586 The Philofophical Transactions epitomized. A C figned and ratified. He is offended at the liberty of confcience fuppofed to be granted to the inhabitants of the North American territory conquered from France; and he fays, that our having tolerated popery in Minorca was the reafon why the people there unanimously revolted to the French upon their landing in 1756. He is of opinion, that the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon may be made as itrong and as dangerous to our American colonies as Cape Breton, notwithstanding the French king's royal word to the B contrary; and that we ought to have limited the French to fuch a method of curing their fib, as might prevent their exerciting any other branch of the nithery than that allotted them, particularly to prevent their running away with the bacaloe, as they did by the 13th article of the treaty of Utrecht, which is confirmed by the pretent preliminaries. He complains, that the article relative to Dunkirk, leaves the place in the fame doubtful circumstances it has been in for forty years; and that the fixth article (See P. 570.) gives up our pre-occupancy and priority of difcovering to all the heathen world behind our firft fettlements in North America; and by leaving the French liberty of navigating the river Mippi, gives them an opportunity to corrupt our Ind an allies, to deprive our colonies of the Indian trade, and cut off our communication with the countries which are poffeffed by none but Indians, and belong to us by right of difcovery. Lastly, he is of opinion, that the French thould have been compelled to quit Louifiana, and all refidence on both fides the D E Miifippi, as there can, fays he, be no F fecurity to our colonies without it. The BRITON, No. XXVII. contains a humorous apology for advancing and defending oppolite opinions in the name of the Magdalon Monitors; the penitent prolt.tutes of the pen. The N. PRITON, No. XXVIII. contains a story about an old woman, who is fuppofed to have lately buried one husband, and married another; with which the public has not the leaft quainted, that, till the forty-feventh volume, the printing of the Traníactions was always the fingle act of the fecretary; but that, fince that time, it has been done under the direction of a committee, who began to execute this trust in March, 1752: That the committee felects fuch papers as appear to have important or fingular fubjects, or to treat their fubjects advantageously; and is not anfwerable for the certainty of the facts, or the propriety of the reafonings contained in the papers thus felected for publication, which muft reft on the judgment or credit of their authors. And that it is an established rule of the fociety, never to give their opinions as a body upon any fubject, either of art or nature; and, therefore, that the thanks from the chair, which are fometimes given to the authors of papers that are read at their meetings, are to be confidered only as civilities, in return for the respect fhewn to the fociety by fuch communications: It may, however, be remarked, that if the mere refpect fhewn to the fociety, by the communication of a paper, be the only ground of thanks from the chair, every communication, whether ingenious or abfurd, has an equal title to thefe thanks; and the public would probably be glad to know, what determines the fociety to beftow thanks upon one man, for his respect, and not upon another. But we are farther informed, that the applaufe and approbation beltowed by the fociety upon feveral projects and curiofities exhibited before them, are mere civilities alfo, and do not imply the leaft acknowledgment of merit; and it is therefore hoped, that when hereafter it fhall be certified in the news, that certain projects and curiofities have been honoured with the applaufe and approbation of the fociety, the public will understand only, that the fociety thewed civility G to the authors or exhibitors, and not imagine they really approved, much lefs intended a recommendation; this mittake having, in fome inftances, difhonoured the fociety. NUMBER I. is called, An account of the use of furze in iencing the H banks of rivers, but it defcribes the ufe of furze only in making locks and dam-heads. The author, the Rev. Mr David Wark, fays, that the fencing rivers with furze is almoit univerfally practiced about Haddington, The Philofophical Tranfactions epitomized. in the county of Eaft Lothian, in Scotland, but his inftructions how to use furze in making locks and dam heads, are not eafily to be abridged, because they are fomewhat difficult to be understood. He fays, you are" to raise a perpendicular wall of deal-boards, two inches thick, and close to the wall on the other fide, you are to lay a mound of furze, intermixed with gravel, fix or feven yards broad; and you are to lay a frong tree along the top of the wall, equal with the higheft part of the mound; the laying a strong tree along the top of a deal wall two inches thick, is an operation that most readers will with had been farther explained. However, Mr Wark fays, that when it is performed, the wall cannot be hurt by any weight of water, nor any force of current, nor yet by mud or gravel, because the mound will at once keep off the weight and force of water, and fufpend the preffure of the mud and gravel, by the interweavings