ART. 12. POETRY. The interesting circumstances attending the death and burial of the British General Fraser, which have been recently recalled to recollection by General Wilkinson, have elicited the following tribute from a poetical correspondent: Mournful and slow the sad procession moved, Save when the pious chaplain broke the gloom, Between his sobs, with sudden pray'r, and brief, For fortitude of soul, and grace, and kind relief. 7. Nor wanting was the full and bold salute Just tribute to the brave, the warrior's dueE'en clamorous war itself paused, still and mute, A little space, O FRASER! at the view Of its own splendid ruins, and of you. But soon, as roused e'en by thy corse to fear, From foeman s every brazen mouth, there flew Vollies, like Etna's fires, that dinn'd the car, And swept, with livid glare, athwart thy lowly bier. ART. 13. MONTHLY SUMMARY OF POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE. EUROPE. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. THE duke of Clarence has determined to persevere in marrying the princess of Saxe Meinungen, notwithstanding the refusal of the House of Commons to grant him an annual stipend, provided the princess does not decline the connexion. The marriage of the duke of Kent with the princess dowager of Leinengan, is announced in the Frankfort Gazette of the 18th, in an authentic shape, as being positively decided upon. It is added, that privy counsellor baron Von Schonitz is gone to Stutgard, in order to make some arrangements on this subject, as has also the British ambassador to the court of Wirtemberg." The duke of Cambridge was married to the princess of Hesse Cassel, on the 7th of May. For the fourteen years previous to the suspension of specie-payments by the Bank of England, there were but four prosecutions for forgeries of the notes of the Bank; but during the fourteen years immediately succeeding, there were 496: the reason is traced to the great issue of small notes, consequent upon the suspension. A great public work is going on at Plymouth, called a Break-water, the object of which is the protection of vessels in port from the storms of the Atlantic. On this work $2,000,000 have been expended, and $700,000 more are requisite for its comple tion. The extracting of pot-ash from potatoestalks has commenced in Ireland, and promises to become a most valuable article of trade in that part of the United Kingdom. It is calculated that 350,000 acres of land are annually cultivated with potatoes there, These would produce 46,876 tons of pot-ash, which at 20. per ton, would amount to 937,500l. per annum. The amount of sovereigns issued last year was 8,224,0251.; half sovereigns, 1,037, 2951. Total, 4,261, 8201.-Silver: half crowns 1,125, 6307.; shillings 2,458,566/.; sixpences 657,1621. Total, 4,241,2587.-Grand total of gold and silver, 8,502,678/. FRANCE. The 1st of October has been agreed upon for withdrawing the allied troops from France. The claims of foreign powers have been liquidated and settled at 320,800,000 francs-about 60 millions of dollars. The tribunal of correctional police at Paris, has condemned the Sieur Crevel, author of a pamphlet entitled the "Cry of the People," to a year's imprisonment, a fine of -1000f., 2000f. security, and a surveillance of five years. SPAIN. A letter from Alicant says, that the clergy have excommunicated from the churches all free-masons; and that there is now in prison, where he has been languishing for eighteen months, a brave and meritorious officer, Colonel Fernando, solely for being supposed a free-mason. Mr. Meade has been released from prison by the Spanish government. GERMANY. An ancient law has been revived in the electorate of Hesse, denying to self-murderers the privilege of burial, and delivering up their bodies for dissection, on account of the frequency of suicide at the present time. The following are the persons chosen to form the military committee of the German diet:-The Imperial Austrian minister, president of the diet, count Buol Schauenteen; the Prussian minister, count Vander Coltz; the Bavarian minister, baron Van Aretin; the Hanoverian minister, M. Von Matens; the Wertenberg minister, baron Wangensheine; the Danish minister for Holstein and Lauenberg, count Gyben; and the minister of Mecklenburgh, baron Van Plossin. PRUSSIA. Recent papers from France state that the king of Prussia is daily expected at Paris, where, it is said, he intends to marry Madamoiselle Dillon, a beautiful girl of 19, whose mother was a creole of Martinique, and was married to count Dillon, the minister of Louis XVIII. in Saxony. By the Prussian laws, a wife thus married is entitled to the dignity of queen, but her issue cannot inherit the crown. RUSSIA. No political intelligence of much interest has come to hand from this quarter since our last. The imports into St. Petersburg, during the year 1817, amounted to 100,704,113 rubles, and the exports to 106,483,309 rubles. 