Dwight's American Magazine

The Hartford, Conn. Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb,

Extract of a Latter in the Boston Courier, dated at Hartford.

In this city, you know, is an asylum for the Insane, called the Retreat. I visited it one day last week, and was greatly pleased with what I saw. 1t was the hour for evening devotions-there is as yet no chapel-the inmates were gathered in the large hall and the rooms adjoining, and the service was conducted by the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, the chaplain to the institution. There was no confusion that I saw, and no indications of wandering thoughts, except once, a slight laugh from one of the men; all the rest were as quiet, even more so, than a congregation of sane people. The scene was deeply impres sive, from the thoughts it suggested of the power of Christianity over the mind of man, even in a state of derangement. Here the

demons are cast out by the power of benevolence, and the sacred influences of religion check the ragings of those who have lost the control of reason. What a change in the treatment and the conduct of the insane is here! and the Gospel has done it all. The whips and the chains have been laid aside, and at the voice of kindness the insane have become as tractable as little children.

On Tuesday last, I visited the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, in company with Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, the first instructor in the institution. It is worth a ride to Hartford to witness what may be seen here. The cheerfulness of the pupils, the facility with which they converse, the perfection to which the language has been brought, and the ease and familiarity of the instructors with their pupils, are all gratifying spectacles. I attended the morning devotions here, which are truly the most impressive that I ever witnessed, for I went to see, rather than take a part in the exercise. The prayer is offered by the Principal in the language of signs, to which the pupils seem very attentive. But what an illustration is it of the omniscience of God !— We, who can talk, and always talk, seem to feel that the audible voice is necessary to make our wants known; we forget that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place," and that he can see our thoughts as well as hear our words. There was perfect stillness during the prayer, not a word was uttered, not a breath was heard, but I felt that the Divine presence was near, as I never felt before.— I felt that the prayers of these poor mutes were answered, and I felt, too, how great is the power of Christianity. Never could such a sight as this be witnessed, except where the doctrine of a spiritual God prevails. But do we, who call ourselves Christians, realize the the truth of his spirituality, as the deaf and dumb persons do? We have our Gerizim and Jerusalem, as though the voice of prayer could only be heard in such places, not seeming to think that the language of the heart is

vocal in all places to the ear of Divine love, that the temple of the Lord is wherever a man is to be found, his altar the human heart, and the sacrifice the pure and holy thought "uttered or unexpressed." I learnt a lesson here, which, I trust, will never be forgotten; I learned the value of our faith, to see it in a new light, and my gratitude could not but be aroused, that my lot has been cast in a Christian land.

J. A. B.

Abridged for the Amer. Penny Magazine. The Father of Agriculture in France. Olivier de Serres, Seigneur of Pradel, was born in 1739; and is said to have devoted himself to an agricultural life, purely from the principle of an enlightened christian patriot, when opportunities were offered for public distinction. He was brother of Jean de Serres, one of the four Protestant ministers, whom Henry 4th consulted when he embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and doubtless had the power of advancing his friends to influence and office. Olivier took up his abode in the country, that he might lead the cultivators of the soil in the way of improvement. Forty years afterwards, he published his great work, under the title of "Theatre d' Agriculture, et mesuage des champs," of which five editions were sold in ten years, and this number was afterwards increased to nineteen, four of which were published at Geneva. But from 1692 until 1802, this remarkable work was forgotten, and had become extremely rare, when it was decreed that it should be reprinted in the old style, with notes, under the ministry of Neuchateau. It is evident from the work, that the the author was a man of learning and research, as well as of skill and patriotism, as he quotes Cato, Columella, Varro, Virgil and Pliny, and recommends certain practices in agriculture, which had fallen into disuse since their time. The "Theatre" is divided into five leading points, with subdivisions.

First, he directs to the different kinds of soil and the means of distinguishing them, by observing the plants which they sponta neously produce and otherwise, so that the chapters under that head are described as forming a little treatise on chemistry, mineralogy and botany, as they were viewed at the time. Next, he teaches how to keep up lands, and to manage them according to their properties and climates; gives good instructions on rural architecture, and particularly the means of preserving the health of farmers and their families, an

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object said to be much neglected in France at the present day. The sixth chapter relates to the proper treatment of servants and neighbors, and proves that good masters make good servants. These and other

branches constitute the volume.

