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"In Russia, a general system of improvement has been introduced, with the most decided success, into all the scientific and military establishments; and the mind of the nation expands more and more under the wise and judicious direction of the Minister of public Education. Doubtless, nothing contributed more immediately to this object, or has a more direct influence on the civilization of the lower classes than the public and gratuitous schools. Within these few years, upwards of two thousand of these schools have been established, several of which are governed by young Russians, who had been sent to England in order to be instructed in the new system of education.

"The liberality of the Emperor and of the Dowager Empress towards these establishments, and, in general, towards every thing that regards education, is almost unbounded; and their example is imitated by a great many rich individuals. Count de Schuwalof has endowed a gymnasium with 150,000 rubles. The Counsellor of Mines, Demidow, has made a present of 100,000 rubles to the University of Moscow; and of an equal sum to the two preparatory schools of Kiew and Tobolsk. He has likewise appropriated the same sum to the seminary and gymnasium of Jaroslaw. Count Scheremetjew has given, in one sum, two millions and a half of rubles, to establish an infirmary for the clergy, and likewise a very considerable sum to the University of Moscow. The Grand Chancellor Romanzow has established, on his estates, a number of Lancasterian schools; he is also building four churches for different religions; and he has caused a voyage round the world to be undertaken at his sole expense.

"The Bible Societies likewise receive considerable sums, as well from the imperial family as from private individuals: even the princes and khans of Caucasus, Georgia, and Mingrelia, contribute to these acts of munificence, as well as the chiefs of the distant tribes of Tartary and of Siberia. At Irkutzk, in Siberia, there are at present a preparatory school, a school for teaching the Japanese language, a school of navigation, and a library--a very rare thing, no doubt, in this part of Asia. Several tribes, particularly those at Tungor and Burat, eagerly send their children to the schools recently established in their country, in consequence of some individuals belonging to them having, of late years, had an opportunity to see, with their own eyes, the astonishing effects of civilization. These schools are under the direction of national preceptors, educated for that office in the seminary of Irkutzk.

Thus it is that nations, reputed barbarous at the beginning of this century, are rapidly advancing towards civilization; and every where a degree of emulation is excited which cannot but tend to accelerate its progress.

"The Greeks, who form the greater part of the population of Odessa, are all animated by an excellent spirit for improvement, and display the greatest zeal for the general good of their native country. The education of youth first attracted their attention; and they have, in consequence, established, by voluntary and abundant subscriptions. a school, which already enjoys a great reputation; they have intrusted it to eight able professors, at the head of whom are Messrs. Genadios and Macris, both highly distinguished as men of science.

"The Governor of Odessa. Count de Langeron, gives the greatest encouragement to the professors and the students. Besides the annual

donations made to the school by these worthy Greeks, four houses of insurance, established and managed by Greek merchants, also make a deduction in favor of it from their annual profits, the amount of which, for the year 1817, was 53,892 rubles, or about 11,000l. sterling. Several merchants have deposited funds for the establishment of a printing-office on a large scale, intended to propagate knowledge throughout all Greece. They propose to provide physicians and other medical attendance for the sick poor, without distinction of country or religion." Ch. Obs.

ARCTIC DISCOVERIES.

The Prince Regent has given his approbation of the following scale of rewards, proposed by the Board of Longitude;-1. To the first ship belonging to any of his Majesty's subjects, or to his Majesty, that shall reach the longitude of 110 deg. west from Greenwich, or the mouth of Hearne's or Coppermine river, by sailing within the arctic circle 5,000/; to the first ship, as aforesaid, that shall reach the longitude of 130 deg. west from Greenwich, or the Whale Island of Mackenzie, by sailing within the arctic circle, 10,000l.; to the first ship, as aforesaid, that shall reach the longitude of 150 deg. west from Greenwich, by sailing westwards within the arctic circle, 15,000l.; the act having already allotted to the first ship that shall reach the Pacific Ocean by a northwest passage, the full reward of 20,000l.-2. To the first ship, as aforesaid, that shall reach to 83 deg. of north latitude, 1,000l. to 85 deg. 2,000l. to 87 deg. 3,000l. to 88 deg. 4,000l. the act having already allotted to the first ship that shall reach to or beyond 90 deg. the full

reward of 5.000l.

STATISTICS OF EUROPE.

ib.

The present population of Europe amounts to 177,221.600 persons, scattered over 154,450 geographical square miles. This population, considered in an ethnographic point of view, comprehends 53,195,000 Teutonians or Germans, 60,586,400 descendants of the Romans, 45, 120,000 Sclavonians, 3,718,000 Caledonians, 3,499,500 Tartars and Bulgarians, 3,070,000 Maggarians, 2,022,000 Greeks,1,760,000 Finlanders, 1,610,000 Cimmerians, 622,000 Basques, 313,600 Guistes, 294,000 Arnauts, 151,600 Armenians, 88,000 Maltese, &c. There are 1,179,500 Jews, 3,607.500 Mahometans, and 172,432,500 Christians, of whom there are 98,229,000 Catholics, and 41,898,500 Protestants. Europe is now divided politically into 78 Sovereign States, nominally independent. Their aggregate forces in peace, are 1,600,000 and, on the war establishment, 3,600,000. Their maritime forces consists of 409 ships of the line, 38 ships of 50 guns, 348 frigates, and 1,563 vessels of an inferior class. ib.

