fey 143 in addition to these, twenty A bill is before the same legislature, providing mmittee appointed to digest for the exemption from taxes of cotton & woollen ganization of public education manufactories and the buildings attached to them. their operations; the subject will where there is a capital of $ 5000 or upwards inin the council of ministers before vested; also exemption from military duty, and sented to the two houses. On the 4th from the poll tax, all persons employed in such e the French ambassador landed at Con-manufactories; also exempting from taxation all ntinople, and on the 24th visited the grand lands exclusively appropriated to the cultivation Vizier. of hemp and flax. A bill is also before the AssemThe British parliament has been prorogued un-bly relative to the building of a state penitentiary til the 4th of November next. The harvest of at or near Newgate. barley and corn are said to be abundant in England. Tire manufactures of Manchester are again resuming their activity. On the 7th August there was an eruption of mount Vesuvius, which lasted several hours. The plague has ceased at Corfu. Austria has placed in a state of defence all the frontiers of Dalmatia, Styria and Illyria. A large quantity of snow fell in the environs of London on the morning of the 30th of August. The Austrian general, Nugent, is said to have accepted the command of the Neapolitan army, and had appeared in uniform before the king. Contradictory accounts are in circulation at Trinidad, as to the success of the Royalists and Patriots, in the Province of Valencia. One says that the commander of the Patriots Sir George M'Gregor, had given battle to the Royalists, and had defeated them; another states that he was defeated. The seamen on board of British vessels at Buenos Ayres are said to desert as soon as they arrive there, and enter on board of privateers under Buenos Ayres colours. Charles H. Hall, Esq. it is said, is appointed consul from Trinidad to the eastern States, including New York. Gen. Miranda died lately in prison, in irons, at Cadiz. Mr. Prince Saunders, and four Professors for the Royal College of Hayti, arrived at Cape Henry, August 21, from London. On the 13th of August the king, queen, and whole royal family of Ilayti, came from the palace in the country to Cape Henry, and celebrated in great style a fete in honour of the queen. DOMESTIC. In Connecticut only two of the members of the 14th congress are re-elected to the 15th-Messrs. Pitkin and Mosley. The legislature of Vermont met on the 11th inst.; and on counting the votes it appeared that Gov. Galusha had a majority of 3170 votes. In the assembly there is a republican majority of 40-Wm. A. Griswold speaker, W. D. Smith clerk, Wm. Slade, jr. secretary of state.The legislature of New-Jersey assembled on the 22d inst.-strength of parties in that body are, 23 democrats and 18 federalists in assembly-in council, 8 democrats and 5 federalists:-majority in joint meeting, 8 democrats. In Maryland five republicans and four federalists are elected to the 15th congress. Gen. Wm. H. Harrison is elected to congress from Ohio, to supply the place of Jno. M'Lean resigned, and also a member of the 15th congress. Exchange between Boston and Baltimore is 7 per cent. in favor of Boston. George Madison, late gov. of Kentucky, died on the 15th inst. at Paris, in that State, after a te dious illness. The lt. gov. Gabriel Slaughter will administer the government for four years, as the constitution does not provide for a new election. THE MERCHANTS' BANK. Our friends at a distance continue to send us occasionally notes on the Merchants' Bank of Alexandria in payment for the NATIONAL REGISTER, believing, probably, that they are as good as those of the other banks of this District. In order to prevent a further circulation of this paper, among the honest and unsuspecting citizens at a distance, we deem it a duty we owe to society and to our It is understood that our naval force in the vi- selves to state, what is really the fact, that these cinity of New Orleans have been instructed to notes here are worth no more than one quarter of put to sea and protect our flag from Spanish in- their nominal amount, and but few persons will sult, and that the Congress frigate, captain Mor- take them even at that. From many circumstan ris has been ordered to cruise in that quarter-ces lately come to our knowledge, we are induced we may therefore expect that any insult offered will be promptly retaliated. Memorandum. to believe it as arch a piece of swindling as ever was practised upon the public, by any banking By letter from Portland, received in Boston, institution. We were informed by a gentleman a we are informed that a serious skirmish took place few days ago, that he intends soon to expose a about the 1st inst. between some American fish-few of the stockholders, who suppose they are ermen and the inhabitants of the Island of Grand unknown, if they do not come forward and mani Manan. The islanders first sent boats to drive fest a disposition to act honestly. away the fishermen, but were compelled to fly themselves. A revenue cutter was then sent, and dispersed the fishermen, who soon after returned; Subscribers and agents who have not forwarded and the islanders again seeing