LIVING SKETCHES OF ITALY-No. 2. The Imprisonment and probable fate of Bishop Rézé, Romish Bishop of Detroit.

[For the Am. Penny Magazine.] The following account we have received from a source in which we place full reli

ance:

While I was in Rome, in 1840, I met with an American gentleman, with whom I had previously had some acquaintance in Paris.— He informed me that he had arrived in company with Bishop Rézé, Roman Catholic Bishop of Detroit, and invited me to make him a visit. I consented; and he took me to the Convent of San Lorenzo in Lucina, where he introduced me to him. I found the Bishop inhabiting a small and inconvenient room in the second story, plainly or rather very meanly furnished, with every appearance of poverty around him. Here were three or four old chairs, and a cross bedstead of the plainest kind; and I found him in rather depressed spirits, although without any expressions of complaint.

I soon began to feel a peculiar interest in him, which encreased with my acquaintance. I learned that he had come from America, to justify himself against some false charges, made by persons who were in heart opposed to him on account of his independent character and upright conduct, in certain cases, and whose intrigues had now rendered him in fact a prisoner. In Detroit he had suspended several priests and nuns, for misconduct; and two of them, (one priest and a nun), natives of Belgium, had gone to Rome to protest, and contrived to enlist in their interest Father de la Marche, Procurator-General of the Dominican Order, who is also a Belgian by birth.The Bishop's enemies, however, were unable to prove anything againt him, and even failed in their last attempt, which was to make it appear that he had purloined money entrusted to his hands. Exertions were then made to induce him to resign his Bishoprick: for, according to the rules of Rome, there were but two ways to vacate such an office, viz:

conviction of a high crime and voluntary renunciation. The latter he declined, because it would appear like a virtual confession of guilt. Though no late news has been received, it is to be presumed, that he is still alive, and also that he adheres to his refusal, because the Romish Calendar still retains his name as Bishop of Detroit, and gives that of the Jesuit, the Right Rev. Lefevre, as his coadjutor.

After his refusal to resign his Bishoprick, his enemies had one hope left-viz: to obtain from him, by intrigue or ill-treatment, some fact or confession on which they could found a new accusation. He therefore was sent to the Convent, where I saw him, placed in a humiliating and uncomfortable situation, kept under strict watch, and never allowed to leave his miserable habitation, except for a short walk in the city. When I first formed his acquaintance, he had a companion, who visited him often, and attended him wherever he went. It was a young man named Cabanes, a French priest, from Bordeaux. He was full of professions of respect and attachment to the persecuted old man, and showed great officiousness on every occasion, which soon dis gusted me, and raised many suspicions in my mind of his sincerity. Indeed, I soon plainly warned the Bishop to be on his guard, saying, I had no doubt that Cabanes was a spy, set by the Propaganda to watch and betray him. But such was his unsuspicious character, that I found I could not make any impression upon him.

Not long afterwards, Cabanes left the city of Rome, and circumstances occurred, which fully justified my suspicions, and overcame even the natural credulity of Bishop Rézé. A letter was brought, signed with Cabanes' own hand, which proved that he was supported during his residence in that city, by the friends of the Vicariate, as a spy on the French priests, and particularly on himself. That letter is now in the possession of the French ambassador in Rome.

I had frequent and familiar interviews with Bishop Rézé after the departure of Cabanes, and had full opportunity to observe the straitened circumstances under which he was kept. The Propaganda allowed him but $10 a month for his board, and nothing for his other wants, so that he was unable to dress decently, and much more so to appear in a manner expected of priests. His scarlet or violet colored

stockings being worn out, (which are considered indispensable to a bishop,) I saw him darning them with his own hands; and he was at length obliged to wear boots to conceal the the want of them. He was required to attend at the basilisk of St. Peter whenever the Pope was present at the Papal chapels, and I* had several times an opportunity to observe how he got there and returned, and the treatment he received from those he met. Coaches are always provided on such occasions for bishops; but none was ever furnished for him; and to prevent him from going on foot, a friend hired a carriage to take him. While he was in the church, and amidst bishops, cardinals, and others; who recognized each other by nods, &c., he never was noticed by any one, except with looks of aversion or contempt: for every one feared that a sign of respect or even of common politeness, might expose himself to some injury and perhaps to excommunication. After the close of the ceremonies, the bishop was avoided, and left to find his way out alone, while the rest of the company proceeded to the door. Not one of all present on such occasions, except his ceremoniaire or attendant, was ever seen to hold any intercourse with him. From the rest: cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, &c., he received nothing but the most repulsive and unfriendly looks.

