The Sun. — London, England, 1812-08-15 00:00:00

the transaction would have iiiticed the Court of King , sßench ts-, view the merits-of t'_:e case more favourally. llerather,iiislined to think that Messrs. Marc) would have :been held bound by-the entry in their own books. Be this as it might, however, they.liad not co:ae to his Lorth , hip, assigning, such special reasons • as could induce him to allow the matter to go' back to a otrt of Law for its decision. find a petition been presented, , stating that they had been taken .by surprise, or had been in Mistake, in the, view of their case 'ivhich they bad Subinitted to the Court of Law, and speciakcause for the, error into Avtlich they had fallen had. been. asiligned, Lordship Might have considered how far there was any thing in toe application.; but at pre- . sent, he saw no grounds for Lis interference— Lortllip accordingly ordered that the, amount of tbe - proof oftbe debt due to Messrs. Bol ccro and Co. 'iron' the Estate of the Bankrupt "s4e l'rnited to 26,C001. without prejudice :to 'l4es . .. Bolder° and Co. to •thake any special apPliCiitOn to have the matter reviewed - by a Court 6(1.4 - iv, if they should be so advised. BIBLE SOCIETY. , We have great pleasure in -announcing the for- I mation of -another County -Auxiliary Society to the British, and Foreign'. Bible Society.-Avery re:Tectahle meeting took place at North arl)ptOn Very lately, : for that piirpose, - his Grace 1c Duke of Grafton.-in tha chair, who was ap nonated President and twelve other Noblemen ; starnf at the head of the' Vice-Presidents, several Li Whom spoke upon the occasion, and also many Clergynien, whodepreeated theideaof its involv ingthe slightest danger to the' establishment speech of Dr. Gilby, - a part of which is stated below), so perfectly in point on -this 'subject, that we think We should 'do less than justice to the cause if we clid'not introduce it. " When I consider the simplicity of plan and unity of design which c haracterize this Bible So ciety,_ I am at a loss to understand upon what .geouncl it can. reasonably be objected to. What is- there in the constitution of the Society, what is there iu-its object, that should either provoke secret jealousy or an open assault ? As a Mini ster of the Establishment, 1 will yield to no indi ;-idual in a sincere and cordial attachment to her ; venerate her, principles—l love her institutions — bat I cannot, therefore, think that the Church is in danger because different denominations ,of Christians are coalescing together iu a Binie So- T-ciety. Instead' of trembling at the coalition, I augur the greatest good from it ; I cannot pay : so bad a cempliment to . my own Church as to think she has ans , thing to dread from an univer s2l dissemination of the nave word of God, let it - 13c - disentinated bf what hands it will.. No, the Church a-England has: only to preserve her doe 'rines inviolate, and -to maintain her discipline pure, and she has nothing to fear. Her fonnda tious shall rest on the sock, whilit her turrets. shall. - sparkle in the One objection urged against this Society is, that the union of Church men and Dissenters is unnatural. Why the union cif diliercnt.Christians should bi thought.unnatii . ra: I cannot conceive . ; sure am that the hatiti. - I'-ty Ciiri:.tiuns is much more unnatural. Voir o part irejoice to see a common ground PEI Christians of all denominations can con sistently unite. Such a general union among ", C!- - iristians . directly tends to soften their mutual ".sperities. tiiiii - :Thmen and Dissenters cannot but learn from that blessed volume, which th,y are united in disseniinating, to love and embrace one Another instead of biting and devouring one another. " Permit me before I sit down •to exhort you to. try the Biltle Society by elie 'surest of all .Gtanlards—try it .by its fruits very wonderful I hi,tve been the fruits . which it bath already pro duceci, tai ta..: short period that, bath elap , ed since its first formatiOn. Besides the immense benefits it had) diffused' through the United liingdom, .rnany oreign nations have largely tasted of its li berality. Indeed the Bible Society knows no li mits to its exertions but what its, revenues may "fr.tpe' riously force upon it. It encircles in its arms bOth-hemispherei. It looks upon every individual the human race with an eye of benevolence, and. lOngs to impart to them all -the richest and the best gifts : may the future career.of the British and ioreign Bible Society correspond with its past and present. And may we this day feel our selves powerfully constrained to enter upon this work of love, irons the, animating consideration that thousands and millions of our fellow-crea tures will hereafter rise up and•eall us blessed." — In short, perhaps, this was. one of the most inte resting county meetings that has •yet taken place, .which may be presinned . from the,Dnke of Graf .ton's own words-.--" can' with the utmost sin cerity declare, I shall long remember this day with peculiar pleasure . and satisfaction.' . . • We understand the whole proceedings will shortly. be published—a large subscription was imnediately raised' and several Branch Societies . already formed. At tlampqea , l, on I .Vednesday evening last, a young Avoinall, 'of genteel habits and appearance, put au eta to her existence in the following pecu liar manner :—'-She had lived some time in furnish ed lodgings. with a young- child, tinder the pro t;on of a. cerutin Gentleman, -who ...occalionally .visited her. For 'some weeks she. bad been con fined te.i her bed in a-bad state of health, and was thought so much 'u a dying condition, that the Clergyman had paid: her repeated 7isits.- On Wed ncsda.v she took an opportunity, ip the absence of to ()Irak, one of "the phials which had been left. Cor her ivith medicine; and.with thefrag `ynts so lacerated her arm, that she bled to death. Iler lacerated aria s'ht carefully concealed till the .woun& had the desired_ effect. What must be the n.,40.ay of a female niindbefore being able to , com- ruit so rash an : act. at.tetupt was made. to .break the Gaol of Cilasgt;pv, i•tst week, by two convicts, named John Park, forcing. the two puter doors,' but were prevented. by- the other .prisoners front effecting their purpose, and closely ,secui.ed. LONDON • Printed t, v TT . At the SUN OITI THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS. 'ROM THE JOURNAL DE L'EMPIRE, MONDAY, -MAY 20 In the course of ten or a dozen centuries, the catacombs* of Paris mav, like those of ancient Rome, give, rise, withont some record of 'their formation, to a multiplicity of vague conjectures, and elaborate disqui:iitions. - Tholigh the subject does not at present excite much interest or.curio sity, yet I will -venture to solicit the attention of my readers to an attempt at a •description.of the Origin, progress; and present state of these me lancholy mansibu's; , With•U vtew - to - .supplying the future historian and antiquary with facts, and Sparing them the trouble of engaginOn wild spe culations and .endless disputes, . • The . catacoMbS tsof Rome are long subterrane bus avenues, 'forined in all probability by the ,ex traction of the stoke and sand for the. construe tion of honsis and public. edifices. It is a well , _knownlhct; that in the times of persecution, those excavations 'afforded an asyludo to' the primitive Christihns. Vast collections of human boaes,fand. the ruins . of tombs, - the production of much shill and labour, halie been discovered in them. —Many that had' escaped the ravages of time, Have been abstracted, And many yet remain. The Church of Ronk: had its reasons for inculcating a.. - belief that all the bones found in, those receitactei 'were' the retinues. of - Saints and Martyrs. Ilse Protestants, ou the - contrary, ,affiria, t 161: are the profane remains of gladiators and mats, who died. an ignopiinious death ; and - sortie authors an intermediatory theory. ' _7 - • Ti w Protestants; in „affirming that the. ciita combs were actually used for the, sepulture of those for Whonfthe community would not be at , the expense of providing a faggot or a grave, such as slaves, gladiators, and wretelm coatdemned;Whe tiler guilty or innocent, to 4ie by the liand'of an executioner, or to be devohred by.airiid beasts; admit at the same time, that .such was the state of things, that numerous instances may have occur red of martyrs having been interred in.the.saine