The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE

PoaGat ALE Nor..-._a CnitiaTMAx and NEW YEAR's PRESENT
for 1827. Edited by F. snobrin.—London, ACKERMANN.
This beautiful harbinger of the coming year is
highly creditable to the spirited taste of Mc Acker-
mann, and reflects much honour upon its ingenious
Editor, and no less gifted contributors, for presenting
the lovers of sweet remembrance, with a gem so rich in
varied originality. Forget Me Not—forms so charm- '
ing, a specimen of concentrated merit—embracing on
its' pictured page simplicity of design, and elegance of
execution, with a winning
'chasteness throughout, that
it seems more adapted as a ,44anual for the Graces"
than for the rude touch of criticism. What can .be a
more appropriate keepsake than a present .which beauty
opens with delight—surveys with admiration,-.—and
closes with wonder—only to open it again with re-
newed extasy, till her lover's image and his gift divide
her joyous tenderness—:
• By tiny her sweet toetnorial,—and by night
The fond reinemln-uncer of young delight !
We have said enough, did we Clatter--but the mea-
sure of justice can only be filled up by the gratifica-
tion of the purchaser, We shall leave to others the
invidious task of particularising beauties in a garden
so rich,with choice blossoms, and shall occasionally
delight our readers by transferring a random flower
into our columns.

"TIM OWE AND THE TUANINIAN.
A Night Attack by Constantine Paleologus, on a detached Camp
of the Troops of Mahomet the Second, at the siege oP Con,
stantinople.
•
" TherTurkmen lay beside the river,
The wind play'd loose through bow and quiver,
The charger on the bank fed free,
The shield hung glittering from the tree,
The trumpet, ehawm, and atabal,
Were hid from the dew by cloak and pall ;
For long and weary was the way
The Hordes had mareled that burning day.
Above them, on the sky of June,
• Broad as a buckler, glow'd the moon,
Flooding with glory vale and hill,
In silver sprang the mountain-rill,
The weeping shrub in silver bent,
A pile of silver stood the tent :
All soundless, sweet tranquillity,
All beauty, hill, and tent, and tree.
There taint a sound—'twat like the gush •
When night winds shake the rose's bush ;
There came a sound--'twat like the fline
Of rivers ewell'd with melting snow ;
There came a sound..'twas like the treed
Of wolves along the valley's bed ;
There came a sound—'twas like the roar
Of ocean op its 'winter shore.
4 Death to the Turk!' uprose tile yell ;
On roll'd the charge--a thunder peal;
The Tartar arrows fed like rain,
They clank'd on helm, anal mail, and chain ;
In blood, in bate, in death, were twined •
Savage and Greek, mall, bleixting, blind;
And still on flank, and front and rear,
Raged, Constantine, thy thirstiest spear !
Brassy and pale, a type of doom, •
Labour'd the moon through deepening gloom.; .
Down plunged her orb—'twas pitchy night :-.-,
Now, Turk►upn, turn thy reigut tligh
On rush'd their thousands through the dark ;
But in their camp a ruddy spark,
Like an uncertain meteor, reed :
Thy hand, brave king, that firebrand wheerd!
Wild burst the burning element
O'er man and courser, flag and tent ;
And through the blaze the Greeks outeprang,
Like tigers, bloody, foot and fang,
With daggers' stab and falchions' swap
Delving the stnnn'd and staggering heap—.
Till lay the slava by chief and khan,
And all was gore that once we man.
There's wailing on the Euzine mime—
Her chivalry shall ride no more.
There's wailing on thy hills, Altai,
For chiefs—the Gretin vultures' prey !
But, Bosphorus, thy silver wave
Hears shouts for the returning brave,
The kingliest of her kingly
For there comes glorious. Constantine !"

TESTIMONIES in favour of SALT u a MANURE, and a con-
diment for Horse, Cow, and Sheep; with Testimonies of its
vast Importance in the Arts, in Manufactures, and in the
Fisheries ; accoMpanied by Testimonies in Favour of Agricul-
ture. Br THE Rev. B. DAcs; A.L.S.—London and Man-
chester, 1826.
This is an admirable treatise, end professing as it
does, to draw from long experience, its testimonies in
favour of Salt as a manure, is entitled to very general
consideration. Its importance to agriculture is great,
and when we, reflect how vital a part of our national
prosperity consists in the cultivation of land—that
home wealth of all others the least precarious--we
feel satitified that this author in his publication of the
present treatise has bestowed a great advantage on the
agricultural part of the community. The author has
enriched his work by a very copious selection of di-
versified but interesting intelhgence from various
authors, bearing upon the superior excellence of salt
as a manure and a condiment. Among these autho-
rities we are pleased to meet with the scientific opi-
nions of Dr., Paris, whose inquisitive genius pries into
the hidden stores of nature, and developes their use
for the benefit of Mau. The author has enriched his
works with the learning and practical experience of
other gifted individuals, whose observations will be
found highly edifying and satisfactory to the experi-
mentalist in agricultural
,affairs. We. do the proprie-
tors of land and general, no small
service by recommending a work of such intrinsic
merit to their notice, and, we may safelyadd, their-ap-
probation. We give the following extract as a ape*.
men of the testimonal department of the work :—.
TIESTIMOHIEE FROM DR. PASSE. Ellt MI Wixom I, nix „AI,.

