continue fresh for several months. In August and September the mother cochineal insects, now big with young, are distributed in little nests upon the nopals. In about four months the first gathering, yielding twelve for one, may be made, which, in the course of the year, is succeeded by two more profitable harvests. Much care is necessary in the tedious operation of gathering the cochineal from the nopals, which is performed with a squirrel's or rabbit's tail by the Indian women, who for this purpose sit down for hours together beside one plant. The insects when gathered are killed, either by throwing them into boiling water, exposing them in heaps to the sun, or smothering them in an oven. The quantity annually exported from South America is said by Humboldt to be 32,000 arrobas,—their worth, 500,0401. sterling,―a vast amount to arise from so small an insect, and well calculated to show us the absurdity of despising any animals on account of their minuteness. Of this enormous quantity Dr. Bancroft estimates the annual consumption of cochineal in Great Britain at about 750 bags, or 150,000 pounds; worth, at the usual price, 375,000l. Excited by the prospect, the East India Company have offered a reward of 6000l. to any one who shall be able to introduce the growth of the insect into India, but no person has yet been so fortunately success ful. For further information on this subject, the student is referred to "Ward's Mexico," "Humboldt's Travels," and "Kirby and Spence's Entomology," Vol. I. ORDER. The word ORDER has a great variety of acceptations, but it usually signifies method, regularity, and punctuality in any business; the proper arrangement of things, and the regular succession of events. God is a God of order; the whole universe proves it, from its most magnificent to its most insignificant parts. The heavenly bodies, though they appear confused to us, are arranged in the most perfect order; and the planets perform their revolutions with undeviating regularity; day and night, summer and winter, pass away and return according to established laws; the verdure of spring appears in its proper season, and the faded leaf falls in the autumn with the same certainty every year. Thus, do order and regularity present themselves to our view, wherever we turn our eyes. So many and so great are the advantages resulting from order, that its neglect is a matter of no small astonishment. The man who conducts his affairs with regularity, who arranges them in proper order, and attends to every part of them in due time and place, proceeds through life with ease and pleasure; he is never hurried nor confused; he is never at a loss to find any thing he has occasion for; there are seldom any mistakes in his accounts; his servants know their several duties, and perform them without difficulty; and every one who has transactions with him, finds the advantage of so valuable an arrangement. In his family the same order is observed; every thing is so well regulated and disposed, that one duty does not interfere with another, but each is discharged in its own due time and place without any delay or confusion. Yet it is not essential to order, that a rigid preciseness should always be maintained; the judicious man knows how to adapt himself to circumstances, and to vary his proceedings as occasion may require, without departing from his established principles. Το Order likewise signifies certain established rules, by which the proceedings of public bodies are regulated. Were it not for such rules, public meetings would frequently prove scenes of violence and confusion. maintain order, a president is usually chosen, who is intimately acquainted with the rules prescribed, and is of sufficient importance to support the observance of them. In parliament this president is denominated the SPEAKER. Order signifies also, that proper state of things which enables them to perform their functions well; thus, if the faculties of the mind are out of order, the understanding is defective, and the body is no longer in health: if a clock or watch be out of order, it cannot mark with accuracy the divisions of time. Order is used to denote a command issued by a superior, and likewise that regular government which is opposed to anarchy and confusion: in this latter sense, it is of infinite importance; the wise and good know its value, and none but the base and worthless, who hope to profit by a breach of it, would risk its loss for a moment, unless under the most pressing emergency. Order in society is like the reins on the necks of spirited horses; if they be broken, the most fatal consequences may be expected to ensue. The word Order is used to signify a society of dignified persons, distinguished by marks of honour, and likewise a religious brotherhood. Thus are the different species of knighthood distinguished, as the "Order of the Garter," of the Thistle," of "St. Patrick," of "the Golden Fleece," &c.; we frequently speak likewise of the higher or lower order of nobility and gentry; and of religious fraternities, the order of the Jesuits, of St. Francis, of St. Dominic, &c. In the plural number, this word signifies the clerical state; thus we say, the man has entered into holy orders, when he has taken on himself the office of a priest or deacon. Few are sufficiently aware of the awful responsibility attached to such an office. Men in orders are required, not only to instruct their flock by wholesome doctrine, but to enforce it by a holy and religious life; to embrace every fit opportunity to exhort, reprove, comfort, or threaten, according as circumstances may require. The duty of men in orders is no