1704 vessels cleared from St. Petersburg to various parts of the world, of which, to Great Britian 737; to the United States 60; to other parts and places 917; total 1704. THE IONIAN ISLES. Gibraltar papers received at Boston, mention, that in pursuance of the peace at Paris, the first legislature of the United States of the Ionian Isles, had been convened and had unanimously agreed upon a constitutional form of government for their republicThe same was to have gone into operation the first day of the current year-public notice had been given at Corfu, that the commercial flag of the country was lodged at a place convenient for the inspection of those concerned, and all vessels belonging to the country were required to conform their flag to this model. AMERICA. SPANISH AMERICA. Venezuela. A letter from St. Thomas', dated 26th May, states that "Brion and Aury have duty on mines, 2,164 371 From sequestered estates, 18,552 75 Voluntary donations, 12,000 00 On account of the contribu UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. President Monroe has, this season, been performing a tour into the southern and middie states, for the purpose of surveying the situation of the country, inspecting the condition of public works, already in existence, and of selecting proper sites for the erection of others. He has been uniformly greeted with the respect and attention due to the chief magistrate of the United States. The Seminole war is nearly brought to a close by the vigour of general Jackson; who has entered Pensacola, of which place he now has possession. The frigate United States has been repaired and fitted out at Boston, for the purpose of taking Mr. Campbell, our minister, to Russia. ART. 14. DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES. MASSACHUSETTS. IT is said a very large proportion of the veteran claimants of military pensions under the late law of the United States are of Massachusetts. Of 283,137 men, regulars and militia, engaged in the glorious war of independence, 83,162 were furnished by Massachusetts-making nearly three-tenths of the whole army. A gentleman of Boston has purchased and presented to the University in Cambridge, the very large and valuable library of the late professor Ebeling, of Hamburg. Besides being very full and rich, in other departments, it is said to contain the best collection in the world, of American works, and works relating to America. An Egyptian Mummy has been recently brought to Boston, taken from the catacombs of Saccara. CONNECTICUT. A law passed during the last session of the legislature of this state, granting the right of suffrage to all who pay taxes, and do military duty. By a resolution, during he same session, it is recommended "to Total last year 3249, decrease 228 273 75 268 650 3021 It must be recollected, however, that the above statement does not give the exact proportion of paupers and convicts for the city, there being very many transient persons and foreigners included in the above number. The proportion of those, dependent upon public charity in the city, is estimated at oneeightieth of the population. The comptroller of the city of New-York, reports the accounts of the corporation, for the year ending May 11, 1818, to amount In receipts, to $862,128 77 In expenditures, to 860,278 43 Leaving balance in treasury of $1,850 34 sinking fund, balance in fa$4,636 45 The commissioners of the report for the same period, a vour of the corporation, of In 1804 the county of Genesee, then including Niagara, Chatauque and Cattaraugus, gave only 300 votes for governor. This year it has, though much reduced in extent, given more senatorial votes than any other county in this state, exceeding by 500 the votes of Ontario, and by 800 those of the city of New-York. The number of votes which it gives for members of congress, 4391, is also greater than that of any other county, or of any single congressional district. In 1804, the counties composing the 21st congressional district, gave 1781 votes for governor; this year they gave 6445, and more than 10,000 for members of congress. Again, in 1790, the present counties, Ontario, Steuben, and Genesee, contained only 960 souls, according to Morse: in 1814, the same territory contained a population of 91,986 and at this day it probably exceeds 130,000. PENNSYLVANIA. By order from the navy department, the keels of two seventy-four gun-ships have been laid at Philadelphia. A draught horse belonging to Mr. Hesler, of Easton, after having taken a powerful cathartic, voided a stone weighing one pound. The figure of this stone was that of a kidney bean, with a smooth surface, its colour that of a common gray lime stone, which abounds in this neighbourhood. On fracturing it transversely, it was found to contain a crooked piece