CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT IN CEYLON. and were condemned to death: after a severe flogging AMONG the blessings resulting from the introduction Hurried along by the flood of revenge, the tyrant, lost to every tender feeling, resolved to punish Eheylapola, who had escaped, through his family, which remained in his power: he sentenced the chief's wife and children, and his brother and his wife to death-the brother and children to be beheaded, and the females to be drowned. In front of the queen's palace, and between the figures of their idols, the wife of Eheylapola and his children were brought from prison, where they had been in charge of female gaolers, We have already, on several occasions*, drawn the attention of our readers to the vast and beautiful island of Ceylon, and we have been enabled to do so with the greater effect, in consequence of having been allowed access to the collection of curious and valuable drawings, belonging to the Right Honourable Sir Alexander Johnston. To that gentleman, formerly chief judge of the colony, the natives of this island are mainly indebted for the right of trial by jury, the introduction of which we described in our sixth volume, and it was during his residence in the island, that the drawings in question, illustrating the manners and customs, the history, and the rites and superstitions of the people, as well as the natural history of the country, were made, under his own direction, and chiefly by native artists. The drawing from which the engraving on the preceding page is taken, forms part of that collection; and it will at once be seen, from its rudeness and the peculiarity of its details, that it is a mere imitative production of an untaught native. It is, however, singularly faithful in its portrayal of the frightful events of that revolting tragedy which it is intended to commemorate. It represents the butchery of the wife and family of a distinguished native, who had been involved in some of the disturbances common to the barbarous state of things under which the people lived, by the command of the king of Candy; but it is gratifying to add, that it was the last instance of so frightful an occurrence, punishments of this revolting character being now abolished under British influence, and the advancing enlightenment of Christianity. The dreadful tale is thus told by Dr. Davy, in his History of Ceylon: Eheylapola (Adigèr, or prime-minister, to the king of Candy), with some of his adherents, fled to Colombo to seek protection from the British, and Molligoddé (the king) returned to Candy, with a crowd of prisoners, forty-seven of whom were impaled. One high officer, Pusilla Dissave, had excited the king's displeasure, by a present which, through the ignorance of his brother, was offered in a disrespectful manner. The brother was imprisoned: the Dissave was soon suspected of correspondence with Eheylapola, and a letter from their chief, abusive of the king, having been found in the possession of one of the attendants, Pusilla was considered guilty, his eyes were plucked out, his joints cut, and after this torture he was beheaded. Some old offence was again ript open, and all the head men supposed to have been concerned in a rebellion which had been suppressed, were summoned to appear at Kandy. They were tried by a commission of three chiefs, of whom Molligoddé, whose authority they had opposed, was one, See Saturday Magazine, Vol. VI., pp. 91, 100, 106, 114, 143, 158, 173. and delivered over to the exécutioners. The lady, with great resolution, maintained not only her own and her children's innocence, but also her lord's, at the same time submitting to the king's pleasure, and offering up her own and her offspring's lives, with a fervent hope that her husband would be benefited by the sacrifice. Having uttered these sentiments aloud, she desired her eldest boy to submit to his fate; the poor boy, who was eleven years old, clung to his mother terrified and crying; her second son, nine years old, heroically stepped forward,— he bid his brother not be afraid-he'd show him the way to diet! By one blow of a sword the head of this noble child was severed from his body; it was thrown into a ricemortar, the pestle was put into the mother's hands, and she was ordered to pound it. One by one, the heads of all her children were cut off, and one by one the poor mother-but the circumstance is too dreadful to be dwelt on. One of the children was a girl; and to wound a female is considered by the Singalese a most monstrous crime another was an infant at the breast, and this was plucked from its mother's breast to be beheaded. During this tragical scene, the crowd who had assembled to witness it wept and sobbed aloud, unable to suppress their feelings of grief and horror. One of the chief officers was so affected that he fainted, and was expelled his office for showing such tender sensibility. During two days the whole of Candy, with the exception of the tyrant's court, was as one house of mourning and lamentation; and so deep was the grief, that not a fire (it is said) was kindled, no food was