to China in 1619, and who read more than 100 volumes of their annals, says, "It is certain, that the Chinese began to make astronomical observations soon after the Deluge; that they have observed a great number of eclipses, in which they have noted down the hour, day, month, and year, when they happened, but neither the duration or quantity; and those eclipses have been made use of in regulating their chronology." INSTANCES OF ALGERINE CRUELTY. IT is stated by Salamé, in his narrative of Lord Exmouth's late expedition to Algiers, that the Dey, who was compelled to submit to the power of England, having, while he was Agá of the Janisaries, caused the Bey of Oran, and all his family, excepting two sons, to be arrested, accomplished their destruction in the following manner. He first ordered the Bey, with his three infant children, to be brought before him. He then directed the bowels of the children to be ripped open in their father's presence, and their hearts to be taken out and roasted, which he forced the unhappy parent to eat, placing their mangled bodies before his eyes during this horrid repast. But, out of this abundance, it is much to be regretted, that so very few of their observations have been particularized; for, besides what has been mentioned above, we meet with no very ancient observations of the Chinese, except a winter solstice in the year before Christ 1111, and a summer solstice, in the year 882 before Christ. Martini, indeed, mentions a summer solstice 2342 years before that æra; but Cassini, who calculated it, found that there must have been an error in it of 500 years at least: an error of equal magnitude appears to have been committed in the conjunction of the five Planets, which, it is pretended, they observed between the years 2513 and 2435 before Christ. See Loubere's Account of Siam, p. 257; and Renaudot's Dissert. on this sub-pelled the Bey to sit, fastening one ject, p. 211. About a century before the Christian æra, the Chinese had formed precépts for calculating eclipses, and the places of the Planets. They employed elepsydræ for measuring the space occupied by the constellations; and they determined their meridian by bisecting the interval between the equality of shadows. Their gnomons, for measuring the altitude of the Sun, continued, for 1500 years, at the size of eight feet. They found out the Metonic cycle of nineteen years, with seven intercalary months, and likewise the cycle of Calippus of seventy-six years. They reckoned the obliquity of the ecliptic 24°; but as they divided a great circle of the heavens into 3654°, it amounts only to 23° 39′ of our division. About 164 years before Christ, the Chinese had determined the revolution of the Moon, with regard to her apogee and node, and the inequality of her motion; but what is still more remarkable, they had even constructed a catalogue containing the places of 2500 stars. [To be continued.] Not satisfied with this act of inhumanity, he then ordered two black slaves, who had constantly attended on the Bey, to appear; and then compelled him to impale them alive with his own hands. The stakes on which the bodies of the unhappy sufferers were writhing in agonies, being fixed in the ground, he caused a plate of iron to be made red hot, and placed between them. On this plate he com hand to each of the stakes. While in this situation, he ordered a hot iron pot to be placed on his head; and when this became cold, he ordered him to be scalped, giving him at the same time a pipe to smoke. The Bey still surviving these cruelties, he caused an opening to be made in his side, through which he took out his heart and intestines. It was under this operation that the Bey expired. The whole skin of the head was afterwards taken off and stuffed with straw, and sent to the Dey, as a memorial of this barbarous exploit. All these horrible executions took place before the house, in which the wife of the Bey was compelled to remain during the whole of the transactions. Having by such deeds of atrocity obtained a name, thus legibly written in characters of blood, this monster was thought worthy, for these sanguinary virtues, to be raised to the throne, of which his subsequent conduct has proved him deserving. Before he was raised to this exalted office, he had long been in habits of intimacy with two European families, professing great friendship for them, and frequently dining and drinking at their houses. The European merchants, for such they were, being well acquainted with his character, aimed at nothing more than to secure his friendship by these civilities. They expected no favour from him, and only hoped that he would do them no harm. It was not long after he became Dey, that he sent a message to his two friends, directing them to leave the kingdom. Surprised at this unexpected mandate, against which they well knew it would be useless to remonstrate, they waited on him, to request time, that they might settle their affairs. To this he consented, and allowed them six months. Not many days afterwards, he is, however, said to have sent for them, to have cut off their heads in the palace, and to have ordered their families to quit Algiers immediately. Nor was it merely to foreigners that his rapacity and cruelty were confined. During the former Dey's time, a young Algerine, named Hagi Ali, of a rich family, was confined in prison for a debt of about 100,000 dollars, which sum he owed to various creditors. On the death of the Dey, these creditors, considering that the young man had been long confined, and that his father had died without leaving him any thing with which to discharge his debts, consented to give him his liberty, that he might look after his father's property, and engage in some business, trusting to his honour and fortune for their future payment. No sooner, however, had the Dey who submitted to Lord Exmouth taken the reins of power, than he refused to ratify what