VOL. VII THE No 220. DECEMBER EDUC 5TH, 1835. PRICE ONE PENNY. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. THE TOWN OF NEUCHATEL, IN SWITZERLAND, NEUCHATEL, Or Neufchatel, the capital of the Prussian principality, and of the Swiss canton of the same name, is one of the most interesting towns in Switzerland. It stands close to the lake of Neuchatel, and is watered by the little river Seyon, a sort of noisy mountain torrent which rises among the hills of the Jura, in the district called the Val de Ruz, and empties itself into the lake, after a short but impetuous course. This stream is always a rapid one, but it not unfrequently assumes a character of violence which occasions extensive devastations in the country through which it passes. The town is seated partly in the little plain between the Jura and the lake, and partly on the declivity of the mountain. The country around it is described as very pleasing. many of the independent communes of the country. They had acquired, in consequence, the protection of the entire confederacy. The Prussian king succeeded to this protection: from the period of his election, he was considered "an ally" of the confederates; his principality being reckoned amongst the number of what were termed the allied districts of Switzerland. We may here remind our readers, that, until the period of the changes induced by the French Revolution, the country called by the general name of Switzerland, consisted of three distinct classes of political divisions; namely, the thirteen confederated cantons; the districts which were under the protection of the confederation, and called "allies," in a sense expressive of a closer connection than the term usually denotes; and the subject territories which belonged to the different cantons of the confederation, and stood to their respective owners in the light of what they really were, conquered countries. The town of Neuchatel is of considerable antiquity, though the precise period of its foundation is not During the turbulent times of the Revolution, and satisfactorily ascertained. In several ancient docu- the wars which followed it, Neuchatel had the good ments, it bears the Latin name of Novum Castrum, fortune to escape the bitter inflictions which so great which has precisely the same meaning as Neuchatel, a part of Switzerland, as, indeed, of all Europe, was or Neuf-chatel, both signifying "New Castle;" and doomed to suffer. In the year 1806, Napoleon, being some suppose it, accordingly, to have sprung from a upon good terms with the Prussian monarch, obtained fortress erected by the Romans, to defend themselves from him the cession of this principality, for the against the attacks of the Helvetic nation. In the mid purpose of bestowing it upon his minister of war, dle ages, this town became a part of the principality of Berthier. That functionary was, accordingly, created Neuchatel,-its capital, indeed, and seat of govern- Prince and Duke of Neuchatel, and invested with the ment, as it were. It followed, accordingly, the fortunes principality, as a grand fief of the French Empire, to of that territory, and passed with it into the hands of be held upon the same tenure as Soult, Victor, and the various masters by whom it was held. The princi- other French Generals, held the twelve duchies which pality of Neuchatel was not at first so extensive as it were created the same year in the conqueror's new afterwards became. The principality of Vallengin," Kingdom of Italy." Berthier enjoyed the sovewhich was subsequently united to it, and which it now reignty of his principality till the downfall of his includes, was for a long while a separate sovereignty. master in 1814. The peace of Paris then restored it, These two principalities, with their fruitful valleys with additions, to the Prussian King, who, in the same extending along the lake of Neuchatel, and amongst year, granted it a constitutional charter, dated from the mountains of the Jura, belonged anciently to the London. In 1822 it was admitted into the Swiss kingdom of Burgundy, and were afterwards appended confederation as the twenty-second canton; and it is to the German Empire, in the eleventh century. The now remarkable as the only one among the whole Counts of Neuchatel, who resided in a castle on the number which has a monarchical government. Within borders of the lake, granted extensive privileges to the last five years, the tranquillity of the canton has all who settled in their uncultivated mountains, and been much disturbed by the political tumults which cleared the impenetrable forests. In this manner the have shaken a great part of Switzerland during that country was peopled; and, by degrees, around the period; and its prosperity is said to have suffered castle, the modern town sprung up, which, in 1214, under the influence of the same causes. was invested with considerable privileges. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, the reigning lord ceded his seigneury to the Emperor Rudolf of Hapsburg, from whom it passed to the Burgundian house of Chalons. Two centuries afterwards it became vested in the hands of the old French family of Longueville, which became extinct in 1707, by the death of Mary, Duchess of Nemours. Above twenty claimants at once presented themselves as heirs to this beautiful principality; and the assembly of the three estates, the supreme court of judicature, composed of twelve judges, having examined the pretensions of the different claimants, declared Frederick the First of Prussia to be the next heir to the house of Chalons. That monarch at once confirmed the constitution and liberties of the country, as defined by the articles which had been previously drawn up by the three estates, and subscribed to by all the claimants before the decision; and he proceeded thenceforward to exercise his rights, through a governor and council of state, all whose members were chosen from among the citizens. His predecessors, the lords of Neuchatel, had always maintained a treaty of alliance with either Berne, Soleure, Lucerne, or Fribourg, since the year 1307, as had also the town itself, as well as the other towns, and The existing town of Neuchatel, or Neuenbourg, as it is styled in German, is described as small and good-looking, with a pleasant walk by the side of the lake, and several handsome public buildings. It possesses scarcely any distinguishing features: perhaps the most characteristic are the steepness of some of the streets in the declivity of the Jura, and the beautiful walks which skirt the banks of the lakesome of them ornamented with handsome lines of houses. The style of architecture is chiefly modern; for the town has so often suffered from the calamity of fire, that few portions of it can boast of much antiquity. In the year 1714, it was the scene of an extensive conflagration, which destroyed the whole of the street leading to the castle, and in the middle of the fifteenth century, almost the entire town was burnt down. The rising of the impetuous Seyon has also been a source of destruction: an inundation of its waters, in the year 1579, reduced a large space of buildings to ruins. To these injuries, arising from physical causes, must be added those which have been inflicted by the hand of war,-though, fortunately, the latter have been confined to the earlier ages of its history. In 1033, it was sacked by the Emperor Conrad the Second; and, two hundred years afterwards, it was burnt by Henry, Bishop of Basle, The castle is the most remarkable among the pubc buildings. It is a vast building, which used to be the residence of the ancient Counts of Neuchatel, before the principality passed into the hands of the Prussian sovereign. It is now appropriated to the service of the governor, appointed by that monarch to act as his deputy. It stands finely, upon a height overlooking the town; the ascent to it is by stone steps, some of which are cut in the solid rock. The view which this antique chateau commands, in its elevated position over the lake, is extensive and beautiful:- "One, which the reader may fancy," says Simond, "better than I can describe. The lime-trees in its terrace are very large; one of them measures eighteen feet in circumference, five feet above ground, and nearly double below. Numerous fountains, ceaselessly pouring their limpid streams into large stone basins, are, besides their convenience and beauty, a species of living records of the taste and manners of past ages,-being generally ornamented with colossal representations of Swiss warriors of the fifteenth century, clad in steel, with wasp shapes, and stuffed breasts, wearing on the head diminutive caps, which strangely contrast with their vast exuberance of beard, and stern countenances." By the side of the castle is the cathedral, said to have been built in 1164, and chiefly remarkable for a series of statues, erected by Count Louis, in 1373, as monuments of nine Counts and four Countesses of Neuchatel. In front of this edifice, stands an object of considerable interest-the sepulchral stone of William Farel, who brought about the establishment of the reformed religion in the principality of Neuchatel. This distinguished individual,-the companion and fellow-labourer of Calvin,-was by birth a Frenchman; and, to this circumstance, he is said to have been, in some measure, indebted for the success which attended his preaching,-as the French language is almost universally spoken throughout the canton. There is, or at least used to be, upon one of the walls of the cathedral, an inscription to the following effect, marking the precise period at which the Reformation became triumphant in this town:--"On the 23rd of October, 1530, idolatry was abolished, and removed from within here, by the citizens." The new church was built in the year 1695; and there is also a town-house. Much of the embellishment and prosperity of the town are owing to the public spirit and patriotism of two of its citizens. One of them, M. David Pury, was born in 1709; and, having received his education in his native town, is said to have quitted it in great poverty. He passed an apprenticeship in some trade at Geneva, and then repaired to London, where he resided some time in the capacity of clerk to an eminent jeweller. He subsequently established himself in Lisbon; and being appointed court banker, soon became possessed of great wealth. In this city he died in the year 1786. During his life-time, he remitted large sums of money to his native town; and, upon his death, having none but very distant relations, made his country heir to the great bulk of his fortune. Nearly one hundred and sixty thousand pounds British, was bequeathed to the citizens of