The Sun.
London, England, 1824-05-08 00:00:00

SE4AIEN'S BIBLE SOCIETY.

Yesterday the Sixth .Anniversrif • Meeting of
this auxiliary Society wlis'held at the City of London Tavern,
and the Great Rama of that. establishment was filled with a
most respectable assemblage.
At twelve o'clock the Right Hon. Admiral Viscount Ex-
mouth, the President, took the Chair, supported by the Earl of
Rocksavage and several eminent persons.
After afew introductory remarks from the Noble Cfiarn-
MAN, in which he expressed his gratification at again presiding
at so numerous and respectable a meeting, and intimating that
the East India Company had sent a liberal donation, his Lord-
ship called for the Report of the. Committee.
The SECRETARY then read the Report,. which commenced
by stating, that the success oithe Society had fully realized the
expectations of those who formed it. There was still, however,
great need for continued and increased exertion, and unless
those exertions are perpetuated, the impressions which had been
alreany made would in a great measure be lost and dissipated.
The Society had been able to pay its debts, and the Committee
had great pleasure in stating that they .had received an anony-
mous donation of 1091. The East India. Company had also, with
that wonted liberality, subscribed 1001.; and the Committee had
received in addition from this source, through the medium of
Capt. 111 ortlock ofthe Hon. Company's Service, the sum of 291. as.
collected by some of his friends in India. The receipts from
the Ladies' Association at Westminster during the. Fast year
have been 3
the faicoitnangation of that Association. During
the
an aggregate of 263/. 16s. paid to
the
Treasurerx
the Society's formation 5,686/. 17s. has
been a
our merchantseamen with the Scriptures,
sriiseydelarl to
s, since.
since
li6l
supplycs.
e
and the condition of that important body of men had been
greatly meliorated, and the disposition on the part.of the sailors
to supply themselves with the Bible is not at all diminished.
Foralthough the exertions of the Society's agents in former years
have been instrumental in furnishing thousands of seamen tract- I
jog to the Port of London with copies; and thereby diminishing
from year to year the number unprovided ;' yet it IV 7.13 gratifying
to report that 764 Bibles and 114 Testaments had been sold to
seamen at Gravesend in the past year. Besides these,- the So-
ciety's agent in London,_ who has visited '4619 vessels in the
port of London during the year, has sold toseamen, principally
in the coasting trade, 193 Bibles and 162 TcStaments ;thus mak-
ing 1263 copies sold during that period of time, and 168 sold in
London—the total was 1431. In the first year of the Society's
existence not less than 1705 Bibles and 4063 Testanients Were
left at Gravesend by their agent without'payment ; such was the
lamentable destitution of the sailors as to the Scriptures ; but
such has been their inclination to purchase for themselves, and
such the number found on board that the agent had not thought
it necessary to leave more than 20 Bibles and 184 Testaments
without payment. The total distribution since the formation
of the Society was 8167 Bibles and 9769 Testaments. The
Report, in conclusion, detailed a number of striking anecdotes
-respecting the eagerness of the seamen to procure copies of the
Bible, and of their improved moral condition. The Treasurer's
Report exhibited the funds of the Society to be in a flourishing
condition.

It was then moved and seconded that the Report just read
should be received, adopted, and widely circulated.
The Rev. F. CUNNINGHAM, the Earl of ROCFSAVAGE,
and others severally addressed the meeting in able speeches,
and expatiated on the untility of the Society and the claims it
had on public support.
Thanks were voted to the Committee, to the Ladies, the
Treasurer, Secretaries, and officers for the ensuing year.
The thanks of the ociety were then voted to the Noble Ad-
miral in the chair, who in returning his acknowledgments ex-
pressed his approbation of the Institution.
The meeting then adjourned.—A liberal collection was made
at the doors.

Cor.om BI A .-7( From a Continental Journal.)—
M. VON Tiumnor.pT communicated to the French Academy
of Sciences, at a late Sitting, the highly interesting accounts lie
had received from M. M. BOUSSINGAULT anti MITER°, two
distinguished travellers in South America, (whose latest letters
are dated the 15th of January in the present year,) respecting
an aerolite (or air-stone) weighing several quintals, which they
had found in the mountains of Santa Rosa to the north-east of
Santa 1N de Bogota. They also report upon a large mass of
pure gold, weighing 1901 b. French, or B Arrobas Spanish,
which was found in a small River that flows down from Vulcan
Pucare, in the Popayan Country, called by the natives the
Vinegar River. Large pieces of this noble metal, it Would
seem, had been previously found in this River. According to
the further statements made by the Gentlemen quoted from
above, every thing was perfectly. quiet in Colombia,—nothing
in fact was in progress but what was connected with the arts of
Peace. Amongst other improvements they were busily em-
ployed in organizing the long projected Mining Academy at
Bogota, and which, it was expected, would ultimately prove of
great benefit to the State.—[This intelligence, observes the
Foreign Editor, from whose Journal we have quoted, goes far
appeared in the Journal de Debats.l