trifling one, as many suppose, but if discharged conscientiously, is laborious, difficult, and trying, both to mind and body; it requires patient endurance of inattention and ingratitude; it must not be discouraged by apparent want of effect, and it must look forward to heaven. The word Order has many other meanings; it is applied to express the means used to obtain some desired end, as the best KNOWLEDGE is that which is of the greatest use in order to our eternal happiness. It sometimes signifies measures adopted or care taken; thus Shakespeare says, "Provide me soldiers, whilst I take order for mine own affairs." The different kinds of Grecian and Roman architecture are distinguished by the name of orders; as the Tuscan Order, the Doric Order, &c. Men in society are divided into different orders, according to the station they occupy. Thus there is the noble or privileged order, the order of gentry, of yeomanry, and the lower orders, or common people. All these different orders are important in the state, and serve, like those of architecture, to render the edifice at the same time stable and ornamental, INTERESTING REMARKS CONCERNING THE WERE We to take an impartial view of the manners of various nations, we should probably find no people so rude, as not to possess some rules of politeness, nor any so refined as not to retain some remains of rudeness; for instance, the Indians of America, we term savages; but, remember, we give them that name without reflection, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; but, be it observed also, they think of us in a similar manner, as will be found exemplified in the following observations. Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make MEN of them." Having frequent occasions to hold public councils, they have acquired great order and decency in conducting them. The old men sit in the foremost ranks, the warriors in the next, and the women and children in the hindmost. The business of the women is to take exact notice of what passes, imprint it in their memories,*_and communicate it to their children. They are the records of the public council, and they preserve traditions of the stipulations in treaties one hundred years back; which, when we compare them with our writings, we always find exact. He that would speak rises, the rest observe a profound silence. When he has finished and sits down, they leave him five or six minutes to recollect; that if he has omitted any thing he intended to say, or has any thing to add, he may rise again and deliver it. To interrupt another, even in common conversation, is reckoned highly indecent. How different this is from the conduct of a polite British House of Commons, where scarcely a day passes without some confusion, that makes the speaker hoarse in calling to order; and how different from the mode of conversation in many polite companies of Europe, where, if you do not deliver your sentence with great rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it by the impatient loquacity of those you converse with, and never suffered to finish it! MIRROR OF THE MONTH. NOVEMBER 3. On this day, in 1534, the English parliament passed the act whereby Henry VIII. was declared head of the Church of England, granting him as such the first-fruits and tenths. On this day, Sir FRANCIS DRAKE returned from circumnavigat- · ing the globe, having occupied twelve days less than three years in accomplishing that perilous undertaking. He commenced his voyage from Plymouth, with five ships, on Nov. 15, 1577. On this day assembled the fatal Long Parliament of England, On this occasion the Commons chose for their speaker William which commenced the dreadful rebellion of the ensuing year, 1641. Lenthal, Esq., and on reference to the members of that parliament Dr. Welford affirmed, that no age had ever produced greater men than those who constituted the then senate. The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors; when old, counsellors; for all their government is by counsel of the sages. There is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence, they generally study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honourable. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of time and leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they deem slavish and base; and the learning on which we value ourselves, they regard as frivolous and useless. An instance of this occurred at the treaty of Lancaster in Pennsylvania, A. D. 1744, between the government of Virginia and the Six Nations. After the principal business was settled, the Commissioners from Virginia acquainted the INDIANS by a speech, that there was at Williamsburg a college, with a fund for educating Indian youth; and that if the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their young lads to that college, the government would take care that they should be well provided for, and instructed in all the learning of the white people. It is one of the Indian rules of politeness not to answer a public proposition the same day that it is made; they think that it would be treating it as a light matter, and that they show it respect by taking time to consider. it, as of a matter that is important. They therefore deferred their answer till the day following, when their speaker began by expressing their deep sense of the kindness of the Virginia government in making them that offer; "for we know," says he, "that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men while with you would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, therefore, that you mean to do us On this day, in 1805, was obtained