proper to insert in the widely circulated Journal of Dumfries all the best and most interesting passages of an article which we wish every slave of Moderation to peruse, from Tweed to the Ultima Thule of our establishment. He is, to be sure, accompanying it with a running (down) commentary: but then his commentary is so feeble and silly, that it acts as a confirmation of the text. It is quite delightful to see such a vigorous person wielding our club among the bones of his party, and multiplying its blows to an extent which we never anticipated. The effects must afford great delight to the Moderator and his supporter; and their delight must be increased by observing that it is furnished to them by the superabund ant kindness of one of their own number. So zealous is Mr. M'Lellan in diffusing our sentiments, that when a gentleman in Dumfries sent to the Journal and the Courier those passages of our article which referred to him, and served to illustrate his advertisement, he was offended at their paucity, and insisted upon the insertion of other passages, which were not at all relevant to his defence, but vastly well calculated to expose his friends! For all this we return our grateful acknowledgments-not to that "skulking assassin" J. T. R. but to the Rev. John McLellan, minister of Kelton *. In the second place, we rejoice to find that all our original positions remain as they were, and that in spite of the Rev. John M'Lellan, and the "skulking assassin" J. T. R. we were right in saying that the former of these gentlemen, "placed in the ranks of Toryism, would be like Saul among the prophets." We affirmed that "there was a political paper emanating from his pen, and inserted in a Dumfries newspaper,' (or as it turns out to be, sent by Mr. McLellan for insertion in the paper-rejected by the editor, and printed off in a separate form to gratify the author,)" which attracted the notice of the King's Advocate, and was well nigh terminated with a visit of George, greeting.'" We affirmed that "the public prints informed every body that he alone, of all the clergy of the church of Scotland, made, and pressed, and put to the vote, a motion in his presbytery, for sending up a loyal and dutiful address to Queen Caroline." And we affirmed that, "in him, the Junto of Moderates found an adherent so staunch and so devoted, that he uniformly supported their measures; and even in the case of Mr. Thomson's motion on the Order in Council,_respecting prayers for the Royal Family, did (with a good conscience, of course) give his vote against that motion, while, with almost the same breath, he moved the presbytery of Kirkcudbright to address her late Majesty as a persecuted woman, and an injured Queen!" We affirmed these things, and not only has Mr. M'Lellan failed to disprove any one of them, but we challenge himnot to throw out a general charge of mis-statement against us, and advertise it in a newspaper-any man with half a guinea in his pocket, and not a farthing's worth of honesty in his heart, may do thatbut to specify a single particular in which we have misrepresented fact, and to give it a specific denial. This he knows well that he cannot It is said that J. T. R. which was believed in Galloway to stand for J. Thomson, Rerrick, was very soon transmuted by the pen of the minister of Kelton into "John McLellan." And Mr. M'Lellan seems, in a subsequent paper, to acknowledge the imposition. Really our friend should put more than one bridle on his passion for writing and publishing. do, and that he dare not do. At the same time, we must add, that what we said respecting him was not said either in malice or in wantonness. It was brought forward to illustrate our argument against the junto, not to expose Mr. McLellan. And therefore we inserted a caveat of this kind, which we now repeat, and with which we shall close our remarks. "We allude to these things, not to throw blame on Mr. M'Lellan; for he has a right to hold his own sentiments, and to follow his own convictions, in this land of liberty, and we give him credit for every proof (however feeble) of independence which he exhibits; but to show, by a matter of undeniable fact, that the leaders of Moderation, if they can only carry their party views, if they can only preserve their arbitrary power, and keep the loaves and fishes at their own disposal, are ready enough to sacrifice their boasted principles, and belie their loudest professions." RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. INDIA. (A Suttee described.) "The horrid practice of burning widows is still carried on without any abatement in those places under our government. The Dutch will not allow it in their districts. During the last year, in the small district of Hooghly alone,195 poor unhappy females have been sacrificed!!! A few days ago, hearing of one about to take place, and our brethren Trawin and Bankhead being with us, we all