[Compare Panorama, Vol. VI. pp. 370, 529.] The Panorama might justly complain, were it so inclined, of contemporaries who not only avail themselves of the information it contains, but rashly charge it with a bias toward the monkish marvellous. Our article on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, page 529, proves sufficiently, that we considered natural causes as adequate to the effect of preserving the sacred Sepulehre, during the late conflagration. We deny the imputation of superstition; and we hope that some further remarks on the gene fal subject, will meet our readers' acceptance. The mode best adapted for preserving the memory of great events, is a fair and ample question for philosophic enquiry. Among a people practiced in the art of writing, and especially among a people accustomed to the incalculable advantages derived from the art of printing, the public would with one voice consign them to the page of history multiply copies-disperse them abroad-distribute then into the hands of every body and certainly they will descend to posterity. But, we ought to reflect, that the majority of mankind is not so highly favoured-that many hundreds of millions of our race cannot read-that it is useless (even were it possible) to write where none can avail themselves of what is written; and, therefore, we must, in contemplation, exclude every recollection of all the advantages attending a state of literature, before we are properly competent to the investigation of this question. That is hardly in our power: a state of complete ignorance is a condition beyond our conception; but, we may enquire, what have been the practices of those barbarous nations to which letters were unknown? These people, we must remember, though ignorant, were not stupid: they had the natural understandings of men, though void of cultivation : and they would pitch upon that mode of answering their purpose which promised to be most effectual. But, not the barbarous nations only, those also which are enlightened by letters, though letters be not generally studied among their people, have chosen the same accomplish the same ends. In fact, all nations have shewn by their institutions, that they consider representation by action as the most effectual and intelligible mean of commemoration, among the mass of a people. To perpetuate the memory of the death of VOL. VI. [Lit. Pan, July 1809.]

means to

Houssein, slain in battle, the Mahometans represent the fight; and a combat is practised in which the (pro tempore) hero of the faithful is slain; and amid the shrieks and lamentations of beholders, is conveyed in great funeral pomp to interment. To perpetuate the memory of Washington, who died in his bed, the Americans bedeck a hearse, from a caval

cade of inourners, and, attended by a throng of people, perambulate the streets of Philadel phia, with all the emblems of sorrow. This is a modern institution.

The first hint of theatrical representation in antient times, was derived from such commemorative processions, and from the events repeated on those solemn occasions. The same intentions are connected with the processions of the Catholics in Spain, Italy, &c. and, uncouth as they appear under monkish management, to the eyes of Protestants, they may defy their critics to devise any more effectual mean of recalling certain events to the minds of the completely ignorant and uninformed. What are all our anniversaries, civil or sacred, but so many opportunities for repeating what passed on the original occa sion of them?-If, then, the voice of all mankind has determined the representative mode of celebration, as the most effectual commemoration, may we not relieve in some degree from the charge of being superstitious, those representations of passages in the life of our Lord which are annually practiced at Jerusalem? To those who have studied the subject they may appear useless, and certainly they are wholly unauthorised,-they therefore may not be enforced: that proposition is completely at rest may they be tolera ted, among a people otherwise uninformed? We submit this question to the considerate.

far as

With this statement may be connected the reflection, that divine authority had established national commemorations in the Jewish economy. The feast of the Passover was an annual representation of what had occurred in Egypt, in early ages; but it was preserved in memory, by being renewed in action, so was, generally speaking, possible. And the most solemn of Christian institutions consists of a representation though symboli cal of a person suffering a violent death. That which was ordained as symbolical for all parts of the world, is practiced in action almost to the life, in that spot where it really occurred: this forms the chief attraction of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; and is the reason why that edifice is peculiarly thronged with pilgrims and visitants at Easter.

this

The chief ceremonies practiced on occasion are thus described by Mr. Maun

drell.

"Their ceremony begins on Good Friday night, which is called by them the nor tene brosa, and is observed with such an extract

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dinary solemnity, that I cannot omit to give a particular description of it.

