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when it was shaken and tumbled together, and the hills and dales assumed their present form and positions.

Whitehurst, in his theory of the formation of the earth, has deduced his most powerful arguments from the strata of Derbyshire, which he contends, exhibit irrefragable testimony of their volcanic origin. St. Fond, who entertained a different opinion, professes his astonishment that a man so gifted as Whitehurst should discover any proofs in support of his peculiar theory, in a country where, as he remarks, "every thing is evidently of an aqueous origin."

Thus it is that the disciples of Werner and Hutton, the Neptunists and the Volcanists of the present Geological school, support their different theories from appearances strikingly similar, if not essentially the same. The basaltic stratum which, in various places alternates with calcareous rock, and which is provincially called toadstone, has furnished Whitehurst with his most triumphant arguments: that it is obviously and indisputably lava, he maintains, cannot be denied. Wherever it occurs it occupies and fills up the space that intervenes between the different limestone strata; and the manner in which it cuts off or intercepts the metallic veins is, in his opinion, conclusive on the subject.

It may be here remarked that though the toadstone of Derbyshire differs materially in its external appearance, it has one general prevailing character by which all its varieties are decidedly marked. So indeed has lava. It breaks with an equal fracture in all directions: so does volcanic lava. It is likewise of various colours: so are the lavas of Etna and Vesuvius. There is certainly a striking similarity in their internal structure and appearance, and both are said to resist equally the action of acids.

I have attentively examined more than a hundred specimens of lava, now in my possession, and have repeatedly compared them with the toadstones of Derbyshire, without being able to detect any thing like a charac-› teristic difference; and I have now by me a tablet composed of nine varieties of each, which forcibly illustrates their general affinity.

The lavas of Etna exhibit every degree of compactness and hardness, from the close texture of granite and marble to the most porous. The interior of the molten mass, being generally. in a more fluid state, when hot and flowing, differs in appearance from that which floated on the surface, and the part which appears to have been in immediate contact with the earth is, in many instances, but little more compact than half burnt clay. I have indeed observed only one specimen of lava that does not closely correspond with some one or other of the toadstones of Derbyshire: it is of dark bluish-green colour, intermixed with streaks of a dirty earthy yellow, and it contains a great number of quartz crystals of various sizes, sometimes closely imbedded in the surrounding matter, and sometimes congregated together in small caverns.

Stoke Hall.

The following morning we visited Stoke: the sun that set so gloriously the ́ preceding evening, and seemed to give

"The promise of a golden day to-morrow,'

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Between whom the Battles were fought. The Victors Killed.

920 Sherwood nr.Chester Edward and the Danes,

940 Bromsbury,

Edward.

Athelstan, and the Danes and the Scots, under Athelstan.

Anlaff and Constantine,

Edmund, and the Danes under Anlaff,

Indecisive.

Citizens.

Sweyn.

Edmund.

Brithnoth, Duke of E. Anglia, and the Danes, The Danes.
The Citizens of London, and the Danes,
Sweyn, & Ulfketel, Governor of E. Anglia,
Edmund Ironside and Canute,

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Ditto,

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Indecisive.

Edmund.

Caunte.

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Malcolm, King of Scotland, and Macbeth, a Malcolm.

competitor for the Scotch Crown,

Earls of Northumberland, & Mercia & Tofti The Earls.

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1158 Borders of Wales,

1173 St. Edmund's Bury,

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Matilda, and Henry, Bishop of Winchester,

Stephen and Matilda,

Henry II. and the Welsh,

The English, and the Flemings, under the English.

Earl of Leicester,

The English and Scots,

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Edward, and the Earl of Leicester,

The Earl of Derby, and the Earl of Cornwall, Edward I. and Llewellin Prnce of Wales, Ditto,

Edward I. and Baliol, King of Scotland, The English, under the Earl of Surrey, and the Scots, under William Wallace,

The English and Scots,

The English and Scots,

The Earl of Pembroke and Bruce
Ditto,

Edward II. and Bruce, King of Scotland,
Edward II. and the Earl of Lancaster,
Sir Robert Manners, and the Scots,
Edward III. and the Scots,

English Barons, and Baliol and the Scots,
Ditto,

Edward III. and the Scots,

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Ditto,

Ditto.

