Augustine's bay on the south-western shore, and Tamatave and Antongil bay on the eastern, scarcely any part is known to English shipping,-the French being the only power that resorted thither till Mauritius came into our possession. Since that time we have, though very slowly, gained a footing; and the king of the eastern division of the island is now friendly, though sufficiently jealous of the encroaching spirit of Europeans. The many attempts made by France to acquire the entire sovereignty of the island are not forgotten. But the fierce, warlike, and predatory, spirit of the people, gives great facilities for the slave-trade to the flesh-dealers of Mauritius and Bourbon. A gentleman, lately arrived thence, stated to a friend of mine here, that he was privately informed of four or five cargoes being landed there within a very short space of time. For the Monthly Magazine. On the ALTERNATION of the COLOURS of certain FIXED STARS; by DR. T. FORSTER, F.L.S. member of the ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY of LONDON. HE alternation of the colours of not appear to me to have sufficiently engaged the attention of astronomers; and it is with a view to excite enquiry into its cause that I am induced to offer the following observations. Some years ago, on looking towards the constellation of the Scorpion, 1 observed a remarkable changing of colour in Antares: for a second or two of time it appeared of a deep crimson colour, then of a whitish colour; then the crimson was resumed, and so on at alternating periods. Sometimes every other twinkle (if I may be allowed the expression,) showed the red colour, while the alternating twinkle appeared of the ordinary colour of star-light. What is commonly called the twinkling of a star seems to be an apparent fit of dilatation and increased brilliancy, rapidly succeeded by the opposite state of apparent contraction of surface and dulness. I have observed, also, that the twinkles are of longer or shorter duration, at different times: now, in general, the crimson light I allude to occurs in every other dilatation, but sometimes only in every third, and at other times quite irregu larly: moreover, it lasts longer sometimes than at others, and scarcely ever exceeds two seconds of time at once. I have formerly published accounts of this phenomenon in the Journals, and have ascribed it to some sort of change in the star itself, or to a revolution round its axis, whereby different coloured portions of the sphere are presented to us: but this explanation vanishes on a moment's reflection; and I am inclined to ascribe it to some atmospherical cause. I have sometimes thought that the upper portions of the atmosphere might have some undulatory motion, and that the alternating colour might be produced by its refractive powers: for the atmosphere, in this case, acting as an imperfect prism, might present different colours, according to the varying inclinations of its wavy surface. I have thought, too, that portions of the aqueous atmosphere, possessing different refractive powers, might be transmitted downwards in dew, or that there might be some other unknown motion in the real air, which might cause the appearance. Antares, Betalgeus, Aldebaran, and other red very strongly, particularly the former; while Syrius, and the light stars, scarcely present any alternation of colour. This may in either case be owing to the different composition of their light, which would materially influence the refracted spectrum. Collateral experiments, and the mere appearance of stars in chromatic telescopes, tend to prove that the light of different celestial bodies is differently composed. Some interesting observations on the Dispersive Power of the Atmosphere, published a few years ago by Mr. Stephen Lee, contain an account of the composition of the light of some of the principal stars; and no one can reflect on the influence which all the above varieties must have on tables of refraction, without at once seeing the utility of multiplying and correcting observations on it. Additional observations are still wanting to explain the cause of these phenomena; but I shall still be excused, trust, in the absence of more matured and extended observations, for this imperfect attempt to excite the attention of philosophers to facts, which which seem calculated to produce an important influence on many of our most useful astronomical calculations. Hartfield, East Grinstead ; Nov. 18, 1822. For the Monthly Magazine. ELUCIDATIONS OF PORTIONS of ENGLISH HISTORY, improperly REPRESENTED in our GENERAL HISTORIES. [T is time that history should occupy itself with the mass of mankind; that the sufferings of the many should occupy its sympathies, as well as the usurpations of the few; that the sorrows of the oppressed should be recorded as well as the triumphs of the oppressor; that the unobtrusive virtue, the generous aspirations of those who have sought no fame, and have seldom found a chronicler, should be dug out of that grave of oblivion, where they have reposed for ages. The people are entitled to an historian. This task may perhaps be thankless,-for the people have little with which they can reward, nothing with which they can delude, or with which they can corrupt. He who celebrates them will not