the creditors had voluntarily done. Instead, therefore, of freeing him from prison, he put him in chains, and compelled him to work like a Christian slave. The creditors, thinking that the case of the young man was misunderstood, informed the Dey, that they did not wish to receive one dollar from him: their design being to liberate him, that he might take care of the family and the property. To this the Dey replied, If you do not wish to receive the 100,000 dollars from that young man, I wish to receive them myself; and I shall not set him at liberty until he has paid them." When the English expedition left Algiers, the unfortunate young man was still in chains; but whether he has been since liberated, is not known. A change of Deys, may have produced a change of measures; and it is well known, that they are monsters of no very protracted lives. Since 1816, when Lord Exmouth visited Algiers, a third Dey has mounted the throne. He with whom his Lordship treated, was taken from his seat of dominion and blood, and thrown from the window of the gallery in which the negociations were carried on, and falling in the court-yard of the palace, was immediately dispatched by the Janisaries. It appears, from the various enormities which the candidates for power commit, as though it were the duty of all probationers to rival each other in cruelty; and as though that monster presented the fairest claim to the throne, who could most conspicuously surpass his predecessors and contemporaries in the infliction of torment. We can scarcely avoid drawing this conclusion, from the specimens of cruelty already given; but if any thing more be necessary to give it confirmation, it may be found in the following details, which we give in the very words of Salamé. "Here I wish to state, as I was told them, some of the horrid acts of Hagi Ali Pashaw, to shew how both characters (the Dey's and that of his Agá) agreed one with the other. At the Palace, the government residence in the city of Algiers, the Dey is not allowed to keep any wife. The harem, or the Dey's wives, are always kept in a separate palace out of town. But Hagi Ali Pashaw had two women brought privately into the governmentpalace; and he had, besides, five Greek boys, and four black slaves. After some time, when the two unfortunate women became pregnant, they said that he took the first, opened her belly, took out the child, filled the poor woman with salt, and when she was dead, he took her body, and cut it in pieces, salted it well, and put it into a jar. He took the other, and suspended her by the hair to the top of the room; he wounded all her body with small wounds, and put a basin under it to receive the blood; and so the poor woman was kept, bleeding by drops, shut up in the room, where he visited her every day, and increased the wounds, till she was dead: he he then took her body, salted it, and | vious to her death, her danger being preserved it as he did the first. "After these two unhappy ladies were dispatched in this brutal manner, he took the poor Greek boys, one after the other, filled their mouths and noses with cotton, put them under some heavy mattresses, adding a great weight over them, till they were suffocated. He then cut their bodies in pieces, and threw them into the private place. "He turned with the same horrid design towards the black slaves, one of whom was his confidant and assistant in all his shocking transactions; who, having observed that his master had already killed two of his black brothers, perceived that the turn would at last come to him; and thus, when his master went into the bath of the palace, he (the slave) was prepared to shut him up in the inner room, which is always kept extremely warm, and made a great deal of fire more than ordinary, till he was suffocated, and gone to the devil. "On the next day, the perpetrator came, and apprised the Agá of the Janisaries (the Dey, our friend,) saying, that he was sure his master would have killed him, and even now he was not sure of his life; but if they killed him, he should die with full satisfaction for having obtained the revenge of his brothers, and of those innocent women and boys; and, at the same time, he had done a great service to the poor people of Algiers, by killing such a bloody tyrant as Hagi Ali Pashaw;' and began to shew the salted bodies of the two women, and to give a full account of all the horrible and barbarous deeds of his master. This poor slave was afterwards put to death by order of the Dey, our friend."p. 215, 218. BIOGRAPHY. EXPERIENCE and death of Mrs. Ann Brooke, Dominick-street, Dublin, who had been between thirty and forty years a member of the Methodist Society. By her daughter, Theo. Holdcroft. "For nearly two months before my dear mother's decease, she seemed to enjoy a calmness and serenity of mind which, at times, she was unwilling to disturb, even by conversing on household affairs. On the Saturday pre apparent, she gave me her last directions and advice; requesting me, at the same time, to bring to her, from a drawer, my brother's picture. But, before it was in my power to execute her order, she recalled it, saying, "I will not see it now." At this moment her last earthly tie seemed to be broken. She had been immoderately attached to my brother; but as she never afterwards mentioned his name, nor expressed the least uneasiness respecting any of the family, we concluded that her affections were weaned from things below. "For my personal attention to her, she always expressed the most grateful acknowledgments; and frequently repeated such hymns and promises, as suited the condition of a soul enjoying a holy union with God. She was not insensible of her approaching dissolution; for she told her sister, who sat up with her during the night, that she believed her present illness would end in death: and on being asked if she felt any reluctance to depart? she replied, that she did not, but