of the furze. He fays, that a thin wall of tone and lime will do as well as a wall of two-inch deal. No. II. An account of a remarkable Halo, by Tho. Barker, Efq; This phænomenon happened on the 20th of May, 1737, about a quarter before eleven in the morning, in a clear hot fky, and continued half an hour. This halo was remarkable only for being of an eliptical figure, within a circular halo of the ufual kind. 587 half an hour after nine, and at Roxbury about 5 minutes after ten; yet, as the courfe of this meteor was a diameter of the circle, of which Bridgwater was the centre, it seems strange that the noise it produced fhould be heard half an hour fooner, under the A middle of the line it defcribed, than under the beginning of it; for as Roxburg is North of Bridgewater, and the courfe of the meteor was from the North-Eaft, it must have paffed over Roxburg, before it paffed over Bridge B D water. The whirlwind happened on Tuefday, the roth of July 1760, at Leiceffer in New England: The morning was fair and hot, with a brifk gale at South Weft; the afternoon was cloudy, and about five, the fky had an uncommon appearance; clouds from the South-Weft and North-Weft feemed to rush together very swiftly, and, upon their meeting, a circular motion commenced; prefently after, a terrible noife was heard, and the whirlwind being now produced, marched from South-Weft to NorthWeft, rooting up fome trees, ftripping others of their branches, and breaking fome short off, difplacing ftones of 150 lb. weight, and breaking down all the walls and fences that stood in its way; the current of air was judged to be about forty rods wide, and after it had proceeded about a mile, it came within about four rods of the E houfe of one David Lynde, the only one in its courfe; there it took up an apple-tree by the roots, and carried it into a yard before the house; it then took the houfe, which was of wood, in the form of a right angle, two ftories high, with two ffone chimneys: Near the houfe was a fhop and fmall fhed, and on the oppofite fide of the road, at about ten rods diftance, was a barn. Some men in the houfe, perceiving the form to be coming, attempted to fhut the door; but before they could effect it, they G were furprized by the falling of ftones round them from the chimney; and the next moment the whole building was fwept clean away, except the fills, part of the ground-floor, and fragments of the two ftacks of chimneys, one about to feet high, and the other fomewhat lefs; all the timbers, H except three pieces, were found broken, and twifted to pieces. for 70 or 80 rods from the houfe, fome lying on the ground, and others tuck into it a foot or two deep, in all directions! No. III. An account of a meteor and whirlwind in New England. The meteor was feen on the 10th of May, 1760, about ten o'clock in the morning, at Roxbury, a town joining to Boon: It was a ball of fire, about five p inches diameter, drawing a train of light after it; it was of a white brightnefs, and caft a fhade in strong funfhine. We are told it was feen in the. South Eaft, but that it moved parallel to- the horizon from the North-East to the South Weft: It feems strange that the quarter from which it moved thould not be the fame as that where it was feen: Such, however, is the relation, as published by the committee. This meteor is faid to have produced a noife, which filled a circle of eighty miles diameter, of which Bridgwater was nearly the centre Roxbury was near the circumference of this circle; for it was not feen near the centre, because there it paffed too near the Sun to be visible: At Bridgewater, we are told, the noife was heard about (Gent. Mag. DEC. 1762.) The 588 The Philofophical Tranfactions epitomized. The boards and thingles of the houfe, with 3 or 4,000 new boards that lay near it, were fo fshattered that scarce a fingle piece could be found above four or five inches wide: The fame happened to the wooden furniture, not a whole ftick was to be found of any of A them; fome of the beds were found hanging on high trees at a diftance; and fearce, any of the pewter, iron kettles, and pots, could be found: of the fhop and fhed, nothing remained but the fills and floor; and a horfe that was standing under the fhed was B killed; another horfe, that was in a pafture at fome diftance from the houfe, as foon as the ftorm was over, ran towards the house, trembling in an extraordinary manner, and prefently lay down and died. It is fuppofed he had been violently fruck by fome pieces of the houfe: The barn, was thrown down, but the parts remained in a heap on the fpot. At the time this accident happened, there were in the houfe 14 perfons: Mr Lynde, his negroe man, nine women and children, and three travellers, it being a public houfe; of all which, the negroe only loft his life. It is fuppofed he was in one of the chambers; he was found about 8 rods diftant from the houfe, lying cross a low wall, and a bed near him, which had been in the chamber where it is fuppofed the ftorm found him; his back, thighs, and arms were broken, and he foon expired in extreme mifery Lynde himself was found about two rods diftant; he was winding up his watch when the ftorm took him, and the watch was found at one distance, and the cafe at another. The three travellers were found on the floor, near the door, which