perhaps receive their culogies: the reward of his labour will be the labour itself. Who would believe, after reading the modern historians of England, that the struggle between the Normans and the Saxous was continued for centuries; they represent the conquest as little more than a change of dynasty; and pass from Harold to William the Conqueror as a trifling transition. They knew not, when they blended Normans and Saxons, conquerors and conquered, into one general mass, that the inhabitants of England were divided into two classes, as distinct as the Greeks (Heaven help them!) and the Turks of the Morea, with different languages, customs, and affections. On one side scorn, insolence, tyranny, cruelty; on the other hatred, and misery, and repressed revenge. The writer is proud to be of Saxon origin: he believes that almost every thing that is good in our institutions and our habits has been the legacy of our English forefathers; and that all that degrades us, all that has broken the bonds between man and man,-hereditary aristocracy, factitious dignity, and their calamitous appendages,— are mainly due to those Norman bandits, who covered "our old England" with blood and tears. On this particular point of historical research, the way has been cleared by the admirable author of "Ivanhoe." He is the historian of the people: his vivid portraiture of Saxons and Normans must have awakened sensibilities unknown till now. What he has done for a few isolated individuals,-admirable personifications of their separate races, it is proposed to do for the great mass of society. The AngloSaxons did not submit like willing slaves and cowards to the Normans: they opposed resistance while they had the means of resistance; and, when they fell, they themselves cherished, and they handed down to their children, that love of their country, and of their country's independance, and that hatred of the foreign usurpers who possessed their soil, which, though gradually extinguished, as the progress of time blended the oppressed with the oppressors, served as a rallying point of union and of sympathy; and proved that, though unfortunate and trampled on, they were neither base nor worthless,-Ils étaient avilis, ils n'étaient pas vils. History of the Invasion of England by the Normans in the Eleventh Century, and the Consequences of that Invasion down to the Thirteenth. Thus lot won England the sole of Normandie Robert of Gloster's Chronicle. While the citizens of London, with Edgar, their newly appointed king, some chiefs, and bishops, made themselves ready,-perhaps with too little activity,-to march against the enemy, the latter crossed the Thames at Wal destroyer of their rights; but Elred archbishop of York, timid and cautious, who saw (as the old historians relate,) that there was no opposing the current of events, nor that Divine Will which makes and unmakes authority,t consented to perform this office towards the threatening stranger. The church was prepared as in those days when the free suffrages of the best men of England; summoned the king of their choicell to receive the investiture of the power they confided to him; but this previous election,without which the claim to be a king could be but a vain mockery, a bitter insult of strength towards weakness, bishop of Canterbury, Wulfstan bishop of Worcester, and the principal men of London,*-humiliated by misfortune,-hastened to the camp of the stranger, took the oath of peace, and delivered to him their hostages. They received, in return, promises of kindness and protection,† which were fulfilled by the general devastation which accompanied the march of William towards the capital. He sent to his friend, to his auxiliary of Rome, the spoils of the rich churches and edifices, consisting of large sums of money, magnificent vases, and ornaments of gold, with the standard of Harold, over which that of the successor of St. Peter had just tri--this election did not take place for umphed.|| William availed himself of the booty, pillaged in his march upon London, to render the trembling Saxons more submissive. By money he made men traitors, and by terror he made them vile; and the Saxon patriots soon found that their ranks were polluted by the presence of recreants. It seems that William consulted his Norman and French chiefs as to the best means of consolidating and completing his conquests, and one of them, Aimery de Thouars, an Aquitain by nation, gave him the ingenious advice to cause himself, above all, to be proclaimed king by the small band of Saxons whom he had succeeded to alarm and to corrupt.