The magazines of corn, rice, and fruit, which have been found in the town are very considerable.—The duke of Montebello has nominated general Laval governor of Zaragossa. A deputation of the priesthood and different inhabitants has set out for Madrid. Palafox is dangerously ill. He was the object of the contempt of the whole hostile army, who accused him of arrogance and meanness. He was never seen where there was any danger.

The count de Fuentes, grandee of Spain, who had been arrested by the insurgents two months ago on his estates, was found in a dungeon of eight feet square, and released; no idea can be formed of the miseries he had undergone.

THE FRENCH MODE OF FINING, OR CLARIFYING WINE..

The complaint among the wine trade with respect to the difficulty of clearing wine is so general, that we conceive the following extract from a valuable work lately published at Paris, will prove not unacceptable to many of our readers. "Of all materials used in clarifying wines and other liquids," says M. Parmentier, ". I think that the whites of eggs are best calculated to bring them to that degree of perfection, and confer upon them that limpidness which they can neither acquire by rest nor by filtration." When, however, the whites of eggs are made use of for the purpose of clarifying wines, &c. it is necessary to be particularly careful in using the freshest eggs only; and in breaking and examining them, great caution and circumspection are to be observed, since it has often happened that a single egg, however slightly tainted, has given a disagreeable flavour to a whole pipe of wine, an evil which, when once incurred, is irremediable. It is best, adds the author already named, to employ such eggs only as are laid by hens which do not associate with cocks, because the intercourse of the male renders the eggs more liable to putrescence, and gives them a very

bad taste.

-As to red wines, a very small portion of isinglass will clear them, and consequently a species of economy is added to the other advantages derived from the use of it, as thereby an immense quantity of eggs is saved. M. Parmentier contributed a paper to the Annales de Chimie, in 1792, by which he undertook to prove, that, in many cases, a sort of jelly, prepared from the raspings of bones, might be substituted for isinglass. But might we not with greater facility procure a much better substitute for isinglass, than that which he makes mention of, from our indigenous productions, from our fisheries of every description?-Most of the fish which are but thinly covered with scales, and which live in our lakes, ponds, and rivers, furnish great abundance of gelatinous substance, both wholesome and pleasing to the smell and taste, which might be prepared for the purpose already mentioned with very little trouble. In adopting this mode we should confer a benefit upon the nation at large, by curtailing the importation of isinglass, for which such immense sums are paid to the merchants of the northern parts of Europe.

This paper may give rise to more than one philosophical question. First, what is that principle in an egg become stale and tainted, though but little, which is so powerful in its nature and properties as to taint a whole pipe of wine? Consider the smallness of an egg itself in proportion to the quantity of liquor: consider the expression however slightly his small quantity be tainted;" and when the principle, or portion tainted is limited, in fact, to a small portion of this small egg. Such is the power of the tainting principle! the principle of corruption! Is there any beneficent principle that is equally capable of ameliorating its subject when only so slightly diffused throughout its parts?--Secondly: It is remarkable, that an extract from fish, a commodity sufficiently remote, it should appear, from the nature of any production of the grape, or its juice, should clarify the liquor innocently, while an egg slightly tainted, injures it. Isinglass is a kind of glue, prepared from a fish: whether any other glue, prepared from any other kind of fish, might answer the purpose as well; and if not, why not? is also a matter of curious inquiry. The other query which a naturalist will discern in this communication may deserve discussion, but rather in a learned language, and in a direct dissertation, than in a popular and widely circulating periodical publication. Why are red wines more easily and effectually clarified by isinglass than white wines; and whence is the sediment that subsides from them more easily acted on by this apparendy feeble agent?

