thing peculiarly striking in the feature, never yet to my knowledge pointed out. These sons inherited the pride, but not the possessions of the father. Perhaps their father loved them, preferred them in his lifetime; but by his legitimate heirs they were excluded and banished as soon as he was dead. Expelled from a family on which they had been indirectly forced, they found themselves abandoned and insulated in the wide world. They belonged to none; nothing belonged to them; and there was no choice of life remaining, since there was no condition but that of lord or slave. Without being the first, they held themselves too high for the last, and were besides too daintily brought up to learn to serve: what, therefore, could they do? The vain pride of birth, and strength of limb, was all that remained to them; only the remembrance of previous prosperity, and a heart embittered to society, accompanied them into want. Hunger made them robbers, success adventurers, and finally heroes. Soon they became terrible to the peaceful husbandman and defenceless herdsman, and extorted from him, at their pleasure. Their fortune and conquering deeds diffused an evil renown; and the agreeable superfluity of their mode of life might well attract many to their standard. "So," as the Scripture says, "they became mighty, and a great nation." This prevailing disorder in the first society would probably have terminated in order, and the destruction of human equality have led from patriarchal rule to monarchy. One of these adventurers, more powerful and bolder than his fellows, would have aspired to be leader. A fortified town would have been built, and the first state founded; but these appearances were too early for the Being who wields the world's destiny; and a frightful natural occurrence put a sudden stop to the career of refinement on which the human race was about to enter. V. The First King. Asia, abandoned by its human inhabitants at the deluge, must soon have become the prey of wild beasts, who increased rapidly, and in greater numbers, in a country so fertile as that which the waters had left, and extended their dominion where man was too weak to restrain them. Every tract of land, therefore, built on by the new race must first have been wrested from the wild creatures, and then with stratagem and force be defended against them. Our Europe is now purified from these savage dwellers, and we can scarcely form an idea of the wretchedness they inflicted; but how fearful the plague must have been, we may partially gather from many passages of Scripture, as well as from the customs of the people of antiquity, particularly of the Greeks, who ascribed to the conquerors of wild beasts immortality and divine honours. Thus the Theban Edipus became king, because he rooted out the devastating sphinx; thus Perseus, Hercules, Theseus, and many others, earned their glory and apotheoses. Whoever, therefore, took part in the destruction of these public enemies was the greatest benefactor of men; and, in order to obtain, success must indeed have possessed an union of rare qualities. The chase, before war began to rage among men, was the peculiar business of heroes. It was probably concerted by numbers, who were led by the bravest, by him, namely, whose courage and intellect procured him a natural superiority over the rest. He gave his name to the most important of these warlike enterprises, and the name aliured hundreds to joi. his train, to wage under him deeds of valour. As these hunting matches must have been carried on according to certain regularly planned dispositions, designed and directed by the leader, he tacitly confirmed himself in the right of appointing the tasks of others, and of making his will theirs. Insensibly they became accustomed to pay him obedience, and to submit to his better judgment. Having distinguished himself by deeds of personal bravery, by boldness of soul, and strength of arm, terror and astonishment so operated in his behalf, that they at last blindly yielded to his direction. If disagreements arose among his companions of the chase, such as could not long be unknown in so rude and numerous a horde, he whom all feared and honoured, would be the most natural judge of the dispute, and reverence and awe of his prowess would suffice to give force to his sentences. Thus the first leader of the chase became an arbiter and judge. The prey being shared, it was but equitable that the larger portion should accrue to the leader; and as he could not consume it himself, he would have the means of attaching others, and therefore of gaining partizans and friends. Soon a number of the bravest, which he would ever seek to aug. ment by new benefits, assembled round his person, and imperceptibly he had formed a sort of body guard, a band of Mamelukes, who supported his pretensions with wild zeal, and deterred by their numbers all attempts at opposition. wanted nothing of the king