¶ The Norman was pleased with this counsel, and he summoned Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, who had taken the oath of peace, to anoint him in Westminster Abbey,** where it had long been the custom to anoint the kings of England: Stigand refused to give his benediction to a man covered with the blood of his fellows, the invader and And ealle tha bestan men of Lundene. (Frag. of a Saxon Chronicle, published by Ehyr.) Promisit quod fidus dominus (hold Llaford) esset. Alramen fusena elle fassarunt omne quod persiarsibant. (Ib.) Ecclesiæ Romanæ St. Petri in auro et argento ultrà quam credibili sit. (Guil. Pict.) Dolo et pecunia corrumpero. (Will. Malm.) Aymericus Thoarcensis, ubi regnare cæperit, rebellem quamque minus ansurum. (Guil. Pict.) ** În Basilico S. Petri qua Westmonasterium nominatur. (Ord. Vid.) 2 the Norman duke. He left his camp of strangers, and marched through their triple ranks towards the Abbey, where a few timid Saxons awaited him, who put on, indeed, an unembarrassed countenance, and an appearance of freedom in their base and servile office. All the avenues of the church to a great distance, the squares and streets of the city, were covered with armed soldiers. Two hundred and sixty military chiefs, the staff of the conquerors, entered the Abbey with their leader. The ceremony began; and the Bishop of Bayeux enquired, in the French language, whe the Normans were of opinion that their leader should assume the title of King of the English; on which the Archbishop of York appealed to the English, in the Saxon language, to decide whether they would have the Norman for their king. Violent acclamations burst from the church, which vibrated through the gates, and reached the horsemen who were stationed in the neighbouring streets. They imagined these cries were cries of alarm, and in their fury they set fire to the surrounding houses, whose inhabitants they massacred. Others rushed towards the church, which the flames had nearly reached. (To be continued in our next.) Viro cruento et alieni jurie inofore. (Guil, Henb.) + Cedendum esse tempori et divinæ non resistendum ordinationi. (Sax. Bromp ton.) Bestan men. (Chr. Sax.) (Chr. Sax.) Guill. Pict. 206. Monas. Ang. 11, 220. For For the Monthly Magazine. OFFICIAL RETURN of the POPULATION of the TOWNS of GREAT BRITAIN in 1821 containing above 2,000 Inhabitants. ABERDEEN 44,796 | Bungay Abingdon 5,137 Trent. .... Alcester.... 2,229 Bury (Lan Alnwick... 5,927 Annan...... .... 6,700 cashire) 10,583 Bury St. Ed munds.... 9,999 4,549 Cardigan Zouch.... 3,937 Carmarthen 8,906 Ashford .... Lyne Ayr... .. Horsham.... 4,575 and Parish)18,211 | Huddersfield 13,284 Dumbarton 3,481 Hull, with Dumfries 11,052 Sculcoates 39,040 Dunbar Dundee .... .... Dunfermline 13,681 Ilminster .... .. 5,272 Huntingdon 2,806 30,575 | Hythe...... 2,181 2,156 9,822 Inverkeithing 2,512 Inverness ..12,264 Ipswich ....17,186 Isleworth 5,269 Jedburgh 7,900 .... 3,616 ...... Ellesmere 5,251 5,308 Keighley 9,223 6,056 Kelso Ely • 5,079 | Kendal 5,396 Cheltenham 13,396 | Farnham 4,860 8,984 .... 6,227 Kenilworth 2,577 .... 2,890 Kiddermin ster..... Eastbourne 2,607 Egham Elgin Enfield Epsom Kettering 3,668 Evesham. .... 3,487 Exeter ....23,479 ..10,709 4,392 3,677 Kinghorn 2,443 3,008 Faversham.. 3,919 Kirkaldy Kirkwall Barnesley Barnstaple.. 5,079 8,284 Cheshunt .... 4,376 ..19,949 Basingstoke 3,165 Chesterfield 5,077 Bath Forfar. ..... 5,897 Knaresbro'.. 5,283 Battle Bedford Bedminster 7,979 Cirencester Berwick.... 8,723 Clapham.... 7,151 .. Birmingham 106,722 Cockermouth 3,790 ...... Colchester14,016 3,358 Corsham.... 2,727 Coventry 21,242 Blackburn..21,940 Crediton... 2,643 Croydon.... 9,254 Guildford 2,266 4,236 4,987 Fulham .... 6,492 9,394 3,213 Greenwich..20,712 Grimsby .... 3,064 & Liberty) 83,796 Leicester 30,125 Leominster 3,651 Lerwick.... 2,224 8,185 3,153 Lichfield.... 6,075 2,423 3,161 3,683 Haddington 5,255 2,166 3,593 Harrow 5,906 Deptford 19,862 Haverford, Bridgnorth.. 4,345 Devizes 22,037 Cupar 5,892 Hammersmith 8,809 7,263 ... .... 3,017 Liskeard... ... 5,675 4,820 .... 3,215 Lutterworth 2,102 4,208 West .... 4,055 Lymington.. 3,164 .... 4,387 Lynn......12,253 Heaton Norris 6,958 2,031 Helston Macclesfield 17,746 2,671 Maidstone 12,508 2,764 Hemel-Hemp. Dolgelly.... 3,588 ston...... 24,429 Doncaster .. 8,544 Bromley.... 3,147 Dorking Douglas .... 6,054 Hinckley 9,505 Dover......10,527 Bromsgrove 7,519 Downton Hitchin 3,114 Holyhead stead 3,962 .. 9,090 .... 3,812 4,265 4,216 4,486 .. 3,296 Melford 4,071 .... Melksham 4,765 .... .... 7,843 Marlborough 3,038 2,288 SR Meltor To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. TH SIR, HE pages in the Monthly Magazine being open to receive communications respecting every useful discovery which can tend to ameliorate the moral and physical condition of mankind, has often been the means of doing much good. If on any occasion individuals, from ignorance or improper motives, have made false statements, the evil to society has been obviated, by its pages being open to their contradiction. This remark is made in consequence of a communication, dated Cullum-street, in your last Magazine, respecting what is called the medicinal well at Coomb Farm, in the neighbourhood of King 2 4,567 Yarmouth -18,040 Yeovil.... 4,655 2,319 York ......20,787 ston, which is described "as possessing the most surprising qualities as a remedy against that distressing and severe malady, the stone in the bladder." The writer adds, "that the astonishing cure which it has effected in the case of Mr. Samuel Jackson, the great currier in Little Windmill street, merits that its restorative and sanative powers should be more universally diffused:" and "that he is now, after two years' trial, completely cured, and that he is as free from stone or gravel as any personage in the kingdom.” Feeling deeply interested in whatever concerned so respectable a gentleman, and so useful a magistrate and governor of this parish, I caused enquiry |