1822.] 
Jaid all the way from St. George’s Hill 
on the common. 
CALAIS. 
Towards the close of the 12th cen- 
tury, Calais was a fishing village, with 
little in it to excite interest or atten- 
tion; but when the inhabitants had 
acquired importance from success in 
the herring fishery, we find the church 
ready to extend its tyranny and usur- 
pation on the occasion. In the year 
1180, Pope Alexander III. granted the 
tithe of all the herrings there taken to 
the Abbey of St. Bertin, celebrated for 
its immense wealth, but to which bad 
effects were attributed, from its im- 
proper use. M. de Becquigny is the 
author who informs us of the rapacity 
thus excited, and the luxurious, worth- 
less, and dissolute lives led by the ab- 
bots and monks. 
The honest fishermen, however, not 
clearly comprehending the Pope’s right 
to give away their property, declared 
they would sooner decimate the monks 
than suffer their herrings to be deci- 
mated. But the unjust sentence passed 
on them in this transaction, far from 
being combated, was confirmed by the 
civil power, and they were reduced to 
obedience by the Count of Flanders, 
who was then their regent, as guardian 
to Tola, Countess of Boulogne.—See 
also L’ Histoire del Academie des In- 
scriptions and Belles Lettres. 
SCIENCE in FRANCE. 
Caroline Herschel, sister to the as- 
tronomer of that name, is not the only 
female who addicts herself to the study 
of astronomy, and has reached a high 
degree of improvement in it. 
Madame, or to borrow her own desig- 
nation, the female citizen, Le Frangois, 
wife of Le Frangois, nephew and 
assistant to Jerome Lalande, who pre- 
-sides over the national observatory at 
Paris, seconded the zeal of her husband 
and his uncle, so as to combine and 
blend the results of their different ob- 
servations and calculations. 
In the midst of the convulsions that 
agitate Europe, and exposed to immi- 
nent danger from the commotions that 
render the times dark and perilous in 
_their native country, these three persons 
were occupied in the bloody year 1794 
in the labour of making a catalogue 
of the stars; and they published the 
result of their united efforts and powers, 
in 40,000 calculations. 
During those popular tumults, science 
was nonrished. Citizen Mechain was 
sent, in 1792, to Barcelona, to make 
admeasurements, and Delambre, in the 
Stephensiana.—No. V. 
46 
same year, was employed in measuring 
triangles, and taking the distances be- 
tween Orleans and Dunkirk. 
LETTER of LORD NELSON relative to 
PRIVATEERS. 
Termagant to be sent with the 
Dispatches coming by the Seahorse. 
To write Mr. Nepear that although 
I have full power and authority over 
his majesty’s fleets in the Mediterra- 
nean, respecting military affairs; yet 
with respect to privateers, they being 
private property, I have not the small- 
est controul. When commissions are 
granted them, the owners give security 
in a large sum of money for their good 
conduct, and I should, and so would 
the sovereign, be liable to a prosecution 
by law sheuld he force them to any 
act. Their conduct can only be judged 
by the High Court of Admiralty, on 
which there are two in the Mediterra- 
nean, one at Malta, the other at Gibral- 
ter. However, to shew my sincere 
disposition to do all in my power for 
the security of the neutral navigation, 
which I am sure will never be inter- 
rupted by H. M. ships, F send you a 
paper for each of the vessels, which may 
possibly make the privateers consider 
a little before they will detain a real 
neutral vessel and cargo; but I must 
apprize you and desire that you will 
inform the government of Sardinia 
that any paper from me will not have 
the smallest weight in an English court 
of justice, where they adjudge from 
what is proved, and not from any opi- 
nion of others, however high their rank 
or station in life. I am very much of 
opinion that the conduct of Privateers 
of all nations is oftentimes very irre- 
gular, to say no more of it; but I can 
only again repeat that I have no con- 
troul over them, their conduct and 
seizures can only be judged in the Court 
of Admiralty. I shall send your letter 
and papers to his Excellency the Gover- 
nor of Gibraltar, that they may be laid 
officially before the Court of Admiralty 
there; and I would recommend the 
case of the taking a Sardinian vessel 
to make other captures to be sent to 
Compte de Fidmont, to be laid before 
the British government, for I am of 
opinion that such conduct ought not to 
be permitted. 
THE POPE. 
The following hemistich gives a 
modest account, and contains a just 
conspectus of what the popes once 
aimed at: 
Divisum imperium cum Jove Papa tenet. 
NOVELTIES 
