arms, aud to fish for herring and salt their fish, under this protection, notwithstanding any opposition from the king of Denmark. Holland and Zealand are so favourably situated for the fisheries, that the origin of their commerce is self-evident. The fisheries, and above all the Herring fishery, introduced them as merchants, led them to distant shores, and enabled them to undertake those maritime expeditions, with which they have been familiar, and by which they have been distinguished. The first inhabitants of these marshes their food. The soil, though it gave them were obliged to depend on the ocean for birth, could not maintain them. Necessity made them fishermen and seamen; and practice taught them the art of preparing fish equal, and at length, superior, to those of any other people. ducted the Herring fishery on regular The Brill was the first port that conprinciples. Zirickzee soon followed, and the wealth of these towns became the object of emulation to others: the fisheries at the mouth of the Meuse, and the ueighbouring coasts increased, and extended to Scotland and to Norway. Nor were the labours of the Hollanders less successful in the old fishing stations of Denmark and Lower Germany. Campen, a town of Over Issel, had long maintained a fishing establishment on the coast of Scania, in which other Dutch ports participated by their vessels, under an agreement with the Kings of Denmark and Sweden. A com Squadrons were armed on both sides; and severe fighting ensued. In the first encounter the confederated cities had the ad-pany was formed at Middleburgh, in 1971, vantage; they were defeated in the second; but having put to sea in greater strength, they recovered their superiority, and constrained the king to fly from his own do-largement. under the protection of the Earls of Flanders, in order to ensure the stability of the fisheries, and to promote their further en "Agriculture, says the Abbé Raynal, could never be a leading object in Holland, although the land be cultivated to the utmost perfection of which it is susceptible; but the Herring fishery stands this country in the stead of agriculture: it is a new means of subsistence, a school for sailors: born on the waves, they plough the seas, they draw from thence their support, they struggle with storms, and they learu, without hazard, to vanquish difficulties and dangers." "Without woods, without forests, writes Bentivoglio, Holland alone constructs more ships than almost the whole of Europe besides, [this was true, in his days, though not true now.] She owes this ability to the Herring fishery; with the sturdy arms employed in that occupation, she disconcerted the tyranny of the Spaniard, and came out from the waters which surrounded her, victorious over oppression." "Although this fishery (of Herrings) and the art of salting the fish, observes Voltaire, seems to be no very great object in the History of the World, nevertheless, it is the basis of the greatness of Amsterdam, in particular; and to say truth, further still, it has converted a country formerly barren and despicable into a rich and respectable power" Such are the testimonies of eminent writers to the importance of the Fisheries: it need not be repeated, that the most eminent statesmen of the British nation have coincided in this opinion, and have done their utmost to enforce it, in behalf of their own country. Comp. Vol. II. p. 529, N. S. INTERESTING INTELLIGENCE FROM THE The subject would lead us too far at this time; but we consider it as well worthy the attention of the learned among our Greek scholars. EXCERPTA FROM A TRANSLATION OF AN ABRIDGMENT OF THE VEDANT. The Veds not only call the celestial representations, Deities, but also in many instances give the divine epithet to the mind, diet, void space, quadruped animal, slaves, and flymen; as, The Supreme Being is a quadruped animal in one place, and in another he is full of glory. The mud is the Supreme Being, it is to be worshipped," "God is the letter ku as well as khu," and "God is in the shape of slaves and that of flymen:" The Ved has allegoric lly represented God in the figure of the Universe, viz. "Fire is his head, the Sun and the Moon are his two eyes," &c. And also the Ved calls God the void space of the heart, and declares him to be smaller than the grain of padds and barley: but from the foregoing quotations, neither any of the celestial Gods, nor any existing creature, should be considered the Lord of the Universe, because the third chapter of the Vedant explains the reason for these secondary assertions, thus: "By these appellations of the Ved, which denote the diffusive spirit of the Supreme Being equally over all creatures by means of extension, his omnipresence is established:" so the Ved says; "All that exists is indeed God," e. nothing bears true existence excepting God, and whatever we smell or taste is the Supreme Being;" i. e. the existence of whatever thing that appears to us, relies on the existence of God. It is indisputably evident that none of these metaphorical representations, which arise from the elevated style in which all the Veds are written, were designed to be viewed in any other light than mere allegory Should indi 6. BRITISH SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA. In our last Number (Vol. VI. p. 975) we inserted some account of a very rich Brahman, resident in Calcutta, named Ram-viduals be acknowledged to be separate Mehun-Raya, who has renounced idols, and become a worshipper of oue Supreme Being. A reference was also made to his translation of the Vedanta; of which we now set before our readers an extract, in order to enable them to judge of his authorites, and of the principles he wishes to support. It is taken from a pamphlet re-published by Messrs. Hoitt. 