dressed, and a general fast was held. After the execution of her children the sufferings of the mother were speedily relieved. She and her sister-in-law, and the wife and sister of Pusilla Dissave, were led to a little tank in the immediate neighbourhood of Candy, and drowned. Such are the prominent features of this period of terror, which even now no Candian thinks of without dread, and few describe without weeping. This boy, and his conduct on the occasion here described, suggested one of the incidents in Miss Baillie's drama called The Bride. Miss Baillie's dramas were written at the suggestion of Sir Alexander Johnston, for the purpose of being translated into the languages, and acted before the natives of the East, the fondness of those people for scenic representations, rendering that a desirable mode of inculcating principles and sentiments directly opposed to many of their cruel customs. NOTHING is more unpleasing than to find that offence has been received when none was intended, and that pain has been given to those who were not guilty of any provocation. As the great end of society is mutual beneficence, a good man is always uneasy when he finds himself acting in opposition to the purposes of life; because, though his conscience may easily acquit him of malice prepense, of settled hatred, or contrivances of mischief, yet he seldom can be certain that he has not failed by negligence or indolence, that he has not been hindered from consulting the common interest by too much regard to his own ease, or too much indifference to the happiness of others.-Rambler. LIFE is a voyage, in the progress of which we are perpetually changing our scenes; we first leave childhood behind us, then youth, then the years of ripened manhood, then the better and more pleasing part of old age.-Seneca. THAT we ought to do an action, is of itself a sufficient and ultimate answer to the questions, Why we should do it? how we are obliged to do it? The conviction of duty im. plies the soundest reason, the strongest obligation, of which our nature is susceptible.-WHEWELL. THE WONDERS OF NATURE. FROM partial consideration of things, we are very apt to criticise what we ought to admire; to look upon as useless, what, perhaps, we should own to be of infinite advantage to us, did we see a little further; to be peevish where we ought to give thanks; and at the same time to ridicule those who employ their time and thoughts in examining what we were, that is, some of us most assuredly were,-created and appointed to study. In short, we are too apt to treat the Almighty worse than a rational man would treat a good mechanic; whose works he would either thoroughly examine, or be ashamed to find any fault with them. This is the effect of a partial consideration of nature; but he who has candour of mind and leisure to look further, will be inclined to cry out: How wondrous is this scene! where all is formed To frame a world, who cannot frame a clod ?— BENJAMIN STILLINGFLEET. Ir being impossible for the mind of man to be always intent upon business, and for the body to be exercised in continual labours, the wisdom of God has therefore adjudged some diversions and recreation (the better to fit both body and mind for the service of their Maker,) to be both needful and expedient; such is the constitution of our bodies, and the complexion of our minds, that neither of them can endure a constant toil, without some relaxation and delighting diversion. As a bow, if always bent, will prove sluggish and unserviceable; in like manner will a Christian's mind, if always intent upon the best things: the arrow of devotion will soon flag, and fly but slowly towards heaven. A wise and good man, perhaps, would wish that his body needeth no such diversion; but finding his body tire and grow weary, he is forced to give way to reason, and let religion choose such recreations as are healthful, short, recreative, and proper to refresh both mind and body.—Burkitt MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. No. I. THE earliest record we possess of instruments of music, is to be found in the Sacred Volume itself, where the state of the world before the flood is 66 noticed. Tubal is said to have been "the father of them that play upon the harp and the organ;" but it is not to be supposed that these words refer to instruments resembling the harp and organ of modern times. Musical instruments were employed in very early times, when it was intended to show honour to Why wouldest any person;-Laban said to Jacob, thou run away privately, and not acquaint me, that I might have brought thee on the way with joy, and the times of David and of Solomon, they were with songs, and with timbrels, and with harps?" In employed in religious services; "David and all Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of wood, on harps, and lutes, and timbrels, and cornets, and cymbals." It is also clear that music was employed by the Jews on many other occasions,—at funerals and weddings, at harvesthome, and at festivals of all kinds. The history and the monuments of ancient Egypt have many accounts and representations of