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tenced a man to pay a certain fine for murdering one of his slaves. The jurors were informed by the court, that it was their province to ascertain the guilt of the prisoner and not to award the punishment. But they refused to change their verdict. Whether the court submitted to such an encroachment upon its authority, we are not informed. The case may excite a smile, but the conduct of the jury is not more absurd and reprehensible, than that of grand inquests which occasionally, in the southern and western states, present persons as suitable candidates for certain offices. All political feelings should be discarded from the jurybox, as scrupulously as from the pulpit. There is, said the wisest of men, a time for all things.

Tennessee. The legislature of Tennesse has received a petition from a certain Lamas Clampit, in which he states that he owes certain duties to society, and that in order to fulfil them, like a good citizen, he is desirous of taking to himes!f a wife. He further states that he has no doubt of being blessed with a large family of children, and concludes by praying the legislature to pass a law allowing him to erect a BILLIARD TABLE, for the support of his said intended wife and expected children! The petition was referred to a committee.

Kentucky. At Louisville, last month, specie was at 98 per cent advance in exchange for Commonwealth paper.

Ohio. By the census of this State it appears that there are in it 428 deaf and dumb.

A late Chilicothe paper informs us that on the preceding evening the people of the town assembled and burnt all the members of the Legislature from that county in effigy, excepting one, together with the clerk of the Senate. What produced the ferment was the non-election of Judges Cook and Armstrong, in particular; and it is understood also,

that nearly ALL the Legislature have done this session, had prepared the public mind for this burst of indignation.

The Board of Canal Commissioners have reported on the advantages of constructing a Canal to unite Lake Erie and the Ohio river. The route will pass from Lake Erie to the Ohio through the upper part of the valley of Muskingum and Licking, and the lower part of the Scioto valley.

Indiana. The immense numbers of pigeons that inhabit the western regions of the United States have excited the astonishment of travellers and occasioned wonderful accounts which many, who have not been-eye witnesses, have considered as fabulous. Although the pigeon is decidedly a bird of the wilderness, yet it does not hesitate to encroach on the settlements of man, and often proves destructive to his wheat and corn-field.

From a computation, it appears, there are upon a square mile every day, 5000-that they embrace a tract of country, seventy miles square; so that allowing one half this area to be filled at the rate above mentioned, there would be above twelve millions. Pigeons are great gormandizers, and it appears, that allowing their food only equal to one gill of wheat per day, which is supposed to be short of the quantity of nutriment they would require, they would consume about 115,327 bushels per day-this, at fifty cents per bushel, would amount to 57,663 dollars. Providence has given them a peculiar power of seeking far and wide, through the fertile forests of the west, to gratify that appetite, and gather up the surplus fruits of the earth which would otherwise waste, like the leaves, to enrich the soil that produces them.

The town of Richmond, Wayne County, situated on the east bank of White River, was laid out in 1816. It now contains 453 inhabitants, and

two printing offices. The Quakers of this state hold their yearly meetings here, in a house 100 feet loug 60 wide, and two stories high. It is represented that 5000 persons attended the last meeting.

Illinois. STONE COAL AT THE SALINE. A bank of stone coa! of inexhaustible extent, has lately been discovered at the Saline, in this state, which promises the greatest advantages to the manufactory of salt. General White, to whom the publick is already so much indebted for the late discovery of strong water at that place, is also entitled to the credit of this new discovery-which, we are assured, will lessen the expense of making salt at least one half. A quarry of it has been opened, and preparations are in a state of forwardness to commence boiling with it instead of wood, in the course of two or three weeks. The cost of this fuel, at the mouth of the furnace we understand will not exceed three cents a bushel.

Missouri. Much apprehension is entertained by the people on the frontiers of this state from the hostile attitude of the neighbouring Indians. We have not more than three thousand men to protect a territory of nearly 5000 miles, and keep in check a body of 20,000 warriors,

who are restless, intrepid, and sanguinary.