burial places with criminals . and the outcasts of society, for the purpose of vilifying the Christian character and profession, and bradiling the me mory of those who had constancy enough to suf fer martyrdom. Hence the veneration of the Christians for places previonsly abhorred and exe= crateda—the habit they acquired .of ret ring: thither in the times •of'-relentless asersecutioh,--;-' of celebrating in them-the holy mysteries of their religion,—of burying the dead in them With more orless pomp; as their confidence of security or their 'apprehension of danger predominated ; and hence also so- may reliques, which the Catholics consider as canonical, and which the Protestants deem apocryphal. Our Catacombs, like those of the Romans, are formed in the excavation of old .quarries; and though they have not been used for the intended purpose till within these few months, they have remained nearly in their present state, upwards of five and twenty years. Much inconvenience had been, for • ages, experienced at Paris, perhaps more than elsewhere, from the custom which had prevailed, for time immemorial, of burying- the dead in the midst of the town, and even.unde.r the pavement of churshes. The complaints on this. as .upon many other subjects, were urged with redoubled force about the middle of the 18th century. Certainly nothing could be riiore deep ly tinctured with barbarism—nothing is more in compatible with a good police than the existence of such a practice ; but in justice to our prede cessors of the last- century, it must be c admitted that they did not establish the custom ; they are blaine-Worthy only inasmuch as they neglected, • for a time, to set heartily about the abolition of it, knowing, as they did - , that it had been intro duced, in some measure, by accident. Indeed all the cemeteriesthat I have seen iu Paris, had been, at their institution, purposely situated beyond th e limits of the town. This wise custom, borrOwed from the most ancient of the Roman laws, was so strictly observed in the early periods of the monarchy, that St. Eloi directed the church 'of St. Paul to be built on the right bank of the Seine, in the quarter of the suburb which still bears his name, to be used as a place of interment for the religieuse4 of a monastery which that Saint had founded within the city. The cemetery of the Innocents, the common burial-place of the Parisans, was. in like manner situated in the country, at the period when Philip Augustus caused it, to use a figurative expression, to come into the town, the limits of which are greatly en larged, and in process of time, the rest of the cemeteries in the vicinity became incorporated with the city. In order to check the evil, the Parliament of Paris, in 1763, promulgated a law, very salutary no doubt for the living, but, it must be acknow ledged, highly indecent, with reference to the dead, 'This arret, which was not carried fully in to effect at the time, enjoined, however, the im mediate shutting .up of the cemetery of the Inno cents, the oldest of all, the most used for_intex ment, and against whom the greatest elamohr was raised, and the strongest remontrances were de servedly made. This burial-place continued shut up for many years. At length it was conceived that there could be no . impropriety in offering the ground to sale, for a public market. But those who made the proposition had ,forgot that ceme teries were - consecrated places, and that they could not be sold forapriee; or converted into a profarie use, without the special. permission of the eccle siastical authority. The Church required, as a pre-. liminarf step, that the bones which time had not wholly consumed should be taken up and deposited irx ground which had undergone the ceremony of * Anciently the word catacomb was only understood of the tombs of S. Peter and St. Paul. -(Chambers.) , t The learned lexicearapher just quoted, gives the 4illow ing description of these excavations %--." Catacombs are sub terraneoug cavities for the burial of the dead, of which there are a great number about three miles from Reme, suppos ed to be the caves and cells where the primitive Christains hid and assembled themselves, and where they interred the martyrs, which arc accordingly Nisited with . devotion." 