but the solemn recognition; and could this be well refused him at the head of his armed and imperious train? He was the fittest to rule, because the most powerful to enforce his commands. He was the universal benefactor of all, because they were indebted to him for peace and security against the common foe. He was already in possession of power, because the strongest were at his command. In a similar manner did the ancestors of Alaric, of Attila, and of the Merovingi, become kings of their people. Thus was it with the Greek kings, whom Homer exhibits in the Iliad. All were at first leaders of a warlike multitude, vanquishers of monsters, benefactors of their nation. From military leaders, they gradually became umpires and judges. With the booty they acquired they purchased a faction, which made them powerful and awful. By violence they finally ascended the throne. By some the example of the Medes is adduced, who spontaneously bestowed the royal dignity on him whom they had made useful as judge. But it is a mistake to apply this example in tracing the elevation of the first king. When the Medes made their king, they were already a people, already a formed political society: in the case under discussion, on the other hand, the first political society originated with the king. The Medes had borne the oppressive yoke of the Assyrian monarchs; the king of whom we now speak was the first in the world; and the people who subjected themselves to him a company of freeborn men, who as yet had seen no authority over them. An already endured government may very easily be renewed in this peaceful way; but in so tranquil a mode, one new and unknown could never be instituted. As these huntsmen were useful to all land-owners and herdsmen, whose enclosures they guarded from devastating foes, a free-will offering might at first have been granted them for their beneficial labours, of the fruits of the earth and of flocks, which in the sequel might have been claimed as a deserved tribute, and finally exacted as a due and as an obligatory tax. These acquisitions the chief divided among the most efficient of his band; and by them continually increased the number of his creatures. As the pursuit frequently led him through meadows and fields, that suffered damage by the procession, many proprietors found it expedient to buy off the injury by a spontaneous gift, which he afterwards demanded of all those whom he might have molested. By these and similar means he increased his wealth, and by thishis followers, who at length grew to a little army, the more tremendous as they had been inured to every danger and difficulty in contest with the lion and tiger, and rendered savage by their rude trade. Terror preceded their names, and none dared venture on the refusal of their demands. If quarrels arose between one of the band and a stranger, the hunter naturally appealed to his leader and protector, who thus learnt to extend his judicial authority over matters distinct from the chase. Now he... It appears, therefore, more conformable to the march of events, that the first king should be an usurper, placed on the throne, not by the spontaneous, unanimous call of the nation, (for nation as yet there was none,) but by violence, by good fortune, and by a daring soldiery. COMAR YATES. Burckhardt's Account of the Waha- answering questions or of giving WE bees. E have frequently referred in the progress of our work to the sect of Mahometans in Arabia, who have assumed the character of Reformers of their religion; and we judge that our readers will be pleased with the further description of them in the following paper taken from the Christian Examiner, an American publication, for Sept. and Oct. 1824. We preserve the introduction of the Editor of that work, both on account of its containing a history of this literary article and of its suggesting so just and liberal a sentiment with regard to the limits of national hostilities. ED. Religion of the Wahabees. [The Wahabees are a sect of Mohammedans, which has sprung up in recent times, and made great progress in Arabia. The following extract is from a letter written by the celebrated traveller, Burckhardt, at Cairo, in the year 1812, and lately published in the Atlantick Magazine, at New York. The letter was directed to Sir Joseph Banks, and was found on board a vessel taken by one of our privateers in 1813. The letter, and the notes accompanying it, are curious; and the only regret that can be felt by the American reader is, that documents of such a character should not have been transmitted immediately to their proper destination. The sanctuary of science and knowledge should be sacred even against the intrusions of war. It will be seen by the extract that these Wahabees are a kind of reformers of the Mohammedan faith. They begin to reason, and discuss, and to ask the grounds of their belief. It will be seen, moreover, that such bold innovations have