The National Register. — London, England, 1816-05-19 00:00:00

.1U I .104,4710 N OF 7'HE DE.II). TO T.IE EDITOR OF TUE NATIONAL MOISTER. SIR. It has soften occurred to me as a very extraordinary circuits- Statece,ittatt age so famed for its litimanity,benevolencemnd piety, as the present, that the practice of digging up dead bodies, by what are called resnrrection men, tOr the porpoise of supplying soNeett for dissection, to aid the students in surgery, has never yet beam sufficiently reprobated. or indeed noticed, by any at the distinguished pious and humatic writers of the present day. Surely this cannot be iio4ll any other cause dun' mere, inattention; for who can rationally conceive, that a practice su riseolting to VOllllllllll sib wantonly used, and other -wise so nllOOll5 and disgusting, can be contemplated with in thisr, +4 nee by those w hose exertions in the cause of sullering basuaitity and Jls have hitherto clammed them 'with the . honours of imperishable and who are associated on her scroll with the good and great of all ages noel clime.? But, how ever this silence may be interpreted by s olve, to me it has .er appeared an insolvable enigma; tOr I fan never 'oppose, at least until I ant better informed, that this slisgrartild practice is at all recour-ileable ( whatever specious reasons may be urged iu its favion) either with religion or morality. It is not sty intention, in this coninmaication, to enter into a very wide field of observation; but merely, by MM.` few cursory restiarks, to (haw the attention of your readers; ill the hope dart some one better qualified than myself may pursue the theme; as it is a subject which I humbly conceive to be, in its eel fain mural effects, fraught with the most deadly means of corrupting Inc Kourre of our best feeling., and brutalizing Use human s 'oat osier. If we look back into the history and progress of civilization from the eat litst periods of antiquity, we shall find that the ranetity of the grave was proportionably recognized as a prin ciple of piety, with the advancement and cultivation of itn• prove sl ma iiiii -re. The buria of the dead has, at every period, been held as expiatory religious cereo iiiii ; and the quiet repose of their mouldering ashes as a neecesary means for the peace of the soul, and as an indispensable respectful duty a Inch the living owed to the manes of the deceased. Nettling can be more beautiful, nothing more sweetly moral, nothing more refine.ily pious, than this veneration towards those who have passed away to that hall ill from whence they ought never to return to be cut and mangled, and almost ere their lamented remains are cold, by the riithl-ss knife of the unfeeling sim plest operator. punnet places have ever been hallowed spots soon form or other of religion has at all times consecrated those mournful receptacles; and in general they have been situated remote front the bustle and noise of life, sequestered, peat-chid, and holy. Those who are unmindful of the dead, those who violate the sacred temple of the grave, and who with sacreligions hands outrage the quiet ntausuleum of their l.feless brethren, and who pay no voluntary homage of the heart to the tomb, are men who will not scruple to wound the tenderest and best foriings of our nature, and sear with bruta lity the eyquisite soot cc's of sensibility. Those who are indi/Pr. eta aboitt the dead, ore uhleelingly careless ;;1 the tiring. The ancients, though vary ing in their ceremonies, did any thing but disturb the last sad tenement of man; and this scat a truly pions feeling, as every religion enjoins the expiatory offering acid prayers, and the undisturbed repose, of the breathless lineaments of the departed. Let him, mho regards religion as an incumbent dusty of man towards the author of his being, tread lightly and reverentially . over the raised turf of the grave; and let him, while he come lonia tes the calm dwelling of its silent ioliabitant, re-fleet on the- outrage committed on piety and decency in the wantonly distilrbiag the bones laid lowly at rest. Based and lettioited be the habitations ;II those who no longer lire among us. Is this, or is this not, a religious and refined community ? If it is, let sus act emisieteetly , and let us abandon a practice which is, in its ft ightful details, impiously rlisgtostimr, and which in its consequences is altogether savagely bear ilizing. If, on the ess.strars, we have 110 acquaintance with relineinent or religion. let us endeavour to aim at that degree of civiliza tion, whi•.ll