It were a curious speculation to inquire into those remaining customs and usages of accient nations, which, notwithstanding the Eneral prevalence of christianity, yet remain. Transmitted from age to age, from family to family, from parent to child, they have been proof against all the effort of cool sanctity and innovation. We had occasion some time ago, when reviewing Dr. Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, to notice some which still maintain themselves in our island. That worthy divine is displeased at memorials which he considers as too closely allied to heathenism. He is not disposed even to admit their indifference as to the principles of christianity; but seems to think christianity is but imperfectly established, where these are not entirely exploded. It will be acknowledged, as due to the general character of the Kirk of Scotland, that no country is more fully favoured with the diffusion of gospel principles:what, then, is there in these practices which has given them such fast hold of the minds of their votaries: what secret or open charm attends them and supports them instead of arguments, or against arguments? May we suppose that they will ever be totally extinct; or will vestiges of them continue to the latest posterity? Perhaps, we should do well to consider some of them as natural expressions of a kind of piety independent of any particular religious persuasion. The feast of ingathering at the time of harvest, for instance, has something in its principle so grateful, so cheerful, to recommend it, that there is no apparent cause for its disuse, while harrests are yielded by the prolific earth: and in such cases, when the ceremony is directed to the great Author of all good, the reason which should effectuate its abolition ought to be more than commonly cogent. This festival seems to be founded on a permanent principle: to regulate it, may be more easy, and possibly, when all things are considered, more politic, than to insist upon its suppression.

There may be as much harm done by intemperate zeal as by languid reformation. But, there is another consideration still more deserving of notice. Not all parts of Christendom have been converted without force. The power of simple persuasion has not been the only motive employed, Is it any wonder that converts by force should retain and practice all that circumstances allowed of their ancient rites? And are not modern days subject to the disadvantages attending those national baptisms in streams and rivers, where the conqueror superintended the ceremony at the head of his army?-They were

they had complied with his injunctions only externally, while in private they still maintained some respect to the deities of ticle may be thought to bear some reference their ancestors? Possibly the following arto this conjecture, and to be elucidated by it. Any better elucidation we should be happy to

receive.

The WENDES, or VANDALS, worshipped, among other gods, one called the Evil-God, in their language Czernibog. There is a mountain in Lusace which still retains that name: it appears that this god had a temple, or at least a statue, erected on this mountain. His idol was black; in one hand it held fire, in the other a kind of spear with two hooks. Libations were made to Czernibog at the beginning of their repasts.

Those people began their year at the spring equinox; at which time they celebrated a grand festival, called the festival of the dead. They proceeded from their villages in procession, bearing before them a colossal straw figure, representing winter and death, which they afterwards threw into the water, or into the fire. This procession is still practiced in several villages of Lusace, and even of Saxony; likewise in some parts of Bohemia. Where the custom is maintained in its force, the peasants sing during the procession:

"We carry away death from our village; We bring back spring within our walls; Hail joyful spring! hail verdant corn! &c."

Another great festival of the Wendes, celebrated the harvest at the time of the autumnal equinox; they assembled before the idol of their god Swantewil. It was twelve feet high; had four heads, and each of them a long beard; he wore a cuirass on his breast, and a sword enormously long by his side; he held a bow and arrows in his left hand, and a vase in the shape of a horn in his right. At the feast they filled this horn with wine, which was to be preserved till the following year. Their priests, on that occasion, exhorted them to a life of sobriety; and ordered expiations. Plentiful harvests were celebrated by dancing and feasting. The idols and the ceremony of the horn are dismissed; but the feast exists under the denomination of Lobetanz, (the dance in the praise of the lord, or of gratitude).

Near Bantzen the people shew that part of the Spree, where an ancient idol of the Wendes was thrown from the top of a mountain into that river, at the time of the abolition of paganism; and by a singular custom in the vicinity of the village of Ober-Oderwitz the memory of a similar event there seems to have been preserved. On Whitsunday, the young people of both sexes assemble, from the neighbouring villages, on a mountain, and detach enormously large pieces of a rock, which they roll into the river. During the rest of the year that mountain is unfrequented.

