The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-25 00:00:00

THREATENED EXTINCTION of the kIUMAN

RACE in these KINGDOMS.

The Glasgow courier has- found a reason
for a change of Ministers, which, if it does not
take effect upon the nation, will show at least that
the nation will bear' any thing. We are rapidly
approaching to 'extinction, as he clearly proves
from the registerS -of the city of Glasgow,' the
barony, and the Goibals ! The notion that we
shall soon have neither. food nor. clothing is less
alarming, as it justly insinuates, than that there
will be soon neither mouths to eat•the one nor
backs to wear the other. The following is the
article we refer to

We lay before our readers the Mortality Bill
for this city and suburbs, for the present year,
own up with Dr. Cleland's usual accuracy., It
is a document that merits the attention of the
public, and which Malthus and the Emigration
Committee may peruse with satisfaction, because
the details go to remove their fears and to ren-
der their labours unnecessary. Hitherto we
have oily contemplated the pernicious march of
Our liberal system, amidst our trade, our re-
sources, and • our political interests ; but Dr.
Cleland enables us to put its effects amongst the
human race to the test. To show this in a striking
point of view, we have gone over his returns of
marriages, births, and deaths for this city, for the
last six years, three of which preceded, and three
of which followed, the introduction of recipro-
city, free trade, and liberal ideas. And, mark
the consequences—while the number of deaths
are nearly doubled, the number of marriages and
births are proportionately decreased. In those
good old times, when Tories, who increased po-
pulation and provided liberally for it, ruled over
us, each marriage produced, throwing fractional
parts aside, two children within the year ; but
under the opposition rule, they produce one-
F third less,, annually decreasing ; while the deaths,
which in those days were only about 20 per cent.
above the births, are now nearly 90 per cent.
more ; the mortality amongst the females, and
which tells two ways in the march of depopula-
tion, compared to the births, increasing in a fear-
ful ratio ! In short, 'Dr.' Cleland's tables de-.
Monstrate, in the most unanswerable manner,

that to preserve the human race in these king-
doms from becoming extinct, we must have a
change of Ministers and measures, when the
country will again have mouths to eat, and backs
to wear, her surplus produce and manufacturer.
The following are the returns alluded to :

BAPTISMS.

Years.
1822
1823
1824
1 825
1826
1827

Males. Females.
1,573 1,399
1,462 1,489
1,565 1,537
1,689 1,420
1,599 1,401
1,523 1,297
MARRIAGES.

TotaL
2,972
2,9 M
3,102
3,109
3,000
2,820

1822 .......

1823

1,650

1824

1825

182 G
1827 '

1,576
1,635

1822 1,898 1,801 3,690
1823 2,423 2,204 4,627
1824 2,355 2,315 4,670
1825 2,393 2,505 4,898
1826 2,355 2,183 4,53$
1827 2,664 2,472 5,136
We were somewhat relieved from the alarm
which this statement produced, by turning to
Dr. Cleland's own account, which the worthy
editor of the Glasgow rourier seems to have
overlooked :—" The ntrOer of burials," he ob-
serves, " and proclamations of 'marriages, may
be relied on 'as correct, bat the registration of
baptisms does not give any :idea of the births,"
as, indeed, is quite obvious from the whole of
the tables.

Though the statement does not quite prove
that we are about to become extinct, it affords
another example of the check which the increase
of population receives in manufacturing districts
by the acute distress sometimes felt in them
The decrease of marriages in 1826, as compared
with 1825, was nearly one-fourth.

LIFE OF. MAHOMET AND RISE OF THE

TURKISH EMPIRE.

This great impostor was born at Harib, near
'Mecca, in Arabia Felix, on sth May, A.D.
570, and notwithstanding his followers will have
him to be of royal extraction, and have deduced
his genealogy from Adam, he was the son 'of
Abdala, a Pagan, who married Emina, a Jewess,
and they Were obscure individuals, and poor.
Poverty at first obliged Mahomet to serve
Kero Padicha, an Arabian merchant, after whose
death he persuaded his mistress to marry him,
which put him in possession of his master's
riches, and being naturally ambitious, he called
'in the assistance of his mother's brother, who,
pretending to
,be a great astrologer and magician,
predicted that he would become a mighty king
and lawgiver.

After this, assisted by Bathos, a Jacobite,
Sergius, a Nestorian heretic, and some Jews his
acquaintance, he compiled the Alcoran, a volume
full of incoherencies and absurdities, composed
in Arabia', pure as -to the' style, but void of me-
thod, forming a jumble of incongruity, yet it is
held in such veneration, that if a Mussulman, or
True Believer, as they call themselves, handles it
Without washing his hands, he is reputed a cri-
minal; and if a Christian or Jew touches it, un•
less he changes his religion, he is put to death.
All who do not believe in it are held in detesta-
tion ; all who oppose it are executed without
form of process or trial ; and they pretend that
God sent it to Mahomet by the angel Gabriel,
written on a parchment made of the skin of the
ram which Abraham sacrificed instead of his son.

Having thus made up his religion, partly of
Judaism, and partly of the ravings of condemn-
ed heretics, adapting it to the sensuality of cor-
rupt nature, he caused a parcel of vagabond rob-
bers, by the powerful argument of his wealth, and
sly insinuations, to embrace it. With these men
lie had recourse to arms, and by degrees subdued
several nations, more particularly those of Arabia.
He had under him ten chief lieutenants, Abu
bekin Cedie, his father-in-law, Omar Ben el
Hatab, Odman Ben-ater, Ali Ibri Abitaleb,
Moavia; Ali Zubeir, Abiazed, Abiazid, Ali
Obeid, and Abutal Heel An4iri alias Zeid Aber
Cehel all these were his prime doctors or
vines as well as commanders. The three first
successively became Caliphs after him of all the
dominions he had ruled over, contrary to what
he had appointed, namely, that Ali his son•-in-
law should succeed him.

Mahomet in a short time was followed by a
vast multitude, and the more effectually to blind
and deceive them, being troubled with epilepsy,
he had a tame pigeon, which on such occasions
would come and peck his ear, and that he per.
suaded his followers was the angel Gabriel, sent
by God to tell him what he was to do. It is
also reported, that having once caused one of
his companions to hide himself in a dry well, he
ordered him to cry aloud .as he passed by,