560 
gave himself, the sultan has been ob- 
liged to depose his principal ministers, 
and remove the minions who governed 
him. Nothing is gained by humanity 
from this change, but it demonstrates 
the ease with which England and Aus- 
tria, by aiding the Greeks, might raise 
a Greek and civilized empire, serving 
at once as a barrier against the Cos- 
sacks and other northern barbarians, 
and as a monument of the triumph of 
just policy in those states who call 
themselves enlightened. In pursuing 
such policy they would have an alliance 
in the affections of mankind, more effi- 
cient than the money of all the usu- 
rious jews and stock-jobbers in Europe. 
ASIA. 
Near the ruins of Antioch, Sept. 13.—It 
has fallen to my lot (says the writer of a 
private letter) to relate the particulars of 
an event that has thrown most of the fa- 
milies of this part of Syria into sorrow and 
mourning, and all into the greatest diffi- 
culties and distress. On the 13th of Au- 
gust, at half past nine in the evening, 
Aleppo, Antioch, Idlip, Riha, Gisser, Shogr, 
Darcoush, Armenas, every village, and 
every detached-built cottage, in this pa- 
thalic, and some towns in the adjoining 
Ones, Were, in ten or twelve seconds, en- 
firely destroyed by an earthquake, and are 
become heaps of stone and rubbish, by 
which, on the lowest computation, 20,000 
human beings, about a tenth of the popu- 
lation, were destroyed, and an equal num- 
ber maimed or wounded, The extreme 
points, where this terrible phenomenon was 
violent enough to destroy the edifices, 
seem to be Diabekir and Merkab (twelve 
leagues south of Latachia), Aleppo and 
Seandaroon, Killis and Sheckoen. The 
shock was also sensibly felt at Damascus, 
Adeno, and Cyprus; and at sea, so vio- 
lently, within two leagues of Cyprus, that 
it was thought ships had grounded. Flashes 
of fire were perceived at various times 
throughout the night, resembling the light 
of the full moon; but at no place, to my 
knowledge, has it left a chasm of any ex- 
tent, although in the low grounds, slight 
e¥evices are every where to be seen, and 
out of many of them, water issued, but 
soon after subsided. ‘There was nothing 
remarkable in the weather, or state of the 
atmosphere. Edifices on the summit of 
the highest mountains were not safer than 
buildings situated on the banks of rivers, 
or on the beach of the sea. 
Tt is impossible to convey an adequate 
idea of the scenes of horror that were si- 
multaneously passing on the dreadful 
night of the 13th of August. The dark- 
ness, the continuance of the most violent 
shocks at short intervals, the crash of fall- 
ing walls, the shrieks, the groans, the ac- 
eents of agony and despair, cannot be de- 
Political Affairs in December. 
[Jan |, 
scribed. When at length the morning 
dawned, and the return of light permitted 
the people to quit the spot, on which they 
had been providentially saved, a most af- 
fecting scene ensued. In a public cala- 
mity, in which the Turk, the Jew, the 
Christian, the Idolator, were indiscriminate 
victims, every one forgot fora time his re- 
Jigious animosities. 
The spacious mansion, that has heen the 
residence of the British consul at Aleppo 
for 230 years, is completely ruined. The 
houses of all the other public agents, and 
private European individuals at Aleppo, 
have been likewise entirely ruined. At 
Aleppo, the Jews suffered the most, on ac- 
count of their quarter being badly built 
with narrow lanes, and of 3000, 600 lives 
were lost. Of the Europeans only one 
person of note, signor Esdra de Picciotta, 
Austrian Consul General, and ten or twelve 
women or children, perished; but the 
greater part are now suffering from oph- 
thalmia and dysenteries, occasioned by 
their being exposed to the excessive heats 
of the day, and the cold dews of the night. 
Sept. 20. Shocks of the earthquake con- 
tinue to be felt to this day, the thirty- 
eighth after the principal shock, and no 
change has taken place in the state of de- 
solation which that dreadful catastrophe 
produced. 
Oct, 18. Till the 9th instant, slight 
shocks of earthquake continued to be felt; 
since that day, they have entirely ceased, 
but confidence in a continuance of safety 
is not restored; and, although the rains and 
cold weather render temporary sheds very 
inconvenient habitations, nobody is yet in- 
clined to sleep under a roof supported by 
walls. 
Oct. 19. At half-past five p. m. a violent 
shock of earthquake destroyed all onr 
hopes of its being terminated. 
We feel it proper to add, that according to 
the new theory, published in the Twelve Es- 
says, supported by the effect on ships at sea, 
that earthquakes are of the class of phenomena 
called electrical, and are caused by such a dis- 
position of the super and sub-strata as creates 
a series—something ukin tothe galvanic series. 
The preventive would be to drive metallic 
burs in various places into the earth, which 
would connect the strata, and restore the dis- 
turbed equilibrium of the acidulous and alka- 
line gases, just as similar bars would, at suf- 
ficient height in the atmosphere, prevent light- 
ning’. 
ITALY. 
Naples, Oct. 25.—1 mentioned in my 
last, (says a correspondent,) that Vesuvius 
was in great activity ; aud I shall now en- 
deavour to give you a slight description of 
the grandest eruption I have ever seen, 
and, except that of 1794, so well described 
by Sir William Hamilton, the grandest 
that lias happened within the memory of 
man. 
2 Since 