Amidst these recollections of paganism stands Herruhut, the chief establishment of the Moravian brotherhood; who seem to have carried christian fraternity to the highest degree of zeal and purity. In this town, of a kind altogether peculiar, men of all nations, associated by religious fervour, live on the produce of their united industry; all they possess is in common. They have but one house for all the brothers who are married, one for the unmarried sisters, and one for the single men : in each of these houses they eat their meals together; but in the two last they all sleep in common dormitories. In each house there is a room for their prayers, besides a church for the whole congregation, where those pious souls praise their Creator by singing salms and hymus; and exhort one another to virtue by discourses delivered by venerable old members. Their religious ceremonies are equally simple and affecting, their vestments extremely modest, they live a laborious and peaceable life, and the passions are subdued to innocence in that abode of peace and of charity. The burying-ground of Herruhut is a pleasant garden delightfully situated. This colony first settled here in 1717; they now trade in articles manufactured by the brotherhood, the sale of which amounts to upwards of £40,000. Part of this produce supports anissionaries in different parts of the inhabited globe. The mission of Greenland has founded there a community of nearly one thousand individuals. There are likewise colonies of Moravian brethren at Guadenfrey, Neusaltz, in Sicily, at Barbey and at Gnadan in Saxony, at Christianfield in the dutchy of Sleswick, and in several parts of England, Sweden, and of the United States of America.

The Wendes are far from partaking of the pious severity of these manners: they are fond of a certain luxury, of noisy entertainments, and sports. Their wives are very partial to a singular mode of dressing. On Sundays and holidays they wear several corsets one above another; the under one something less and showy than that next to it, and so on the upper one always the most rich and costly. On such days the inhabitants of the different villages meet and dance to a fiddle,

with only three strings, and a bag-pipe. Thei favourite dance is a kind of waltz. While they are working in the fields, they sing popular songs, expressive of joy, or at least of happiness; one of the most in vogue begins with these words: "Be cheerful, Jenny, although thou hadst not sown a single grain of wheat." Their herdsmen play on the flute, and sometimes challenge one ano ther to musical contests, as did the ancient shepherds of Sicily and of Arcadia.

Their weddings are always celebrated with great joviality, rural magnificence, and hos pitality. A friend, frequently accompanied by the bridegroom in person, invites the guests; and visits all the neighbouring country, crowned with flowers, and ribbons, mounted on a black horse, likewise orna mented with ribbons. On the day of the nuptial ceremony the bridegroom is dressed in black, the bride wears a very high cap besprinkled with golden stars; and several necklaces composed of old pieces of silver coin. Several female companions, dressed in the same style, follow her to church, and are joined by numerous attendants. Two elderly women act as substitutes to the bride's mo ther, who is engaged at home in preparing the repast.

In several places those persons who attend, carry pitchers of beer, which they offer to all whom they meet. In other parts, they carry canes, and it appears that formerly they had swords. To this day, the friend who invites to the wedding almost al ways wears a huge sword for the ceremony. Singular as it may appear, the wedding repast consists of cold meat only. These feasts comonly end in merry dances.

The Wendes are in general very hospitable. In such families as are at their ease, there is a loaf on the table, which is distributed among the poor. All passengers, either rich or poor, known or unknown, are treated on holidays.

The Germans often take Wendes into their service; and praise their fidelity, cleanliness, and assiduity.

The youth among the Serbes still practice some warlike games, such as throwing an ar row or a javelin to a certain mark, flinging stones and wrestling. The challenge is given by them in these words: Come single, to single. These young men make excellent soldiers.

Such are the remaining descendants of a nation (the Vandals), whose name among us is synominous to barbarian; partly through a misunderstanding, and partly owing to accidents; as the historians of the lower empire bitterly complain of the avidity with which those people carried away the masterpieces of arts from Italy to Africa, and because the ship which was the most richly loaded foundered at sea.

ANCE IN PUBLIC.

