Mr. URBAN,

Gloster Terrace, Hoxton, Aug. 10. WITH reference to some paragraphs in an article in your last Number, under the title of British relations with China (p. 132), it may not be unacceptable to your readers to be made acquainted with the practice of the Chinese Government, in diffusing a knowledge of public events over the Empire.

The vehicle employed for that purpose is the Peking Gazette; which is published at Peking, and called Kingpaon, the messenger of the capital.

The information which this Gazette contains is derived according to the report of persons resident in China, from the highest authority, in the following manner. The supreme tribunal of the Empire, in which the six ministers sit, is in the interior of the imperial palace at Peking.

This tribunal is constantly employed in preparing ordinances, which are submitted for the examination and approbation of the Emperor; who also receives daily the reports of the provincial authorities, and military commanders. On these several communications his imperial majesty decides, and from his decisions ample extracts, containing abstract statements of all decrees and ordinances, on the affairs decided, are made on the following morning, and posted up on a board in the court yard of the palace. All the public offices and establishments at Peking are ordered to make copies of these statements, and to preserve them in their archives; and the public functionaries in the provinces receive them by means of post messengers, which they respectively maintain as the media of communication with the capital. In order that the people also may obtain a knowledge of the progress of public affairs, the posted extracts are, with the permission of the government, printed entire at Peking, without a single word being changed, or a single subject omitted. Such is the origin of the Peking Gazette; which contains not only the record of appointments to offices, promotions, sentences, and punishments, but full reports of the different branches of the public administration, together with the reports made by the imperial officers on particular events.

"He (Ly

of Greece, vol. i. p. 84. curgus) laid down other general maxims, in the nature of laws as that they should not often make war upon the same enemies, for fear of learning them their discipline, until in time they came to be their aggressors."This use of the word is now quite exploded.

present day. "It has been wisely ordained by the Author of our being, that the feelings of religion can be developed, and thus the character of our existence ennobled, even before a high degree of knowledge has been attained. It would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to find a nation which can show no traces of religion; and there never yet has been, nor can there be, a nation in which the reverence for a Superior Being was not the fruit of a refined philosophy."

It has been stated by Capt. Kotzebue, that the Missionaries had nearly depopulated the island of Otaheite by instigating wars, and that they taught the natives no arts or sciences, but merely superstition. The contrary is actually and eminently the case. When the exiles landed in Otaheite, under the guidance of the Missionaries, they received their enemies' fire, without returning it, and this noble act of forbearance first induced a favourable feeling toward Christianity in the island. So far from their depopulating the islands of the South Sea, it is the testimony of Tati, the chief of Papara, in his conversation with Mr. Davies, that" if God had not sent his Word at the time he did, wars, infant murder, human sacrifices, &c. would have made an end of the small remnant of the population." (See Ellis's Polynesian Researches, 2d edit. vol. i. p. 104.) As for their teaching superstition, the best answer is, that they eradicated many superstitions. Little progress could reasonably be expected in the arts and sciences, when it is only ten or twelve years ago, that the natives knew nothing but their own rude employments, and the vices which they had imbibed from Europeans. To have made a road already round the island of Otaheite, is no mean progress in the useful arts, and this was done by Pomare, the late king. There is great reason to fear, lest the good effects of the Missionaries' labour should be materially impaired through the introduction of ardent spirits, by the unprincipled crews of European vessels.

One of the latest instances of the word learn being used as a synonym for teach, occurs in Stanyan's History GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

One of the most interesting volumes I know of, is the History of Corsica, entitled, "Memoires pour servir à l'histoire de Corse," 1768. The author was Frederick, son of Theodore King of Corsica. Of course, it contains the most favourable account of that adventurer, but one which can hardly be read without emotion. Frederick always preferred being called by that, his Christian name, to the family appellation of Neuhoff, perhaps regarding himself as Prince Frederick. His end was as melancholy as his father's; but as the family had ceased to possess any political importance, it excited less attention. The book ends with a French translation of Horace Walpole's celebrated epitaph on Theodore.t

Le tombeau réünit, c'st la commune loi, Le heros, le captif, le mendicant, le roi ; Mais Théodore seul avant l'heure fatale Franchit de ces états le distant intervalle, Et le sort envers lui liberal, inhumain, Lui fit don d'un royaume, et refusa du pain.

The book is not written in the purest French, and contains some misprints, which are not surprising, considering the slender means of the author.

It is surprising, how many histories of Greece were published in England during the last century. Stanyan, Goldsmith, Gast, Gillies, Mitford (the publication of which commenced within that period), and Rutherford; not to mention that part of the Universal History which comprises Greece, Young's History of Athens, and the translations of Rollin. Professor Heeren remarks that, among the moderns, the English have treated the subject of Grecian history with most success.