1388 Newcastle,

Philippa, Queen of Edward III. and the Scots, Philippa. Hotspur, and the Scots under Douglas,

15000

The Scots.

1388 Otterborn,

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1200

1401 Halidown Hill,

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7000

1346 Neville's Cross,

1403 Shrewsbury,

1405 Carmarthen,

1405 Monmouth,

1408 Brambam Moor, 1450 Sevenoaks,

1450 Dartford,

Henry IV. and Hotspur,

Henry, Prince of Wales, and the Welsh, Ditto,

Henry IV. 8500 The Princel

Ditto.

Sir T. Rokesby, and Earl of Northumberland, Rokesby. The Royalists uuder Sir H. Stafford, and the Insurgents. insurgents under John Cade,

John Cade, and the citizens of London,

Indecisive.

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1459 Blore Heath,

1460 Northampton, 1460 Wakefield,

1461 Mortimer's Cross,

Herefordshire,

1461 Bernard's Heath, near St. Albans,

1461 Ferrybridge,
1461 Near Pontefract,
1461 Towton,

1463 Hedgeley Moor,
1483 Hexham,
1468 Northampton,
1469 Banbury,
1471 Barnet,

1471 Tewksbury,

1472 London,

1485 Bosworth,
1488 Stoke, Notts.
1489 In Yorkshire,
1497 Deptford,
1513 Flouden,

1547 Pinkey, Scotland,
1549 Exeter,
1549 Mousehole-Heath,
near Norwich,

1642 Oswestry,

1642 Edgehill, Warw. 1842 Brentford,

1642 Montgomery,

1643 Reading,

1643 Thame,

1643 Chalgrove, near

Watlington,

1643 Stratton, Cornwall,

Between whom the Battles were fought.

Henry VI. and Richard Duke of York,
Lord Audley, and the Earl of Salisbury,
The Lancastrians, and the Earl of Warwick,
Margaret, and Richard,

Edward Prince of Wales, and the Earl of
Pembroke,

Margaret and the Earl of Warwick,

The Lancastrians, and Lord Fitzwalter,
The Lancastrians, and Lord Fauconbridge,
The Lancastrians, and Edward IV.
Sir R. Piercy, and Lord Montague,
Margaret, and Lord Montague,

The Lancastrians, and the Earl of Pembroke,
Ditto,

Edward IV. and the Earl of Warwick,
Edward IV. and Margaret,

Fauconbridge, and the Citizens of London,
Richard III. and the Earl of Richmond,
Henry VII. and the Earl of Lincoln,
Sir J. Egremont, and the Earl of Surrey,
Henry VII. and the Cornish Rebels,
James IV. K. of Scotland, and E. of Surrey,
The Duke of Somerset, and the Scots,
Lord Russel, and the Devonshire Rebels.

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The Duke of Somerset, and the Norfolk Rebels Somerset.

The Royalists, and Parliamentarians,
Lord Lindsay, and the Parliamentarians,
Charles I. and the Parliamentarians,
Ditto,

Lord Essex, and Colonel Fielding,
Lord Essex, and Colonel Urrey,

The Royalists, and Parliamentarians,

Ditto,

1643 Lansdowu Hill, near The Royalists, and Sir W. Waller,

Royalists.
Parliament.]
Ditto.
Royalists.
Indecisive.

Royalists.

Ditto.

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It is observable, that in 40 battles out of 210, upwards of 580,000 human beings have been sacrificed to gratify that insatiable passion, "The love of rule, or thirst of power"; and such is the picture of misery presented to the thinking world by "restless ambition," that all whose bosoms are not tainted with "that sin by which the angels fell," must shrink with horror from the ghastly colouring. Such, however, is the unwarrantable custom, the perverted principle, and the prevailing popular opinion, that "One murder makes a villain: millions, a hero."

