well as the Jubilee Tower, upon Moel Famma, to commemorate the fiftieth year of the reign of George III. To which may be added, the Athenæum, and St. Nicholas's Tower, in Liverpool; and the Theatre, and Exchange buildings, in Manchester. Mr. Harrison was likewise consulted in the formation of the Waterloo Bridge, for which purpose he was called up to London; and was the first gentleman who proposed a grand quay on the banks of the Thames, to be built from Westminster Bridge to that of Blackfriars. Several years since, Mr. Harrison was honored with a visit from Count Woronzow, formerly ambassador from the Court of Russia to England, who was passing through Chester, and expressed much admiration of the county hall, gaol, and other buildings of the Castle; and six or seven years since, he was requested by the son of the above, Count Michael Woronzow, to design a palace to be built in the Ukrane upon the banks of the Dnieper, and a gateway for the triumphal entrance of the late emperor; the Count came to Chester several times to see and consult with him respecting them. This design, which was approved of by Count Woronzow, is in the Grecian style, and has a range of apartments on the principal floor, which form a vista of upwards of five hundred feet in length. A tower or lighthouse more than one hundred feet in height, for which Mr. Harrison made a design, has been built by Count Woronzow, upon an eminence from whence it may be seen from the Black Sea. Besides Broomhall, in Fifeshire, the residence of the Earl of Elgin, Mr. Harrison designed houses for several gentlemen in Scotland; amongst others, one for the late General Abercrombie, and one for Mr. Bruce.-Chester Paper. 29.-1751.-CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM DIED, ÆTAT. 82. This eminent philanthropist was bred to the sea, and spent his early years in trading to the colonies. With limited means he effected great good, and after seventeen years of close application, founded and firmly established The Foundling Hospital, at the bottom of Gray's Inn Lane, London, and procured the royal charter for it. He obtained a bounty upon naval stores imported from the colonies, and was the principal in setting on foot the colonies of Georgia and Nova Scotia. His last charitable design was an institution for the education of North American Indian girls. Indeed he spent a great part of his life in serving the public, and with so total a disregard to his own interest, that in his latter days he was supported by the charity of several spirited individuals. When Dr. Brocklesby applied to him to know whether a subscription for his benefit would offend him, he replied, "I have not wasted the little wealth which I formerly possessed, in self-indulgence or vain expenses, and am not ashamed to confess that in this my old age I am poor." Astronomical Occurrences. In March, 1830. "Watch with nice eye, the steady rolling sphere, The slow Precession, and the varying clime, SOLAR PHENOMENA. Precession of the Equinoxes. The Sun enters Aries according to the fixed zodiac, at 32m. after 2, in the morning of the 21st of this month ;-his true place in the heavens on this day is in Pisces. It is now more than 2000 years since the vernal equinox passed through ẞ in Aries, consequently the first of Aries is an astronomical fiction, and only used for tabular convenience; the equinoctial point has receded more than a sign to the west of this star, so that Pisces now occupies the place of Aries, Aquarius of Pisces, Capricornus of Aquarius, and a similar transposition with the other signs successively. That the vernal equinox does not occur in this constellation may be rendered evident to the youthful astronomer, by observing the three stars in the head of the Ram, which will be visible, after sun-set, declining toward the west, for some considerable time after the transit of the celestial equator by the sun. The following particulars will explain more familiarly this interesting motion. If the Sun be observed at the vernal equinox of any year, when his centre coincides with the equinoctial, and a similar observation be made at the succeeding vernal equinox, it will be found, that the point of the previous intersection has advanced eastward 50′′.34; this motion is called the precession of the equinoxes, and occa sions a variation of a degree in 70 years, or 1° 23′ 45′′ in a hundred years: thus the intersection of the ecliptic and equinoctial, which in the time of Hipparchus occurred in Aries, is now in Pisces, in 840 years from this time will have retreated into Aquarius, and an entire revolution of the heavens be completed in 25,745 years, when Aries will again lead the celestial hosts. The time occupied in completing this revolution is called the Great or Platonic year. This retrograde motion causes the general equinoxes to occur. a little sooner every year, than if these equinoctial points continued immoveable; hence the astronomical year which commences at the vernal equinox, differs in length with a sidereal year; the former as determined from a mean of a hundred equinoctial years is 365d. 5h. 48m. 51.6s. and the latter which is the time elapsed from the Sun's quitting a particular star to his return to the same, is 365d. 6h. 9m. 11.5s. the difference therefore is 20m. 19.9s. the latter being greater from the shifting of the equinoctial points, and is equal to the time taken up by the sun, in describing the arc of the annual precession. The nature of this motion may be illustrated by a reference to the daily revolution of the starry sphere, the whole celestial frame of which, appears to move round in 24 hours; this motion we know to be apparent only, and arising from the earth's rotation; so, in the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes, a slow motion is detected in the position of the fixed stars, relative to that point, where the Sun's path intersects the equator, which must be either real or apparent ;—if real, it is inexplicable, and if apparent, it must arise from some motion of the Earth, which like that of its rotation and revolution, is only detected by a reference to the heavens, the explanation of which furnishes one of the most beautiful proofs of the theory of universal gravitation; the motion which was thought to affect all the heavenly bodies, is to be traced to a slow vibration of the Earth's axis, occasioned by the attraction of the Sun, Moon, and Planets on the spheroidal figure of the Earth, causing a small tendency of the equator towards the bodies attracting, and an apparent motion of the starry host, forward, or eastward. ZODIACS. With the precession of the equinoxes is connected a question of uncommon interest, relative to the zodiacs of antiquity; if the commencing sign of any one is ascertained, its age can be determined. The Indian Zodiac presents superior claims to antiquity; it is of a quadrilateral figure, in the centre of which is placed a Virgin, surrounded by a glory,-inferring that when constructed, the solstice corresponded with the first degree of Virgo, which carries us back 1400 years before the Christian era. In the zodiac found in the temple of Dendera, the ancient Tentyra of Egypt, the Sun appears at the summer solstice, to be about 24° of Cancer, making it 3000 years since its construction. It is not easy to ascertain the leading signs in the Zodiacs of the ruins at, and near Esné, or Latapolis; the Sun appears to be in Leo, at the summer solstice, indicating its age to be 5400 years. Some French philosophers have attempted to prove that the dates of the Egyptian Zodiacs, are to be referred to periods of such high antiquity, as must falsify the Mosaic account of the Creation, but happily for religion and common sense, they are divided among themselves, whether to denominate that of Dendera a Zodiac at all, and if they agree on this point, they vary relative to the first sign,—and all depends on this being rightly ascertained, so that no reliance whatever can be placed on the conclusion they profess to draw. It is highly probable, that these latter Zodiacs, were |