been met much in the same way, as the same propensities among Christians have been met by the brethren. The adherents to the old faith resist inquiry, endeavour to suppress controversy. By these wholesome restrictions, and circulating exaggerated accounts of the heresy of the rising party, they hope to stop the current of Reformation, and save themselves the trouble of reason.. The people, of whom Burckhardt is here speaking, are called Bedouin Arabs, and inhabit the country east and south of Palestine, and particu larly those regions where the Israelites sojourned forty years in their wanderings from Egypt to the Holy Land.] "Abd el Aryz, father of Ibn el Saoud the present chief of the Wahabees, had sent summonses all over the Mohammedan world, to engage the people to join his creed. Some of his missionaries were arrested by the Shah of Persia, while others penetrated to the shores of the Atlantick. The Moggribeen Olemas entered into discussion with him, which gave origin to several written dissertations of both sides. The principal points in dispute are; 1st, The Wahabees' denial of Mohammed's still living invisibly among the followers of his faith; 2nd, Of his being able to intercede at the Almighty's throne, in favour of the departed souls of the faithful; 3d, Their irreverence for the saints in general, and for their influence in heaven, which they demonstrate by demolishing all the chapels constructed in honour of them; 4th, Their like sentiments with regard to the companions and followers of Mohammed; 5th, Their severity of discipline; 6th, Their refusing any authority to tradition, or Hadyth, as related of the companions of Mohammed. The champions of the established Turkish faith answer, and pretend that Mohammed is still alive; that he hears the prayers addressed to him by the faithful, and grants them as much as is in his power, partly by the faculties he himself possesses of working miracles, and partly by his applications to the Deity. The saints, indeed, they say, were but mortals, and no more; but their virtues have entitled them to the favour of the Almighty, which they are at liberty to invoke, and often to obtain for those earthly inhabitants and faithful Mouslims, who devoutly pray at their tombs. The same is the case with the companions of Mohammed, for which it is the duty of all the faithful to pray; therefore the Turks seldom mention the name of the prophet, without adding prayers for his family, and his companions; but the Wahabees only pray, in that case, for his family. The only tradition which the Wahabees adinit, is that which contains the sentiments of the prophet himself, and his own explanation of the difficult passages of the Koran, as related by his companions. But they resist all tradition of later times; even that which can be traced to the companions of Mohammed, as soon as they relate to their own opinions on religious matters, or to the opinions of the prophet himself, as reported by people who are not comprised within the class of the companions.' As to discipline, I have already mentioned several points, in which they (the Wahabees) disagree with the established religion. I only add, that all the Wahabees are enjoined to shave their head completely, without having any hair-lock on the top of it, as is generally done by the Turks; or else to leave the whole head of hair growing. The Hadyth says, Shave all, or leave all.' In general, the precepts of the Sunné, which, although not given in the Koran, are yet strongly insisted upon by the prophet, and enforced by his own example, are more in vigour among the Wahabees than the Turks, who evidently transgress the most conspicuous of these tenets. Thus, for instance, it is a precept of the Sunné, contained in the Hadyth,- Gold and silver is only permitted to your woinen; it is unlawful for men.' The loud cries over the dead corpse are positively forbidden by Mohammed. "It will be seen that those tenets shew a spirit of reform much to the eredit of the founders of this religion. Religious dissertations, however, are entirely banished from the conversations of the Turks; and it is, therefore, rendered impossible that the Wahabees should get any partizans, in countries which they have not yet conquered; where the defenders of the old faith circulate the most absurd stories of the principles of the new sect; and where every word, contrary to the established doctrine, is looked upon as heresy, and punished as such. The tax-gatherers of the Wahabees, are called Mezekas, or Nowab. In reading over the seven or eight thousand principal Hadyth, ac knowledged as such by all the learned Mussulmans, and comparing them with the present manners of the Turks, innumerable instances are met with, of a total neglect of these precepts. The acquaintance with the Hadyth is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary, to get a clear insight into the spirit of the Turkish religion, which the