Neuchatel, to be applied to purposes of education, -to the augmentation of the stipends of clergymen and their widows,-to the support of the aged poor, -to the construction of a town-house, an infirmary, and other public establishments,-to the improvement of the public walks,-in short, to all objects of general utility. The amount of his benefactions, during his life-time, was nearly thirty thousand pounds; and for fifteen years, he had given one hundred pounds annually to the poor of each of the towns of Neuchatel and Vallengin; a considerable sum, when we bear in mind that the larger of them had then a population of only 3000. The whole amount of his benefactions to his native town does not fall far short of two hundred thousand pounds. The other individual is M. de Pourtales, who, in 1807, gave upwards of twenty thousand pounds for the establishment of a noble hospital; the utility of which has been amply shown: in 1814 it was filled with sick soldiers, and in the years 1813 and 1815, it received 269 and 312 patients, respectively. At the commencement of the last century, Coxe tells us that commerce was almost wholly unknown in this town, as the ridiculous pride of deeming it to be degrading, generally prevailed among the inhabitants. This senseless prejudice was nearly extinguished when he wrote (in 1786); at present it has entirely vanished, and the town is now the centre of the whole trade of the canton. The land is generally fertile, though the corn which is produced throughout the principality is by no means sufficient for the subsistence of its inhabitants, the population being so great in reference to the surface. Wine, fruits, hemp, and flax, are produced and exported in considerable quantities; but the manufactures of the town and canton are the chief source of prosperity to both. They are principally lace, linen, cotton, chintzes, and other printed goods, cutlery, philosophical instruments, and watches. The number of watches annually made in this canton has been estimated at 130,000, which are exported into Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and even America. The artizans employed in the preparation of these instruments, have been stated at between three and four thousand. The villages of La Chaux, De Fond, and Locle are the principal seats of the manufacture; and Coxe dwells with pleasure upon the genius and industry which their inhabitants exhibited fifty years ago. "They carry on," he says, "an extensive commerce in lace, stockings, cutlery, and other merchandize of their own manufacture; but watch-making, and every branch of clock-work, are the articles in which they particularly excel. They not only make every utensil employed in those arts, but have invented several; and all sorts of workmen necessary for the completion of that branch of business, such as painters, enamellers, engravers, and gilders, are found in these villages*." The prosperous and happy condition always enjoyed by the town and canton of Neuchatel, have sometimes occasioned in the mind of the observant traveller, a comparison with other parts of Switzerland which are inhabited by a Catholic population, and which have always been equally remarkable for the poverty and ignorance prevailing therein. MalteBrun asks to what causes can this wealth and activity be attributed? "Is it," he inquires, " to that turn of mind which led the inhabitants to adopt, by a plurality of voices, the Reformation preached to them by Farel?" * See Saturday Magazine, Vol. V., p. 62., for an account of the introduction of watch-making into the canton of Neuchatel. A PROFESSOR in one of the German Universities, whose unconcern for religion in general was notorious, was not less remarkable for the care which he took in the religious instruction of his children. One of his friends, astonished at this inconsistency, and asking him the reason of this conduct, was told in reply, "It is because I wish my children may enjoy more peace of mind, and more content in this life, than has ever fallen to my lot; and this they can only obtain by possessing more faith than myself." THE WHITE POPPY-OPIUM-AND OPIUM-EATERS. earth, are strewed over the beds. When the seedpods are half grown, no more water is given, and the cultivators begin to collect opium. At sunset they make two incisions in each pod, passing from below upwards, taking care not to penetrate the cavity of the capsule. The incisions are repeated every evening, until the capsules have received six or eight wounds: they are then allowed to ripen their seeds. THE milky juice found in many plants,-as, for instance, in the poppy, the lettuce, the dandelion, and others, has long been known for its soporific effects. This narcotic principle has been found to exist more particularly in the juice of the white poppy, from which is prepared the Opium of commerce. Laudanum, which is a solution of Opium in spirits, is well known, both for its beneficial effects when carefully administered, and for its fatal results in the hands of ignorance or wickedness. The Poppy is cultivated to a great extent, for the purpose of extracting the Opium, in many parts of Asia, and even in the southern countries of Europe. In India, the cultivation is confined to certain districts, and is carried on for the benefit of the government. The greatest part of the crops of Hindostan are carried to