in the ancients, without she fij i r o f th e induced whale to respect the brows of their buried fellinv mortals. Rut ae bane ; and in the' name of our holy tmtla, which so b t anlifilil.prescribes to ms the rashly :diem of the social qualsties as a means of salvation, let us porgy our habits trout such: an 111111.11111 Ned viuhttiun of our moral duties, 011'01101 tilt' *Ma of the grave, set an example of real, unallectell piety to (ho rising generation. Ilut wisats• see impiety and perverted reason may sophistically mge in it- favor, und yeti can hardly anticipate any thing, sate only On the miserable groom' of expediency . , 1 slop eyes he of sopittion, that the morals of it•commuttity, involy ine 'nary. due. :icy, and retied feeling, is of infinitely 11101 e im i sortatice to general It.sispiness, than this Annie plea of lieCClPity applied in justiBcatiuu cut the practice, which, in the most liberal view, can only benefit a few unfortunate individuals. To the plea Coarser of ex peel:m.47, on the setae of its utility to the liVillg,. I atolver, 4 the mention of • ye elhknown 'fact ; s in. flow the world flits IV en more per e uh us than it is laps, and that when the sliss relinfl of human bodies was never or scarcely ever praetised. Tile tooth is, I believe, that th e h e4 h ria al , was these inneh teener known than it is at present; and shot, ton, when the 3.iti tit operators doseeted beasts of 1•11.1111g111IN Orig411:111t.. 114 In- 4 Iliff ) Ml.l44ll frame, and es lis Ow)* were so sein e s assrelS filletlKite of sioliitsne house a;.l)4ioted fur _ %lin ellev - !•h dnlieney of seitieteut, %helher 1ir:) . 4 , 1 , 15. hl other lever., ;Ili: sebjeet eltiot.t het he pinfe;iy tilttctiog. L. ille!ir Er! VC to til,t gic.„bitt4, let Men; 4sk Ilis jittlgett Ws, risid twisted their to %%. et! be their horror Old insiballot ermhe.t thn,e, . 1 % tir sergieul pita' pu Ole Isclovt , l ree , :lho uf . thil;:.' • • ••:tik tgilil 1 o I . , i Ono the) il./ , t..;•s. II .0 r.!..,, , . •••:* ~•• • 1, •I % i 1 . 0 had, Itiitbow: !, Illlptl:, }III ..1 . .1 tip '.. • •_• .•• .•, ... • • ..•• allijI14! 16 . ,4, tl:e-e it, , the ;41 , ..14•1,0)1 ..5, te,-ii , ii: 5:, I) „cif . 0 ialet -4i,,,,,. Let ~ ,1111 Ivo i!O%, do tt: T. , ,5. 5, 4 room, 411 ,1 ... s . c k le t urm .* i,,,..1,,i4„ .d, ie s,i..a. 0,e . . 1 4.•....,... i ,pt *, ras.li-like plii.:ty lin I iebb.stit;, wien6le•!, d'.ri i „,ltit:,, 1.. c.... tt.....1, ~at! a.4‘.;.• thAt ,tib,toip THE 'NATIONAL REGISITIL of roaror jests and wattling hbahlry, by the merciless opera t rs in surgery. Tins theme is, however, too painful to dwell on fintber for the present. 1 111101 therefore conelmle, b. relating au unectl.oe• recorded of.the Emperor Tiberius, and which wilt servc•to . 'dash - ate the veneration which one of the worst men of anti quity felt kir the dead. A win Kilian, excavating nearllome, diseovered an enormous human skeleton, from .which a tooth was ext.avteil and taken to the Emperor as a specimen of its magnitude. 0111CetiVillZ it, he (Breed% ordered an artist to delineate a skele t with corre4routling proportions to the Rill' of the tooth found, coin manilt4l the tmilli to be replaced in the skull, and the bones of the gigantic unknown to lie undisturbed in their place of test. Let men who l'4lllllellll.Che , Christi nth attend to liiig e‘ample of religious veneration for the dead by a bail.licathen. Brook-street, May 9, 1S1;1. J. W. P. P.S Since waiting the preceding, I have read in the Taunton foa,hi•, a letter signed wider date of May dtln, which Ito-. silt, ly states, that the writer knows for a fart, that tliebor% of Marsh the murderer, was brought into Wellington for flu pow; post. of being' Willett, and it Itlt'li proccfll " actually perform ed in the midst of the must tristel merrimrdt, and rintre!iaz Jeri ,ion. Now, though hurt was nu wanton violation of the grave, as the wretched criminal was giv ell up for disseetion by the offended laws of his country, yet it is an incontrovertible proof of the disgusting and brutal treatment to which the unman body is exposed. when placed in the barbarian hands of surgical operators, and must setisf every 11111111 where ge nerous dcNcact IdSC11111111.111:11111 pi.11,1i.C1111;:, reside, that the continuance of such practices would better axrce with 'the conduct of ranuilrJs, than that of men who pocrilically call themselves Christians. 