them, sent out their respective dues for the current year of the their boats, but unable to resist the fishermen, Register, will oblige by doing so immediatelythey broke and made for the shore, whence they They will recollect that we are placed in rather were pursued into a wood, where a skirmish en- an awkward situation-we cannot ask those for sued, in which several were killed on both sides. pay who are in arrears, without offending those The Legislature of Connecticut, at their pre-who have been prompt in their payments; except sent session, have passed an act prohibiting the we tax ourselves with the trouble and expense of banks of the state from issuing bills less in amount sending a circular, and them with postage. Pay than one dollar, and prohibiting, after the first ment may be made in any current bank notes in of March next, under penalty of one dollar, the the United States; and, when the amount of one passing such bills issued by any bank. year is enclosed, may be sent at our expense. NO. 10. VOL. II.] WASHINGTON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1816. [WHOLE NO. 36. PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY JOEL K. MEAD, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM. his felicity. Agriculture," says an English writer, "does not encourage the spirit of dominion common to rich commercial states, and is SUPERIORITY OF AGRICULTURE. Man, in a state of nature, lives on the spontaneous productions of the earth, or exists by hunt-consequently less involved in war and expense than they are." The husbandman contemplates the limits of his little territory, and its cultivation is the boundary of his ambition. A society of such men lust not for foreign dominion; they are satisfied with their own possessions, and deem it folly to encounter the horrors and expenses of war to obtain the possessions of others. Accustomed from infancy to the physical and moral objects around them, they become attached to ing and fishing; he exerts his physical powers to gratify his physical wants. Unacquainted with the arts of civil life, the vigour and activity of his body are alone employed to procure those necessaries which are essential to the support of his existence. As he advances towards civilization, he exchanges the condition of a hunter for that of a husbandman, and thus progresses till he becomes acquainted with the arts of civil life that add to the happiness, and tend to the ameliora-the spot which gave them birth, and the society tion of society. The mother of these is agricul- to which they have been inured. Their patriotture; and among all the occupations of men, ism is thus augmented and cherished; health there is perhaps none which contributes more braces their arm, and courage animates their than it to the prosperity of society, or to the en-heart; they flock to the standard of their counjoyment of individual happiness. Where theretry when its liberties are threatened, and conare greater opportunities of indulging moral ha-quer or die in its defence. The love of country bits and fewer temptations to vice presented, vir-grows with their growth, and strengthens with tue will be more successfully inculcated, and their strength. Freed from the corrupting inmoral habits more extensively acquired. In the fluence of gain, with strong social and physical seclusion and retirement of a country life, man attachments, their love of country is deep, unfinds few temptations to err from the path of rec- yielding, and indelible. Industrious from habit titude, and is not familiarized with those scenes and from inclination, and masters of what they of profligacy and vice so frequently exhibited in possess, they feel their consequence in the scale cities, to the destruction of morals and the an- of society, and become important and useful to noyance and injury of society. Occupied in the their country in proportion as they become inde. cultivation of the earth, and surrounded by rural pendent and virtuous. Switzerland and Flanders innocence and simplicity, his desires are regulat- || prove that an undisturbed enjoyment of that vir ed by the objects around him, and he feels but tuous independence which results from agriculfew inclinations to swerve from virtue, or plunge ture, is better secured to an agricultural than to into the vortexes of vice: his religion is the reli- a commercial or manufacturing nation. The ingion of his ancestors, and is firm and stable; he habitants of these countries are bold, hardy, is accustomed to regard it with reverence and re- and persevering-virtuous from their habits, and spect, and habit as well as feeling renders it a industrious and independent from the nature of necessary part of his happiness. The pursuits of their pursuits: and these distinguishing charac agriculture are in themselves innocent and harm- || teristics they have retained amid the convulsions less; they occupy the mind sufficiently to divert and revolutions of empires. it from vicious indulgencies and splendid dissi- In the United States the agriculturalists form pations; moral habits are formed which subse- the most powerful and the most wealthy portion quent vicissitudes cannot shake; and virtuous atof the community. The same virtue, indepentachments acquired, that future temptations