His appearance and manners usually expressed a melancholy state of mind; but he never spoke with severity of any one, partly I presume from his kind disposition, and partly from his knowledge of the watchfulness of those around him. I never saw a man apparently more meek and uniformly self-possessed-but he sometimes spoke with great feel. ing, in general terms, of the bad passions of some men. When I took leave of him, on the eve of my departure from Rome, in 1841, he expressed himself with much affection, said we never should meet again, and promised to I write to me. I urged him to go with me, but he said it was impossible. I addressed him several letters from different places, and was surprised that I received no answer. length, after my arrival in Paris, a French lady put a letter into my hands, which she told me she had received from Bishop Rézé himself in Rome. In it he informed that he had written me several previous letters, which he had entrusted to a young priest of the Propaganda, whom he had despatched to his diocese in America-but of them, I have never yet received any further information.

While in Paris, I went one day to the office of the Cardinal Vicar, who is in fact, the chief of what may be called the spiritual police, and truly the only real Bishop of France.

The Pope has nothing more to do with that kingdom than he has with America: all the business of it being in the hands of the Cardinal Vicar, as much as the affairs of the U. States are in those of a certain ecclesiastic in Rome. While standing in the office, I discovered Cabanes, conversing at one of the desks. He also recognized me, as I perceived by his actions for he immediately skulked away with a rapid and stealthy gait, pulling his cloak as high up to his face as he could, and quickly passed behind me and disappeared. A short time after, being again in the same place, that treacherous priest perceived me, and stole off again like a cat, with the strongest appearance of guilt.

The last information I ever received about Bishop Rézé, was in the year 1841, from some of my friends in Bordeaux. They told me that he never would pass the frontiers of Italy again, and that he was to be sent to the Convent of Monte Casino, near Capua, in the kingdom of Naples.

It has been said that he is a citizen of the United States.

MISCELLANEOUS.

SILK PLANT. The following letter from D. Smith McCauley, Esq., our Consul at Tripoli, to Francis Markoe, Jr., the Secretary of the National Institute, will be read with much interest. He transmits with it some seed of the vegetable silk, which, in all probability, in our varied and wonderful soil and climate, will become a new article of commerce, and, like our cotton, a new and important source of wealth.Should it succeed, and become a great staple article like our cotton, what important consequences may we not expect to follow from its introduction ?-Selected.

U. S. CONSULAte,
Tripoli, 28th Dec. 1844.

}

Sir-I here with transmit to the Institute a small specimen of 'vegetable silk,' raised from a few seed that I received from Lucca, Italy, which originally came from Syria.

Without any instruction or knowledge of this plant, I sowed the seed in pots in the month of March last. In May and June, they obtained the height of six to eight inches, when I transplanted them into my garden, about eight inches apart, much too near as my experience proves. In the months of August and September they were in flower, and the pods commenced opening in October, the plants being from six to

eight feet high, and though we have had the thermometer frequently as low as 42 de. grees Fahrenheit, and the apricot and promegranate trees, with the vine, have all shed their leaves, yet there remain several pods on the 'silk plant' which are still perfectly green, and show no signs of suffering or cold. This, with some other proofs of the plant being hardy, induces me to belleve and hope that it might be successfully cultivated in all our cotton growing States, and should it become a staple commodity, no doubt the inventive genius of our countrymen would soon discover the means of spinning it without the aid of the cotton fibre, which I am told they use in Syria to assist in spinning-their knowledge of the art not extending beyond the primitive distaff. The only information that I have acquired of this plant, further than recounted above, is from the mouth of one of the 'propaganda' established here, who has seen it growing in Syria, where he tells me it flourishes, and that the cultivation of a small field gives a support to a family ;' that in the second and third years it is extremely productive. The plants grow to the height of ten to fifteen feet, and are generally separated from eight to ten feet from each other.

I also forward you by this occasion the small quantity of seed of the plant which the limited number I have raised enables me to spare, with the hope of sending a greater quantity next year, should the climate of our Southern States prove favorable to its culture, or should it be even otherwise interesting.