of iron, probably a horse shoe nail, its centre surrounding this iron nucleus, appeared to be less solid than its circumference, interspersed here and there with particles of straw, oats, hay, &c. there had been inspected at Petersburg, this season 12,000 hhds. of tobacco, that more were arriving daily, and that sales were brisk. SOUTH CAROLINA. The rice fields in Georgetown District, have been assailed, within the last few weeks, by a new and heretofore unknown enemy-the rats-who have made serious inroads upon this important staple of our country in its infant state. It appears that they have taken up their habitations in the adjacent banks, from whence they sally out at night, and commit the most destructive ravages. No effectual expedient has yet been devised for destroying them; it is said that they are so numerous in some fields, that thirty have been destroyed by a single discharge of a musket. MISSOURI TERRITORY. The following curious publication in a Louisville paper, will doubtless amuse many of our readers. North America, April 10, A. D. 1818. TO ALL THE WORLD! I declare the earth is hollow, and habitable within, containing a number of solid concentric spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my life in support of this truth, and I am ready to explore the hollow, if the world will support and aid me in the undertaking. JNO. CLEEVES SYMMES, Of Ohio, late Captain of Infantry. N. B. I have ready for the press, a treatise on the principles of matter, wherein I show proofs of the above positions, account for various phenomena, and disclose Doctor Darwin's Golden Secret. My terms are the patronage of this and the new worlds. I dedicate to my wife and her ten children. 1318. I select Dr. S. L. Milchill, Sir H. Davy, and Baron Alex. de Humboldt, as my protectors. I ask one hundred brave companions, well equipped, to start from Siberia in the fall season, with reindeer and sleigh, on the ice of the frozen sea. I engage we find warm and rich land, stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals, if not men, on reaching one degree northward of lati 229 tude 82; we will return in the succeeding [Capt. Symmes said to be a "very re- ART. 15. CABINET OF VARIETIES. Those of our readers who delight in the eccentricities of nature, as well as those who profess to account for them, will be gratified with the following, "Meteorological Retrospect for the last Half of the Year 1817," translated from the Bibliothèque Physico-Economique, for Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine. Storms and Hurricanes. FEW years have been more distinguished for an extraordinary frequency of violent storms than the last. In the year 824, when, if we may believe the annals of that period, a hailstone fifteen feet in length fell upon the city of Autun ;-in those of 1680, 1720, 1739, and 1740, when there were storms of hail of one foot in thickness; in 1767, when Potsdam was devastated by hailstones of the size of an ordinary gourd'; in 1771, when the environs of Namur were ravaged by others of nearly eight pounds weight; in 1788, and 1812, which were also remarkable for their storms, and the congelations which accompanied them; there was still nothing in point of extent of suffering to compare with 1817. The city of Rheims will long remember the 19th of May. After having experienced on the day preceding an extraordinary and stifling heat, about half past one in the morning there appeared in the heavens an igneous meteor, the red light of which, reflected from all the houses, gave to this ancient Gallic city the semblance of a town involved in one vast conflagration; some strokes of thunder were followed with rain, which fell in extraordinary abundance for two hours; soon after, a large black cloud gathered over the city and burst upon it with a horrible crash. For five minutes the hail fell in torrents; whole roofs were broken; the trees of the gardens hashed, and some animals killed. The same day the hail ravaged with equal severity many communes of the department of the Upper Garonne ; and on the following day Semur (Côte-d'Or) and the rich vineyards in its environs were visited by another frightful storm, in whi the rain and hail fell for a whole hour in one continued flood. The month of June was especially remarkable for the number and severity of its storms. On the 7th, a part of the communes of Courcon, Beangas, Moulinet, and Bondi, in the arrondissement of Villeneuve Switzerland, the city of Pau (Lower Pyre- In the same month the heat was more excessive in England than it had been for several years, and brought on storms which did every where a great deal of damage. At Tewkesbury they were accompanied with large hail; at Salisbury there was one attended with an extraordinary obscurity, and followed by torrents of rain and large pieces of ice, the ravages of which were frightful |