can. dence, and love of country are found in them not destroy. The farmer beholds around him his that are seen in the agricultural nations of the own territory, with delight; his desires are li-old world. The United States, from their vast mited, by being released from the extravagancies extent of territory, will always be more agriculof fashionable life; his wants are easily satisfied;tural than commercial. The produce of the land and the contemplation of a number of happy be- forms the most important branch of their wealth; ings within the circle of his observation, adds to land in proportion as the population increases, the VOL. II. K the superiority of agriculture over all other occupations, must be readily acknowledged; and the happiness, the wealth, and the freedom of a nation will never be lost while husbandry forms its principal support and dependence. habits of the people will become more agricul- | In a moral and political point of view, however, tural, and the land more productive. It is supposed that the three fourths of the produce of this country are consumed in it, and the balance exported. If this be correct, it proves that the citizens of the United States are, from the nature of their pursuits, independent of foreign countries, and may at any time, without very serious injury, withdraw themselves from the vices and corruptions which an intercourse with foreign nations sometimes produce. In order to show the produce of land cultivated in 1805 we give the following exhibit: Acres. For the National Register. TOMBS OF THE GRECIANS & TROJANS. MR. MEAD, You will, no doubt, think me very much attached to the gloom of antiquity, to be thus plunging among the monuments of the dead, and wandering through the last repositories of those whose fame has come down to us through a long succession of ages. The truth is, there is a degree of melancholy pleasure flowing from the contemplation of past greatness, something simi Cultivated in gardens and orchards, 11,400,000 meadow and fallow ground, 10,350,000 including pasturage, &c. 17,650,000 Total number of acres cultivated, 39,400,000 || lar to the effect produced by the seraphic sounds On which was raised 1,200,000 horses & 2,950,000 of the eolian harp heard amid the stillness and horned cattle, yielding an aggregate of one hun-tranquillity of night. We become insensible to dred and fly-seven millions six hundred thousand dollars per annum. The following statement will show the quantity and value of some of the agricultural commodities exported in 1811: 216,833 bushels of wheat, and 1,445,012 barrels of flour, 116,356 tierces of rice, 2,790,850 bushels of corn, and 147,426 barrels of meal, the objects which surround us; and yielding to the impulse of memory, are carried back anong the monuments of those who have long ceased to exist, but whose fame yet lives in sacred song. To your classical readers, who have read the Illiad of Homer with that delight this prince of $14,662,000 poets never fails to afford, it may be gratifying 2,387,000 to know that the tombs of those heroes he so enthusiastically celebrates, still exist in that place 2,896,000 he so minutely describes. It will be recollected, that it has sometimes been believed that the Illiad was a poem of imagination merely; and that the actions, the heroes, and the scene the poet deHomer comscribes were entirely fabulous. menced the Illiad about a century after the siege of Troy. Preparatory to such an undertaking, it is said he personally visited the spot which he has rendered so celebrated, and has delineated the 19,945,000 In political economy land forms the principal source of national wealth* It requires less capital, and its cultivation is more productive of wealth than any other occupation. As long as a nation continues more agricultural than commercial, it will be virtuous, independent, and happy. It is not our intention to enter into any obser- Phrygian plain with such minuteness and accuracy, that modern travellers have found no great vations on the distinctions which the writers on difficulty in fixing on the scite of ancient Illium political economy endeavour to draw between Among the most distinguished of these is Lechethe productive and unproductive classes of so-valier, who made a voyage to Troy in 1785–6, and ciety. We conceive every class productive which has so satisfactorily established the correctness adds to the national wealth by contributing to and topographical accuracy of Homer, that scarcethe increase of individual riches. The facilities ly a doubt remains of the veracity of the poet, which the mercantile class affords to the agricul- Mr. L. was, however, opposed by Mr. Bryant, tural, by taking away their surplus produce and author of the Heathen Mythology, who endeagiving them in exchange that which will enable voured to prove that the whole poem is fabulous, them to enlarge their territorial boundaries, add and that if Troy existed at all, it must have been to their cultivation, and purchase machinery, may in Egypt. Bryant was ably refuted by Mr. Morbe considered equally productive with labour it-ritt, an English traveller, who confirms the opiself, and equally conducive to national wealth.nions of Lechevalier, and establishes the truth • Lauderdale, Smith, and