the plain, and the yet remaining tokens of the divine fire, he remarks that there are still to be seen ashes reproduced in the fruits; which, indeed, resemble edible fruits in colour, but on being plucked with the hands are dissolved into smoke and ashes.". In this account, after a due allowance for the marvellous in all popular reports, I find nothing which does not apply almost literally to the fruit of the Osher, as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit with us to Jerusalem, but without success.Hasselquist finds the apples of Sodom in the fruit of the Solanum melongena, (night shade, mad apple,) which we saw in great abundance at Ani Jidy, and in the plain of Jericho. These apples are much smaller than those of the Osher, and when ripe, are full of small black grains. There is, however, nothing like explosion-nothing like smoke and ashes;' except, occasionally, as the same naturalist remarks, "when the fruit is punctured by an insect (Tenthredo) which converts the whole of the inside into dust, leaving nothing but the rind entire, without any loss of colour." We saw the Solonum and the Osher growing side by side; the former presenting nothing remarkable in its appearance, and being found in other parts of the country; while the latter immediately arrested our attention by its singular accordance with the ancient story, and is moreover peculiar in Palestine to the shores of the Dead Sea.-Robinson and Smith's Travels in Palestine.

FRIENDS' REVIEW.

PHILADELPHIA, FIRST MONTH 1, 1848.

In the present number we have the life of Wm. Allen brought down to the period in his active and eventful career, when he took his place among the acknowledged ministers of the religious society to which he belonged. His travels in the service of the gospel had hitherto been performed as a companion to others who were engaged to visit the churches, but in his new situation, the order of society presented no obstruction to his engaging in such services, with the approbation of his friends, on his own responsibility.

In our estimate of his labours during the portion of his life which has passed under review, we may be liable, upon observing the readiness and energy with which he engaged in almost every plan which presented for relieving the distress or increasing the comforts of our race, to consider him as a man constitutionally sensitive to the sufferings of others; acting upon the impulse of a benevolent feeling, rather than from apprehension of religious duty.

| That he possessed, in the structure of his mind, a sensibility highly favourable to the development of philanthropic feelings, and an energy of purpose which no ordinary difficulties could paralyze, may be readily admitted. But a careful inspection of his diary can hardly fail to impress the conviction that his active exertions in his various works of benevolence were stimulated and supported by religious considerations.

Whether he was labouring to feed the starving population of Spitalfields, to arrest the career of the African slave-trade, to shield the victims of negligence and poverty from the punishments awarded by the Draconic laws of his country, to enlighten the understandings of the students at erful in his own and in foreign countries, to extend Guy's Hospital, to encourage the wealthy and powthe benefits of a Christian education to the children of the poor, or to diffuse among his varied acquaintances a knowledge of the doctrines and principles in which he most certainly believed, we still ǹnd him humbly seeking to the exhaustless Fountain of life and love, for wisdom and strength. The New Testament appears to have been his daily companion; and in the midst of his multifarious engagements he found and embraced frequent opportunities for silent retirement, and waiting upon God for the renewal of spiritual strength.

So far, indeed, were his philanthropic labours from absorbing his attention to the exclusion of secret and silent introversion of mind, that they were evidently invigorated and refined by the deep felt solicitude for the present and everlasting welfare of the whole human race, which an experimental acquaintance with the overshadowing of the Father's love alone can produce. If, indeed, we examine the characters of those who, in any age or situation in life, have been conspicuous for their labours to improve the physical, moral, and religious condition of mankind, we shall find, probably, without a solitary exception, that a deep feeling of religious responsibility was the great master-spring that impelled them all.

The attention paid, at an advanced period of his day, to the languages of the continent, may be fairly attributed to his desire to facilitate the intercourse which his religious and philanthropic labours required to be maintained. Long before his day the Yearly Meeting of London had endeavoured to promote the study of those languages among its members, as appears by the following extract from an epistle issued in 1737:

"It has been the concern of this meeting, from the relation given of truth's spreading in foreign the prosperity of truth at heart, would, in the educountries, that Friends who are of ability, and have cation of their children, take care, as suitable opportunities and occasions may offer, to let them

MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.-By recent accounts it appears that this new species of communication has been extended to St. Louis. There is therefore a line from Boston to the banks of the Mississippi, through which intelligence can be transmitted with the velocity of lightning. One of the interesting results of this brilliant discovery, is a facility hitherto unknown, with which the relative longitude of places connected by telegraph may be determined.