"As soon as it grew dusk, all the friars and pilgrims were convened in the chapel of the apparition (which is a small oratory on the north side of the Holy Grave, adjoining to the apartments of the Latins) in order to go in a procession round the church. But, before they set out, one of the friars preached a sermon in Italian in that chapel. He began his discourse thus; In questa notte tenebrosa, &c. at which words all the candles were instantly put out, to yield a livelier image of the occasion. And so we were held by the preacher for near half an hour very much in the dark. Sermon being ended, every person present had a large lighted taper put into his hand, as if it were to make amends for the former darkness, and the crucifixes and other utensils were disposed in order for beginning the procession. Amongst other crucifixes there was one of a very large size, which bore upon it the image of our Lord as big as the life. The image was fastened to it with great nails, crowned with thorns, besmeared with blood, and so exquisitely was it formed, that it represented in a very lively manner the lamentable spectacle of our Lord's body, as it hung upon the cross. This figure was carried all along in the head of the procession; after which the company followed to all the sanctuaries in the church, singing the appointed hymn at every one.

The first place they visited was that of the Pillar of flagellation, a large piece of which is kept in a little cell just at the door of the chapel of the apparition. There they sung their proper hymn, and another fryar entertained the company with a sermon in Spanish, touching the scourging of our Lord.

"From hence they proceeded in solemn order to the prison of Christ, where they pretend he was secured whilst the soldiers made things ready for his Crucifixion: here Jikewise they sung their hymn, and a third fryar preached in French.

64

From the prison they went to the altar of the division of Christ's garments: where they only sung their bynn without adding any

sermon.

"

Having done here, they advanced to the chapel of the derision, at which, after their hymn, they had a fourth sermon (as I remember) in French.

"From this place they went up to Calvary leaving their shoes at the bottom of the stairs. Here are two altars to be visited; one where our Lord is supposed to have been nailed to his cross. Another where his cross was erected. At the former of these they laid down the great crucifix, (which I but now described) upon the floor, and acted a kind of a resemblance of Christ's being nailed to the cross; and after the hymn, one of the friars

preached another sermon in Spanish, upon the cruciuxion.

"From hence they removed to the adjoining altar where the cross is supposed to have been erected, bearing the image of our Lord's body. At this altar is a hole in the natural rock, said to be the very same individual one, in which the foot of our Lord's cross stood. Here they set up their cross, with the bloody crucified image upon it, and leaving it in that posture, they first sung their hymn, and then the father guardian, sitting in a chair before it, preached a passion sermon in Italian.

"At about one yard and a half distance from the hole in which the foot of the cross was fixed is seen that memorable cleft in the rock, said to have been made by the earthquake which happened at the suffering of the God of Nature. When (as St. Matthew, Chap. 27, v. 51, witnesseth) the rocks rent and the very graves were opened. This cleft, as to what now appears of it, is about a span wide at it's upper part, and two deep; after which it closes but it opens again below (as you may see in another chappel contiguous to the side of Calvary ;) and runs down to an onknown depth in the earth. That this rent was made by the earthquake, that happened at our Lord's Passion, there is only tradition to prove but that it is a natural and genuine breach, and not counterfeited by any at, the sense and reason of every one that sets i may convince him for the sides of it fit like two tallys to each other, and yet it runs in such intricate windings as could not well be counterfeited by art, nor arrived at by any instruments.

"The ceremony of the Passion being ove and the guardian's sermon ended, two fryan, personating the one Joseph of Arimathea, the other Nicodemus, approached the cross, and with a most solemn concerned air, both of aspect and behaviour, drew out the great nails, and took down the feigned body from the cross. It was an effigie so contrived, that it's limbs were soft and flexible, as if they had been real flesh; and nothing could be more surprising, than to see the two pretended mourners, bend down the arms, which were before extended, and dispose them upon the trunk, in such a manner as is usual in corpses.