Say's Economie Politique. and accuracy of Homer. It is not my business, however, to detail the arguments of those gen tlemen, who, to say the truth, have displayed a great deal of learning and research on both sides of the question, but to describe the tombs of the Grecian and Trojan warriors said still to exist in the celebrated plain of Troy. Before I proceed, however, I will give you a topographical sketch of this plain, taken from Homer. The city of Troy was situated upon an eminence, at the extremity of a fertile plain, on which now stands a Turkish village called Bounar Bachi. It was surrounded by rugged rocks, and only assailable on the side of the wild fig-trees, (erineos.) Near this hill were the gardens of Priam and the sources of the Scamander, of which one was warm and the other cold. The tomb of Hector, covered with stones, was in the environs of the city; that of Aisgettes was at some distance from the city, and sufficiently within reach of the Greciam camp to distinguish their movements from its summit. The tomb of Ilus stood upon the road leading from the camp to the city. Those of Achilles, Patroclus, and Antilochus were upon the high banks of the Hellespont. That of Ajax was in the Trojan plain, and the Throsmos, conjectured also to have been some ancient tomb, banks, and rendering to the shade of Achilles the most illustrious homage he had ever received. I see him advancing, with a pensive air, between the Simois and Scamander; his eye embraces with avidity all the objects that surround him; a thousand recollections assail him at once; his imagination is fired, and the plan of the Iliad is formed."* Ut ducis implevit visus veneranda vetustas. A long time after the war of Troy, the Grecian and Trojan tombs were exhibited to travellers. Cæsar is said to have run over this plain, and without noticing it, stood upon a mound of sods and stone which had lost the form of a tomb-" stop, Cæsar, cried his companion, you tread upon the ashes of Hector." The masses of stone which seemed to be the tomb of Hector appeared to Lechevalier to be reversed, and dug up; which is accounted for by Pausanias, who says that the search for the ashes of Hector, and transport them "Thebians were told by an oracle to go to Troyto Thebes." Strabo says that the city of Rhatitends a sandy beach. Here is found Ajantieum, um is situated upon an emieence, near which exA Misian informed Pausanias that the tomb of that is to say the tomb of Ajax and his statue. was in front of the city, upon the banks of the Ajax was near the sea-shore-that the waves had Simois. The plain arose by degrees from the undermined it, and exposed the entrance in which sea to the city, and was watered by the rivers the extraordinary statue of this hero. This enwere found huge bones, which gave some idea of Simois and Scamander. This was the Trojan plain, according to Homer. Many other ancient-the cavern of the marsh. The temple of Atrance is now called by the Turks In Tepe Gheuand modern geographers and travellers have also described it, as it appeared at the periods at which they wrote; but among these there seems to exist a considerable variety of opinion, which, no doubt, originally led to the conjecture that it was an imaginary spot. Herodotus, Pliny, Pau-and Patroclus-the two others are those of Antisanias, and many other ancients, however, assert that the tombs of the warriors of the Iliad were was near the vessels. The hill called Callicolone seen in their time; and this assertion has been corroborated by a host of subsequent travellers, who have repaired to the Hellespont to indulge their curiosity, and to contemplate the monuments of men of whom nothing now remains but their name. This, too, was done by the ancients / shortly after the termination of this memorable siege. Poets and historians seized upon these events, to transmit them to posterity: the warriors who had perished under the walls of Troy partook of the honours reserved for the gods. Incense, says Lechevalier, smoked upon the tomb of Achilles, and the plain of Troy became a vast temple, where the travellers of all nations made it their religious duty to offer a sacrifice, before they entered the Hellespont. "I think," says the same writer I have just quoted, "I see Homer landing, for the first time, upon these far-famed chilles and his tomb, says Strabo, are at Cape Sigeum, where are also to be seen the tombs of PaDr. Dalloway, "are those which are said to controclus and Achilles. "These two tombs," says tain the ashes of the illustrious friends Achilles lochus and Peneleus, the Baotian." The ashes of the three warriors were deposited in the same urn, and placed in the tomb of Achilles-the other Patroclus and Antelochus. Lechevalier thinks two mounds were erected merely in honour of this has been confirmed by an accurate examination instituted by order of the French ambassador at Constantinople. Having resolved to examine the tomb which Leehevalier had fixed upon as that of Achilles, he employed a Jew, named Gormezano, a French agent at the Dardanelles, to have an interview with the Turk whose house was erected against the tomb, and to propose to him, through the medium of a large sum of money, to dig into it himself, and in'order to remove from tals which, according to