B,ertows OP
Tim eavat szOLoalcAL BooHarr Or COMM/AL.
4 Sea-sand ie very porta! 111*(1.. itz the county of Cornwall
for manure, and the quantity whichis every leaven tarried away
from different parts of the coast for the purpose of manure almost
exceeds belief. . The expellee of land carriage for sand, used in the
county, has been, considered as amounting at least to thirty thou-
sand pounds annually."
"'That the tieneficial operation of this sand tlepend the
presence of calcareous matter there Cannot he a doubt, but, a s upon-
the
same time, we are borne out by unequivocal facts, in believing
that the Sea-salt, with which it taste,
contributes ma-
terially to its fertilising powers.
44 Salt answers beat as a manure, for green crops; especially
for turnips and clover. It is not of much benefit to barley. or
wheat if sown, but in comppat it proves eery advantageous; using
thirty CorMah) or forty-five Winchester bushels, per Coruith
Acre.; owhich is larger than the statute acre, nearly
in the ratio of
six to five.--Prepare the ground for turnips, and sow the salt a
fortnight before the seed ; or longer, if a larger quantity of salt is

used. Mr. Seekler, at Ilenver in the perish of Gwinear, has just
applied salt in the above proportion, to poor exhausted land ; being
clay, inimical to turnips : the effect has been a heavy rich crop,
which I have had an opportunity of seeing. It is Ruth a one, as
a hundred tons of dung per acre, would scarcely produce in the
same la4d.—The salt employed, is that which is considered refuse
after having cured the fish, and been condemned by the Excise.
Over this they throw some dirt; and it is, then sold to the far-
mere by the fish curers. If the duty were taken off salt, for every
bushel now used there would be at least a hundred bushels em-
ployed for this purpose. It is been said that the value of the
refuse salt, as manure, depends upon the soil and animal matter
which adheres to it; but the farmer knows front experience, that
salt is to be preferred, which has cured only one bulk of fish ; and
they give a higher price for it, than for that which has been twice
employed, land which consequently contains more animal matter.
Where au estate has been salted for two or: three crops, the effects
are visible for at least seven years.—lt has a particular tendency
to convert poor and light soils into firm and adhesive ones ; "gies
my them body." Amongst the farmers there is a general scramble
for the refuse salt, to try who can get most of it by purchase.
The following curious anecdote may be related, as serving to flies-
trate the effects of salt : Mr. Seckler tussle a little heap of earth
in the midst of a field; on the top of which a cart load of refuse
salt was thrown : the earth in the heap itself, and (after its re-
inoval) the earth under it for upwards of two feet deep to the clay,
was rendered so perfectly barren, that the most common weeds
would not vegetate in it. This barren earth, however, furnished
the richest dressing for the remainder of the field.—Mr. Seckler
found salt the best preservative against the Ini/dstv in wheat.
When the wheat followed turnips with salt, it escaped the mil-
dew, which attacked other fields that were not salted ; and this
he finds to hold universally good, as far as his experience goes.—
The improvement of bad hay by salt, applied in the proportion of
about one hundred weight • to three tone, and sprinkled between
the layers, is very striking : preventing mildew, and rendering it
more grateful and beneficial to cattle, especially if the hay is bad
and even in good hay, it is very greatly ameliorated.—A testimony,
in favour of the benefit of salt, is furnished by the striking ferti•
pity of the land in the neighbourhood of theses-shore in Cornwall;
more especially in those situations which are favourable to the
general distribution of the saline spray, as is exemplified in
the parish of Fennor. As to the Shelly sand, one of the bene-
ficial results, which attends the application of this manure, sic-
petals upon its containing a quantity of sea.salt. It is computed
that 54,000 cart-loads of this sand are annually brought from
Padstow harbour for manure ; a considerable portion of which
is.carried from four. to seven or eight miles in that country ; and,
notwithstanding this very same sand is in many places drifted to
these estates, the farmers prefer sending for it to the secs-shore.
The same circumstance occurs at Hayle all the sand used in that
neighbourhood is taken from the beach, although it might be ob-
tained with much less trouble and expence, frOnt drifted heaps.
,This is a fact not generally known but I can bear testimony to
its truth....-That salt, applied in a certain proportion, has the
power of preserving vegetable as well as animal matter, is evident
from the fact, that all 'the beanis and wood about the fish cellars
and salt warehouses, . remain andecasfed for apes. 1 have re-
ceived the following account, from my friend Mr. Vivian. "On
the 26th November, 1814, I visited the salt mines of //a/itiss,
distant about eight miles from the town of Salsburgh. As we
entered the mine we found its sides and roof strongly timbered..—
We were informed that the wood was never 4110117 ft to decay; a
circumstance which they attributed to the antiseptic ;Aimee
of the salt." It is on account of this antiseptic power of salt that
the proprietor of a new vessel is alwayi anxious to obtain a freight
of suit to season her."
" No idea can be formed of the distress of the lower orders of
people, in the inland parts of Cornwall, for want of salt. They
are obliged to eat their potatoes without any relish, unless they can
beg from the neighbouring farmer a little pickle : it is the univer-
sal clamour, " (five could but have a little salt, we should be eon.
tooted." They appear to have &desire fin' salt, almost as strong
us the fatal passion fur ardent spirits; and a degree of tzbiliilk-
*ion and Comfort is experiences] after it, which it is difficult for
those who have not witnessed it to conceive. Diseases of the
stomach are the prevalent complaint of these poor people: stud I
ant induced to believe, from observations suede during an exten-
sive practice, that children become infested with worms, by it diet
offish that is not properly salted. The farmer's bounty of a little
pickle is considered as the greatest of all luxury; and it w reserved ,
for their Sunday's dinner. The great demand of these poor is not
for fresh fish, but for silt fish. Three-fourths of all the fish they
use, is corned. Potatoes, if boiled with a email quantity dealt,
are Much snore soft and floury, and more nutritious and digestible;
if steamed,; small quantity of salt should be strewed over them.
Some years ago a mast fatal and contagious fever raged at
Jefevegialey, which baffled ill the medieel skill in the neigh-
bourhood ; and no etforts succeeded in mitigating the violence of
the contagion. In this dilemma, an immense shoal of pilchards
appeared ; the warehouses containing salt were opened, and access
afforded to them; and the fever instantly stopped. The impres-
sion upon the people was, that it was owing to antiseptic effluvia
from the salt; but may it not rather be attributed to the circum-
stance, of their food becoming more nutritious, on account of the
increase in its saltness ?"