One of our friends writes from St. Louis as follows:

In my ride to this place, near Kaskaskia, I saw the son of the ru ling chief of the tribe of that name, once among the most powerful of the savage nations, mustering probably 5000, but now so cut up by their enemies as to to count but 50. The old chief, named Ducoigne, I believe I saw at a distance. He lives in a very comfortable house just beyond Kaskaskia. These people had once a church of the Roman Catholick persuasion 1500 strong! They formed a grammar and dictionary of their language in Shawnoe and French. They were both taken off by a fellow whose name I forget and carried to Detroit, where they are probably preserved. The Priest was of their own tribe.

Michigan Territory. If the population of this territory continue its present rate of increase, it will be entitled, in the course of two years, to an equal rank in our national confederacy.

It is mentioned in the Detroit Gazette as a singular fact, that there is not an individual imprisoned for crime or debt in this Territory.

OBITUARY.

HENRY SERGEANT, Esq. aged 42 quent and enfeebling disease, he years. (March 26th.)

The deceased was a man whom misfortunes had the power to afflict, but not to bend. With great sensibility, and the loftiest principles of honour, he maintained his integrity under circumstances the most adverse, and exerted all his faculties with unwearied diligence, to do justice to those who, according to his own exalted conceptions of duty, had claims on his time and talents. With a constitution impaired by fre

still devoted his days with untiring effort, to repair for others the losses which his own misfortunes had occasioned; affording by his conduct an example of the idea of virtue, which he had always fondly cherished and inculcated. In the midst of these efforts, he sunk. His friends have lost a companion endeared to them by bis kind and generous nature, no less than by his rich and highly cultivated understanding; and his immediate relatives, who felt and

knew his worth and goodness, will find a void in their social circle, which can never be supplied.

It may not be improper to add, to the above tribute to the moral character of the deceased, that in the intervals of business he was a diligent reader and sometimes amused himself in literary composi tion. A sensible paper on the state of our "Currency," in the Port Folio for 1819, shows that he understood the theory as well as the practical operations of his profession; while

the

"New Readings in Shakspeare," in the vols. for 1818 and 1819, of the same work, evince the playfulness of his humour.

SAMUEL WILCOCKS, Esq. of Bucks County, (Pa.) aged 37 years: -an event by which his family are deprived of a most amiable and affectionate relative, his many friends of a much esteemed associate, and the community of a man, upright, honorable, and conscientious, in all his pursuits.

In Wrentham, Mass. MAJOR SAMUEL COWELL, an officer and patriot of the revolution, aged 87. In his youth, he served as a private soldier in one campaign in the old French war, in Canada, and afterwards, in the revolution, he took an active part, and was distinguished for the firmness of his principles, as well as his zeal. When the news of the battle of Lexington was brought to him, he instantly left the field in which he was engaged, collected the company which was then under his command, saw that they were all properly equipped, and began his march towards Boston, in a few hours after the news had reached him, and by daylight the next morning was encamped in Roxbury. He died in the same house in which he was born.

In Monmouth, Me. SIMEON DEARBORN, Esq. aged 90. In our revolution he was actively engaged, in defending his country's rights. At the taking of Burgoyne he was a

Lieut. of Militia and was in actual engagement.