Homer, were enclosed in both the temptation of secreting the precious methe tomb, he promised to give them double the * Strabo, p. 890. • Voyage de la Tread, tom. 2. p. 96. [No. 10. taining a great number of perpendicular plaits: Grecian monuments. The same costume and at weight in gold or silver, of such metals as should be found. The following is a translation of a letter to Lechevalier from the ambassadour's physician: "I at first examined the letter of the Jew, who stated in substance that they had at-formity. With its left arm it holds a robe, which tacked the mound toward the middle of its eleva- it seizes with the thumb and fore finger. It is vation, and that at the extremity of the gallery known that Minerva had a temple in the citadel opened and directed to the centre of the base of of Troy at the epoch of the siege: the worship the cone of each, they had found a quick rock in of this divinity was perpetuated for a long time which was a small excavation of about 6 feet after the destruction of the kingdom of Priam. square, surrounded by a little wall of stones unit-She is found upon many medals, says Palerin, and el and covered over with clay, and that in this ex- || sometimes represents Isis. She is recognized by cavation were contained the articles he had sent her habiliments, and a lotus upon her head. It is, me. I proceeded to the examination of these cu- perhaps, in this manner that the Minerva of Sais, rious reliques. I observed at the first view, a who was Isis, according to Plutarch, was repre pulverized substance, and remains of different sented. kinds, which I carefully selected, and of which I of the statue found in the tomb of Achilles, is What proves the prodigions antiquity made five lots in the order which their apparent that by its attitude and habiliments, it resembles qualities marked out. The first division contains many figures preserved upon the Etruscan and some broken cases of baked earth-the 2d is formed of charcoal, and the third, some fragments of titude are also found in a figure of Minerva sculpa cretaceous substance which evidently prove tured upon a Greek basso relievo, in a collection them to be calcined bones. I have added to the of Cardinal Albani. The physical proofs of the third parcel the half of a small ivory vase. The 4th antiquity of these remains are drawn from the division offers but a single object: it is an unformed nature of the objects themselves. It requires a bar, covered with verdigrise, and which was ta- || long succession of ages to oxidize copper to the ken for the point of a sword. The 5th and last degree to which it was found in this statue. The division is composed of irregular parcels, and of Greek costume, united to the Egyptian head dress, plate of a shield form and reddish substance, which the Etrusean forms observed in the vases-forms I soon found to be the oxid of some metal. The which appear to have been followed in Greece substance of a pulverized nature appeared to the from the taking of Troy-all is marked in these eye and the touch to have all the marks of ashes. objects, as possessing the highest antiquity. I found that the supposed sword point was the interior of a body of a statue, and that a portion It remains now to say a word on the nature of of oxid had formed a surface in scales, and had in question. The engineer Kauffer was sent to the different earths which compose the tumulus been broken off by some concussion. In arrange-Troy to examine into the truth of the Jew's stateing and collating all the remains near each other, ||ment, and to analyze the different beds of which there was formed an Egyptian statue with Greek the tomb is composed. drapery. It was supported upon a platform made like a shield, and this platform was sustained by two small horses, on the sides of which it was planted. The statue, joined to the pedestal || which supported it, was ten inches high. The horses are heavy, and badly made: each bore a warrior, of which nothing remains but the lower parts. The visage of the figure is destroyed, but a part of the breast is distinguishable. One foot is in advance of the other, and upon two parallel lines, like the Egyptian statues. The symbols which charge its head and shoulders are the best preserved. Two sphinxes, placed upon the upper part of the arms, elevate their heads to a level with the head dress of the statue, adorned with the leaf of the lotus, above which are seen two lions or sphinxes. It is covered with a robe con posed immediately upon the remains contained The first bed, or lowermost layer, which rein the excavation, was of fine sand, and about ten feet thick; the next, which was of stone and sand, was four feet thick; the third, of clay and stone, was two feet; and the last, which covered the monument, and secured it from humidity, was of marl, or clay alone, and six feet in thickness. not a tedious description of the tumuli of the he Thus I have brought to a conclusion, I hope roes of the Iliad, who have slumbered for upwards of three thousand years among the mighty dead. The perusal of Homer will hereafter.acquire an additional interest, from the consciousand historian, on whose truth and accuracy every ness that he is not only a poet, but a geographer confidence may be placed. The curious travel |