* See Gentleman's Magazine for Feb. 1797, p. 172.

It is in St. Anne's

+ Ibid. p. 173. church, Soho.

3 D

It is not generally observed, that one of the posterity of Hercules occurs among the seven kings of Rome. This was Tarquinius Priscus, whose father Demaratus was of the family of the Bacchidae at Corinth, which place he quitted on the accession of Cypselus to the supreme power. The Bacchida were a branch of the Heraclidæ, deducing their descent from Aletes, great-grandson to Hercules. It is rather surprising, that Virgil, when he brings Hercules into Italy, does not introduce this event by anticipation.

Among the various causes which contributed to the decline of monarchy in Greece, no historian seems to have included the gradual impoverishment of the reigning families, which was inevitable, when their revenues were not settled upon any fixed basis, and their principal source of income was in their own property. Homer gives us a glimpse of this, when he makes Ulysses say to the Phocacian nobles, in answer to their liberal offer of presents,

"A king that's rich is loyally obey'd."

There is much information to be gained from the Geneva Bible, as it is called, or rather the Reformers' Bible. The notes have all the conciseness and force of the style then prevalent, which may be termed the Elizabethan style, though not quite accurately in this instance, as the translation was executed in the reign of Mary. It is desirable that some spirited publisher should reprint, not the whole version, but the notes, together with such variations from King James's Bible, as would answer the purpose of an entire republication to scriptural students.

Mr. Blunt, in his shrewd, but rather quaint history of the Reformation in England, observes with regard to Henry the Eighth's divorce, "if the conduct of Henry had been such in other respects as to give token of a scrupulous conscience, it might have been credited that in this instance he was sincere in his professions of uneasiness; and that, believing Katharine and himself to be joined together otherwise than God's Word doth allow, he sought for relief in the dissolution of the contract." (p. 121.) There is great good sense in this remark. No one, from a general consideration of Henry's conduct, would infer conscientiousness in this transaction. Probably, as is most frequently the case with human nature, there was a mixture of motives: a wish for a younger wife was combined with a doubt in his own mind whether his early marriage was a valid one. The part of Henry's character which tells most in his favour, is his appreciation of Cranmer's worth, and his support of him against his enemies.

There are some good remarks in the Edinburgh Review, of Dr. Gillies's History of the World, vol. XI. It is almost incredible that three of the Seleucian Antiochuses should have perished successively in an attempt to plunder the temple near Zagros. It is the more remarkable, that Dr. Gillies should adopt this improbable account, as he strongly contends that there was only one siege of Nineveh, and one Assyrian empire, whereas most chronologers have admitted of two.

Warburton, in one of his letters, observes that "the tour of Europe is like the entertainment that Plutarch speaks of, which Pompey's host of Epirus gave him. There were many dishes, and they had a seeming variety; but when he came to examine them narrowly, he found them all made out of one hog, and indeed nothing but pork differently disguised." By the bye, for Pompey, we should read Flaminius. In point of fact, wherever French is spoken, the character is European; a traveller who wishes to see diversity of character, should go straight to Greece, then to India, and then to China.

So prominent had the Acheans become in the last days of Greece, that the Romans designated the whole country by their name, since they divided it into two provinces, Macedonia and Achaia, after they had reduced the whole nation under their power. Thus in the nomenclature of their provinces they paid a splendid testimony to the value of the Achean league, and the eminent station it had held before its ruin.

Schleusner is a very accurate writer, yet he has fallen into a curious mistake in his justly-celebrated Lexicon to the New Testament. Under the word Galatia, he says, "it took its name from the Gauls, who passed over thither from Italy, under the command of Brennus, after the burning of Rome, being called in by Nicomedes king of Bithynia, to his assistance." Now this is both an error in history and in chronology. The burning of Rome by Brennus took place B. C. 389; while the passage of the Gauls into Asia, by the invitation of Nicomedes, occurred B.C. 278. In fact they were different migrations altogether, though a Brennus commanded in each, or rather each was headed by that description of Keltic chieftain, who was entitled Brenn. The dates given above are on the authority of Heeren, the distinguished German historian, who in this instance is a better authority than Schleusner. (Manuel de l'Histoire Ancienne, p. 323, 366.)

The same Lexicographer has fallen into a strange error, in his exposition of the word βλασφημέω, where he actually explains Rom. ii. 24, "The Christian religion is exposed, through your conduct, to contempt among the Gentiles;" whereas it is obvious, that St. Paul is speaking, not of Christians, but of Jews. To suppose, that the derelictions of the Jews exposed the Christian religion to contempt, if it be Schleusner's idea, is certainly a very far-fetched and improbable one.