Mrs. Rowson, who died lately at Boston, was the daughter of William Haswell, an officer in the British navy. The family resided at Nantucket when the revolutionary contest came on, when, in accordance with the cautious policy of that day, Mr. Haswell, a half pay officer, was of course, considered a prisoner of war, and sent into the country for safe keeping, but subsequently to Halifax, by cartel. This officer had several sons-two of whom have been gallant officers in the naval service of the United States, and both were distinguished in the fight of the Le Berceau, and in some other engagements of that short war. Susanna Haswell was married to Mr. William Rowson, in the year 1786, in London. While she resided in Massacusetts, she had frequent opportunities of seeing that great orator, and lawyer, James Otis, then one of the most influential men in America. Much pains had been bestowed on her education, and this learned and enthusiastic scholar was delighted with her early display of talents, and called her his little pupil. This intimacy she recollected with pleasure and pride, in every period of her life. In the same year of her marriage, she commenced author, and published her first work, "Victoria," which was dedicated, by permission, to the Duchess of Devonshire, then the most brilliant star in the circles of taste and fashion. Her Grace was a genius, a beauty, a politician, and a writer of considerable distinction; but her affability and kindness surpassed even her charms and accomplishments. The merit of Victoria, and the kindness of her who had become the friend of the author, secured it a flattering reception. The Duchess, among other acts of kindness to Mrs. Rowson, introduced her to the Prince of Wales; and she obtained, by this interview, a pension for her father. Mrs. Row

son's next work was "Mary, or the Test of Honor." This was not entirely original, but was taken, in part, from a manuscript furnished by a bookseller. This book she never claimed as her work. Then followed " A Trip to Parnassus," " A Critique on Authors and Performers;" and then "Fille de Chambre," "Inquisitor," 66 Mentoria," and "Charlotte Temple, or a Tale of Truth." This last work has had the merit of the most extensive sale in this country of any other ever published here-more then twenty five thousand copies of it were sold in a few years. Mrs. Rowson lately commenced writing a sequel to this book, but did not finish it. In 1793, she returned to this country and was engaged in the Philadelphia theatrical company for three years. Notwithstanding her arduous duties on the stage her pen was not idle; at this time she wrote the "Trials of the Heart," a very voluminous work; "Slaves in Algiers," an opera; "The Volunteers,”a farce-founded on the whiskey insurrection, in Pennsylvania; and the "Female Patriot." In 1795, while in Baltimore she wrote a poetical address to the army of the United States, called the "Standard of Liberty," which was recited by Mrs. Whitlock, from the stage. Mrs. Rowson went to Boston in 1796, and was engaged at the Federal-street Theatre; and for her benefit, produced the comedy of" Americans in England." Here closed her dramatic labours-since then, she has never attempted any thing for the stage, except, perhaps, a song or ode. At the close of her engagement, she opened a school; and before the end of the year she had an hundred, pupils and many more anxious to be admitted. From this place, she went to Medford, and opened an academy for young ladies. This seminary was thronged from

*This is so extraordinary a circumstance in the history of American literaure, that we are disposed to question the accuracy of the statement. Ed. P. F.

every quarter, not only from our own country, but from Newfoundland, Jamacia, New-Providence, and more distant places. From Medford, she removed to Newton, about the same distance from Boston, and continued her school until she removed to Boston; in every place she had as many pupils as her health would allow her to take. During her laborious duties, she found time to write "Reuben and Rachel," a novel; the scene of which is laid in this country, and other works. She has also compiled a "Dictionary;" two systems of "Geography;" “A present for young ladies," being a collection of various exercises and poems, recited by her pupils, “Historical Exercises," &c. She was the conductor, at one time, of the "Boston Wekely Magazine," in which she wrote many valuable essays, on various moral and interesting subjects. Odes for masonic purposes, hymns for charitable associations, and songs for patriotic festivals, came from her pen, too numerous to mention singly; and each of them did credit to her poetical powers. The Biblical Dialogues" was her last publication.

In Lisbon in September last, aged 74, ABBE JOZE CORREA de Serra, Counsellor of Finances, Knight of several orders, Member of several learned societies, formerly Minister Plenipotentiary from Portugal to the United States, and well known in Europe and America, as a distinguished botanist, and as a gentleman possessed of an uncommon share of literaray knowledge. In all the different countries in which be resided, a just respect was paid to his talents, which, together with the kindness of his manners and the brilliancy of his wit, ensured him every where the most friendly reception. His public services justified the high confidence of his government; his literary merits have been publickly acknowledged by several institutions in Europe and America.

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