TITF. ZODIACS.—Great doubt has in later
times been thrown on the antiquity of the Egyptian zodiack,
once thought to be very great, and that from a variety of causes.
M. I,En RONNE, in Paris, in consequence of a writing which he
found about a mummy recently brought froth Egypt by M.
published a small tract, bearing the title of
Critiques, and Archeologiques sur Objet
tais'ons Zodiacales, qui nous restent de I'Anti.
dC"e.kostßLbsLeelarv:TeasDtei,nontlaesi
quite."--In this highly ingenious work the author attempts to
skew, in the first place, that, under the Egyptian, Grecian, or
Roman representations, none exist beyond the time of the
Christian wra ; and, in the second place, there are none purely
astronomical—being all, more or less, calculated for astrologi-
cal purposes.--(French Paper.)

A letter dated Christiania in Norway, the
12th ult., says, the permission which Government granted to
certain districts to pay their taxes in corn has been made avail-
able to some extent by the farmers. Up to the end} 61 the last
year the Government agents had received 4,290 barrels of Rye,
11,433 barrels of Barley, and 41,993 barrels of Oats.
A Mechanical Institute has lately been formed
at Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and last week a large room, former-
ly used as an Auction Hall in that town, was fitted up as a
Library for the subscribers, between two and three hundred in
number. A great many valuable books have been gratuitously
presented to the Institution.
There is no truth in the report that Messrs.
Sinclair and Jones are to be transplanted from
the Garden to the Lane. The former has enter-
ed into a fresh engagement to sing 50 nights
during the next season, and the latter's articles
do not expire till next year. •
Mr. BELzoNt.—We regret to learn that this
enterprising and amiable man has not left behind him pecuniary
resources by any means adequate to the wants of an interesting
widow and of his aged parents, who were entirely dependent up-
on their children for support. The liberality and necessary ex-
penditure of Mr. B. prevented his accumulating any property
Previous to the exhibition of the Egyptian Tomb, and the pub-
lication of his travels, both of which were for the time very
profitable resources ; and his subsequent expenditure in pve-
'sents to African and European authorities, to enable him to
prosecute his researches, must have absorbed the greater por-
tion of what he had accumulated. Mr. Belzoni has left a
widow, who was long the sharer of his trials and the partici-
pator of his pleasures, and to whom his death must prove a blank
in nature never to be filled up. Mr. Francis Belzoni. who
is a few years younger than his deceased brother, has all his
predilection for travelling and the acquisition of scientific know-
ledge. The invitation given to him, according to the Irish
papers„ by the Pacha of Egypt and the encouragement for
some. 4me held out by a celebrated antiquary in this coun-
try, and also by one of our official residents in Egypt, will
probably induce Mr. Francis Belzoni to attempt to follow up
the discoveries of his brother.
A FATHER STABBED BY HIS OWN SON.—A
most unnatural crime was perpetrated two days since at the
house of Mr. John Gregory, a straw-hat-manufacturer, No. 5,
Great Dover-street, Blackfriers-road. The family consisted of
Mr. Gregory, his wife, and eight children, six of whom, and
Mr. Gregory himself, had just finished their breakfast, when
two of the elder sons, the one named George, came in, and were
left by their father to prepare their own repast, while he went
into the shop on business ; just previous to their coming, one
of the younger boys, who had risen from table, asked his father
for more bread and butter, which he, considering mere wanton-
ness, refused him. During the father's absence, the boy
sdught to obtain from his brother George that which his father
had denied, and succeeded; and the brother was proceeding to
the cupboard with the intent to cut him another slice, as the
father re-entered the room, and endeavoured to prevent the in-
fraction of his orders, by keeping the door of the cupboard
closed with his hand ; and then it was that, infuriated by the
opposition, the unnatural son plunged the pointed table-knife
he held in his hand into the body of his parent, on the left side
close to the groin. The wounded man, streaming with blood,
staggered to a seat in the shop, exclaiming, "Oh ! George,
you have killed me; I fear you'll suffer for this." Surgical
aid was instantly resorted to, when a prompt removal was ..de-
termined on, and he was conveyed to Guy's Hospital, where tine;
remains in a most dangerous state. The son is not ye
custody.