they had endeavoured to fhut, much cut, and bruifed by the ftones of the chimney; three young women and a child were found unhurt on the kitchenfloor. The mitrefs of the houfe, with a child in her arms, and two others, being in the kitchen, near a pallage into the cellar, were found forced down feveral of the stairs. A child, ftanding near the chimney, was found buried under its ruins, but preferved by a piece of board, which, falling obliquely over it against the jamb, fecured it from the falling ftones. A little girl, about feven years old, who was tanding before the door of the houfe, was taken up and carried above 30 rods, yet received no hurt, except Breaking the collar bone. n D E From the whole, there is reafon to bive, that the houfe was fuddenly lifted up from the fills about 10 feet, the height of thofe parts of the chimneys that were left standing, and then, by the violent circular motion of the wind, torn into shatters, and fcattered to great diftances in all directions, except that from which the wind proceeded. The force alfo appears to be momentary, otherwife nobody could have been left on the floor when the house was carried away. No. IV. A theorem of the aberration of the rays of light refracted thro' a lens, on account of the im. perfection of the spherical figure. By Nevil Mafkelyne. The late Mr Dolland, (for an account of whofe excellent improvement of refracting telescopes, fee v. 29 p.231) had invented a theorem, by the application of which he was able to make the aberrations of the combined concave and convex object lens's equal to each other, and confequently correct each other. Mr Makelyne, learning this in converfation with Mr Dolland, fet about the investigation of a fimilar theorem himfelf, which having compleated, he gave to Mr Delland, and Mr Dolland, in return, gave Mr Mafkelyne his. The two theorems confirmed each other, and Mr Mafkelyne's is here inferted, but it is incapable of abridgment. No. V. and VI. relate only to fome astronomical obfervations propofed to be made by Mr Mafkelyne, in concert with the abbe de la Caille, of the academy of Paris, for discovering the parallax of the Moon. Fite Denarius, never before published. No. VII. A differtation on a Sam G On this coin, which is filver, there are two Etrufcan infcriptions; it is of the fize of the large confular denarii, and one fide exhibits a galeated head; the other, four armed foldiers, touching with their fwords or sticks a fowpig, held by a herald with his left knee upon the ground. The galeated head is fuppofed to reprefent Mars; the reverfe to exprefs a confederacy between four powerful Italian states, supposed to be the Samnites, the Marfi, the Picentes, and the Lucanians, who firft entered into an alliance against Rome; the memory of which, this coin is fuppofed to have been intended to perpetuate, a little before the commencement of the focial war. No. VIII, IX, X. Several accounts of The Story of Bancbannus, frem Vertot. of an eruption of Vefuvius, on the 23d (See A No. X. contains an account, that, in September, 1760, a Venus, of exquifite workmanship, was dug up in the Mons Calius, near the place called Clive Scauri, at Rome: It is fix feet high, in the fame attitude with the Venus of Medicis, except that the right hand is before the breaft, and the left fupports a light drapery. On the bafe, B which is of one piece with the ftatue, is the following infcription : АПОТНС EN. TPOIADI MHNO ANTOC ΕΠΟΙΕΙ No. XI. A letter concerning the term and period of human life. C This letter is an attempt to fhew that Dr Halley's Breslau tables are not well constructed, and that the conclufions drawn from thence are erro- D neous; that Breslau is not fo healthy as has been fupposed; and that all the tables formed upon a thoufand lives are imperfect. A method is also propofed for obtaining a better, which cannot be abridged. No, XII. Experiments on checking the too luxuriant growth of fruit. E trees, and difpofing them to bear. By Keane Fitzgerald, Efq; The method here recommended is, to make two circular incifions quite through the bark, either on the trunk below the branches, or on the branches that are luxuriant, about four 589 From VERTOT's Hiftory of the Knights of IN N the year 1216, Andrew, king of Hungary, being the chief of the Crufade, before he pafled the Basphorus, was obliged to reinain fome time at Conftantinople, to wait for the Italian Crufades, who were expected every day. While he refided in that city, a melancholy accident happened in his kingdom, and in his own family, which was the reafon that this Prince made no long stay in the Eaft, and was of little fervice to the Chriftians of Paieftine. When he quitted Hungary, he left the regency to the Palatine of that kingdom, named Bancbannus, whofe fidelity and zeal he had long experienced: The king at his departuro advised him to maintain peace with the neighbouring princes, and, above all to adminifter strict justice to alt his fubjects, without any regard either to birth or station. This nobleman, during the king's abfence, difcharged his duty, in all refpects, proving himself worthy of the confidence with which he was honoured; and, while he devoted all his time to the bufinefs of the realm, his wife, a lady of extraordinary beauty,endeavoured, by her affiduity about the Queen, to alleviate the