Nottingham, January 5, 1818.

JOHN BAINES, jun.

COMPARISON OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES.

༠༠༠༠།་་་་་་་

To the Editor of the Northern Star.

IN the study of history scarcely any thing suggests itself more readily to the mind than a comparison of the principal cities of ancient and modern times. Simple or primitive ideas are immediately received through the senses; but those of a complex nature, which constitute the mass of our knowledge, are formed and combined chiefly from description, and regulated by reflexion and analogy. When we read of those celebrated cities which at different periods have been the principal theatres of human action and the seats of human power and magnificence, the idea of London, Paris, Madrid, or some other large European capital with which we are acquainted, is ready to rush into the mind. But all the descriptions of the famous cities of antiquity are very imperfect: the extent of many of them is given by historians; and some of their public edifices are generally described, or at least mentioned; but in regard to their population, it is seldom that any estimate of it can be made, except by collecting and comparing a variety of hints occa sionally dropped and thinly scattered in the works of different authors. And in regard to the means by which their inhabitants were supported, as well as their modes of private life, we are wholly left in the dark, unless we can grope

our way by the light of presumptive evidence deduced from particular facts and local circumstances. The grand and universal defect of the ancient historians is their neglectful omission of every thing that relates to the domestic state of the grand mass of the people, as if the actions of statesmen and soldiers were the only affairs worthy of commemoration. We have Guides

to London, Guides to Paris, Pictures of London, Pictures of Paris, Pictures of Petersburgh, &c. if we had similar descriptions of Nineveh, Babylon, Thebes, Memphis, Carthage, and Alexandria, what noble acquisitions would they not be to history. But our best descriptions, even of ancient Athens and Rome, are from the pens of modern writers.

Of the extent of Babylon and Nineveh we may form a tolerably just idea. Historians are not agreed concerning the dimensions of Babylon, some of them have asserted that its circuit was 60 miles; but the most accredited writers of antiquity, and particularly Herodotus, state it at 48 miles; and as all agree that its form was a square, its area may easily be calculated. Of Nineveh scarcely any account can be found in prophane history: that large and ancient city having been laid in ruins some ages before the Greeks had any knowledge of the country in which it was seated; and no literary remains of the Assyrians, Babylonians, or Persians, have been transmitted to modern times. The only account that we have of Nineveh, is to be found in three passages of the sacred scriptures. From the first of these, in the 11th verse of the 10th chap. of Genesis, it appears, that Nineveh was founded not very long after Babylon: in the second, which is met with in the 3d verse of the 3d chap. of the prophecy of Jonah, we are informed, that it was an exceeding great city of three days journey ;" which must be understood as applying to its circuit; and in the last verse of the same chap fer, there is an expression which conveys some idea of its population. It is there said, that Nineveh contained more than six score thousand persons, who could not distinguish between the right hand and the left, an expression which can only be understood of idiots and young children, who could scarcely compose above one-fth of the inhabitants. From these data we may not, perhaps, diverge much from the truth in estimating its population at six or seven hundred thousand. If its form was square like that of Babylon, each of its sides must have been, at least, 22 miles, and its area 5064 miles, a space sufficient for near thirty times the population of London, had Nineveh been built in the same manner as the British metropolis.

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But notwithstanding the want of positive documents it may be safely pre sumed that Nineveh was built on an open plain like Babylon, from which it was scarcely 250 miles distant, and that it resembled a thickly-peopled province more than a city. No documents remain to convey any idea of its commerce, which was undoubtedly insignificant considering its extent and population, although it was watered by the Tigris. But if we estimate the number of its families at 120,000, and its area at 506 square miles, each family might have nearly three acres of land contiguous to its dwelling, which in that fertile soil might nearly suffice for its maintenance, as we must not suppose that the lower orders of the inhabitants of Nineveh kept so plentiful tables as the same class of people in London, or any other English city. From these considerations, we may reasonably conclude, that whatever might be the magnificence and opulence of the grandees, the mass of the

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