NUMBER OF CHAPELS IN ENGLAND.

The Churches and Chapels in England of the established religion, amount to 11,753; and yet, it is said there are almost four millions of people destitute of the means of public worship.

POTASS FROM POTATO TOPS.

LORD Cloncurry, in order to promote the manufactory of potass from potato tops, has offered a premium of 50l. for a quantity not less than

1000lbs. sold in a merchantable state in Dublin; being little less than 40s. per. acre for what has hitherto been altogether useless. ib.

HERCULANEUM MANUSCRIPTS.

An

SIR Humphry Davy has published a Report on the State of the Manuscripts of Papyrus, found at Herculaneum. He states, that he made some experiments on them, which soon convinced him, that the nature of these manuscripts had been generally misunderstood; that they had not,as is usually supposed, been carbonized by the operation of fire, and that they were in a state analogous to peat, or Bovey coal, the leaves being generally cemented into one mass by a peculiar substance, which had formed, in a long course of ages, during the fermentation and chemical change of the vegetable matter which compose them. examination of the excavations that still remain open at Herculaneum, confirmed the opinion that the manuscripts had not been acted upon by fire. He found a small fragment of the ceiling of one of the rooms, containing lines of gold leaf and vermilion in an unaltered state: which could not have happened if they had been acted upon by any temperature sufficient to convert vegetable matter into charcoal. Moisture by its action upon vegetable matter, produces decomposition, which may be seen in peat bogs in all its different stages. When air and water act conjointly on leaves or small vegetable fibres, they soon become brown then black; and by long continued operation of air, even at common temperatures, the charcoal itself is destroyed, and nothing remains but the earths which entered into the constitution of the vegetable substance. The number of manuscripts and of fragments originally brought to the museum at Portici amounted to 1,696; of these eightyeight have been unrolled, and found in a legible state; 319 more have been operated upon, and, more or less, unrolled and found not to be legible; while twenty-four have been presented to foreign potentates.Amongst the 1,265 that remain, and which Sir Humphry examined with attention, by far the greater number consist of small fragments, or of mutilated or crushed manuscripts, in which the folds are so irregular, as to offer little hopes of separating them so as to form connected leaves; from 80 to 120 are in a state which present a great probability of success, and of these the greater number are of the kind in which some volatile vegetable matter remains, and to which a chemical process may be applied with the greatest hopes of useful results.-Of the eighty-eight manuscripts, the great body consists of works of Greek philosophers or sophists; nine are of Epicurus, thirty-two bear the name of Philodemus, three of Demetrius, and one of each of the following authors: Colotes, Polystratus, Carneades, and Chryssippus. The subjects of these works, and the works of which the names of the authors are unknown, are either natural or moral philosophy, medicine, criticism, and general observations on the arts, life and manners. ib.

SURVEY OF INDIA.

MANY of our readers are probably aware that a trigonometrical survey of India has been going on for several years, at the expense of the British Government in that country, and under the superintendence of officers well qualified for performing the task. Lieut. Col. William Lambton took the opportunity of this survey, to measure, at different

times, an arc of the meridian from north lat. 8° 9′ 38′′ to north lat. 18° S' 23.0", being an amplitude of 9° 53′ 45′′, the longest single arc that has ever been measured on the surface of the globe. Colonel Lambton has inserted an abstract of the principal results in a paper, which has been published in the second part of the Philosophical Transactions for 1818. From that paper we select the following facts.

The mean length of a degree due to latitude 9° 24′ 44′′ in fathoms, is 60472.83
The mean length of do. due to lat. 12° 2′ 55′′, is.
The mean length of do. due to lat. 16° 34′ 42′′, 's

60487.56 60512.78

These measurements, thus lengthening towards the pole, not only agree with all preceding observations, in demonstrating that the polar axis of the earth is shorter than the equatorial, but Colonel Lambton has shown, by a comparison of his measurement with a length of a degree as determined in France,in England, and in Sweden,that the compression at the poles amounts to 1-310th of the length of the axis. From this compression of 1-310th, Colonel Lambton has calculated the length of a degree of latitude from the equator to the pole; from which table it appears that the length of a degree of latitude at the equator is 68.704 English miles, at lat. 45°, 69.030; at lat. 51°, 69.105; at lat. 90°, 69.368. The mean length, therefore, of a degree of latitude is almost exactly 69 miles and 1-10th of a mile; and not, according to the common estiinate, 69 miles and a half. The measurement of the arc will be possibly continued still further north, and at some future period be extended even to Delhi. ib.

OBITUARY.