the celebrated victory by Sir good by your proposal, and we thank you heartily. But Richard Strachan over part of the French fleet that had made its you, who are wise, must know that different nations have escape from the gallant and victorious Nelson, at the battle of different conceptions of things; and you will therefore not Trafalgar. This detachment of the French fleet consisted of four sail of the line, which were encountered by Sir Richard Strachan, take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education hap-off Cape Ortegal, who, captured the same, to the great joy of the pen not to be the same with yours. We have had some British nation. experience of it; several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces-they were instructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad runnersignorant of every means of living in the woods-unable to bear either cold or hunger-knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy-spoke our language imperfectly, and were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counsellors; they were, in short, good for nothing. We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and, to shew our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of NOVEMBER 4. He was apprehended at York. As the king, however, had sent On this day, in 1530, Cardinal Wolsey was attainted of treason. Wolsey a ring, accompanied by a gracious message, that high dignitary, who, like every bad character, was imperious to his equals, and subservient to those above him, as chancing, while on horseback, to meet the king's messenger, instantly alighted, and throwing himself on his knees in the mire, received, in that abject condition, these fallacious marks of his master's condescension. On this day, in 1677, WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE, was married to MARY, eldest daughter of James, duke of York, afterwards James II. of England. NOVEMBER 5. On this day is commemorated the glorious revolution of 1688, when the throne of England became vested in the illustrious Holland, left that country on the first of November. The remain"House of Orange." The fleet which brought over William from ing narrative of this interesting event is thus related by Bishop Burnet. "On the third we passed between Dover and Calais, and, before night, saw the Isle of Wight. The next day, the fourth, being the day on which the prince was born and married, he fancied if he could land that day, it would look auspicions toFor the people we call savages have no writing. the army, and animate the soldiers. But others, who considered turned the scale, and sunk the interest of the duke of York. Ed the day following was gunpowder treason day, thought our land-ward, earl of March, the son of Richard, duke of York, however, ing that day might have a good effect on the minds of the English revived the quarrel, and gained a bloody battle at Mortimer'snation. And Divine Providence so ordered it, that, after all hopes cross, near Ludlow. In short, the earl of March, after several of our landing at Torbay were given up, and Russel bid me go to engagements, was proclaimed king, by the name of Edward IV., my prayers for all was lost, the wind suddenly shifted, and carried by means of the earl of Warwick, called the "setter up" and us into the desired haven. Here the Prince, Marshal Schomberg, puller down" of kings. Henry was taken in disguise, brought in and the foot soldiers, landed on Nov. 5. I never found a disposi- the most ignominious manner to London, and confined in the tion to superstition in my temper; yet, I must confess, this strange Tower, where, in 1471, he was murdered when fifty-two years of ordering of the winds and seasons, just to change as our affairs age. required it, could not but make deep impressions on me." Although King William landed on the 5th of November, the almanacs still continue the mistake of marking it as the fourth. This is also the anniversary of the ever-memorable GUNPOWDER PLOT. Never before was so important a revolution accomplished without bloodshed, or confined within reasonable bounds. Had it been the triumph of religion, and the cause of a popish over a protestant prince, instead of being the reverse, what scenes of desolation would have ensued! The people of England were contending for their religion and their liberties, and they did not, by any sanguinary excesses, dishonour the holy cause in which they were engaged, That which Wentworth, Elliot, Pym, Hamp den, Hollis, Selden, Sydney, and Russel had sought, and in the pursuit of which some of them had suffered and died, was now happily secured; a limitation of royal authority, the reigning law, and the superintending control of parliament. The chief design of history, is to convey salutary instruction. The annals of James II. afford several very important lessons, both of political and moral wisdom. In his courage in youth, and his cowardice in riper years, the variable nature of the human character is exemplified. Princes are taught the criminality and the danger of violating their royal engagements. The inveterate influence of religious prejudice is woefully exhibited in his adherence to Popery, and the changeable nature of all human glory, in his sudden degradation. Constrained to abandon that country over which he for a short period swayed a sceptre, he, with his queen, repaired to France. Upon their arrival there, they were received with every possible mark of attention, when every thing was done to alleviate their sorrows and supply their necessities. We have now to relate an event, one of the most memorable that history has conveyed to