" The operation of the Salt-laws, in Cornwall, is highly preju-
dicial to the morals of the people ; it is, indeed, my opinion, that
no act of the legislature could do more towards improving the con-
dition and increasing the comforts of the lower orders, than a
total abolition ofthe tyrannical, unjust, and impolitic Duties on
-Salt."l-

* This is foul fishery salt. Of pure salt, a third of the pun-
tity might be sufficient.
Dr. Parishes just quitted his extensi►e practice in Cornwall,
for London, to the great regret of the county who have expressed
their saute of his medical and other services to all classes of the in-
habitants, by a present of plate to the amount of 5004 value.
17th Nev. 1817..---Sir T. B.

PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE.
The TENDENCY of PREVALENT OPINIONS ABOUT
KNOWLEDGE CONSIDERED; a Sermon preached before
the University of Cambridge, on Commencement Sunday, July
2, 1826, by the Rev. Howl Jas Rosa, ILA., of Trinity
College, Vicar of Horsham.

prevalent
ptliteeeyiaat
u noticing this Sermon, it is not our intention to
convert our columns into an arena for theological dis-
cussion, but the subject of the discourse before us,
delivered on a peculiar occasion, is of a peculiar cha-
racter, and refers to topics of
,great general interest,
and remote from matters of religious opinion. It takes
up a branch of the great question, which has been so
much agitated in the present times respecting the (lir-
riare
amongof a sense
per-
nicious
fusion of knowledge, and its probable consequences ;
and we are happy to observe, that its learned author
is in general very free 'film that feeling of suspicion,
if not hostility, towards the advance of knowledge, which
disposedW teo say,
estimate in
fle
thene ragreaterl b e
at onetime we fear was a little too
on of their
pcaourtsieo'nhoigfiltirlis discourse, we cannot. but regret to ob.
parts of the clerical
aswearebdy.
serve, that in one or two particulars, the writer Seems
to have been , a little infected with that unfortunate
spirit of misapprehension as to the nature and tendency
of certain studies, which we think a more intimate '
ac-
quaintance with them could not fail to remove • and
value,whieh butleads evennot toonlaystueppanosiutinofinirthdaet
and mischievous character.
His argument is mainly grounded on a reference
to a future state, in relation
.to which, that
14 to ,W
considered the best, truest, and moat
useful knowledge,'
which has the greatest tendency to improve the moral
hand *ritual nature of man, so as to
. qualify him for the
attainment of its happiness. Hence the author is led
to deprecate very strongly in whet 'd d • I)
ee he twig equa y
have deprecated on far lower the 9 I
grounds, servile and
mercenary views with which knowledge`
is too gene-
rally sought and cultivated 'in the present age, Biel