resolved to go, that we might, if possible, be able by argument to prevent it. On arriving at the place, we found the woman sitting by the body of the de. ceased; we did all we could to endeavour to persuade her not to burn; but all we could get from her were entreaties to leave her; we then appealed to the feelings of her daughter, whose office it was to set fire to the pile, but could make no impression on her, after which the multitude, and particularly the Brahmins, were addressed respecting the injustice, cruelty, and sin, of such an act; but finding all fruitless, silence being obtained, Mr. Townley, in the presence of the people, offered up a fervent prayer that God would graciously show mercy, and soften their hard hearts; all, however failed of the desired effect, and we were obliged to be silent spectators of the awful scene. The poor creature, after be ing bathed in the Ganges, was carried, almost senseless with intoxicating drugs, to the pile, tied to the dead body, large pieces of wood laid on her, and the whole bound down that she might not possibly escape. The pile was then set on fire, amidst the shouts and yells of the people. To us, in deed, it appeared hell in miniature. Our feelings were deeply impressed, and I trust we were constrained to cry with more fervent spirit, "have respect unto the covenant, O God, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.” PENANG. The Stupidity and Cruelty of Idolaters Exemplified in the conduct of the Chi nese, extracted from the Journal of Mr. Medhurst, when he resided in Penang. Jan. 7, 1821.-Walking out, I called at the house of a man, who was engraving an idol, and, on looking round, I perceived his house to be full of the works of his own hands. I could not help feeling a holy in dignation at such affronts on the Divine Majesty, to suppose him to be like unto wood and stone, graven by art and man's device. I spoke to him on the folly of trusting to the works of his own hands, but I found him to be nearly as ignorant as the idols he was making. "They that make them are like unto them." He was unable to give any consistent excuse for his folly, acknowledged that he was a mere imitator of others, and was making the idols for his own gain. On my return, I visited a temple in ruins the altar neglected, and the god removed. I longed for the time when the shrines of idolatry shall all meet a similar fate. When I inquired why the temple was deserted, I was told very eagerly that the god had se lected another spot for his residence in preference to this. I doubted how it was possible for a log of wood to be capable of choice, or to express his desire to others; they said there was no difficulty in either; for when they were carrying the god round the village, in his chair of state, (borne generally by four men only,) on its arrival at the particular spot which the god preferred, the chair suddenly became heavy, and twenty men could not move it thence. My informant said he was not an eye-witness of this circumstance, but he firmly believed it. What a pity it is that they do not trouble themselves to inquire into the truth or falsehood of such things, before they give an implicit credence to them. Murder of Female Infants by the Jan. 18th.-A man came for medicine to-day, with whom I conversed awhile privately. I asked him how long he had left China, and whether he ever thought upon his family there. He said he frequently thought on them, and intended next year to return and visit them, for he had three sons, and one daughter, who was married. "I had another daughter," he added, but I did not bring her up." "Not bring her up, (said I,) what did you then do with her ?" "I smothered her, (said he:) this year also I heard by letter that another daughter was born; I sent word to have that smothered also, but the mother has preserved it alive." I was shocked at this speech, and still more at the horrid indifference with which he uttered it. "What, (said I,) murder your own children? Do you not shudder at such an act ?". "Oh, no! (said he,) it is a very common thing in China; we put the female children out of the way to save the trouble of bringing them up; some people have smothered five or six daughters.' My horror was increased by his continued indifference, and the lightness with which such crimes are perpetrated in China with impunity, which must be the case, when they are related without fear of detection, as the common occurrences of life. I felt I had a murderer by my side, who must, without reI told him pentance, inevitably perish. plainly that he had committed a most dreadful sin, and that he was in danger of eternal wrath. Though I said this with the greatest seriousness and earnestness, at first he only laughed, and it was some time before he would acknowledge that he had done wrong: however, afterwards he seemed to feel a little concerned, and I hope affected. What an awful view does this present of the Celestial Empire," loaded with crime, deluged with blood, and ripe for destruction! 