1817. In our opinion such principles were extant among the learned Heathen in the days of the promulgation of the Gospel. deities, there would be a necessity for of the world; which is directly contrary to acknowledging many independent creators common sense, and to the repeated authority of the Ved. The Vedant also declares "That Being which is distinct from matter, and from those which are contained in matter, is not various, because he is declared by all the Veds to be one beyond description:" and it is again stated that, "The Ved has declared the Supreme Being to be mere understanding;" also in the 3d chapter is found that, "The Ved having at first explained the Supreme Being by different epithets, begins with the worh Uthu, or now, and declares that "All descriptions which I have used to describe the Supreme Being, are incorrect," because he by no means can be described; and so it is stated in the sacred commentaries of the Ved." The 14th text of the 2d sec. of the 3d chapter of the Vedant declares, "It being directly represented by the Ved, that the Supreme Being bears no figure nor form;" and the following texts of the Ved assert the same, viz. "That true being was before all." "The Supreme Being has no feet, but extends every where; has no hands, yet holds every thing; has no eyes, yet sees all that is; has no ears, yet hears every thing that passes." "His existence had no cause." He is the smallest of the small, and the greatest of the great; and yet is, in fact, neither small nor great!" He [answers the spiritual parent,] who is the sense of the sense of hearing; the intellect of the intellect; the essential cause of language; the breath of breath; the sense of the sense of vision ;-This is the being, concerning whom you would enquire:--Learned men having relinquished the notion of self-independence, and self-consideration, from knowing the Supreme understanding to be the sole source of sense, enjoy everlasting beatitude, after their departure from this world. Hence no vision can approach him; no language can describe him; no intellectual power can compass or determine him. We know nothing of how the Supreme Being should be explained: He is beyond all that is within the reach of comprehension, and also beyond nature, which is above conception. Our ancient spiritual parents have thus explained him to us. If you, [continues the Spiritual Parent,] from what I have stated, suppose and say, that "I know the Supreme Being thoroughly," you, in truth, know very little of the Omnipresent Being; and any couception of that Being, which you limit to your powers of sense, is not only deficient, but also his description, which you extend to the bodies of the celestial Gods, is also imperfect; you, consequently, should enquire into the true knowledge of the Supreme Being. To this the pupil replies : "I perceive that at this moment, I begin to know God." "Not that I suppose," continues he, "that I know God thoroughly, nor do I suppose that I know him at all; as among us he, who knows the meaning of the above stated assertion, is possessed of the knowledge respecting God;" viz. " that I neither know him thoroughly, nor am entirely ignorant of him.” [The Spiritual Father again resumes:] He, who believes that he cannot comprehend God, does know him; and he who believes that he can comprehend God, does not know him; as men of perfect understanding acknowledge him to be beyond comprehension; and men of perfect understanding suppose him to be within the reach of their simplest perception. In a battle between the Celestial Gods and the Demons, God obtained victory over the latter, in favour of the former (or properly speaking, God enabled the former to defeat the latter;) But upon this victory being gained, the Celestial Gods acquired their respective dignities, and supposed that this victory and glory were entirely owing to themselves. The Omnipresent Being having known their boast, appeared to them with an appearance beyond description. They could not know what adorable appearance it was: they consequently, said to Fire, or properly speaking, the God of Fire, "Discover thou, O God of Fire, what adorable appearance this is?" His reply was, "I shall." He proceeded fast to that adorable appearance, which asked him, "Who art thou?" He then answered, "I am Fire, and I am the origin of the Ved, that is, I am a well known personage." The Supreme Omnipotence upon being thus replied to, asked him again "What power is in so celebrated a person as thou art?" He replied, "I can burn to ashes all that exists in the world." The Supreme Being then having laid a straw before him, said to him "Canst thou burn this straw?" The God of Fire approached the straw, but could not burn it, though he exerted all his power: He then unsuccessfully retired, and told the others, "I have been unable to discover what adorable appearance this is." Now they all said to Wind (or properly to the God of Wind) "Discover thou, O God |