Genius is the offspring of no age or country, restrictively; and those who describe the present age as manifesting decay in the etergies of nature, or a state of imbecility and decrepitude arising from exhaustion of nature's powers, are completely in error. It will, however, readily be granted, that the merit of models which are familiar to our contemplation, renders us somewhat fastidious toward merit not yet confirmed. This disposiLon needs restraint. We are desirous of doing a service to an ingenious individual, of whom we are told, by competent authority, that his character for sobriety, honesty, and virtue in general, is unimpeachable, and that he is a good father, and was a tender husband. Hence we augur, that we are introducing to the public a subject worthy of patronage. We have, moreover, procured some account of his previous life, which we submit to our readers; and close by observing, that the duty and the honour of genius is, to be found constantly by the side of virtue. The man who forsakes that guide, will surely, sooner or later, lament his folly, whatever the world may think of his talents or his wit.

Mr. JOSEPH BLACKET was born in 1786, at Tanstill, an obscure village, two miles from Catterick in Yorkshire. His father was a dav-labourer, many years in the service of Sir John Lawson, Bart. whose goodness and humanity to the neighbouring poor, render him universally beloved. Joseph was the youngest but one, of twelve children: he was sent to school early in life, being godson to the village schoolmistress, who was very pártial to him, and gave him a free education. Another school being opened by a person more capable of instructing youth, when he was near seven years old, he was placed under the tuition of its master, till the age of eleven. His brother, a ladies' shoemaker in London, expressing a desire of taking him apprentice, he proceeded to London by the waggon. His brother, to whom he gives due praise, to preserve the little learning he had gathered in the country, frequently kept him at home writing on a Sunday, which, though painful, was useful. He was a man who had read much, and had a number of books, chiefly en religious subjects, such as Josephus, Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, Fox's Martyrs, &c. These afforded some knowledge. At this time the drama was totally unknown to Joseph; but, when a juvenile friend solicited his company to see Kemble in Richard, he saw and read that play, forgot the cruelties of Mary, bade adieu to the celebrated Jewish historian; Vespasian, Titus, and all the heroes he records, vanished before Ri

and early. At the expiration of his appren ticeship, still living with his brother, whose wife about that time died of a consumption, he shortly after married her sister, and lived happily with her during five years, when she fell a victim to the same disorder. At that painful period, another sister, sent from the country to attend on her, was confined to her bed by a fever, which long deprived her of reason. What an accumulation of distress: a wife stretched on the bed of death! A sister sense

less! An infant looking piteously around for a mother! Creditors clamorous! friends cold! The deer was stricken; the herd shunned him. His property was disposed of, and part of his debts discharged. At length his sister-in-law recovered; a kind friend at Deptford took his infant daughter; and quitting the roof of departed happiness, he sought for consolation in solitude. He has beguiled his lonely hours with poetry, at once amusing and indulging the pangs of grief. The only publication we have seen is THE TIMES; an Ode, at the commencement of the year 1809, of which we subjoin a specimen. It is addressed to Mr. Pratt; and we understand that that gentleman takes a lively interest in the future welfare of the unfortunate Joseph.

We add the opening stanzas as a speci

men.

Ere Order's bright and beauteous face

Illum'd the bosom of the drear profound,
Throughout the vast vacuity of space
Confusion reign'd, and Horror grimly frown'd;
But when Creation's Father spoke,

Old Chaos saw, with wild affright,
The gloom subdued of tenfold night,
As through the murky darkness brok●
The orient beam of vivifying light.

To warm the desolated waste,
And cheer the drooping swain,
To speed the rigid season on its way,
And raise the buried grain;
From Nature's frowning face
The powers of frost to chace,
Bid ev'ning sip,
With eager lip,

The exhalations of the rosy day,

Full in the front of Heav'n, the radiant Orb was - plac'd.

Revolving round his sphere,

Each beam o'erspread,
With glowing red,

He rises from his wat'ry bed, And ushers in another year.