851 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. Mr. Salt, in a letter from Cairo, in August, states that a roll of Papyrus, measuring about eleven inches in length, and five in circumference, has been discovered in the island of Elephantina, containing a portion of the latter part of the Iliad, very fairly written in large capitals, such as were in use during the time of the Ptolemys, and under the earlier Roman emperors. The lines are numbered, and there are Scholia in the margin. The art of mezzotinto engraving on steel has lately been brought to perfection, and possesses all the softness, richness, and beauty of copper-plates, with this incalculable advantage, that a single plate will produce thousands of fine impressions. The merit of adapting steel plates to mezzotinto engraving belongs to the present genera tion, and is not yet many months old. An experiment was tried by Mr. Lowry; but the first successful mezzotinto engraving was made by Mr. Lupton, and obtained the gold Iris Medal of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. at their last session. General steel-engraving has for some years been adopted by Messrs. Perkins and Co. and it is now beginning to be extensively practised. All the engravings of the New Methodical Cyclopædia are preparing on steel; hence, in thousands of impressions, the last will be as good as the first. It has been proposed to line walls with tea-chest lead, on any part which is subject to damp, fixing it with copper nails, and then papering it. The nettle, Urtica urens, in Shropshire, may be dressed and manufactured like flax, into cloth. In France it is made into paper; and, when dried, is eaten by sheep and oxen. In Russia a green dye is obtained from its leaves, and a yellow one from its roots. In spring a salutary pottage is made from the tops. In Scotland they make a runnet from a decoction of it with salt, for coagulating their milk. In the month of August, last year, in a heavy shower of rain, there fell, near the Castle of Schoenbrunn, an immense quantity of insects unknown in Austria. They were about the size of beetles, and had some resemblance to them in form; they were covered with a kind of shell, and only kept alive by putting them in water, as if water had been their element. The conjecture assigned is, that they were brought away from some remote country into Austria by a water-spout. VOL. XXI. NO. XII, Mr. Casati, a traveller who recently returned from Egypt, has brought several ancient manuscripts; among which are two in Greek, and one in Greek and Egyptian. The first, which is sixteen feet six inches in length, and seven inches in breadth, contains a deed of sale drawn in the Thebais, on the 9th day of the month of Epiphi, and in the 4th year of the reign of Cleopatra, and of her son Ptolemy Soter II. which corre sponds to the 25th of July, of 113 years before Christ. The Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston has published a series of thirtythree years' observations, made from 1786 to 1818, at Salem in Massachusetts, by which the difference of the temperature of Europe and America is ascertained: Difference of temp. 11° 36" In an inquiry on the supposed attraction of spherical bodies, and the supposed repulsion of elastic fluids, M. Laplace unfolds the following law:-That the quan tity of heat which is disengaged from a bulk of gas passing under a determined pres sure from a higher into a lower temperature, is proportional to the square root of this pressure. This law equally results from the more rational theory, that increase of heat is received motion, and decrease imparted motion; but M. Laplace (says Sir R. Philips,) has long been the high-priest of that superstitious philosophy which recognizes principles of attraction and repulsion. Capt. Smith, of his Majesty's ship Adventure, who has been employed for several years past, under the orders of the Lords of the Admiralty, in surveying several parts of the Mediterranean, has lately returned from an arduous survey of the coast of Afri ca. He left Malta on the 5th of March last, for Bengazi, where he arranged with the land party destined to explore the interior, under the charge of Lieut. Beachy, respecting their journey to Cyrene. The Adventure then proceeded on to Alexandria, where she arrived on the 23d of March. Captain Smith then made a complete survey of the two harbours, the town, and its fortifications, and fixed its position as to latitude and longitude. Thence he proceeded along the coast to Catabathmos; took astronomical observations on shore, at the several ports and headlands, and completed a coast-survey of the whole distance 5 T from Alexandria to Doma, at which place the operations terminated on the preceding voyage of the Adventure. By this service, the hitherto unknown Gulf of Syrtis has been thoroughly explored, and the survey of the whole coast between Tripoli and Alexandria is now, for the first time, entirely completed.