uneafinefs occafioned by the absence of the king her husband. Such was the fituation of affairs at the court of Hungary, when the Count of Moravia, the Queen's brother, ar rived there, who was tenderly beloved by this princess; at first, every one's attention was engroffed by feafts and pleafures, but foon the dangerous poifon of love was intermixed with thefe innocent amusements: The Count became defperately enamoured of the Regent's wife, and he ventured to declare his paffion to her; but that lady, whofe virtue exceeded her beauty, anfwered him only by the leverity expreffed in her countenance and manners. This refiftance produc'd the usual effect; the Count's criminal defires became fo much the more violent. His paffion, which augmented every day, threw him into a deep melancholy; he no longer relifhed those games and public fpectacles, and ail the vain amufements, which feriously occupy the idle hours of the rat; the Count fought only follitude; but the Queen, from a complaifance natural to women on fuch occafions, and to H withdraw her brother from fuch a inches diftant from each other; then F more. [To be continued.} G lonely life, retained the Regent's wife about 590 The Story of Bancbannus, from Vertot. feel the first effects of his refentment but having heard that he had fecretly retired into his own country, the Regent, in defpair that his victim had efcaped, turned all his fury against A the Queen herself, he went to the palace, and having engaged that princefs to go into her clofet, under pretence of communicating fome letters, that, he faid, he had just received from the King, he no fooner faw himself alone with her, than, after having reproached her for her criminal confederacy with the Count, and with her treachery to his wife, the furious Palatine plunged a dagger in her heart; and then going from the clofet in a rage, he published before the whole court, his fhame and his revenge. D The Regent's wife, by this difcreet conduct in the Count, thinking herfelf fecure, continued to appear at court, when the Queen, pretending c one day fome particular business, conducted her into a retired apartment, where having locked the door, the abandoned her to the criminal defres of her brother, who, in concert with the Queen, was concealed in a clofet. The Regent's wife left the room with thame in her countenance, and grief in her heart. She thut herdelf up in her own house, where the bewailed in fecret the Count's crime, and her own misfortune. But on her husband's folliciting her one day to return his love, the fecret was dis valged; and, overpowered with an. guith, Approach me not, my Lord, faid he, buiting into a flood of tears, but dfcard a wife, who is no longer worthy of your chaffe embraces; an audacious wretch has defiled your bed, and the Queen his fifler was not ashamed to betray me 40 him I should already have punished myfels for this wickedness, had not Reli F gian forbid me to attempt my life. But this prohibition of Heaven does not extend to an injured husband : I am too criminal, as I am dishonoured. I fue for death, as for a favour, and to prevent me from jurviving my fame and disgrace..!! The Regent, though overwhelmed with grief, told her, that an involun tary tault was rather la misfortune than a crime, and that the violence which had been committed, altered not the purity of her mind: He defired her to be comforted, or at least carefully to conceal the cause of her affliction: One common intereft, added he, obliges us both to take no notice of this xruel outrage, till we shall find an opportunity for vengeance, proportioned to the enormity of the offence. He intended that the Count should E Either from furprize, or from refpect, no one attempted to stop him; he mounted his horfe without any obftacle; and being accompanied by fome nobles who were witneffes of this dreadful catastrophe, he fet out for Confantinople, and arrived at that city before the King had left it. He iminediately repaired to the palace which this prince inhabited; and prefenting himself before him, with an intrepidity that can fcarce be parallelled, Sir, faid he, when I received your last orders, on your leaving Hungary, it was your particular command, that, without any regard to birth or fiation, I bould render to all your fubjects the most impartial juftice: I have done fo to myself. I bave killed the Queen your wife, who had proffituted mine, and far from confulting my fafety by an unworthy flibt, I offer you my head. Difpofe of my life as you please; but remember that, by my life or by my death, your people will form their judgment of your equity, and whether I am innocent or guilty.. The King liftened to a difcourfe thus furprizing without interrupting him, and at the fame time without changing countenance; and when the Regent had concluded, If your repreGfentation, replied that Prince, be true, return to Hungary ; continue to adminifter juftice to my fubjects with the fame exactnefs and feverity that you have fhewn tè your felf. I fball make a short flay in the Holy Land, and at my return Ï ball examine on the spot whether your behaviour is worthy of praise or punishment. H In fhort, the King of Hungary, bes fore he quitted Paljine, bathed himfelf, with all his army, in the river Jordan, on the eve of St Martin; a religious ceremony practifed by pil grims |