ISW.] Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



451 



There are several towns in tliis (ract ; 

 the chief is El-Dcrrejch', vvhicli h:is 

 sucreede:! El-Yeinamch as the capital. 

 It is the seat o!' the VV;s!iabis,who. thoiij;h 

 lately reduced by the army of Ibrahim 

 Paclia, son of Mohammed Ali. viceroy 

 of Eu;yj>t, are here reoreseiiled as only 

 in a stale of sleep, which cannot Le of 

 Jong duration. 'Chat army overran the 

 whole country ; in it were a French 

 officer and Ilulian surgeon, from whose 

 information, and that of others in the 

 expedition, M. Jomaid has drawn up a 

 chart, whici) he does not indicate as 

 complete, but as more copious than that 

 of d'A.iiville, who had only the Arabian 

 geographers to consult. The positions 

 of iMecca and Medina are, in the com- 

 mon maps, too near tlie sea. A parti- 

 cular plan of the district and town of 

 El-Yemanieh, drawn by M. Rousseau, 

 formerly French consul at Bagdad, is 

 annexed. 



The following contains a valuation of 

 Ihe donations and legacies to the poor 

 and to lios|)itals in France, from 1814 

 to 1823, agreeably to the form of accep- 

 tation authorised by government: — 



In 1811 812,805 francs. 



1815 1,3].), 8S5 



181(5 1,725,637 



1817 1,8j7,u5i 



1818 2,87C,146 



1819 3,213,915 



1820 'i,il(i,G13 



lo21 6,663.810 



18';i2 2,770,493 



1823 3,8'16,00a 



Total • • 27,505,256 francs. 



SWITZERLAND, 



The Literary Society of St. Gall, 

 consists of 122 members. In their li- 

 brary, among other works, is a collec- 

 tion of the best on the history of Swit- 

 zerland. 



Some of the foreign journals liave 

 circulated a statement, that the Swiss 

 plantations of the vine, at Vevay and 

 Gand, on the Ohio, had miscarried. 

 This is contradicted in the Revue Ency- 

 clopediquc, by a letter from an ancient 

 founder of the colony of Yevay, BI. 

 Jacques Dufour, who, alter enumerating 

 various cross accidents to which the 

 colony had been exposed for three years, 

 from bilious and intermitting fevers, 

 from the yellow fever (imjjorted from 

 New Orleans by the steam-packets), 

 and from a total faihue of the banks, 

 reports the very .successful labours of 

 the vine-planters, their business proving 

 the most prosperous, lie declares the 

 wine excellent, and that it sells well in 



the town of Cincinnati, which has now 

 a population of at least L)0OOiii(lividu;ds. 

 The vine-plant, originally from Ma- 

 deira, agrees wonderlully with the soil 

 and climate. 



ITALY. 



The journal, entitled " Le Notisiodcl 

 Giorna," which publishes lists of the 

 population of Uome, gives the following 

 particulars :~At Easter 1823, 130,269 

 inhabitants: in lbl4, the number was 

 120,505. Fiom the year 1817, the 

 deaths have outnumbered the births: 

 last year the deaths were .5480, and the 

 ba])tisms 4365. The deaths, to the po- 

 pulation, are in the ratio of 1 to 24 ; the 

 l)ir(hs, 1 to 21. At Ifome are 27 

 bishops, 1395 piiests, 13G5 monks and 

 rdigieuse, 1370 nuns, and more than 

 400 seminarists. 



There is now in the Museum at 

 Parma a small Roman corn-mill, of 

 very remote antiquity. The construc- 

 tion is very simple, such as was in use 

 at Rome previ(jus to the invention of' 

 water and other mills. It consists 

 chiefly of two masses of grey stone : the 

 largest forms the immovable support of 

 the other, which was movable by levers 

 that passed through horizontal holes. 

 The female slaves had to work it, and 

 the labour must have been toilsome. 

 Tiie height of the two together, when in 

 action, is twenty-nine inches. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



The elements of public instruction, 

 the precursor to civilization, are rapidly 

 propagating in the newly-formed state 

 of Columbia. The late gazettes evince 

 the zeal and activity exerted by the 

 republican government in ameliorating 

 the laws and institutions, and more 

 especially in rendering instruction, and 

 the means of its attainment, easy and 

 popular. Two Lancasterian schools 

 have been founded in the capital: these 

 arc to supply tutors for the provincial 

 schools, as Ihey shall be called for. 

 Reading, wriling, and arithmetic, are 

 taught; also the elements of geography, 

 and the rights and duties of citizens. 

 At some late examinations, the publiu 

 were introduced, to appreciate the pro- 

 gre.ss of the learners, the expenses of 

 whose education are defrayed from the 

 atippressed monasteries. The names of 

 two individuals are entitled to honour- 

 able mention : M. Camilla Morics, who 

 has lately emancipated nine of his 

 slaves; and ]M. Fernandez Soto, who 

 treats his negroes as free men, regularly 

 allowing them wages for their labour. 



SFIIUT 