musical instruments, and recent discoveries have brought to light several of these, so that we have ocular demonstration of their existence and form. So celebrated were this ancient people for their musical talents, that the distinguished philosophers of Greece braved many dangers, in their anxiety to study the science in Egypt, and this was in times when the inhabitants of the banks of the Nile were far from being in the same high state of civilization as their forefathers had been in earlier times. Musical instruments may be properly arranged in three sections, namely, wind instruments, as the trumpet, the organ;-stringed instruments, as the harp, the violin, &c.; and instruments of concussion, in which the sound is produced by striking a sonorous body, as, for instance, the drum, bells, &c. The vast number of different instruments of music which have been invented in various ages of the world, render it necessary, in describing them, to follow some arrangement similar to that noticed above. It is impossible, at the present day, to say to which we should give a preference on account of priority of invention, although it is most likely that instruments with strings were the last invented of the three kinds; we shall, therefore, in the first place, describe those in which sound is produced by the application of wind; of these we may suppose the trumpet, or rather horn, to have been first used. This instrument, in its rudest form, was readyfashioned to the hand of man; the horn of a ram or of an ox, or some of the larger kinds of sea-shells, of a lengthened form, would soon be discovered to possess the power of producing sound by being blown into through a small hole at the pointed extremity. In the ancient representations of the attendants on the heathen sea-gods, we frequently see a large shell employed for this purpose. Hyginus, a Latin author, who wrote in the time of the Emperor Augustus, gives the following account of the first use of the sea-trumpet." It was Tyrrhænus who discovered the trumpet: his comrades lived upon human flesh, on which account the neighbouring inhabitants, looking on them with horror, fled on every side. Tyrrhænus, to induce them to return, seeing one of his companions dead, pierced a shell, and commenced blowing on his newly-invented instrument, to recall the inhabitants of the village, and to let them see His writhen shell he takes, whose narrow vent DRYDEN. These rude instruments would naturally be improved in the course of time, and we find trumpets of the following description in use, in after-times, among the Romans, and other ancient nations. Fig. 1, a Roman lituus, in brass; fig. 2, a singularly-shaped horn, used at triumphs, and on other great occasions; figs. 3 and 4, Jewish trumpets; in later times the trumpet has been much improved; fig. 5, an ancient hunting-horn. The hunting-horn and the bugle are the simplest in construction; then comes the French-horn, with its numerous coils, which, being easily separated, allow the instrument to be adjusted to different keys. The sackbut, or trombone, is another modern arrangement of the horn; in this case the note is altered by lengthening or shortening the tube, which is in two pieces, one sliding in the other. Fig. 6 represents an instrument made, by the natives on the Gold Coast of Africa, from the tusk of an elephant, which is hollowed out with immense labour; a square hole is made near the thickest extremity, and a somewhat loud, but disagreeable sound, is produced by blowing in at the aperture. This mode of producing sound from a hollow tube, appears to be a near approach to the discovery afterwards made, that different notes could be produced from the same tube, by merely opening or closing a series of small holes in its length, as in the case of the flute. This improvement in wind-instruments will form the subject of a future paper. FROM Mertola I rode over a large tract of country, abounding in cork, and covered with lavender and cistus, to a ruined house, then used as an inn, and situated in the heart of the wilderness, many miles distant from any other habitation. Here I stopped, for I was ill, and too exhausted to proceed further. Two noble storks were perched on a low tree near the house, and guarded a huge nest which they had built in its branches, while the lesser birds, availing themselves of window-frames that never yet enclosed a pane of glass, had made their habitation in the ceiling of my room, and flew to and fro in utter disregard of mortal man. I was drinking tea, when the Borderer entered, and informed me that some peasants had intimated their intention of invading my apartment. They said that in their youth they had often heard their fathers speak of the English, but had never themselves seen an individual of that nation, and were anxious to avail them selves of the present opportunity. I desired Juan to give my compliments, and say I should have great pleasure in being exhibited. On the strength of this invitation some wild-looking fellows appeared, and standing in a row fixed their stupid eyes upon me, as if determined to enjoy a perfect view of the