DIED at Boston on the 16th ult. DR. JOHN JEFFRIES, aged 75.

Mrs. HANNA HASKINS, aged 86, from early years a professor of the Christian faith, and an eminent example of humility, patience, and all the social and domestic virtues. Her hus band died a few years since, at about the same age; and thirteen children survive their beloved and venerated parents.

At Portsmouth, N. H. on the 17th ult. the Hon. JOHN LANGDON, L. L. D. aged 79, formerly for many years Governor of New-Hampshire. In the course of his life he sustained many important offices, having been a member of the old Congress, and of the House of Representatives under the Federal Constitution. During the latter part of his life he sought retirement, and in 1813 declined a nomination to the office of Vice President of the United States, to which office had his consent been obtained, he would doubtless have been elevated. For several years past he was a member of the First Church of Christ in Portsmouth, enjoyed the donsolations of religion, and seemed evidently preparing for heaven. He was warmly attached to the doctrines of grace, and nothing gave him so much pain as to see them assailed. At the Massachusetts Hospital for the Insane, General NATHANIEL COIT ALLEN, of New Gloucester, aged 60.

At New Orleans, July 22, Mr. ZEBULON L. SHAW, aged 24, Late of Bridgewater, Mass. He was graduated at Harvard University in 1815.

In the new settlements of Lower Cañada, about the last of August, of Hydrophobia, the DUKE OF RICHMOND, Governor General of the British possessions in North America, aged 55. In London, (Eng) the Rev. WILLIAM PERCY, D. D. Rector of St. Paul's Church, Charleston, South Carolina, aged 75. Dr. Percy was through life a zealous preacher of the doctrines usually denominated Calvinistic.

At Macdonough, N. Y. September 6, Mr. JABEZ PERKINS, and his wife, both killed by lightning, leaving seven orphan children asleep at the moment. The house was set on fire but soon extinguished.

At the village of Waterloo, N. Y. Gen. ISAAC MALTBY, late of Hatfield, Massachusetts; for many years a legislator of this Commonwealth, a highly respectable military officer. He had been for many years a member of the Church of Christ in Hatfield.

At Philadelphia, the Honorable Joux Rutledge, of Charleston, South Carolina, formerly a member of the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States.

At Charleston, S. C. the Honorable KEATING L. SIMMONDS, It is remarkable that this gent eman and Mr. Ruledge, who were nearly of the same age, and had been intimate friends, ded the same day, at the same hour.

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[1788] St. Bartholomews. Missionary: Daniel Hillier. Members: Whites 14; Blacks 447.

Anguilla. A missionary is to be appointed. Members: Whites 9. Blacks 160. [1788] Virgin Islands. Missionaries: James Whitworth, George Jackson, John Colmer.

The prospects are encouraging. The people in general appear to be actuated by a sincere desire to please God, and they walk consistently. All the expense of the mission is covered by the exertions of the people. Members: Whites 64; Blacks 1679.

HAYTI.

This ancient name of this noble island, long called St. Domingo, has been revived by its present inhabitants.

Port au Prince. Missionaries: John Brown, sen. James Catts.

This town is in that part of the island which was under the authority of President Petion, who afforded the most ample protection and favor to the missionaries, and which his successor President Boyer still continues, The labors of missionaries are increasing, and their prospects brightening.

Cape Henry. W. W. Harvey, another missionary is about to sail for this station which is under the authority of King Henry.

[1789.] Jamaica. Stations and Missionaries. Kingston, G. Johnstone; Spanish town, W. Binning; Morant Bay, W. Ratcliffe; Grateful Hill, James Underhill; Falmouth and Montego Bay, John Shipman, John Hudson; Port Antonio, James Horne.

Appointed for this station, Obadiah Adams, and Joseph Hartley. Every station is prospering. There is a prospect of rendering the means of instruction more adequate to the wants of the numerous negroes of this important island. Some of the negroes are so earnest in attending on the worship of God that they come 10 to 16 miles, early on Sunday morning. The people pray for the arrival of more instructors; and the ruling authorities are disposed to countenance them. Members: Whites, 32: Blacks 4842.

[1788.] Bahamas. Stations and missionaries. New Providence, Roger Moore; Eleuthera, John Turtle; Harbor Island, W. Wilson. Appointed to Abaco, John Davies.

Notwithstanding the deaths of several missionaries the last year, and the restraints to which others have been subject, the mission itself has suffered very little loss. The converts give satisfactory evidence of piety. Members: Whites 539; Blacks 517.

[1788.] Bermuda. Missionary: William Sutcliffe. There is an appearance of persecution here. As it is unprovoked, the missionaries consider it a good omea. Members: Whites, 26; Blacks 63.

NORTH AMERICAN INDÍANS.

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS.

Cherokees. In January, 1817, the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury arrived in the Cherokee Nation, selected a station now called Brainerd on Chickamaugah Creek, and commenced preparations for an establishment. He was successively joined 58

VOL XV.

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