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AMUSING CHRONICLE, CHRONICLE,

a Weekly Repository for

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

No. XVI.]

JANUARY 4, 1817.

[VOL. II

Price only Four Pence.

TO THE FRIENDS OF LITERATURE.

In the last Number of the first Volume of "THE AMUSING CHRONI, CLE," we informed our Readers that this weekly Publication, containing not less than sixteen pages octavo, would continue to be published at Four-pence each Number; and when our Readers recollect that this Work was undertaken at a time of general distress, with an humble desire to assist in reviving Trade, not only consists of extracts from scarce and valuable books, but “Original Essays," which have been gra-tuitously furnished by gentlemen of acknowledged literary ability.The price being low, we the more feel ourselves entitled to the kind recommendation of our friends. The number of copies sold at present has as yet scarcely paid the expences; but as the sale encreases, we will endea vour by encreasing the quantity of matter, to evince to our friends that our desire is to furnish the Public an interesting work at a modérate price, with a reasonable profit to ourselves.

A Print of Miss F, DENNETT, as Columbine, in the Blind Beggar of
Bethnal Green, accompanies this Number,

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FROM the accounts of modern travellers," says Mr. Rich, I had expected to have found on the site of Babylon more, and less, than I actually did: less, because I could have formed no conception of the prodigious extent of the whole ruins, or of the size, solidity, and perfect state of some of the parts of them: and more, because I thought that I should have distinguished some traces, however imperfect, of many of the principal structures of Babylon. I imagined I should have said, "Here were the walls; and such must have been the extent of the area. There stood the palace; and this most assuredly was the tower of BeJus.' I was completely deceived: instead of a few insulated mounds, I found the whole face of the country covered with

Macpherson, PRINTER, RUSSELL Court, Covent Garden.

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vestiges of buildings; in some places consisting of brick walls, surprisingly fresh-in others merely of a vast succession of mounds of rubbish of such indeterminate figures, variety, and extent, as to involve the person who should have formed any theory in inextricable confusion.'-Mr. Rich considers the site of Babylon as sufficiently established on the environs of Hellah, according to Major Rennell's excellent "Geography of Herodotus."

The general direction of the road between Baghdad and Hellah, (a meanly-built town, containing six or seven thousand inhabitants) is North and South; the distance about forty-eight miles— and the whole intermediate country (with the exception of some few spots) a pefectly flat and uncultivated waste.-But the traces of former population are still numerous;-the plain is intersected by various canals, now neglected; and exhibits many piles of earth containing fragments of brick and tiles. Through this plain once ran the famous Naher Malcha, or fluvious regius, a work attributed to Nebuchadnezzar; it is now dry, like other streams that once flowed here, and served for the purposes of irrigation. Not far from the Naber Malcha is a ruined bridge over a small canal:-" Some time ago,' says Mr. R., a large lion came regularly every evening from the banks of the Euphrates, and took his stand on this bridge, to the terror of the traveller; he was at last shot by a Zobeide Arab."-The ruins of Babylon may be said to commence at Mohawil, about nine miles from Hellah; the interjacent space exhibiting vestiges of buildings burnt and unburnt bricks, and bitumen: also three mounds, of which the magnitude attracts particular attention. Mr. R. found the Euphrates to be four hundred and fifty feet in breadth at the bridge of Hellah, and in depth two fathoms and a half. When it rises to its full height the adjoining country is inundated, and many parts of the Babylon ruins are rendered inaccessible.The woods and coppices, mentioned by some travellers, no longer appear; among the ruins of Babylon, there remains but one tree; that, however, is of venerable antiquity and was once of considerable size. It is an ever-green, something resembling "It the lignum vita, and of a kind, I believe, not common in this part of the country.

Here also are the dens of wild beasts; and here, by a curious coincidence, Mr. Rich first heard the oriental account of Satyrs: for in this desert it is said that the Arabs find an animal resembling a man from the head to the waist, but having the thighs and legs of a sheep or goat; and that they hunt this creature with dogs, and eat the lower parts, abstaining from the upper, in which consists the resemblance to the human species. Mr. Rich here appositely quotes from Isaiah the prophetic passage.

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"But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and Satyrs shall dance there." He offers also (in the same page) some remarks on the Hebrew word translated Satyrs. Such are the principal ruins on the eastern side. The western affords only two small mounds of earth, at a place called Anana. But six miles south-west of Hellah, stands the most stupendous remnant of ancient Babylon; entitled by the Arabs, Birs Nemroud, and by the Jews, Nebuchadnezzar's Prison. Mr. Rich has so well described his first view of this interesting ruin, that we shall gratify our readers by quoting his own words. "I visited the Birs under circumstances peculiarly favourable to the grandeur of its effect. The morning was at first stormy and threatened a severe fall of rain; but as we approached the object of our journey the heavy clouds separating, discovered the Birs frowning over the plain, and presenting the appearance of a cir cular hill, crowned by a tower, with a high ridge extending along the foot of it. Its being entirely concealed from our view during the first part of our ride, prevented our acquiring the gradual idea, in general so prejudicial to effect, and so particularly lamented by those who visit the Pyramids. Just as we were within the proper distance, it burst at once upon our sight, in the midst of rolling masses of thick black clouds, partially obscured by that kind of haze, whose indistinctness is one great cause of sublimity; whilst a few strong catches of stormy light, thrown upon the desert in the back ground, served to give some idea of the immense extent and dreary solitude of the wastes, in which this venerable ruin stands."