'And Addison, in his Travels, 1 On the side of Naple-, „are the catacombs, which must have been full of 'stench, if the dead bodies that lay in them were left to rot. in open 'niches:" OMAS WOOD, of No. 35: Maiden-lane, Xn vent-garden r - and No. 112, Strand, where drivertisemeats, Orders for consecration. The remains of human hoslieS were still so considerable in the sepulture of the inno -cent4 that no oilier places under the requisite qua lification could he found sufficiently capacious for the reception of the-bones, without being entirely filled, or greatly encumboeed. M. Lenoir,. the then Superintendant of the Police, suggeSted the ex'Oe flient of depositing the bOties in an old. quarry, situated between the -barrier d'Enter and that of St. 'Jacques, under an extensive plain called la Tombe Is oire. The Inspestor-General of the quarries ,was rected to Arange this new cemetery, or more pro _perly, these catacombs, and the very Reverend the Grand Viears of his Grace. the 'Archbishop of 'aria accordingly attended to consecrate it on the 7C.: o f April, 1786. This ceremony was solemnly per-' formed in the presence of the Lieutenant -General of Police, and an immense concourse of people ; after which Messrs. .Legrand and Malinos pro ceeded to the exhuination and removal of the bones—an operation an() small difficulty, and re ' quiring great care and caution to preserve the two fold .Object of health and decency. Since that time the banes contained in several ' other Sepultures; which had been previously sup , pressed by authOrity, havtbeen removed to the new ossuary, as also a great quantity of those which had ;been deposited in the different •churches, convents, and . cloisters, at the pe riod of ' the , almost general demolition of those :-edifices. . The persons employed in the conveyance and .ileposition of the bones to the catacombs, con tentedthen-elves, arfirst, With- merely emptyiaig them. out of their haMpers; without any regard to re. clarity, except the "formation of a distinct lie.lp from the produceof each . successive exhu mation. The Prefect of the Seine has within these two years adopted a new'and improved arrangement in those dark and dreary aboiles Hericart De Thury, Engineer hi Chief to the.imperial. - corps of miners, and .Inspector-General of quarries; and who is charged in -the latter capacity, with the planning and superintendance of the catatombs, has intimated his intention of publishing a detailed account of the alterations and improvements that have. taken plans since his . _appointment to that office. The subjoined is a short description of the datacotnbs, which the public are permitted to 6sit,' - subject, however, to suitable rules. and re gulations : You :,re conducted to the entrance of this im mense charnel-house, by an open stair-ca k e in the area of thebuildings contiguous to'the bar rier d'Enter, on the west side of the road leading froin Paris to Orleans. This stair-case is of the spiral form, commodious, and well-cOnstracte'd,' and descends perpendicularly upwards . of 'four-' score feet under the surface of the earth. You then wander with your guides a full quarter of an hour along the windings of a passage (grillerie), varying considerably in width and 'in height, but everywhere more spacious than the avenues of the Roman catacombs. The sides of the passages, as well as tharoofs . are formed partly of rough-hewn stones and partly of the solid rock. At inter4:rals, oa the right and left, -east excavations present them selves'.. These quarries,',like those in which the vaults of observatory are made, - Ayould Corn • municate with an infinite number of Others be meath Montronge,. and 'tinder the suburb of St. Jacques, if care had not been taken to cut off the various' communications, which, dark and intricate =as - .they are, the smugglers cOntriVed to use thera -as places of. concealment for.theinseNts and their . contraband goOds,, . With respect to the catacombs, properly so called ; they are comprehended in a vastinCloture separated from the ossuaries, and closely shut uP. The principal entrance to them has a sort of Ves tibule in froni, and is ornamented with two. tres of the Tuscan order, on