—In addition to the valuable hydrographical information acquired by this survey, the sites of numerous ancient cities and stations have been accurately determined, and such data obtained, as will throw very important elucidations on the writings of Herodotus, Scytax, Strabo, Leo, and Edrisi. The Bibliotheque Universelle of the 30th of September, contains the following account of an ascent of Mont Blanc. A young Englishman, Mr. F. Clissold, came from London to Chamouny with the firm resolution of attempting it, and has given the particulars in a letter. Chamouny, Aug. 27, 1822. Sir,-You have probably heard of the success of my ascent of Mont Blanc, of which I will communicate to you some particulars. I left Chamouny, where I remained ten days in expectation of settled weather, on Sunday the 18th, at half past 10 P.M. with six chosen guides, one of whom was provided with a lantern. We ascended, as is usually done, by the mountain called De la Cote, and attained the summit of it at half past three in the morning. After a short halt, we entered at four o'clock on the Glacier; and having crossed it without accident, reached at half past seven the rocks called the Grands Mulets, where preceding travellers have generally made arrangements for passing the night. My plan was different: I desired to reach the summit the same day, and to remain there during the night, in order to see the day break on the following morning. We therefore continued our march, the most difficult part of which was in the neighbourhood of these same rocks, where we had to climb obliquely up a very steep slope of ice, inclined about forty-five degrees, in which we were obliged to cut with a hatchet a number of steps, the missing of one of which would have been certain death, for this slope terminated at an enormous cleft: this passage was still worse when we came down again. We quitted the Grands Mulets at nine o'clock, and reached at two the Grand Plateau, near the Dome du Goute. We were in the region of those masses of snow which are formed into enormous parallelopipedons, called serocs. Thence ascending to the left, we from time to time proceeded along the edge of the clefts, one of which was perhaps the grave of the victims of 1820. All the company, except one of the guides, P. M. Faveret, and myself, were more or less incommoded by the rarefaction of the air; three of them, in particular, who ascended Mont Blanc for the first time, lost their strength to such a degree, that they considerably delayed our progress. If it had not been imprudent to separate, I should certainly have at tained the summit before night. We arrived about seven in the evening at the Petit Mulet, a rock situated beyond the Rocher Rouge, the nearest to the top of all those that are seen from Chamouny. We had reached it at half past six; the Petit Mulet, being higher, and to the left, is not visible from below. As we had not time to reach the summit before night, we descended again to the Rocher Rouge, near which we made a pit in the snow, four feet deep, five broad, and six long. We placed at the bottom some pieces of wood, on which we spread a rather thin quilt, on which we all seven lay down, covered with a light sheet, which was by no means sufficiently large for the purpose. Some puffs of wind, which now and then blew into our faces some of the light snow drifted from the surface, might have been a bad omen of the fate that awaited us if the wind had risen. We slept, however, about four hours. We could not observe the thermometer for the want of light; but the night was cold enough to produce icicles in a bottle of Hermitage wine, and thoroughly to freeze some lemons among our provisions. The right foot of one of my guides (David Coutet) was frozen, as were the extremities of my own fingers and toes. But this had no bad consequences, as the usual remedy (rubbing them with snow) was at hand. We left our cold couch at four o'clock in the morning; the day was beginning to break, and the first rays of dawn gave a silver tinge to the summit, from which we were not far distant. In proportion as the sun approached the horizon, the tint changed, and became entirely golden when he rose. It made the most striking contrast with the nearly black return of the sky, which served as a back-ground. All the difficul ties were now surmounted: we sunk but little in the snow, and now and then halted for a short time to take breath; we soon came to the Petit Mulet, which we had visited the day before, and at half past five we were on the summit. We began by making the signals agreed on with our friends in the Plain, who easily distinguished them. This summit is not so confined as it seems to be at a distance. It forms a small plain, nearly horizontal, which is in |