1 ruler yaw readers to Bic Newspaper, for further partimilais relative to the maul) and ferlillg 111:111- tier in %%Well the writer ha, jir.tly rqpreliettilool the infamous conduct of those %vim so ootraged piddle decency. INTELLIGENCE IREVECTI N G LITER E, SCI ENCE, A\ I) THE. Al' FS s rATlsTtcs, POLITICAL Ecosom,s,:c. —46„. fit has been 'obsavetl by Stralm, that the princ:pal Geographical discoveries of the ancients were made by lab& and were the math of military expeditions. In the present day. however. notch information in regard to the Geography of remote countries vory little t morn. is well as to the naturo of their inhabitants and produrtions, beetvob tained in consequmce of sliplornatientissions. but particularly same of those urulertaken-le j servant• of the East India Company. As instances, we may refer to Turner's Embassy to Thilxxt, Symes's Journey to the Kingdom of Mu, and a work lately puhlished, entitled. r• An Account of the kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies iu Persia, Tartary, and India, by the Hon. Mountstuan Elithinstone." Calm!, or ('uubul, is a kingdom known to the Persians by the moue of Affgani , tail. lying Iletween the two great empires of Ilindoskin and Persia. Its length from North to South. is about SS,; tuilis, and its brealth from East to West 6on. Its popattioa is estimated at fourteen - millions. A courts try thus situsted, inhabited by such a number of hard, • mountaineers, bred to anus, and governed b 7 a warlike and enterprising Prince, could not be beheld with halifference by - the British Government in India, especially at a time whim the missionaries of Buonaparte were exerting themselves in entry quarter to excite enemies against us. it was thought expedient tliereWre, wheel Gardanne was dispatched to the king of Persia, to send an embassy toCaubul, in order to establish a friendly relation with the sovereign Shah Shujah; or at any rate to ex amine the nature of the count}-. anal to sound the disposition of the Court, in case the French should attempt to penetrate into Asia. This mission was entrastial eta Mr. Elphinstone; and his suite consi.-ted of a secretary, two assistant secretaries, two surveyors. two captains of the army., six lieutenants, an escort of two hundred cavalry, and two hundred infantry tine place described in the ambassadoes route, is very singular. The Indus is there compreased between two mountains. into a deep channel. (ally three hundred Arid fits, yards broad; and along the base of one of these mountains, a road is cut fur upwards of two miles. The town of Calla-baugh, built on the steep face of the hill, each street rising above the other, in the font of a stair, over hangs this road. which a little further is cut out of solid salt, at the foot of cliffs, composed of Cast mineral. more than a hundred feet in height above the river; this salt is hard, clear, and almost pure, but steadied anal tinged in some parts with red. After a tedious journey, partly through desairts, the embassy arrived at the town of Peshawer, which is situatees in a plain nearly thirty-five miles in diameter. it is upwards of live milts round, and contains slam 100.(mo inhabitants. The houses, for the most pan, are of unhurt brick, dime stories high. the lowest of which are used chiefly as shops. Vie starts are narrow, and have pavements sloping to a kennel in the middle. Here the am bassador had an audience of the king. of whoin the following descrip tion is given. t• The king of Cauhul was a handsome man, about 34; years of age, of an olive complexion. with a thick black beard. The expression of his countenance was dignified and.pleasing, his voice clear, anal his address princely. We thought at first, that he had an anionic of jewels; but on close inspection, a found this to bea mistake. and his rod dress to consist of a green tunic, with large flowers in gold and precious stone, over which were a large breast plate of diamands, shaped like two flat fleur-de-lis, an ornament of the same kind'on each thigh, large enamelled bracelets on the anus (above the elbow), and many other jewel: in different places. In me of the bnwelets was the Cohenvor, known to be one of the largest iliaistonds in the world. There were also some strings of very large pearls, put on like cross belts, but loose. The crown was about nine inch% high, not om:omitted with jewels as the European crowns we, but to-appearance, wand) , formed' of those precious materials. It. seamed to be radiated Eke the ant lent crowns, and behind the rays c.ppeared peaks of purple velvet; sane small branches with :pendants, seemed 'tea project from the crown. but the whole was 41) complicated, and so dazzling, that it was , ldhcult to untkistand, and impossible to describe. The throne was covered with cloth adorned with pearls, on which lay a sword, and a midi maer sit with jewels. Tile mai was open all round; the centre was supperted by four feet pillars, in the midst of which was a marble fountain. 