"The body being taken down from the cross, was received in a fair large winding sheet, and carried down from Calvary, the whole company attending as before, to the stone of unction. This is taken for the very place where the precious body of our Lord was anointed, and prepared for the burial, John 19, 39 Here they laid down their imagina ry corpse, and casting over it several sweet powders, and spices, wrapt it up in the winding sheet: whilst this was doing they sung their proper hymn, and afterwards one

The ingenious Mr. Harmer would have been delighted with the notice taken of the value of Pigeon's dung,"1218. the quarter," and the purpose to which it is applied; for, in his "Observations on Scripture," he attributes the high value put on a cab of Dove's dung, at the siege of Samaria, 2 Kings VI. 25, to the demand for it, for the purpose of raising esculents with all expedition; thinking the proofs that pulse of any kind was called by such a name, to be insufficient, though that was the opinion of Bochart; and the Arabic term now in use signifies equally chich-peas and Pigeon's dung. Many hundred quarters," it seems of this commodity are sold at a high price.

Has any proportion of the inhabitants of our metropolis the slightest suspicion of the ingredients converted by the silent but wonderful processes of nature into the aliment which supports their existence !-or who among them considers the industry and ingenuity to which they are beholden, 'ere their daily food can be set on their tables!

The other contents of this paper will be found interesting by our agricultural readers.

There are many uses in the arts and manufactures to which the application of the ammonia or volatile alkali are well known. But when the demand for these purposes is supplied, and that, on the probable great extent of the production of ammonia, a surplus quantity should remain, I have reason to think, that in some very considerable departments of agriculture that surplus, however great, will find a ready and adequate market. A judicious application of ammonia to land before it be sown with turnips (but if afterwards, on no account after the plants are up), is likely to produce the most beneficial results. What justifies me in this conclusion, is the simple consideration, that all the powerful and concentrated manure of high price, and in great request, are just so in the degree in which I have found them by analysis to contain either ammonia or the elements that compose it. Soot, well known to be in small quantities a powerful encourager of vegetation, contains much carbonate of ammonia, combined with some of the carbonaceous parts, rendering them extractive and soluble in water, forming a brown pungent liquid. Pigeons' dung is a dressing for turnip land in great request in the North, where many hundred quarters are annually sold at 121s. the quarter, though a very small proportion of the demand is supplied. I have found, by experiment, that this material is richly impregnated with carbonate of ammonia as well as with the well known element of ammonia azote, which in the natural decomposition of the manure by putrefaction, when committed to the earth, will be produced. Rape

dust is that particular part of the seed ( after the oil is pressed out) which is in by nature to corrupt and become the ea cause or stimulus of the growth of the e bryo germ, and therefore contains the sa element, and which we can readily, by chemical process, exhibit in the ammo which rape dust may be made to yield. is hardly necessary to mention urine, from which ammonia is obtained in gr quantity, or the dung of all animals, whi contains the same principle. It was in the dung of the animals which fed on the f tile plains of Egypt that all the sal ammon known in commerce was for many centu obtained. From that country, the site the temple of Jupiter Ammon, its name derived. Soon after sal ammoniac became article of European manufacture, it was covered that the bones and horns of anio yielded its peculiar salt, that is to say, the a moniacal principle, in much greater quan than their dung, and those parts were al used to the exclusion of these. Hence name, spirit of hartshorn, given to the vola alkali used in medicine. It has been of years discovered, that the scrapings, shavi and chips of the horns used in manufact (particularly the knife handles at Sheffi are the most powerful and the best of all! dressings known: and it is from these materials also that the greatest quantity ammonia is to be obtained, wool, silk, hair excepted, and these are again in use in agriculture, when collected and sol old woollen rags. Bones of all kinds, excepting human bones, are sent by sea great quantity, from this Metropolis into North; many hundred tons of these ground, rather broken small, in mills trived on purpose, as the quantity neces for an acre of land is small in comparison other materials. The convenience of carriage is the cause of the most distant l being brought into the richest cultivat It would not be proper, on this occasion enter into a theoretical disquisition on nourishment of vegetables, whether derive their food wholly or only in small from the earth by their roots, or from atmosphere by their leaves and green pa but it appears clear to me, that that pri ple which the farmers term warmth force, is constantly accompanied by the mic element mentioned. This stimul encouragement and force is of more co quence to the growth and eventual vigou annuals than of perennials, and particu at the early periods immediately succeeding expenditure of this sure principle which ture has provided in the seed. The putre tive fermentation always generates ammo the earth inbibes the different mia! and holds them in store for the use of pla

