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130 OWL ' 
tion of European monarchs, gave a pompous entertain¬ 
ment on his birth-day. An American fhip having been 
feen off the ifland, a canoe came alongfide, and the cap¬ 
tain and hands were all much alloniffied to hear the na¬ 
tives fpeak the Englilh language. The canoe contained 
no lefs a perfonage than Mr. Pitt. He came on-board, 
and informed the captain of the character of his gueft ; 
he ftated, that he came by the orders of his royal mailer, 
in whofe name he demanded the donation of a bottle of 
rum, which was to be drank upon his birth-day.” 
The above is probably copied from an American paper : 
the following (Times, Apr. i.) is confeffedly from the 
Bolton Centinel: “ We have feen letters from Owhyhee, 
which confirm the death of the celebrated kingTamaah- 
maah, and that the event had occafioned fo much dif- 
union among his fucceffors and officers as to threaten a 
revolution and civil war. The old king left upwards of 
150,000 dollars in fpecie in his coffers; the divifion of 
which was alfo a bone of contention. We have had re¬ 
ports, that Capt. Downes, in the Macedonian, would vifit 
this illand. Would to heaven he would, and take poffef- 
fion as an arbiter of the differences which fo unhappily 
reign here. It ought to be a colony of the United States.” 
We are forry we cannot complete this article, by inform¬ 
ing our readers what meafures have been taken by the 
minilters of George the Fourth, for the defence and pre- 
fervation of this moll valuable colony! 
The French navigator, Peroufe, defcribes, in his voy¬ 
age, a reef of fhoal-banks, a few degrees north of Owhy¬ 
hee, where he fuggelled that a pearl-filhery might be 
ellablilhed to advantage; and he llates, that the French 
frigates failed over them. Some commercial perfons, in 
confequence, lately (1813) engaged divers, and vifited 
the fpot; but were aftoniihed to find not only that no 
velfel can now fail over thefe banks, but that, though of 
large extent, they afford but two or three feet water, and 
in many places exhibit verdant fpots above water. This 
change has been afcribed folely to the unremitting la¬ 
bours of polype and coral infects ; and confirms the hy- 
pothefis, that many other of the groupes of illands that 
ftud this vail ocean derive their origin from fimilar caufes. 
O'WING , part, [from otve. A pradlice has long pre¬ 
vailed among writers ; to life owing', the aCtive participle 
of oive, in a paffive fenfe, for owed or due. Of this im¬ 
propriety fome writers were aware ; and, having no quick 
fenfe of the force of Englilh words, have ufed due in 
the fenfe of confequence or imputation, which by other 
writers is only ufed of debt. We fay that money is due to 
us ; they fay likewfife, the effeCt is due to the caufe. 
Johnfon.~\ Confequential.—This was owing to an indiffer¬ 
ence to the pleafures of life, and an averfion to the pomps 
of it. Atterbury. —Due as a debt. Here due is undoubt¬ 
edly the proper word.—The debt, owing from one coun¬ 
try to the other, cannot be paid without real effects fent 
thither to that value. Loclie. 
You are both too bold ; 
I’ll teach you all what’s owing to your queen. Dnjden. 
Imputable to, as an agent.—If we eilimate things, what 
in them is owing to nature, and what to labour, we lhall 
find in moll of them to be on the account of labour. 
Locke. —The cullom of particular impeachments was not 
limited any more than that of llruggles between nobles 
and commons; the ruin of Greece w'as owing to the former, 
as that of Rome was to the latter. Swift. 
OW'L, f. [ule, Sax. kulote, Fr. and Scott. Johnfon .— 
Icel. yla or ylgia, an owl, from yla, to cry out. Todd.'] A 
bird that flies about in the night and catches mice.—Sick 
was the fun, the owl forfook his bower. Pope's Dunciad. 
Return to her! 
No ! rather I abjure all roofs, and chufe 
To be a comrade with the wolf and oivl. Shahefpeare. 
Then lady Cynthia, millrefs of the lhade, 
Goes, with the falhionable owls, to bed. Young. 