TIM 1414'11 slilt Tilt half
prim; se that the
is elven id /
the SUN up to the her of ping r
te
public may see whatever has taken place during the morning in the
covers or LEW AND POLICE °ergots ;
together with a correct account of the prices of the various articles to
THE LONDON AND COUNTRY SAEKIVIVI
including bleat, Vegetables, Fruits, Bread, Corn, Hay, Coals, fee.
The SUN is the only Newspaper in London which gives the price of
and, tbr Country
THZ
r owns, AT THREE O'CLOCK ;
circulation, the cLostno ewes at vo &cutest . The SUN, of Wednesday and Saturday, contains the London Gazettes,
List ofi Bo aui
IC k rou irearsr,e
nurizrno
cowAtii,rtohinoi
nrt
nwt:
„At hinotThrzeLon;LonrdnAodnsto
.n 'Tt• ezerCu.E rr en t .
May be had at 'Change, at ustr-estrr mare and by coach the same
Orders for this Paper received by all Newsmen,'Clerka of the
Roads, and Postmasters, in the United Kingdom.
Advertisements promptly attended to, and displayed to advantage.

the undue preponderance which is thus given to those
particular branches of knowledge, which, while they
tend most to immediate utility and gain, have little
effect in promoting the improvement of human nature.
To such an argument in general we have nothing
to object, hut we must say we think our author has
been unfortunate in fixing his accusation upon one or
two particidarbranches of knoWledge, whichare, in our
estimation, far from deserving such a stigma. Thus
when he laments the decline of pure classical literature,
of sound metaphisical and ethical studies, we most
cordially agree with him. But when we find him
going on to deprecate the study of the material universe
as that which is now - substituted, and this,' only with
a view-to the command which such knowledge gives
us over the powers of nature, and the meanq which it
furnishes by physical inventions for improving the
arts of life, and bestowing immediate reward and gain
on those whose sagacityleads them to discovery them-
selves, or enables them to profit by the discoveries of
otherS ;—when. we find such rt train of reflettion
in-
dulged in, we must say it appears to us that it can
have been dictated by nothing but an unfortunate mis-
conception, not to say prejudice, against physical
studies. We would only ask is it the fact that pure
physical and mathematical investigation is neglected--
or that it is followed up on such merely mercenary
views as he would insinuate ?,.--we venture to answer
boldly in the negative.
We arc convinced that the sciences are cultivated in
retirement and obscurity by hundreds of philosophical
votaries, who value knowledge for its own sake, and
who cultivate it with the purest and most elevated ideas
of its objects, in tending to the intellectual and moral
improvement of the human character.
IThe pursuit of knowledge, like ell other pursuits,
will doubtless call forth a host of quacks and charla-
tans, who, by their absurd pretensions, and delusive
speculations for advancing intellectual improvement by
short cuts and royal roads to perfection, only bring
discredit on the cause they pretend to advocate, and
in all the censures which our author may send
forth against such pretender.,, he has our most
hearty concurrence ; but we regret to see such
pretensions and such schemes confounded with
the legitimate objects of scientific instruction, and
to have it imagined that the age has no fruitalof real
philosophy to display but these. Science is through-.
out represented by our author as if it consisted merely
(to use his own words in " arranging the products of
the material world in their scientific order, in using the
tools of the laboratory, and the engines of the
mechanist." And he talks of such pursuits as
" The million facts, the hurry, the fever, the impa-
tience, of the experimentalist, and the discoverer
which he forcibly contrasts with the elevated and calm
contemplations, the thoughtful' hearts, the Christian
peace and joy, of several eminent metaphysicians, scho
rs, and divines. We deprecate such contrasts ;
they are as useless as unfair ; they are dictated by a
partial learning to one single branch of knowledge to
the exclusion of others; vaiercal, upon a snore extended
[loo,,..iznpartial view of things, we are tOniinced it will
.66,11 c null that every branch of enquiry which the human
mind is 'qualified to follow up, not only may, but
ought to be so followed up, and will in its proper
place and degree, become an important agent in the
great work of universal improvement.