་

ese they impart health, strength, and, ay be said, appetite.

great difference is observed by farmers, e qualities of the manure of cattle, 1 fed on oil cake or on hay; it is supI to be of four times the value in the first The beneficial effects of sometimes mixime with arable soil is easily explained in way. The ammonia is always to be reized by its peculiar smell. As soon as y slacked lime is mixed up with the d of a good soil, but which is beginning new signs of impoverishment, in this the ammonia, which had formed a ic combination with the fixed acids of manure (formerly ploughed in and fered) is set at liberty. These are the phoric and vitriolic acids which as is well in, will leave ammonia to combine with I have therefore no hesitation in deg, as matter of opinion, that the proon of ammonia, in great quantity, and dicious application to agricultural pur, are processes of very great importance e landed interest.

E HINDOO RELIGION AND CASTE, AGAINST THE PARSEE.

dia.

very interesting cause has lately been in the Recorder's Court, at Bombay, h unanifests the intention of government otect the Hindoo natives in the establishof their religion; and certainly is an nce, the furthest possible, from indicaany intention of counteracting, by force, the superstitious prejudices of the natives may be viewed also as an authentic ment of the principles, opinions, and hers of two religious sects: one of which, Parsees, is part of the remains of a people the most formidable of the East; and of orship anciently of very great extent. other sect, that of the Hindoos, still 5, in dignity, and though "shorn of cams," as we have evidence they shone in er ages, yet at this day prevailing over ns containing many millions of inhabiThe morals of the teachers of this their modes of worship, &c. deserve e. It is further to be remarked, that e the British government was established indoostan, the Parsees were among the indigent of the population, and were ed on as among the most contemptible: of late years their diligence has met e and reward, and they now possess th, the effects of which they are not ward in displaying.

e suspect, that the animosity between two sects and communities dates from an Compare Panorama, Vol. IV. pp. 24,

1116.

earlier origin than the days of Zoroaster; and we are happy in reflecting, that what for merly would have produced wounds and bloodshed, is now productive of no greater inconvenience than a crowded court, and the patient investigation of British jurisprudence. Mulhar Row, v. Hormusjee Bomanjee. July 27, 1808.

The Advocate General (employed by go. vernment) opened the case on the part of the complainants. He stated, interalia, that Malabar Hill, westward of Bombay Fort, had been for ages accounted a sacred place by the Hindoos;-that a tradition prevailed of a place of worship extremely venerable formerly established there, but destroyed during persecutions to which the religion of Brahma had been subjected; that, nevertheless, it was visited for purposes of devotion, by Hindoos from distant countries:-that a belief was constant that the sacred symbols were concealed about the spot, and would one day be discovered: and that, the deity was Baboolnauth, a title, by which Mahadeo (the destroyer-God of the Hindoo triad) is occasionally designated. In 1774, Pandoo Sewjee, a Hindoo of great respectability, and lands called Dongerwady, the part of the then of great opulence, acquired with the hill called Baboolnauth: and shortly after, he determined to bound the part visited as sacred by a wall: the labourers in digging by finding the long lost symbols, the Ling stones for this wall, justified the tradition, and Saloonka, under a mound of earth and rubbish near the center of the field. In this discovery the Hindoos exulted: and Pandoo ancient honours, by purifying them according determined to restore these images to their to the ceremonies prescribed by his religion. Accordingly, he summoned a number of learned and respectable Bramins, who perthe court would presume that these were the formed the necessary rites. After 30 years impossible to imagine that Bramins versed in proper rites and properly performed. It was occasion, have performed their duty imper their customs and laws, would, on such an value: but it was resorted too by Hindoos of fectly. The building was indeed of trifling all Tanks; and a Bramin was, by Pandoo, inducted to keep it. About 1792 Pandoo's prosperity began to decline: heavy losses reduced him with his family to beggary, in 1800. He soon after died; the sheriff seized his goods; and advertised them for sale, Baboolnauth. At the sale, several friends of April 4. His advertisement did not mention intended to sell Babooluauth? [Had that Pandoo enquired of the sheriff, whether he been the case, the Caste would have bought it.] The sheriff answered, he was there to sell what belonged to Pandoo." This