sionary chapel was entirely demolished in the course of a night, by the hands, as it was asserted, of the most respectable inhabitants in the place. The question may be, whether the alarm of the planters may not be in a great measure founded on the mere communication of knowledge and moral ideas, as calculated to render the slaves more prone to question the right on which their bondage rests. Yet this is a boon which we could not consent to withhold, even though accompanied with some inevitable tendency to render them less contented and submissive. We should be the less disposed to condemn the missionaries unheard, as suspecting that their exer. tions, even when somewhat irregular, may act as a more powerful stimulant to bring these rude natures within the moral and intellectual pale, than the more quiet and sober efforts of an establishment. The indictment, which we have alone seen, does not appear to point out much more than the knowledge of the plot, without giving information to government; but this last step, though the political duty of every citizen, must have been a very painful one for a clergyman, in regard to his flock; and if there were no more, without fully acquitting the individual, we could not consider that there was anything bearing against the class to which he belonged. In Jamaica, also, there was a pretty serious alarm as to the existence of a plot; but on the apprehension and trial of the accused, there appeared to have been little more than rash words and vague projects; and judges who were not likely to err on the lenient side, did not condemn any individual to the punishment of death. A meeting of the magistrates and principal planters on this occasion issued resolutions, the language of which, with all the allowance which must be made for men whose entire interests were involved in the question, cannot but be characterized as extremely rash and imprudent. They declared that the late proceedings in the British Parliament are violations of every constitutional charter we have hitherto enjoyed; an infraction of every compact, written and implied; a subversion of every legal and political obligation." Of the African Society they expressed "the deepest indignation and abhorrence," but hoped the British nation would soon perceive the evil tendency of their "dark machinations." If such a course is persevered in, they declare that they will call upon the British Parliament and nation to pay them for their possessions, and suffer them to transfer their allegiance elsewhere. Without entering into the many circumstances which render this language unjustifiable, we cannot help remarking the extreme imprudence of thus proclaiming to the slaves the very thing which the missionaries were branded with attempting to persuade them of,-that the mother country was hostile to the masters, and had in view their own immediate or speedy emancipation. The slaves would in that case know enough to be aware of what their masters seemed to forget, that if a collision took place between these two, Britain would not be long of carrying all before it. Even if this had really been the case, the only wise course for the planters would have been to make it be believed in the island that it was otherwise, and to vent their indignation only in private remonstrances to the British go vernment. At the close of the year, these islands appeared established in a tolerable state of outward tranquillity. PART II. LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS. CHAPTER I. VIEW OF IMPROVEMENTS IN SCIENCE DURING THE YEARS 1822-1823. ASTRONOMY: M. Nicollet's Observations on the Comet of 1822.-Changes observed by the Astronomer Royal in the Declination of some of the principal Fixed Stars.-Optical Inventions of Professor Amici.-CHEMISTRY: Laws of Combination-Investigations of MM. Mitscherlich and Berzelius.-Newly Discovered Animal Acids.-PHYSICS: Finite Extent of the Atmosphere. Mathematical Laws of Electro-Magnetism, discovered by Professor Barlow. -Baron de Humboldt on the Constitution and Mode of Action of Volcanoes.View of the Geodesical Operations performed in Italy from 1808 to 1814, and of the Trigonometrical Survey of France, now in progress. THE political events of the year 1822 possessing unusual interest and importance, and requiring a commensurate extension of space for their full developement, we found ourselves under the unpleasant necessity of delay ing the chapter devoted to the improvements in science; so that it now becomes our duty to exhibit an outline of the progress of scientific research during that year, as well as the succeeding one, which forms the more immediate province of the present voluine. In attempting, however, to execute this task, it is proper to premise, and the reader will have the goodness to keep it in mind, that all we under VOL. XVI. PART II. take is, merely to give a view of the more prominent improvements which have been effected during the period which this chapter comprises, and that anything like a general or detailed history is wholly incompatible with the plan of this work, and with the limits to which we are necessarily restricted. Our object is to furnish the general reader with a tolerably distinct and precise view of such discoveries and inventions in the natural sciences as are calculated to extend the boundaries of human knowledge, or to define and determine, with greater accuracy, those departments hitherto but imperfectly explored, and to fix a 2 A few of those great landmarks by which the philosophical historian is enabled to ascertain the amount of the progress of general science within a given period of time. ASTRONOMY. Comet of 1822.-The first object connected with the science of the heavens which solicits our attention is the comet which was discovered at Mar seilles on the 12th of May 1822, and observed at Paris, for the first time, on the 18th of the same month. From that day, the astronomers of the Royal Observatory were indefatigable in their observations, which were greatly facilitated by the tract of fine weather that followed its appearance, and from which M. Nicollet was enabled to calculate the elements of its orbit as follows: Passage of the perihelion, May 6th, 1822, at 3h. 5m. 11. A. M. Perihelion distance, Inclination of the orbit, Longitude of the ascending node, Longitude of the perihelion, on the orbit, These elements determine the orbit to be parabolic, though they bear no resemblance to those of the comet of 1204, which is still looked for, nor indeed to any of the comets which have been hitherto observed. This comet was very small, had little appearance of coma, and its recession from the earth was so rapid, that, from the 18th to the 31st of May, it described a distance equal to one half the dis tance of the sun from the earth. Changes in the Declinations of some of the Fixed Stars.-Mr Pond, the Astronomer Royal, has made some interesting observations on the changes which have taken place in the declination of some of the principal fixed stars. These anomalies, he was at first led to suppose, resulted from some alteration which had taken place in the figure of the instrument he employed, (the mural circle, which had recently been repaired by Troughton;) but he was soon convinced that there was no ground for this supposition, that the instrument was in every respect perfect, and that he might repose the greatest confidence in the precision and accuracy of the results obtained by it. This being the 0.504220 53° 34' 3" 1770 30' 50" 192° 48′ 45′′ case, it is evident that if Bradley's catalogue of stars for the year 1756 were compared with the Greenwich catalogue for 1813, it would be possible to deduce the annual variation of each star for the mean period, or for the year 1784, supposing the proper motion of each star to have been uniform; and allowing for the precession of each star, a catalogue might be computed for any distant period, as, for example, the year 1822. Suppose such a catalogue, which Mr Pond has named the predicted catalogue, computed, then on comparing the predicted with the observed catalogue for the same year, considerable differences were found to subsist between them. The general tendency of all the stars was, to appear to the south of their predicted places, and this tendency seemed to be greater in southern than in northern stars; hence, if any star be found north of its predicted place, it will always be a star north of the zenith, and the quantity of its motion will be extremely small. Mr Pond also observed a much greater tendency to southern motion in some parts of the heavens than in opposite or distant parts as to right |