China, and smuggled into that country, in spite of the regulations which forbid its importation; for even the functionaries appointed to exclude the drug are as anxious as others to obtain it. This desire for Opium, on the part of the Chinese, arises from a pernicious habit prevalent among them, of smoking it, and of swallowing it in the shape of pills, for the purpose of producing a species of intoxication. The mode of culture in India is as follows:-The field being well prepared by the plough and harrow, is divided into small beds, seven feet long, and five wide; the spaces between being formed into channels, for the purpose of conveying water to the different parts of the field. The seeds are sown in October or November; the plants are allowed to grow six or eight inches from each other, and are plentifully supplied with water, till about eight inches high, when they are watered more sparingly. As they are about to come into blossom, the quantity of water is increased, and manure, and a large portion of nitrous TWO-EDGED LANCET FOR PIERCING THE CAPSULES. Early in the morning, the juice which has trickled from the wounds, is scraped off by women and children with a small scoop; it is then placed in an earthen pot, and allowed to become sufficiently hard to be formed into globular masses of about four pounds' weight. These cakes are covered over with leaves, and dried, until they are fit for sale. The poppy is a very hardy plant, and in most climates can be sown either in the Spring, or the Autumn, as it stands the cold weather tolerably well. It will not bear transplanting; and must, consequently, be sown more thickly than it is intended to grow, and afterwards be thinned out. Modern chemistry has succeeded in extracting the narcotic principle from crude Opium, in the form of a white crystallized substance, which is called Morphium. Small doses of this are now frequently administered, instead of larger quantities of Laudanum or Opium. The seeds of the poppy yield, by expression, an excellent oil, equal, for the purposes of cookery, to the best olive oil, and possessing none of the properties of opium itself, which appears to reside only in the milky juices of the plant. In Europe, although the poppy is cultivated to a considerable extent, it is chiefly for the sake of the seeds, and of the dry seed-pods, which are used in medicine. The destructive habit of taking large doses of Opium, to produce a sort of temporary intoxication, prevails to a great extent in Eastern countries, particularly among the Turks. The effects are to be daily witnessed in Constantinople; where the miserable beings addicted to this vice may be seen assembled in some favourite house, enjoying their deadly luxury. "I had heard so much of the sensations produced by this drug," says Dr. Madden, "that I resolved to know the truth; and accordingly took my seat in the coffee-house, with half a dozen Theriakis. Their gestures were frightful: those who were completely under the influence of the opium, talked incoherently; their features were flushed, their eyes had an unnatural brilliancy, and the general expression of their countenances was horribly wild. The effect is usually produced in two hours, and lasts four or five; the dose varies from three grains to a drachm. I saw one old man take four pills, of six grains each, in the course of two hours. I was told he had been using opium for five-and-twenty years; but this is a very rare example, as an opium-eater seldom passes thirty years of age, if he commences the practice early. The debility, both moral and physical, attendant on its excitement, is terrible; the appetite is soon destroyed, every fibre in the body trembles, the nerves of the neck become affected, and the muscles get rigid. Several of those I have seen in this place, at various times, had wry necks and contracted fingers; but still they cannot abandon the habit. They are miserable till the hour arrives for taking their daily dose; and when its influence begins, they are all fire and animation. Some of them compose verses, and others address the by-standers in eloquent discourses, imagining themselves to be emperors, and to have all the world at their command. "I commenced with one grain: in the course of an hour and a half it produced no perceptible effect. The coffee-house keeper was very anxious to give me an additional pill of two grains, but I was contented with half a cne; and in another half an hour, feeling nothing of the expected reverie, I took half a grain more, making two grains in the course of two hours. After two hours and a half from the first dose, I took two grains more, and shortly after this dose, my spirits became sensibly excited. The pleasure of the sensation seemed to depend on a universal expansion of mind and matter; my faculties appeared enlarged; every thing I looked on seemed increased in volume; but I had no longer the same pleasure when I closed my eyes, which I had when they were open. I made my way home as fast as possible, dreading at every step I should commit some extravagance. I was hardly sensible my feet touched the ground; and I got to bed the moment I reached home. The most extraordinary visions of delight filled my brain all night. In the morning I rose, pale and dispirited; my head ached; and my body was so debilitated, that I was obliged to remain on the sofa