The discovery of an easy, practical and accurate method of determining the longitude at sea has long been an object of pursuit with men of science. Large rewards have been offered by the British government for the best method of accomplishing this object. The means generally used are lunar observations and accurate chronometers.

To determine the longitude of a place either on the ocean or the land by chronometers, requires that the instrument used should be transported from the place with which the comparison is to be made, to that whose longitude is required. The accuracy of the result will depend upon the correctness of the time-keeper, during the transportation. The method by lunar observation requires considerable care and skill in the application of instruments, as well as no inconsiderable labour in making calculations.

Whatever method may be used, the real difficulty to be surmounted is to determine the exact time of day, at the same instant, under the meridians whose longitudes are to be compared. This is more conveniently done in the case before us, by using sidereal time. As the earth revolves on its axis with uniform velocity, the interval between two successive passages of a fixed star over any given meridian of the earth is always the same This interval is termed a sidereal day; and is nearly equal to 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds of solar time. Dividing the sidereal day into hours, minutes and seconds, in the same manner as the solar day is divided, it is clear that the globe will perform one-twenty-fourth part of its diurnal rotation in a sidereal hour. Hence two meridians of the earth which intercept an arc of 15 degrees on the equator, must pass the same fixed star at the interval of one sidereal hour; the western meridian passing it last, because the rotation is from

west to east.

If, then, we take the passage of a given fixed star over the meridian of a place on the earth as the

Suppose now a clock at Boston and another at St. Louis to be accurately adjusted to sidereal time; and that by some means an observer should be enabled to examine them at the same instant of time, the difference of the hours which they indicate reduced into degrees, at the rate of 15 to an hour, or 1 degree to 4 minutes of time, would represent the difference of longitude. This is in effect what the telegraph accomplishes. Conceive an observer, B, at Boston, and another, L, at St. Louis, ready to answer the signals of each other. When B observes that his clock indicates 12, he gives the signal, which is immediately transmitted by the telegraph to L, who notes the time at St. Louis, which we suppose to be 10 hours, 45 minutes, 48 seconds. The difference, 1 hour, 14 minutes, 12 seconds, reduced into degrees, as. above, would show that St. Louis was 18° 33 minutes westward from Boston. Some small corrections would no doubt be required in practice, but by reversing the order of the observations, and repeating the trials a sufficient number of times, the errors could be very nearly compensated. This method cannot be applied to navigation, in the present state of our knowledge, but it promises to furnish a means of introducing greater accuracy than has been hitherto attained, in fixing the relative position of places on land.

DIED,-At Weare, New Hampshire, on the 12th of 11th month last, ENOCH BREED, in the 82d year of his age, a faithful elder in the church, having, through a long life, sustained the character of a consistent Friend and an honest man.

month last, LYDIA BREED, wife of the above-named at the same place, on the 23d of 4th Enoch Breed, in the 72d year of her age. In the decease of this dear Friend, the Church and the community at large, have sustained a heavy loss. She possessed a clear and discriminating mind; and having, in early life, yielded to the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, she became instrumental for good to many. It pleased the Head of the Church to dispense to her a gift in the ministry, which she sweetly and faithfully occupied. Her public communications of this nature were generally concise, but full of instruction, and uttered in demonstration of the spirit and of power. She was deeply concerned for the support of right order and wholesome discipline; and with her discriminating mind, under the influence of divine grace, she was able to detect and expose error. But while she stood with unflinching firmness for the truth, she