The Birs of Nimrod is an oblong mound, in circumference seven hundred and sixty-two yards, and it rises on the western side to an elevation of one hundred and ninety-eight feet. On the summit is a solid pile, thirty-seven feet high, of fine burnt bricks, exhibiting inscriptions. Other immense fragments of brick work are found also in this mound, which is itself a ruin, standing within a quadrangle inclosure. Near the Birs is another mound, and vestiges of ruins may be traced to a considerable

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In the vicinity of Hellah are several remains, which bear some relation to the ruins of Babylon. A tomb attributed to the prophet Job-the large canal of Jazeria-two large masses called Elmokhatat and El-adouar-and others near the village of Ferbouiya. "The governer of Hellah," says Mr. R. "informed me of a mound as large as the Mujelibé, situated thirty-five miles to the southward of Hellah; and that a few years ago, a cap or diadem of pure gold, and some other articles of the same metal, were found there, which the Khezail Arabs refused to give up to the

Pasha." There are other mounds of considerable antiquity in various directions; and five or six miles east of Hellah, a ruin which resembles on a smaller scale the Birs Nemroud; it is called al Hheimar. A mass, which the Arabs denominate aker kouf, and ascribe, like most of the remains in this country, to Nimrod, appears also of Babylonian origin. It stands ten miles N. W. of Baghdad, and rises to the height of one hundred and twenty-six feet.

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"The only building," adds he, "which can dispute the palm with the Mujelibé, is the Birs Nimroud; previous to visiting which, I had not the slightest idea of its being the tower of Belus indeed its situation was a strong argument against such a supposition: but the moment I had examined it, I could not help exclaiming, "Had this been on the other side of the river, and nearer the great mass of ruins, no one could doubt of its being the remains of 'the tower."-Mr. R. leaves to learned men the decision of this point. He believes that the number of buildings in Babylon bore no proportion to the great space inclosed by the wall; that the houses were small, and mostly consisted of merely a ground floor, or basse cour; that the public edifices were more vast than beautiful, and that the tower of Belus was astonishing only from its size.

Thus have we epitomized, however inadeqately, this interesting memoir, which was originally published at Vienna, in the "Mines de l'Orient," a work conducted by the learned orientalist, Mr. Hammer. "In it I have given," says Mr. Rich, "a faithful account of my observations at Babylon, and offer it merely as a prelude to further researches, which repeated visits to the same spot may enable me to make."

SONGS IN THE BLIND BEGGAR,

BY MR. J. KING.

Tho' darkness still attends me;
And clouds obscure my sight,
If Charity befriends me,

'Twill shed a cheering light.

Then pity, kind gentleman, spare from your store,
Nor turn the Blind Beggar unblest from your door!

My Bessy dear, my treasure!
All sightless though I be,
And lose a Father's pleasure,
Of gazing, sweet, on thee!
My heart still sees thy duty,
"Till Fancy bids me trace,
Through all thy mental beauty,
The beauties of thy face!

THE INQUISITION.

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IN the Church of Rome, a tribunal in several Roman Catholic countries, erected by the Popes for the examination and punish ment of heretics.This Court was founded in the 12th century, by Father Dominic and his followers, who were sent by Pope Innocent III. with orders to excite the Catholic princes and people to extirpate heretics, to search into their number and quality, and to transmit a faithful account thereof to Rome. Hence they were called Inquisitors; and this gave birth to the formidable tribunal of the Inquisition, which was received in all Italy and the dominions of Spain, except the kingdom of Naples and the Low Countries.-This diabolical tribunal takes cognizance of Heresy, Judaism, Mahometanism, Sodomy, and Polygamy; and the people stand in so much fear of it, that parents deliver up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants to its officers, without daring to murmur. The prisoners are kept for a long time, till they themselves turn their own accusers, and declare the cause of their imprisonment; for they are neither told their crime, nor confronted with witnesses. As soon as they are imprisoned their friends go into mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to solicit their pardon, lest they should be brought in as accomplices. When there is no shadow of proof against the pretended criminal, he is discharged, after suffering the most cruel tortures, a tedious and dreadful imprisonment, and the loss of the greatest part of his effects. The sentence against the prisoners is pronounced publicly, and with the greatest solemnity. In Portugal, they erect a theatre capable of holding 3000 persons; in which they place a rich altar, and raise seats on each side in the form of an amphitheatre. There the prisoners are placed; and over against them is a high chair, whither they are called, one by one, to hear their doom, from one of the Inquisitors.These unhappy people know what they are to suffer by the clothes they wear that day. Those who appear in their own clothes are discharged, upon payment of a fine; those who have a santo benito, or strait yellow coat without sleeves, charged with St. Andrew's cross, have their lives, but forfeit all their effects; those who have the resemblance of flames made of red serge, sewed upon their santo benito, without any cross, are pardoned, but threatened to be burnt if ever they relapse; but those who, besides these flames, have on their santo benito their own picture, surrounded with figures of devils, are condemned to expire in the flames. The Inquisitors, who are ecclesiastics, do not pronounce the sentence of death; but form and read an act, in which they say, that the criminal being convicted of such a crime, by his own

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