It is a fact highly honourable to the military profession, but not generally known, that in 1603 the English army in Ireland subscribed eighteen hundred

pounds towards the purchase of a library, for Trinity College, Dublin. Nor is this the only instance of such generosity, for after the death of Archbishop Usher in 1656, the army in Ireland purchased his valuable collection of books and MSS. in order to present them to the College, and though several obstacles intervened, the munificent donation was finally confirmed by Charles II.

Hubald, of Amand in Flanders, who lived in the 9th and 10th centuries, composed a poem of three hundred verses in praise of Charles the Bald, in which every word is said to have commenced with the letter C. as the initial of his patron's name: thus for instance,

Carmina Clarisonæ Calvi Cantate Ca

According to Purchas, in his Pilgrimage (p. 232), the modern Jews say, "Let a man cloath himselfe beneath his abilitie, his children according to his abilitie, and his wife above his abilitie." He quaintly introduces this adage, by premising, "I would not have women heare it.”

The Peguans hold (ibid. p. 574) that

mœnæ.

It is not generally known, that Lightfoot, to whom posterity is eminently indebted as a biblical scholar, and indeed as much so as any of the divines of the Cromwellian æra, conformed at the Restoration. Much learning, instead of "making mad," produced moderation in him, and he not only conformed in his own person, but endeavoured to promote conformity to the Church in his family. Perhaps of all the celebrated divines of that day, there is none whose judgment deserves more respect than Lightfoot; while the sermons, which he subsequently preached, and which are preserved in his works, afford the clearest evidence that he subscribed without

any sacrifice of conscience. ANSELM.

* Quere. See Mr. Davison on Primitive Sacrifice.-ED.

a tyrannie, every man becoming a tyrant, and as he had meanes of witte, strength, and followers, preying upon others, using or selling them for slaves: which their divisions made an easie way to the Spanish conquest." (Ibid. p. 685.) This passage may well be commended to the consideration of all who would separate IRELAND from the British empire.

The Mexicans (ibid. p. 1002) made their books not only of cotton, but also of the thin inner rind of a tree which grows under the upper bark. The same practice among European nations has caused the terms Codex and Liber to be applied to books. (It is curious that the same practice should have prevailed so extensively.)

The story of Arion and the Dolphin loses some of its improbability, if the following account be true. The narrative is given by Purchas (p. 1007), from Peter Martyr (not the theologian). There is a fish in the Lake of Nicaragua, called Manati, resembling an otter, 25 feet long, and 12 broad, with the head and tail like a cow. A king in Hispaniola, having one presented to him by a fisherman, put it into a lake, where it lived twenty-five years, and when any of the domestics came to the bank, and cried Matto, Matto, she (for it was a female) would come and receive food from their hands. If any of them wished to be ferried over the lake, she accommodated them with a ride on her back, and carried them faithfully. Our author adds,

""

yea, she hath carried ten men at once, singing or playing." This was partly attributed to her having been kept for a time in the king's house, after being taken, and being fed with

the hand.

lumbus erroneously placed the seat of Paradise in that island-" to which opinion, for the excellencie of the Tobacco there found, he should happily have the smokie subscriptions (i. e. assents) of many Humorists, to whom that fume becomes a fooles paradise, which with their braines and all passeth away in smoke."

The superstition which formerly prevailed in Europe, that by making a waxen figure of a person, and melting it before a fire, that person's vital powers were wasted, had its parallel among the Peruvians. They used to sacrifice black sheep, which had been kept without food for some days, using these words at the ceremony, So let the hearts of our enemies be weakened, as these beasts. If they found that a particular piece of flesh, behind the heart, had not been withered by fasting, they regarded it as a bad omen. (P. 1076.)

There is a striking moral in the exhortation addressed to Columbus by an old man of eighty, a chief in the island of Cuba. "With great gravitie he saluted him, and counselled him to use his victories well, remembering, that the soules of men have two journeyes, after they are departed from their bodies: the one foule and darke, prepared for injurious and cruel persons; the other pleasant and delectable, for the peaceable, and lovers of quiet." (P. 1087.)

The use of a Palladium among heathen nations may be found in the New World. The people of Hispaniola had images made of Gossampine cotton, or of wood, which they consulted on various occasions. The name they gave this image was Zemes. They used to carry it with them in their wars, believing that it made the Zemes of the enemy flee. Offerings of cakes were presented to it, and being thus consecrated, were afterwards valued as preservatives against fires and hurricanes. Sometimes (through the contrivance of the priests) a voice appeared to issue from the Zemes, which was interpreted favourably or unfavourably, as the priests chose. If it was unfavourable, the people fasted and wept even to faintness, till they thought the Zemes was reconciled. (P. 1092.)

By comparison, the superstitions of