wild beast; thus they gazed continuously upon me for some minutes, but never uttered a word, and at length departed as they came, without the slightest salutation [Portugal and Gallicia.] THE brave Dutch Admiral, Van Tromp, who was a large heavy man, was challenged by a thin active French officer. "We are not upon equal terms with rapiers," said Van Tromp," but call on me to-morrow morning, and we will adjust the affair better." When the Frenchman called, he found the Dutch admiral bestriding a barrel of gunpowder. "There is room enough for you," said Van Tromp, "at the other end of the barrel; sit down, there is a match, and, as you were the challenger give fire." The Frenchman was a little thunderstruck at this terrible mode of fighting, but as the Dutch admiral told him he would fight in no other way, terms of accommodation ensued.-GILPIN. THE LARGE BLACK ANT. COLONEL SYKES related to me an anecdote, with regard to an Indian species of Ant, which he calls the Large Black Ant, instancing, in a wonderful manner, their perseverance in attaining a favourite object, which was witnessed by himself, his lady, and his whole household. When resident at Poona, the dessert, consisting of fruits, cakes, and various preserves, always remained upon a small side-table, in a verandah of the dining-room. To guard against inroads, the legs of the table were immersed in four basins filled with water; it was removed an inch from the wall, and, to keep off dust through open windows, was covered with a table-cloth. At first the ants did not attempt to cross the water, but as the strait was very narrow, from an inch to an inch and a half, and the sweets very tempting, they appear at length to have braved all risks, to have committed themselves to the deep, to have scrambled across the channel, and to have reached the object of their desires, for hundreds were found every morning revelling in enjoyment. Daily vengeance was executed upon them without lessening the numbers; at last the legs of the table were painted, just above the water, with a circle of turpentine. This at first seemed to prove an effectual barrier, and for some days the sweets were unmolested; after which they were again attacked by these resolute plunderers, but how they got at them seemed totally unaccountable, till Colonel Sykes, who often passed the table, was surprised to see an ant drop from the wall, about a foot above the table, upon a cloth that covered it; another and another succeeded. So that though the turpentine and the distance from the wall appeared effectual barriers, still the resources of the animal, when determined to carry its point, were not exhausted, and by ascending the wall to a certain height, with a slight effort against it in falling, it managed to land in safety upon the table. Colonel Colonel Sykes asks,-Is this instinct? I should answer,No. The animal's appetite is greatly excited, its scent probably informs it where it must seek the object of its desire; it first attempts the nearest road; when this is barricaded, it naturally ascends the walls near which the table was placed, and so succeeds by casting itself down, all the while under the guidance of its senses. - It is observed, in the Introduction to Etymology, that though ants, during the cold winters in this country, remain in a state of torpidity, and have no need of food, yet, in warmer regions, during the rainy seasons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a store of provisions may be necessary for them. Now, though the rainy season, at least in America, is a season in which insects are full of life, yet the observation, that ants may store up provisions in warm countries, is confirmed by an account sent me by Colonel Sykes, with respect to another species which appears to belong to the same genus as the celebrated Ant of Visitation, by which the houses of Surinam were said to be cleared periodically of their cockroaches, mice, and even rats. The present species has been named by Mr. Hope the Provident Ant. These Ants, after long-continued rains during the monsoon, were found to bring up, and lay up, on the suface of the earth, on a fine day, their stores of grass-seeds and grains of Guinea-corn, for the purpose of drying them. Many scores of these hoards were frequently observable on the extensive parade at Poona. This account clearly proves, that where the climate and the circumstances require it, these industrious creatures do store up provisions. From these very interesting communications, we may remark how the functions of animals are varied, the same function being often given in charge to tribes perfectly different in different climates. In temperate regions, the principal agents in disinfecting the air by devouring or removing excrement, belong to the order Beetles; but in India, where probably more hands are wanted to effect this purpose of Providence, the Tree Ants* are called in to aid the Beetles, by building their nests of this foetid mortar, and thus clear the surface of innumerable nuisances, which probably soon dry and become scentless. In Europe, again, no Ants are found to verify Solomon's