each .of which you read a religious inscription, the same I think that was composed for the gate of the cemetery Of Saint Sulpice I.IAS ULTIIA MI TA.S REQI.IIESCUNT, - 74EATAM EXraT.I.NTES. " Beyond these Columns, They rest in Peace,. Waiting for Blessed ImTnortallty." In the interior, the long passages and innumera ble recesses, are lined (tapiseaq with human" bones ; the larger, such as skulls, spines, and . thigh-bones, being uniformly placed in front;.and formed in compartments, support the smaller, which are thrown behind,' and. constitute the me lancholy walls. Such of my readers as have made an excursion into those provinces . where the use of charnel-houses in burial places is still preserved, will be able to form a correct notion of the spe cies of MOsaie,lt to which I allude.' it may be ob served that in the dark and damp gustrcies the bones do not blanch. The number of the dead,. whoSe bones have been removed to the new receptacle, is estimated :...more than two millions of individuals ! The ' walk which I tock among them seemed to exceed the fourth of a league. Tablets are placed here and there to indicate the various places from which each particular mass of bones had been conveyed.' In several of the recesses altars are formed, some ..of them resembling those that are used in churctes, 'others of antighe • shape, and many _uncouthly. made of. bones, cemented with Mortar: In nein berless places you find'expressed in black charac ters, on a white ground, epitaphs, sentences°. in prose and rhyme, some of them religious, some moral, and others philosophical, and all in con formity to the tenets of some system , of religion or other. Thus, after meeting at the entrance with the inscription.above cited, expressive of the hope of alift to come,.you read, on retiring from the subterranean cavities, thi4 celebrated passage, extracted from The:Georgics 57. b 7. 55. 58 61. Felix, qui poluit rerum eognoscere mums, iftque,anotus wanes a inexoyabilf falict4 Subjecit pedibus, strepitiqrzquilcheronti.f avari " Happy the man, who, studying Nature'slaws, -Thiro , known (leas can trace the aeeretcause, 'Ms mind possessing, in a quiet state-- • Fearless of Fort.ine, and resiga'd to Fate !" DaYDE.N; • I ',.':, 75 ;-'', * 0 ,., • 1..1 c •,?, .... . 4 *'' 52 1.29 .90 52 I .S 2 SS'I•, .94 ; 1 51.17 56 .9.2 'ubli4led . by WILLIAM ARM/QVC - 3 ISouth.,M; - >ittn -street, tiroAr?uvr-squal s i p We Paper, Leiters for the *,Editor, &c. (po.it paid), Axu.st be .athiressed. Fair Do• CRAW; F a y. Pef VC' • HIGH W.ATER AT I.()NDON BRIDGE TO ‘IO II°SS.. 1I iug, 45raitlutes after 7. 1. Byenillg, 10 rnillucs atter. . LtvEiktvoot., !Ito. lt.—ThiS Aft' ettintin the in habit-ants of this town were grat,fie'd w'th the long-,eXpected ascent of that velerable and intrepid aeronaut) Air. Skin: R . Several hour's before the ••.- time-fixed fur the ascension cron-,ds of people had • o'ecUpied An the lanes and avenues leading to the , ground, which wIS a convenient inclosed. field; near St. bowing() ; about a mile and a half from the town , . •At twelve the town. was nearly de serted, and the shots being almost universally., shut, it wore tU . aspect-Of a Sunday, but with scarcely - a -- person in the streets. To such a corn;. plete 'solitude the town, it may be confidently said; was never before reduced; on any occasion: • The balloon was inflated within the inclosed area, which `ct;as partitioned off into three sions for the 'admission of speetators, at fixed. prices. Her Here upwards of 201)0 peisons were as: senabled ; hut the number of persons in the joining lanes and fields it is impossible to compliti;, An assemblage so vast, perilaps, was. never b'efdre collected iii this neighbourhood. The operation of -filling 'the balloon commenced about teri O'clock, in which Mr.'Sadler. was greatly assisted 'be the scientific skill and activity of Mr. Petei elute; of-Manchester. The Gentlemen _forming the Committee of Superintendance also contri: bated their exertions. After the balloon was inflated, the car was at tached to it, and Mr. Sadler placed himself in his airy vehicle; amidst the acclamations of the'Spce• tators. The Gentlemen surrounding the car .then shook his hand, and the Magnificent machine