OWL’s HEAD', a cape on the fouth-eall coall of Nova 
Scotia. Lat. 44. 42. N. Ion. 6v.. 50. W. 
OW'L-LIGHT, /’. Glimmering light; twilight.— 
Church-hiltory making an important part of our theolo- 
gic ftudies, the antiquarian, who delights to foiace him- 
felf in the benighted days of monkilh owl-light, fometime6 
paffes for the divine. Warburton's Charge to the Clergy, 
1761. 
OW'L-LIKE, adj. Refembling an owl in look or 
quality.—Now like an owl-lihe watchman he mull walk. 
Donne's Sat. 2. 
At this deep Sidrophel look’d wife; 
And, Haring round with owl-lihe eyes, 
He put his face into a pofture 
Of fapience, and began to bluffer. Hudibras. 
O W'LAH, a town of Hindoollan, in Rohilcund: twelve 
miles eall of Biffowia. 
OW LET, f. An owl; a little owl: 
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s fling, 
Lizard’s leg, and owlet's wing. Shahefpeare's Macbeth. 
OW'LER, f. One who carries contraband goods: in 
the legal fenfe, one that carries out wool illicitly. Perhaps 
from the neceflity of carrying on an illicit trade by night: 
but rather, perhaps, a corruption of wooller, by a collo¬ 
quial negleCl of the w, fuch as is often obferved in woman, 
and by which goodwife is changed to goody. Wooler, ool- 
ler, owler. —By running goods, thefe gracelefs owlers gain. 
Swift. 
OW'LING, f. in law, is the offence of tranfporting 
wool or lheep out of the kingdom, to the detriment of its 
llaple manufaClure. This was forbidden at common law, 
and more particularly by Hat. 11 Edw. III. c. 1. when the 
importance of our woollen manufacture was firlt attended 
to ; and there are now many later (latutes relating to this 
offence, the moll ufeful and principal of which are thofe 
enafted in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and fince. The 
flat. 8 Eliz. c. 3. makes the tranfportation of live Iheep, 
or embarking them on-board any Ihip, for the firlt offence 
forfeiture of goods, and imprifonment for a year, and that 
at the end of the year the left hand lhall be cut off in 
fome public market, and lhall be there nailed up in the 
openelt place ; and the fecond offence is felony. The lla- 
tutes 12 Car. II. c. 32. and 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 28. make 
the exportation of wool, flieep, or fullers-earth, liable to 
pecuniary penalties, and the forfeiture of the interell of 
the fliip and cargo by the owners, if priv}'; and confifca- 
tion of goods, and three years imprifonment to the mailer 
and all the mariners. And the Hat. 4 Geo. I. c. 11. 
(amended and farther enforced by 12 Geo. II. c. 21. and 
19 Geo. II. c. 34.) makes it tranfportation for feven years, 
if the penalties be not paid. 
OW'LISH, adj. Refembling an owl. — Every one, while 
it lalled, was very gay and bufy in the morning, and very 
owlijh and very tipfy at night. Gray to Dr. Warton, 1 749. 
O'WN, f. [a^en, Sax t eygen, Dut. aigan, Icel. from 
eigia, to poflefs.] This is a word of no other ufe than as 
it is added to the pofleffive pronouns, my, thy, his, our, 
your, their. It feems to be a fubllantive; as, my own, 
my peculiar : but is, in reality, the participle palfive of 
the verb owe, in the participle owe or own; my own; the 
thing owned by, or belonging to, me : • 
Inachus, in his cave alone, 
Wept not another’s Ioffes, but his own. Dryden. 
It is added generally by way of emphafis or corroboration. 
—Every nation made gods of their own, and put them in 
high places. 2 Kings, xvii. 29. 
I yet never was forfworn, 
Scarcely have coveted what was my own. Shahefpeare. 
Will flie thy linen walh, or hofen darn, 
And knit thee gloves made of her own fpun yarn. Gay. 
Paflion and, pride were to her foul unknowm. 
Convinc’d that virtue only is our own. Pope. 
Sometimes 