'f he floor was covered with the richest carpets, anil round the edges were slips of silk embroidered with gold, for the khauns to stand on. The 'view from the hall was beautiful; immediately below was an extensive garden. full of cypresses and other trees, and beyond was a plain of the richest verdure; here and there were Flaws of water, and shining streams; and the whole was botmaleil by mountains, so:ns dark, an - .l others arairtd with snow." The climate and pro:lee:loas of Afg,hanis :an are as varied as the face of the country. sour= districts bein cove-el with snowy mountain% and others with burning sands, to t; insc t!..• of Arabia; tl til , :r.••.•!••• , Fir.; starti.s at 112 or Iladeg., and Folll.;ime-eit rises e"it. to LC'i e prinei.pal aninutli are. lion hyenas. jaekall., crud+, and dimnedaricsi ..he re tar. also horses, nitihm. oxen. and but. ablinf!ance of broae-viilN! The eL.1).1 tr e .-s a the 0,0% ryiwts, wAinut, rthl olive: li:u!().tt w, ) ,4 141- .1 , Bn+! . others arc fi.un The Afgar a farther :crud ti 3t,r sna tot•,i' :.tore of t :.ad:.adto some iirlortent di , ..overy ttspetwog this eourg, . its hiteiti; in gt.n,7 d ; may he Rivemett ,a,, It u in; ti c, , u1(1 In transported f: hini s little to the At;;;'.. try. 11 . 4:14.1at ttoßtniet4outC.t the thiorit..onb oP Tue. , . yi Tanery, he would 16..: wa::: ii urerequeuted de WAY i ' . and the mountains covered with perennial scow. Even In the culti vated part of the run:atty. he would discover a will assemblage orllaffis. "and waters. unmarked by inclosnecs, not embellished by Arms and destitute of 'Litigable ratutta. public road,. and all the groat and elaborate pnaluetiotts of hianan industry and reenensent; he would find the town. new, and far distant froau each taller: and h e would look in vain fur inns, of other conveniences, which a traveller would meet with in the wildest parts of Great Dritlin. Yet he would so nietimes he delighted with the fertility and populousness of par ticular plains and villages. where he would see the productions of Europe mingled in prodision with those of the torrid 7.11111: Arid ti land laboured with All intiustry and a judgment no where sunset All. He would s..v the inhabitants frillowing their Hoek, in tents, or awschibled in village-., to which the terraced roofs and mud walls give an )pear antea' entirely new. lye wouft! be struck at b es t w ith th e i r ltii:11 anal even their harsh features, their sun burnt ontintenanee::. their long beards, their loose garments, and their shaggy mantha of skin. When lie eutensal into a city. he wundti notice the absence of regulate courts of justice, real of every thing like an on:rataised police. lie would be sur. ptist-I at the fluctuation seal instability of the civil imatitittion't. Ih would tittil it ditlicult t 3 (1.111111Vh4:1Ill how a nation cotaltl.traist in such dirordre: and would pity those who were actaprfled to paw their &lie in such a scene, and clime taiii.ds *tit' trained, by their unhappy situa tion, to fraud and violence. to rapine, dreeit. and reven ge. Yet ha couldsvarec fail to tultnirethiir martial and lofty spirit.th eir hospitality rid their bold and tuarners, quell: Tenor. cal fooni the mirph ner. of et Citizen. and the auk w a nt rusti c ity . ota chair and hr would path:tidy betine langAisrover among at nanny glitch:its that excited hit disgust, the nulinacut, of many virtues. `• But an English traveller from India would them wiilt a reams favourable' 4e: he would he pleased with the told climate, elevated by the wild and novel a entry, and dilightcti by I taxiing matey of the produrtions of his native land. He would first be streek with die thinness of the fixed population. and then with the arTearance In the pyritic ; not !lettering in white mudins, while half their both a arc naked, but soberly and decently indark colonreel woollen clothes . ; and wrapped up in brown months or in large sheep-skin cloaks. lie would admire their strong and active forms, their tier complexions and European i atures ; their industry total enterprise; the hospitality. so briety, and contempt of pleasure; T. - itieh arr in their habits ; above all. the inch pintlesee and energy their character." Some a count is given also to this work in