sur mounted the walls of the area, and became visible to the Multitudes on the outside: AS usual, the . aerial traveller was' saluted with hearty huzzas from innumerable voices, and'the compliment was returned by the constant waving of a flag, alter• 'lately on each side the car. -The ascent, which took place at half past two, was sublime- 7 not rapid hut deliberate and grace ful ; eXhibiting the beautiful proportions of the whole vehiCle, and - the decorations of, the car.., So hesitating was the ascent, that. the spectators were gratified by the balloon hovering over them at a very low elevation for a considerable :time, after which it gently expatiated into theim- Meuse of space. The wind took the ,aeronilut a south east direction towards 'Knowsley _Park 5 but as it was. not Mr. Sadler's intention to travel far, he attained - his highest altitude in about '2O minutes, at which time the balloon` itself was re duced to a very diminutive size, and the car wag • totally invisible. In his ascent the traveller pOured• out one of-his bags of sand, and the, stream -of white particles - glittering in the sun, in its de scent, bad a pretty effect. The sky being ciond - lesi, the reflection of Ce sun upon the varnish' silk and banners was also pleasing It have added to the interect of the spectacle had few light clouds been flittinf through the fields Of air 'in the track of the balloon ; but the gratiticq - • tion . was too great, in fact, to allow us to call ill, the aid of fancy to picture an ideal which might have been more so. . _ In about twenty minuteS the approach of ill° balloon to the earth was apparent, and the de scent was gradual and•majestic, till on a very .near approach to the earth, - more z - .laltast was tlirow ll out,, when the ha i lloon again as.: ended, but quick . l resumed its downward ',notion - , an.d_was.lwt s of amongst the trees, in the direction of Wes: Derby, and it is.supposed the actual descent of it to have taken place in.the neighbourhood of Knows - , hey Park, and about - four miles frOm the place os ascent. . . • BIRTHS; ,_. On Tuesday last, Mrs. William Phillimon, wife o f -Williol Phillimon, Esq. of I.7pper Gower-Street, Barrister at Laws °' a Daughter. On Wednesday last, at Chiswick, the. Lady of Henry Fn' dcriek Compton Cavendish, Esq. of a Daughter. • The same day, at his house h Portland-place, the Lady f' t Joshua Walker, Esq. of a Son.- _... MARRI ED. On Tuesday last, at. Rt. George's Church, Barrington Pl a Blachford, Esq ` . of Osburne, in the Isle of Wight, and M. • for Newtown, in the:said Island, 'to Lady Isabella Fitzr° l ' youngest chtughter of the late Duke of Grafton. Ou Thursday last, at star; -le-bone Church, Robert Kes° t e , Esq. of Curzon-street, May-fair, to Isabella , younge s t lou g h ter of Henry Hamm, Esq. late of Bengal. - • . The same day, by special license, at Whitton-place, t° - Hon. Basil Cochrane, of Portman-square , to Mrs. Lawry , r dow of the Rev. S. Lawry, and sister of George Gostling, W` c l . of the same place. DIED. • Ou Friday week, at Beautuaris, aged 8.9, Mrs. Meyrick , r e ' Wet of O. P. Nleyrick, of Bodorgau, Esq. and M. P. for tb Cooaity of Anglesey. of _On Monday the 3d insL at Exmouth, in the igth lierage, Marian Sophia, the, first-born child of George o f 'biti Thompson, Esq. of Penton Lodge, in the Coun t y Hants and Catherine Maria, his wife. On Sunday last, _after .a lingering • illness, Mrs. Vatighsa, the w:fe of Benjamin Vaughan, Esq. of Grenville-street' Brunswick-square. The same day, in his 74th year, Mr. Fenning , of Ravers° bury Grounds, Mitcham. On Wednesday, at - Little Chelsea, Mrs. Ranson, ' relict 01 the late. W. Ranson, Esq., of, the, Old STOC PRICE OF Bank Stock, 21a1- Nary 5 per Cent. 89jii 4 pea: Ceut. 75i 741 3 per Cent. Bed. 51,1 3 per Cent. Con. 574 Bank L. Ann. 15 7-16/114 India Stock) W 5 India Bonds, svi. ICs. KS - YESTERDA.Y. Old Ann. 57f Itachequer Bills, 30. ',crag, S. Is. 2s. die. Ditto, Bid. per day, 35.11- I" Om ilium, 3.R.14 pr. Imperial 3 per Cent. 5610 Ditto Ann. 5 14.1ath C;O3. for 22th inst. 521 . - ___l4S METZOROLOGICAL JOURY24L. BY R. BANKS, PRILOSOPIIICAL INSTRUMENT mAxsa; IVgat her- Thermometer. ; =an •a - . • • .08 V. 09 n Cidy. Rin Fair Do. Du. •