observation, literally interpreted; but in India we see, and probably it may also be the same in Palestine, provision for the future is not stored up solely by the bees; but the ants, where it is necessary, are gifted with the same admirable instinct. [KIRBY'S Bridgewater Treatise.] See Saturday Magazine, Vol. IX., p. 246. LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND CARRIAGES. THE enterprise and spirit of the body of capitalists who undertook and perfected the Manchester and Liverpool railway, infused extraordinary energy and activity into the mechanical ingenuity of the country. This, combined with one of those felicitous accidents which occasionally produce important effects on the progress of civilization, was the means of developing a quality of the Steam Engine, which, until then, had been altogether undiscovered. That an agent possessing the powers, which steam had been long known to possess, should be capable of propelling loads of unusual amount was only what might naturally have been expected. The projectors of the railroad had, accordingly, laid their account to a large traffic in goods, and had looked forward to such as the staple of their enterprise. When we saw, therefore, a train of wagons, weighing from two to three hundred tons, or a string of carriages containing six or seven hundred passengers, transported by one steam-engine, between Liverpool and Manchester, however much we might admire the agent, no person acquainted with the previous applications of the machine could feel much surprised. The speed, however, of transport, which was effected in the very first experiments made upon the rail-road, was a result of startling importance, which was equally unforeseen by the practical engineer, and the speculative philosopher. It seemed, indeed, to exceed the bounds of credibility, and few could feel a practical conviction, or have a lively faith in it, without themselves being witnesses. In these experiments, an engine travelled at the astounding rate of thirty-five miles an hour. But even this has since been exceeded; we have our selves witnessed an engine, loaded with a carriage containing thirty-six grown persons, moving at the rate of forty-eight miles per hour; and we believ、 that a case has occurred, in which an engine moved over fifteen miles in fifteen minutes. A short analysis of the means by which such effects have been pro duced, cannot be uninteresting. A locomotive engine is impelled by two steamcylinders *, the piston-rods of which lay hold of two revolving arms, which are attached to the larger pair of wheels of the engine. The pistons, as they work, cause these arms to revolve, and therefore the wheels to revolve with them, exactly in the same manner as a man turns a windlass, or as the hand turns the key which winds a clock, or a jack. The wheels, which See Saturday Magazine, Vol. VII., p. 196. the others, rise to the upper part of the boiler. The most beautiful part of the arrangement is that, by which a sufficiently powerful draft is maintained in the chimmey to support the combustion. After the steam has driven the pistons, it is necessary to eject it from the machines; pipes or tubes are provided for this purpose, in connexion with each cylinder. These pipes are conducted to the chimney, and their mouths presented upwards, so that the steam rushes from them in an upward direction. Now, since the steam is worked in these engines at a pressure considerably greater than that of the atmosphere, it issues from these tubes up the chimney, with very great force, and causes a current of air, or draft, upwards, of proportionate power. This, consequently, produces a corresponding draft through the fire, and it has this remarkable quality, that, in proportion as the speed of the engine is increased, so, in the same proportion, is the quantity of steam, thus projected up the chimney; and, therefore, the draft through the fire is stimulated, as it ought to be, in the proportion, in which steam is required to be supplied to the cylinders. It is said, that this beautiful method of blowing the fire was an accidental discovery: that an engine-maker, not knowing how best to dispose of the waste steam, conducted it into the chimney. are thus worked by the steam-cylinders, are pressed | the tubes, and steam-bubbles are formed, which, like against the rail-road by that portion of the weight of the locomotive engine which rests upon them, and they adhere to the rail with such force, that, sooner than slip upon it as they revolve, the engine, which is attached to the train of carriages or wagons, advances, so that its progressive motion in a single revolution of the working-wheels is equal to their circumference. Supposing their diameter to be five feet, their circumference will be a little less than sixteen feet. One revolution of the wheels takes place during a double stroke of one of the pistons, that is, while the piston moves from one end of the cylinder to the other, and back again. As there are two cylinders working at the same time, it follows, therefore, that to produce a progressive motion of sixteen feet, four cylinders