regard to the province of Cashmee-, called by the celebnited traveller Bernier the Terrestrial Panulise of India." On: great branch of mantilatlttre here is that of shawls, which is said to employ sixteen thousand banes. The wool of the shawl. goat is imported from Tibet and other parts of Taitary, and is spun by women. The best is penetrred from !Wank, anti it bears in Cashmere the price of half a crown or three shilling's per pound. A shop, shed, or tint. contains generally three working people. an d a very tine shawl will employ them a whole year, whil e other s'ams can make six or eight in the sane KVIIO , I of the best sort: three potpie will work only Omit a quarter of an inch in a day. Sometimes shawls are made in separate pieces and then joined together. The plain shawl; are woven entice shuttle; but the variegated tines are worked with wooden needles. eaeltilifferently &dottrel threat having a distinct needle. in regard to the material of which thee shawls at a made, flintier says tle.t sow" are • manufactured of the wool of the mown, which is liner than the Spanish; and others of wool, or rather a leind of hair. called tea-, taken from the breast of a sjceeies of wild goat. found in Thibet. The Litter are ouch dearer than the former. The great softiies-of the Cash meerian shawls is ascribed by Bernier, in some measure, to the nature of the water. Mr. Elplieestone says. that the Cautirs, a people situated in the moentains, north of lktjeur, have many points of character com mon with the Greg:;:. They are earl/1%1:0a ftT their beauty and Eli ropetm conittlexion; they worship idols, drink wine in sheer cups or vases. use chairs and tables, anti speak a language unknown to tlai neigh:bones. This seems to give se se colour ui pretence for the WWI% tion, that there is still in India a tribe who call therein-lees linestl dew win:dams from some persons belonging to the ~.rely of Ales:ander. ADDRESSES OY THE ROYAL MARRIAGS, Monday, the 'Lord Mayor, attended by 17 Ahlennem, the Sheritl's, and Court of Common Council, went in grand Tnx•escion to Carlton House, and were intralucc•:l to the presence of the Prince Regent, who was seated on the Throne, by the Lord Chamberlain ; when an Address of Congratulation on the nuptials of his Royal Daughter was read by the Recorder ; to which his Royal Highness returned a most gracious answer. The cavalcade then proceeded to the Queen's Palttee, preceded ln• a party of Life Guards, and were introduced to her NI:0:4y, who was seated on a new throne !placed in the centre of the: grand saloon, accompanied by the Princesses Elizabeth and Mary, and attended thy her Chamberlains, &c. ; when the Recorder read an Aiidress on the same subj,,s•t, to her 'Majesty, which was most graciously answered: and they had the honour, severally, to kiss her Majesty's hand. They then returntsl to their carriages, and proceeded to Camelford-house, round which an immove crowd hal assembled ; but Sir N. Conant, with a lartw posse or Bow-street Officers, being in the street, complete ortle; was preserved. On the procession entering Lforefira. street, the Princess appeared at one of the windows, and was greeted by the heart-tilt acclamations of the people. On entering the Ilall, the Lord Mayor Odorant the Gentlemen of the Corporation, that the room in which they were to be received was only capable of recalling So of them at •a time but that the Princess would see every Gentleman. This regulation was oheerfally adopted ; and on his LorXhip's entrance, ►he Recorder read the Address, which her Royal highness i,zra:'iously answered, and the rest of the Gentlemen was admitted in rotation, the n•;hole. of whom had the honour to kiss her Rovcl Highness's hand. The same ceremony was then observed to the Prince of Saxe Coburg, who was dressed in regi mentals, wore his several orders, and was attended I , y Sir It. Barker and Baron I lardenbrock. The 'Menthol of the Corporation, as well as the attendants on the Ge casion, wore white &yours, and his Lordship had wh:te ribbons affixed to each shoulder. At three o'vlocka Deputation from the 'louse of Lords arrived at Catnelford House, with an Atldr..ra of C4-..n -gratuhit.:.on to their IZord Highnesses; to which the fel low;:.; answer was returned : " Wv are nit:eb ar.dif - e.l by eke pr.ofof ittervien nn.l rerari v hieb %%Ow. e a ecei%t ”pell ocr;t:.01: Inon 'be lb ls. of thel, eungt re. 11.11. A little before rye 11.4.111 . tek the Delitttatinn fm••t .i,• r miiar wcri! ilttradu, 14 to! ilit; Prin, lt uird Prirwegs; w I V. t}. '.r-