all the day, dearly paying for my first essay at opium eating." The following description is from Hope's Anastasius, which, although a work of fiction, contains, in its descriptive scenes, correct and vivid representations of the manners of the East. "The great mart of that deleterious drug, is the Theriakee Tchartchee. There, in elegant coffeehouses, adorned with trellised awnings, the dose of delusion is measured out to each customer according to his wishes. But, lest its visiters should forget to what place they are hieing, directly facing its painted porticoes stands the great receptacle of mental imbecility, erected by Sultan Suleiman for the use of his capital. "In this Tchartchee might be seen, any day, a numerous collection of those whom private sorrows have driven to a public exhibition of insanity. There, each reeling idiot might take his neighbour by the hand and say, 'Brother, and what ailed thee, to seek so dire a cure?' There did I, with the rest of its familiars, now take my habitual station in my solitary niche, like an insensible, motionless idol, sitting with sightless eyeballs, staring on vacuity. "One day, as I lay in less entire absence of mind than usual, under the purple vines of the porch, admiring the gold-tipped domes of the majestic Sulimanye, the appearance of an old man, with a snow-white beard, reclining on the couch beside me, caught my attention. Half-plunged in stupor, he every now and then burst out into a wild laugh, occasioned by the grotesque phantasms which the ample dose he had swallowed was sending up into his brain. I sat contemplating him with mixed curiosity and dismay, when, as if for a moment roused from his torpor, he took me by the hand, and fixing on my countenance his dim, vacant eyes, said, in an impressive tone, 'Young man, thy days are yet few take the advice of one, who, alas, has counted many. Lose no time; hie thee hence, nor cast behind one lingering look: but if thou hast not the strength, why tarry, even here? Thy journey is but half achieved. At once go on to that large mansion before thee. It is thy ultimate destination; and by thus beginning where thou must end at last, thou mayest at least save both thy time and thy money." : THE AURORA BOREALIS. I HAVE stood at morn on the mountain's side, I have watched him at noon, in unclouded blaze, He burst on the dazzled sight. I have seen him sink 'neath the western sky, And I love in the stillness of evening to rove, Where bright bands in mysterious music move, But, in glory surpassing, a sight was there, 'Mid the silent hour of night. When, in liquid course, those flashes of flame And crimson'd the face of heaven. When, in many a shape and many a form, As the spirit that rides on the whirlwind's storm, Faint type of those all-dreaded glaring fires That shall rage in future days, When the loud-sounding trump, from earth's funeral pyres May we seek that radiant shore, And sorrow be heard no more. R. C. P. THE famous astronomer, Kirchner, having a friend who method to convince him of his error. Expecting him upon denied the existence of a supreme Being, took the following a visit, he procured a very handsome globe of the starry heavens, which, being placed in a situation where it could not fail to escape his friend's observation, the latter seized the first occasion to ask whence it came, and to whom it belonged. "It does not belong to me," said Kirchner, "nor was it ever made by any person; but it came here by mere chance!" absolutely impossible: you surely jest." Kirchner, howThis," replied his sceptical friend, "is ever, seriously persisting in his assertion, took occasion to reason with his friend upon his own atheistical principles. "You will not," said he, "believe that this small body originated in mere chance; and yet you would contend that those heavenly bodies, of which it is only a faint and diminutive resemblance, came into existence without order and design!" His friend was at first confounded,—afterwards, when Kirchner pursued his reasoning, convinced; and ultimately joined in a cordial acknowledgment of the absurdity of denying the existence of a God. THERE are few instances, I believe, to be met with, in any aid of Religion. This is necessary to fill up and quicken situation, of a regular and supported conduct, without the those dull intervals which happen in the busiest life, and to preserve a retired one from a total stagnation. It is Religion which must plant in the soul that motive principle, which will display itself in a useful course of employment, whatever be the circumstances in which we are placed, like brious stream, notwithstanding every alteration of weather a perennial Spring, that still sends forth a pure and salu or vicissitude of seasons. The activity of man, as a rational being, depends chiefly on the end he has in view. Now the end presented to him by Religion, is of the most excellent and interesting nature, and, if duly apprehended, will always command a vigorous exercise of his moral and intellectual powers; and thus of a desert. He who is fully conscious that he has a soul furnish him with the noblest occupation, even in the midst to save, and an eternity to secure, and, still further, to animate his endeavours, that God and angels are the spectators of his conduct, can never want motives for exertion in the most sequestered solitude.-Bates, |