reading of the Koran alone does not give. Moral precepts are much more enlarged upon in the Hadyth, than they are in the Koran itself; and, as it is generally Mohammed, the Arab, who speaks, his views and his mind, together with the customs of his times, may be better estimated, as it were, in his familiar conversation, than in the laboured language of the Koran." Essex Street, panegyrized Mr. Clarke's definition INTELLIGENCE. DOMESTIC. RELIGIOUS. Manchester College, York: Annual ON Monday, June 27, commenced the Annual Examination of the Students in Manchester College, York, and continued till the following Thursday evening, before Abraham Crompton and Daniel Gaskell, Esqrs., and the Rev. John Yates and John Kentish, Vice-Presidents; the Rev. William Turner, Visitor; the Rev. J. G. Robberds, Public Examiner; the Rev. J. J. Tayler, Secretary; and Robert Philips, Jun., Assistant Treasurer; and Messrs. Bealby, Bell, Brownbill, Dawson, Heaviside, Martineau, Mead, Philips, Pratt, Talbot, Taylor, Tottie, R. V. Yates, and the Rev. Messrs. Gaskell, Lee, Mallison, Smethurst and Tate. On Monday after noon the three Hebrew Classes were examined together, by written papers, for three hours; and the three Mathematical Classes in the same way, for an equal time. Tuesday morning the Greek Classes were examined in a similar way, from eight to eleven; after which, Orations were delivered by Mr Paget, on "the Origin and Effects of Chivalry;" Mr. Philipps, on "Ecclesiastical Establishments;" Mr. Dawson, on "the Use of Machinery in Manufactures;" Mr. Darbishire, on the Tendency of Berkley's Theory;" Mr. Squire, on" the Institution of the Jesuits ;" and Mr. Higginson, on" the Influence of Sects and Parties in Religion, Philosophy and Politics." Then followed a vira voce examination of the Ethical Class; Orations, by Mr. P. Crompton, on "Fortitude;" Mr. Rankin, on "the Reformation by Wickliffe;" and Mr. Bayly, on “ Penal Laws in Matters of Religion ;" and the business of the day concluded by an examination, in writing, of the Belles Lettres, and Senior History Classes. Wednesday commenced with an examination, in writing, for three hours, of the Theology and Evi. dence Classes; which was followed by Orations by Mr. Freeman, on "the Comparative Advantages of Public and Private Education;" by Mr. Busk, on "Innovation;" and a Sermon by Mr. Worthington, on Phil. iv. 6, 7. After a short interval, Mr. Martineau delivered an Oration on "the Necessity of Cultivating the Imagination as a Regulator of the Devotional Feelings;" Mr. Crompton, on the Imagination considered in reference to the Works of Nature;" and Mr. Tagart, a Sermon on Acts xvi. 31. The Junior Latin Class was then publicly examined for nearly two hours; and the business of this day concluded with Orations by Mr. Talbot, on " the Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus;" and by Mr. Ketley, on "the Comparative Evidences and Nature of Christianity and Mohammedism ;" and with a Sermon by Mr. Wreford, on Isa. xl. 6, 7. On Thursday, the Senior Latin Class was publicly examined for nearly two hours; Orations were delivered by Mr. Lee, on "the supposed Unfavourableness of the Roman Catholic Religion to Civil Liberty;" and by Mr. R. Brook Aspland, on "the Pulpit Oratory of France;" and a Sermon by Mr. Brown on Deut. iv. 9. The Junior History and the Logic Classes were then examined viva voce, and the examiation concluded with an Oration by Mr. Howorth, on the Charge against Christianity, that it does not inculcate Patriotism and Friendship;" and Sermons, by Mr. Beard, on Matt. xi. 5, and Mr. Mitchelson on Eph. ii. 12. After short interval, for determining the prizes for the best Oration and the best delivery, (it having been previously notified that the fifth year's Students did not wish to be included, as not considering Sermons proper subjects for a prize,) the Visitor delivered the following Address: "Gentlemen, -I am now called to the office, which I discharge with annually-increasing pleasure, of closing this long and highly satisfactory examination with our best thanks for the patience with which you have submitted to it, and the many evidences which you have given us in the course of it of the improvement you have made of the advantages here afforded you. I feel particular satisfaction in the highly creditable appearance which has throughout the week been made from the desk, as to both the composition and the delivery of your Orations and more elaborate discourses. It has been particularly gratifying to us all to observe, that you have, uearly without an exception, made choice of subjects which shew your regard for the propagation and spread of truth, virtue and religion, and this upon the firm basis of Christian principles; these principles, trust, you will carry with you, from this place, and make the rule of your conduct through life. "With regard to the Lay-Students of this year, let me be permitted to say, |