rather wished for the moment that should set her spirit free; and expressed her thankfulness for the blessed knowledge which she enjoyed of a crucified Saviour. In this tranquil state of mind, she several times repeated the following passage, Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, which are of silver, and her feathers of gold.' "She continued sensible to the close of life; but was so absorbed in heavenly contemplations, that her soul had apparently mounted already into a higher region. On the day which preceded her death, while I was silently standing by her bed-side, her soul seemed to be wholly taken up with the prospects which excited her admiration; and, in a strain of enlivened tranquillity, she mentioned the brightness of the sky, when no such object could be distinguished by us. During the night, she repeated many passages of Scripture with true devotional fervour; and several times inquired, apparently of those around her, 'Why will you not let me go to heaven?' "On the morning of the day on which she died, the approaches of death were visible to all. At this time she could scarcely articulate; but in the grove, The emblem of pow'r, and the fav'rite of Jove ; Tho' Phoebus with laurel his temples hath bound, And with chaplets of poplar Alcides be crown'd; Rever'd by his school, and rememb'red at college. Tho' Virgil's fam'd tree might produce, as its fruit, A crop of vain dreams, a strange whim, from each shoot; Yet this birch on each bough, on the top of each switch, Bears the essence of grammar, the eight parts of speech; 'Mongst the leaves are conceal'd more than many can mention, All cases, all genders, all forms of declension; Nine branches, when cropt by the hands of the Nine, Each duly arrang'd in a parallel line, mind, Should genius a captive by sloth be confin'd, Those switches untie all the fetters of sleep: Here dwells strong conviction, of logic the glory, When 'tis used with precision a posteriori : The faculties quickens, enlivens the brain; wood: So luxuriant its branches, so sweet are its twigs, That in college we call them O'Callaghan's figs; As the fam'd rod of Circe to brutes could change men, So O'Callaghan's birch can unbrute them again; Like the rod of the Sybil, that branch of pure gold, This birch can the gates of Elysium unfold, That Elysium of learning, where pleasures abound, Those fruits that still flourish in classical ground : Then if such be its virtues, we'll bow to the tree, And the birch of O'Callaghan immortal shall be. BRIEF MEMOIR OF WYNKYN, OR WYNKEN DE WORDE. IF no honours but those which arise from birth or fortune, could entitle an individual to the notice of the Biographer, Wynken de Worde would have been consigned in silence to the shades of oblivion, and his name to us would have been unknown. In the preceding number, we have given a biographical sketch of Caxton's life; and, in that memoir, we have introduced the name of Wynken de Worde, as being immediately connected with him, and as the person through whose instrumentality the art of Printing was established in England. This man, who rendered himself famous in his day, by his acquaintance with this art, was born in the dukedom of Lorrain, as appears by the patentroll in the Chapel of the Rolls. Of his early life and family connections, nothing is known. When the art of Printing was discovered on the Continent, he found means to connect himself in such a manner with its celebrated inventor, that, by his genius and talents, he soon became master of the various secrets with which the world was at that time so justly astonished. On what account he separated from his first employers, we have no means of knowing; but while Caxton resided at No. 4.-VOL. I. Cologne, he became acquainted with De Worde; and, finding him to be a man of talents, and master of the business which he was anxious to improve, he attached him to his interest, and brought him to England in his service. In this connection he remained while Caxton lived; and on his death, he succeeded him in the art, which they had endeavoured mutually to establish in this country. When the management of the business fell entirely into his hands, he continued for some time to use the types of Caxton, and also his cipher; but, frequently, the books which he printed were without any printer's name. At other times, as he lived in the house which his predecessor had long occupied, he occasionally inserted, "In Caxton's house;" and, in some instances, added his own name. His natural genius, his long connection with Caxton, and the dignity which was then attached to printing, introduced him to an acquaintance with men of learning and influence, who occasionally visited his office, and by whose interest he was, after some time, appointed printer to Margaret, the mother of Henry VII. This honour was conferred on him in the year 1509. His skill in printing has always been considered of the superior kind; and in his day his workmanship was much admired: for although he was the immediate successor of Caxton, yet he improved the art in such a degree, that he may be said to have brought some of its branches very nearly to a state of perfection. Among other things, he cut a new set of punches, which he sunk into matrices, and cast the several sorts of printing letters, which he made use of himself, and of which some continue even to the present time. These, being cast with so much correctness, and standing so truly, have never been excelled by any. He also gave a greater variety to the sorts and sizes of letter than had ever been in use prior to his days. By some it has been said, that he was the first who brought the Roman letter into England; but this has been much disputed. There seems to be a greater certainty in the fact, that he first introduced musical notes, the account of which he has accompanied with the following anecdote of Pythagoras, the philosopher. This we shall give in his 2 A |