Yet, still upon the frozen plains,

As yet in vain he tries,

To burst stern Winter's icy chains,
And gild the clouded skies:

As yet his ineffectual ray
Fights with the chilling blasts, which bind
The groaning earth; and faint he works

his way,

Through Ether's shade opaque, again to bless mankind.

But yet, though pale and dim his beam, And weak its influence prove,

Alas! how many dread the gleam He sheds upon them from above;

That gleam, which, to their aching sight, Displays the sad disastrous fight, Where groaning Death, dark-brow'd Despair,

And madd'ning Fury, rend the air;

Displays, throughout the wounded fields, Where Havoc stalks, and wild Dismay, With all grim War's horrific train,

The produce which the sickle yields,
To Rapine's felon arm a prey;
Shews where the lordly city stood,

Whole hecatombs of human blood, And ghastly Famine stalking o'er the fated plain.

Happy! happy! happy! those, Who, on fair Freedom's sea-girt shore, From agonizing terrors free,

At distance from their hostile foes, And the dire battle's deaf'ning roar,

Can, from the glittering casements,

view

The rising ray, which drinks the morn

ing dew,

And gilds her mountain tops of Liberty.
But, oh! how doubly-wretched they,
Who, sooner than by glorious strife,
Defend the sacred gift of life,
Will own an upstart Despot's sway,
And welcome, on their wasted plains,
The rising ray, which blushes on their
chains.

DIETETIC MEDICINE FOR THE POOR. Although in reporting on Dr. Herdman's pamphlet, [Compare Panorama, Vol. V. p. 696] which has been the occasion of the following Report, we doubted the propriety of distributing medicine and food at the same Institution, yet, as we really do believe that proper food is, in many cases, the very best of medicines, we give 'a place to this communication with the greatest

pleasure. We recommend the experiment to attention of the public; and shall be happy find that it suceeds to the wish of those wor and dignified philanthropists who have suppor and patronized it.

Report of Dr. M. Garthshore and Patrick C quhoun, Esq. to the Suciety for bettering Condition of the Poor, to whom it was s mitted to consider the expediency and pra cability of establishing an Experimental I pensary in the Metropolis, comprising in structure, a Dietetic Regimen for debilita Patients.

Before any accurate opinion can be form of the utility, necessity and practicability, of a ing a dietetic to the medicines generally ad nistered to the poor at the different Dispensa in the metropolis, it may be useful to deta number of prominent facts, which either b directly or collaterally on this subject, and wh are necessary to assist the mind in forming a c rect judgment.

According to the Parliamentary Returns of year 1803, it appears, that the number of p persons relieved in that year in the metropo comprehending all the parishes within the b of mortality, besides Marylebone, St. Panc Paddington, Kensington, Chelsea, and Islingt including a population, according to the Par mentary Returns of 1801, amounting in whole to 846,845 persons.*

Of these 86,120 poor persons had been reliev 14,746 were maintained in sixty workhouses, at the yearly expense of, per head each .£14 8 21,877 were relieved out of workhouses,

1

at the expense of about +.... 2 15 33,187 were occasionally relieved, at the expense of about.. 16,310 were relieved, not being parishioners, supposed vagrants.... 0

86,120 Total

5

The number of children under fourteen ye of age is nearly equal to the adults who h received relief. The workhouses (sixty in nu ber) are generally full during the win months, and the greatest number that can accommodated does not exceed 17,000 m women, and children.

The number of distressed objects who do receive any parish relief, but who are suppos in many instances, to require it as much as th who are relieved, may be estimated at ab 20,000 men, women, and children.

It will be seen from the above abstracts, t the permanent out-door relief seldom avera above 2s. to 2s. 6d. per week, while the oc sional relief is infinitely less, which is bar sufficient to pay the weekly rent of a miseral half-furnished lodging.

It will also be seen, that many thousand ca may occur, where half-famished families cann obtain an asylum in their parish-workhouse want of room.-Ard that the proportion of the

† Average of both classes £2 0 24 a year.