i ■ ALE 
a prefent of three or four thoufand pounds, to purchare 
the favour of the vilir and men in office. For thefe two 
fums the farmer receives all the duties of the government; 
which are, firft, The produce of import and export du¬ 
ties on merchandife coming from Europe, India, and 
Conftanlinopie, and on that exported in exchange. Se¬ 
condly, The taxes paid by the herds of cattle brought 
every year by the Turkmen and Curds from Armenia and 
the Diarbekar, to be fold in Syria. Thirdly, The fifth of 
the falt-works of Djeboul. And laftly, The rniri, or land- 
tax. Thefe united may produce about 6o,oool. 
The pacha, deprived of this lucrative branch of the ad - 
miniftration, receives a fixed allowance of about 8300I. 
This revenue has always been inadequate to the expences ; 
for, befides the troops he is obliged to maintain, and the 
reparation of the highways and fortreffies, the expences of 
which he is obliged to defray, he is under the neceffity of 
making large prefents to the minifters, in order to keep 
bis place ; but the Porte adds to the account the contribu¬ 
tions he may levy on the Curds and Turkmen, and his 
extortions from the villages and individuals; nor do the 
pachas come ffiort of this calculation. Abdi Pacha, who 
governed thirteen or fourteen years ago, carried off, at 
the end of fifteen months, upwards of i6o,oool. by laying 
under contribution every trade, even the very cleaners of 
tobacco-pipes ; and very lately another of the fame llame 
has been obliged to fly for fimilar oppreffions. The for¬ 
mer was rewarded by the divan with the command of an 
army againft the Ruffians ; but, if the latter has not en¬ 
riched himfelf, he will be firangled as an extortioner. 
Such is the ordinary progrefs of affairs in Turkey! 
In confequence of fuch wretched government, the 
greater part of the pachalics in the empire are impoverifh- 
ed and laid wafte. This is the cafe in particular with that 
of Aleppo. In the ancient dcftars, or regifters of imports, 
upwards of 3200 villages were reckoned; but at prefent 
the collector can fcarcely find 400. Such of our mer¬ 
chants as have refided there twenty years, have themfelves 
feen the greater part of the environs of Aleppo become 
depopulated. The traveller meets with nothing but hou- 
fes in ruins, citterns rendered ufelefs, and fields abandon¬ 
ed. Thofe who cultivated them are fled into the towns, 
where the population is abforbed, but where at leaft the 
individual conceals himfelf among the crowd from the ra¬ 
pacious hand of defpotifm. 
ALERIA, Alalia, or Alaria, anciently a town of 
Corfica, lituated near the middle of the eaft fide of the 
illand, on an eminence, near the mouth of the river Ro- 
tanus mentioned by Ptolemy; built by the Phocasans. 
Afterwards Sylla led a colony thither. It is now in ruins, 
and called Alcria Dijlnitla, 
ALERT, adj. [ alertc , Fr. perhaps from alacris , but 
probably from d l f art , according to art or rule.] In the 
military fenfe, on guard; watchful; vigilant; ready at a 
call. In the common fenfe, brilk ; pert; petulant; fmart; 
implying fome degree of cenfure and contempt.-—-I faw an 
,alert young fellow, that cocked his hat upon a friend of 
his, and accofted him, Well, jack, the old prig is dead 
at laft. Addifon. 
ALERTNESS, f. The quality of being alert; fpright- 
linefs; pertnefs. 
ALES (Alexander), a celebrated divine of the con- 
feffion of Auglbourg, born at Edinburgh the 23a of 
April 1500. He foon made a confiderable progrefs in 
fchool-divinity, and entered the lifts very early againft 
Luther. Soon after he had a fliare in the difpute which 
Patrick Hamilton maintained againft the ecclefiafiics, in 
favour of thenew faith he had imbibed at Marpurgh. Fie 
endeavoured to bring him back to the Catholic religion; 
but this he could not efteft, and even began himfelf to 
doubt about his own religion, being much affected by the 
difcourfe of this gentleman, and ftill more by the conftan- 
cy he (hewed at the ftake, where David Beton archbifiiop 
of St. Andrew’scaufed him to be burnt. Beginning thus 
to waver, he was himfelf perfecuted with fo much vio- 
Vol. I. No. 17. 