posterity, and containing at once a singular proof both of the strength and weakness of the human mind; its widest departure from morals, and most steady attachment to religious prejudices,-it is the GUNPOWDER PLOT, which was discovered this day by means of HESHAM, one of the conspirators. That individual, anxious to save LORD MONTEAGLE, had sent an enigmatical anonymous letter to deter him from attending the meeting of parliament; that document led to the discovery of "The Plot," and the apprehension of GUY FAWKES, when he was just ready to set fire to the train; and he, with some others of the conspirators, being taken prisoners, were tried, confessed their guilt, and died by the hands of the executioner. Among these were Sir Everard Digby, Rookwood, Winter, Garvet, &c. Piercy, and Gatesby, before they suffered themselves to be taken, were shot. NOVEMBER 6. On this day died St. LEONARD; he was bishop of Limosin in France, and has always been implored by captives as their guardian saint. On this day, in 1421, at Windsor, was born KING HENRY VI., who succeeded his father, Henry V. in 1422, when but fourteen months old, and reigned in England under the tutelage of his uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and in France under that of his uncle the duke of Bedford. This unhappy prince was unsuccessful, both at home and abroad. His misfortunes began in France, by the death of his grandfather, Charles VI. In Henry's reign lived the celebrated girl, known by the name of "Joan of Arc," or the Maid of Orleans," who suddenly appeared at the head of the French army, and in 1429, made the English raise the siege of Orleans. From that moment Henry's interest began to decline in France; and after many losses in that country, he had to witness civil wars in England. Henry was defeated, and made prisoner at St. Albans, by Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, on the 31st of May, in 1455, and a second time, at the battle of Northampton, on the 19th of July, in 1460. The parliament then determined that Henry. should keep the crown, and be succeeded by the duke of York; but Queen Margaret afterwards raised an army in the north, and gained the battle of Wakefield, in which the duke of York was killed, and her husband 'delivered. This Henry VI. was the only son of Henry V. and Catherine of Valois, younger daughter of Charles VI. of France. On this day, in 1817, died the PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, greatly regretted by the nation. Indeed, never was public feeling so unequivocally displayed as upon that momentous and distressing occasion. All ranks were partakers of the same poignant afflic tion, and the horizon of this fatal year was clouded byˇuniversal mourning, and heart-felt despondency. NOVEMBER 7. at the bar of the King's Bench, for high treason, in having conOn this day, in 1683, ALGERNON SYDNEY was arraigned spired the death of His Majesty, CHARLES II., and consulting with several other traitors how the same might be accomplished. It was in particular alleged against him, that he had contrived and hatched a treasonable libel, wherein he asserted that power was originally vested in the people, and by them delegated to Parlia ment, to whom the King himself was subject, and liable to be called to account. Sidney was the first instance on record of an individual being accused of treason, and condemned to death, for writing opinions which he had never published. NOVEMBER 9, LORD MAYOR'S DAY. The title of lord, in addition to that of mayor, was first granted to WALWORTH, who slew Wat Tyler; previous to which the city of London was governed by bailiffs. (See GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE, No. XXIV. p. 185, where is given a full account.) AN EXPLANATION OF THE PRINCIPAL TERMS DIGIT, in astronomy, is the twelfth part of the sun's merediat, DOMINICAL LETTER is that which denotes the Sunday, in almanacs, throughout the year. This letter is usually marked in red. It is named Dominical from Dominus, lord. EARTH, the globe we inhabit, is one of the seven planets, and the third in order from the sun, ECCENTRICITY is the distance between the centre of an ellipsis and either of its foci. ECLIPSE OF THE SUN is an obstruction of his light, occasioned by the interposition of the moon between the sun and our sight. AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON is when the earth comes between the sun and moon. ECLIPTIC is a great circle of the sphere, in which the sun always appears to move; and is so called because eclipses generally happen when the moon is in or near this circle.. This line is supe posed to be drawn through the middle of the zodiac, making an angle with the equinoctial line of about 23° 30′; which is the sun's greatest declination; or, more strictly speaking, it is the path or way among the fixed stars that the earth appears to describe to an eye placed in the sun. Some call it the the sun, because the sun, in his apparent annual motion, never way of deviates from it, as all the other planets do, more or less. (To be continued.) TO OUR READERS AND THE PUBLIC. In consequence of the lively interest excited by the recent arrival of Captain Ross, from his perilous voyage in search of a NorthWest Passage to the East Indies, we intend to give, in our Number, an interesting Map of the POLAR REGIONS, shewing the route of the various voyagers; together with a concise History of -the Discoveries made by Captains Ross, Parry, and others, illustrated by a View of Prince George's Inlet, with its Toebergs, a concise Account of its Inhabitants, &c. &c. LONDON: Printed for the Proprietors, and Pablished by W. |