full of steam are necessary, being at the rate of about a cylinder for every four feet. Now, from these circumstances, it is apparent, that the speed of the engine will depend upon the rate at which the boiler is able to supply steam to the cylinders. If, for example, it can supply six hundred cylinders full of steam per minute, the progressive motion of the engine will be four times six hundred, or 2400 feet per minute, or about twenty-seven miles an hour. The circumstances, which influence the rate at which the boiler produces steam, are, then, the points to be considered. This rate will obviously depend upon the rate at which the fire can impart heat to the water; and a great variety of contrivances have been adopted to expedite this communication of heat. All such contrivances, however, resolve themselves ultimately into the general principle, namely, that an extensive surface of water must be exposed to the radiation of the fire; that the air, which supports the combustion, and which passes from the fuel at a very high temperature, shall not be allowed to escape into the chimney until it has been reduced to a temperature not much above that of the water in the boiler; and that a current, or draft, be maintained in the chimney, sufficiently powerful to draw a quantity of atmospheric air through the fuel to maintain the vivid combustion which is indispensable for the production of so much heat. To expose a large surface of water to the radiation of heat from the fire, the fire-place is usually surrounded on every side with a thin metal casing, filled with water, communicating freely with the larger chamber of the boiler, of which, in fact, it is only an extension. The roof, the sides, and the back of the fire-place, are formed by this casing, and it may even be extended to the front, except where the fire-door is placed, for the supply of fuel. The heat, radiating from the burning matter, strikes upon every part of this case, and, entering the water within, produces steam-bubbles with great rapidity, which rise by their buoyancy, to the upper part of the boiler. From the fire-place the heated air finds its way to the chimney at the other end of the boiler, through one hundred tubes of about an inch and a half in diameter, which are extended through the water in the boiler, from one end to the other. The lengths and diameters of these tubes are, or ought to be, such, that the air shall be compelled to linger in them, until it be reduced to the temperature before mentioned. It then escapes into the chimney, and its lightness gives it a tendency to ascend, and form a draft. But this natural draft of the hot air would be altogether insufficient for so fierce a combustion as must be sustained, were it not aided by other means, As the hot air passes through these hundred tubes, it imparts its redundant heat to the water in contact with Whatever may have been its origin, it is certain, that, to this contrivance mainly is due the extraordinary velocity, at which these machines have arrived. The extensive surface exposed to radiation, and the contrivance of the small tubular flues, would have effected nothing, unless a combustion could be sustained, to supply heat proportionate to the surface to be acted upon; and any mechanical means of blowing the fire, besides being subject to other objections, would have robbed the engine of a considerable part of its power. This improvement may be justly placed beside Watt's discovery of the method of separate condensation. It has produced effects upon locomotives, not less important than the latter principle did upon the stationary engine. The form which we have just described, is that in which the locomotives are constructed for the Manchester and other railways in this country. In the attempts which have been made to adapt the locomotive engine to common roads, other varieties of form have, however, been proposed. They do not, indeed they cannot, differ in principle from that we have described; but their practical details are somewhat different. In some, instead of conducting the air from the fire-place through tubular flues, the water itself is conducted in tubes which pass through the fire. In other cases, as well as the fire-place being filled with water, the grate-bars themselves are likewise tubes containing water. Sometimes the roof and sides of the fire-place are formed of tubing filled with water. In some cases, the water is disposed between a series of parallel plates, the alternate intervals containing the fire. In others, a number of cylinders are placed one within another, so as to form a series of concentric cylindrical shells, every alternate shell being filled with water, while the intermediate ones are filled with fire. Without going through these endless varieties of form, it will be seen, that they all resolve themselves into the principle of exposing to the action of the fire as great an extent of surface of water as possible. O. N. [British and Foreign Review.] No man lives too long, who lives to do with spirit, and to suffer with resignation, what Providence pleases to com mand or inflict.-BURKE. |