ALE 265 
lence, that he was obliged to retire into Germany, where 
he became at length a perfefl convert to the Proteftant 
religion. He was chofen profeflbr of divinity at Leipfic, 
and died in March 1565. He wrote a Commentary on 
St. John, on the Epiftles to Timothy, on the Pfalms, &c. 
ALESA, AL-iESA, or Halesa, an ancient town of 
Sicily, on the Tufcan fea, built, according to Diodorus 
Siculus, by Archonides of Herbita, in the fecond year of 
the 94th Olympiad, or 403 years before Chrift; iituated 
on an eminence about a mile from the fea : now in ruins. 
ALESHAM, or Aylsham, a fmall neat town in Nor¬ 
folk. It is fifteen miles N. of Norwich, and 121 N.E. by 
N. of London. Lat-52.53.N. lon.o. 30. E. This place 
is all copyhold, holden chiefly under the duchy of Lancaf- 
ter, the manor having, by Edward III. been granted to 
John of Gaunt, duke of Lancafter. There are two fairs, 
the 23d of March, and the laft Tuefday in September. It 
has a market on Tuefdays and Saturdays. There is a 
Spa about a mile from the town, the waters of which are 
reckoned a fovereign remedy foralmoft all chronic difor- 
ders.—The river from hence to Coltifliall, in its courfe to 
Yarmouth, has been made navigable; diitance about ten 
miles, in which fpace there are five leeks. A free-fehool 
was founded here by Robert Jennys, mayor of Norwich, in 
1517, and endowed with icl. a year, paid by the treafur- 
er of the great hofpital at Norwich, of which-the mayor, 
&c. of the city are governors, and the manor of Paken- 
ham in Shropham is bound for it; and archbifhop Parker 
founded two fcholarlhips in Corpus Chrifti, commonly 
called Bennet, college, in Cambridge, and appropriated 
them to that and Wymondham fchool; one of the fcholars 
muft be born in Aylfham ; but it is fufficient for the other 
to be educated at the free-fehool there, and he muft be 
fent up to college by the nomination of the mayor and 
Court of Norwich : the other to be admitted by the college 
without any fuch nomination. 
ALESIA, called Alexia by Livy and others; an ancient 
town of the Mandubii, a people of Celtic Gaul; fituated, 
according to Ca;far, on a very high hill, whofe foot was 
walhed on two Tides by two rivers. The town was of fuch 
antiquity, that Diodorus Siculus relates it was built by 
Hercules. It is fuppofed to be the city of Alife, in the 
duchy of Burgundy, not far from Dijon. 
ALE SILVER,/, a renter tribute annually paid to'the 
lord mayor of London, by thofe that fell ale within the 
liberty of the city. 
ALESTAKE,/! a ftake fet up at fairs on merry meet¬ 
ings in the country, with a (ign thereon, denoting that 
ale is fold there. 
ALET, a town of France, in Lower Languedoc. It is 
remarkable for its baths, and for the grains of gold and di¬ 
ver found in the ftream which runs from the Pyrean moun¬ 
tains, at the foot of which it (lands. It is feated on the 
river Aude, fifteen miles S. of Carcaftbne, and thirty-fe- 
ven N. V/. of Narbonne. E. Ion. 2.5. N. lat.42.59. 
ALETASTER,yi [from ale and tajler. ] An officer ap¬ 
pointed in every court leet, and fivorn to look to the af- 
(ize and the goodnefs of bread and ale, or beer, within 
the precindts of that lordfliip. 
ALETRIS, f. vsw, to grind.] In botany, a genus 
of the hexandria monogynia clafs, ranking in the natural 
order of lilia or liliaceae. The generic characters are— 
Calyx: none. Corolla: one-petalled, ovate-oblong, hex- 
angular, funnel-fliaped, femifexfid, very much wrink¬ 
led; the divifions lanceolate, acuminate, fpreading, eredt, 
permanent. Stamina: filaments awl-ftiaped, length of 
the corolla, infertedinto the bafe of the divifions: antheras 
oblong,'ereCt. Piftilium: germ ovate: ftyle Tubulate, 
length of the ftamens; ftigma trifid. Pericarpium: an 
ovate, three-cornered, acuminate, three-celled, capfule. 
Seeds: very many. The ftamens not being alternate.with, 
but oppofite to, the fegmentsof the corolla; and this be¬ 
ing very much wrinkled, and in a manner farinaceous, 
thefe circumftances render this a genus perfectly diftindl. 
FJJential ChamSler. Corolia, funnel-fliaped. Stamina, 
3 Y inferted 