ever remembered the frailties to which all are subject, and was always ready to exercise that charity which hopeth all things. For many years, with her husband, she occupied the place of Superintendent in the Yearly Meeting Boarding School at Providence, which responsible station they filled acceptably to Friends. Her health, for several years previous to her decease, was feeble, but she was very diligent in the attendance of meetings, and in the discharge of many and varied duties and appointments, under much bodily debility and suffering. When in the progress of her disease, she was finally prevented from leaving her house, her friends continued to seek her counsel, which she was still enabled to impart to their great comfort and edification. To a friend, from a distance, who visited her near her close, she expressed with much clearness her prospect and the ground of her hope. She recapitulated briefly her course of life, and recounted some of the preservations which she had witnessed from her Heavenly Father; and while she could look back with a consciousness of having been in good degree engaged to discharge the duties that had devolved upon her, she felt that she was altogether an unprofitable servant, and that her acceptance wholly depended upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, fully realizing the Gospel truth, which she had often been concerned to proclaim to others, that not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saveth us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Her

end was peace.

at Springfield, Delaware county, Pa., on the 24th of last month, SIDNEY, the wife of George Allen, in the 49th year of her age.

——, in Detroit, Maine, on Sixth day evening, the 19th of 11th month last, SARAH JENKINS, wife of Moses Jenkins, in the 49th year of her age.

-, in Winslow, Maine, on First day morning, the 19th ult., at the residence of her father, SARAH C. HOBBEY, daughter of John and Phebe Hobbey, in the 25th year of her age.

These were Friends of reputable character, and their end, we trust, was peaceful and happy.

MEASURING AN ARC.

The accurate measurement of a portion of the earth's surface involves so many points of high scientific and commercial interest, that the labours undertaken to effect the object may be regarded as among the greatest triumphs of philosophy. Such measurements were made at an early period by the Greeks, and have been repeated subsequently, as the necessity for greater accuracy became apparent. An almost incredible amount of labour and difficulty has been encountered in performing the operations, arising from various causes. From the confines of the polar circle to the equator, nearly every nation has contributed its share to this important work, of which the ordnance survey now carried on in England may be looked upon as a necessary consequence; there are few governments which have not had a desire to know the precise position and configuration of the country over which they ruled.

It will be seen that the ignorance and jealousies of mankind often cause as much annoyance to peaceful philosophers as to real enemies. On the cessation of hostilities between France and England, in 1783, a proposition was made, through the French ambassador, to the government of the latter country, for a joint survey to determine the exact distance between the observatories of Greenwich and Paris; the proposition was favourably received, and the measurement of the portion of the line between Greenwich and Dover intrusted to General Roy, who had already been employed in similar labours. In a survey of this nature, the distance is measured by a continuous series of triangles, commencing from one base line, which must be determined with the greatest possible precision. General Roy's base line, more than 27,000 feet in length, was measured on Hounslow Heath, near London; its correctness was insured by the employment of three several kinds of measures a steel chain, and wooden and glass rods, all constructed by the celebrated Ramsden: this preliminary operation occupied from line thus laid down, the measurement was carApril to August of the year 1784; and from the ried on to Dover, when three members of the French Academy were sent over to confer with the English savans, and to decide on the points of land on which the signal-lights should be fixed, by which the measurement was continued across the Channel. The large folio in which all these proceedings are detailed, attests the diligence and zeal with which they were conducted.

In 1790, the French Academy, in consequence of a request from the National Assembly, appointed a commission to report on a new standard of weights and measures. On referring to the standards already in existence, they were found to be so imperfect, that it was recommended to measure anew an arc of the meridian, as the only means of obtaining a true standard. The extreme points chosen on this occasion were Dunkirk and Barcelona, both on the sea level; the necessary operations were commenced in 1792, but with great impediments in the turbulence of the Revolution. Mechain, to whom the southern end of the line had been assigned, was arrested while making his observations at the base of the Pyrenees, as a traitor conveying signals to the enemy; and was afterwards imprisoned for nearly a year in Spain, as it was feared that the local knowledge he had obtained might be employed in favour of the French arms. Delambert, his coadjutor, who surveyed in the interior of France, was exposed to still greater risks; he was beset by mobs, his observatories and signal-posts were thrown down and destroyed, and, together with his assistants, he was frequently imprisoned. On one occasion, at St. Denis, they were only saved from the popular fury by the presence of mind of the mayor. Sometimes passports were refused them, and at