I beg you will distribute these seeds amongst those gentlemen of our cotton growing States,' who will take an interest in making an experiment of the cultivation. Very respectfully, sir, your most obedient servant,

D. SMITH M'CAULY. TO FRANCIS MARKOE, Jr., Esq., Cor. Sec. of the National Institute, Washington.

For the Amer. Penny Magazine.
NATURAL HISTORY.

The London Annals of Natural History, No. 102, for July, 1845, contains articles on the following subjects:

1. Some species of Cuscuta, C. C. Babington. 2. British Aunelides; Dr. Johnson. 3. British Desmidiæ; J. Ralfs. 4. Colors of Leaves and Petals; E. C. Nourse. 5. Coleopterous Insects collected in the Gallipagos Islands; G. R. Waterhouse. 6. Organization of Lucanoe and

Corbis: M. A. Valenciennes. Proceedings of other Learned Societies.

The colors of leaves and petals, says N. W. Nourse, are caused by fluids in a thin layer of vessels under the cuticle. This may be easily torn off with the cuticle, and then the body of the leaf or petal is a colorless mass of cellular tissue. With few exceptions, that tissue is never colored.

"The mechanical or accidental circumstances which influence the colors, are the situation of the cells, their size, form, and number, their mixture with each other, and their visibility. Tints may be produced by mixing different colors in different cells, &c.

In the article the chemical causes of color are not considered..

Birds. It was nearly 20 years since a complete classification of the species of birds had been attempted, when G. R. Gray performed the task, with the advantages afforded by his position in the British Museum. His system is "for the most part consistent with natural affinities."

A REMARKABLE TREF.-There is an oak of magnificent dimensions standing in Sherwood forest, between Nottingham and Mansfield, England, whose history is as follows:

The estate is that now universally known as Newstead. Lord Byron's grandfather being much embarrassed, ordered all the trees that were saleable on his domain to be cut down. A certain Mr. Dodsworth, a wealthy attorney, had often passed and observed this tree, and, on hearing of his Lordship's intention, went himself to Newstead and offered Lord Byron £50 ($244) for the tree; a legal agreement was speedily made, by which neither the present nor any future proprietor of Newstead, should have any right to cut down the tree. When it died, the land overshadowed by it was to revert to the Newstead estate. The agreement is regularly entered in the estate deeds. It is probably the only tree on earth, that nobody has a right to cut down. The tree is now preserved with great care. Its branches measure 200 feet in circumference, its trunk four feet from the ground, thirteen feet.

CINCINNATI.-The second child born in Cincinnati still lives, and has not seen the middle age of life, while Cincinnati contains 80,000 inhabitants. The old pioneer who first settled where Cincinnati now stands, when Ohio was a wilderness, walks among us hearty and strong, amid a throng of two millions of souls! And the first child born of American parents west of the Alleghany mountains, who knew Washington as

a Surveyor on the banks of the Kanawha,

when the whole north-west, with immaterial exceptions, was in possession of the savage, is yet alive, and scarce numbers her four. score years and ten, yet in her day she has witnessed the growth of an Empire-the peopling of the mighty valley between the base of the Blue Ridge and Rocky Mountains!

Prodigious! indeed! Far more like enchantment than reality; a picture which has no resemblance in the annals of the world! What will another 60 years accomplish if the American people remain united, free and prosperous? We have heard many regret that they had not lived a little earlier, in the French Revolution, when its prodigious events kept the world suspended in excited admiration and astonishment, and we have shared the feeling. But more rational were the wish to have lived a half century later, to behold the wonders which progressive Civilization will then exhibit, and to ascertain the destiny of this great Republic.—Selected.

AN ADVENTURER IN CALIFORNIA.Captain Wilkes, in his narrative of the Oregon Expedition, describes a visit made by a party up one of the arms of the Sacramento River to the residence of Captain Suter.

He is represented as a Swiss by birth, and as having been a Lieutenant in the Swiss Guards, during the time of Charles X. Soon after the Revolution of July, he came to the United States, and resided in Missouri. He then removed to California, and obtained from the Government a conditional grant of thirty leagues square, bounded by the Sacramento river on the West. He erected his dwelling and fortification on a place which he calls New Helvetia, 50 miles from the mouth of the Sacramento, and the head of the navigation, during the dry season. A young gentleman from Newport, named Giger, was connected with his establishment.

When Capt. S. first settled at this place in 1839, he was surrounded by hostile tribes of Indians. But by his energy and management, and the aid of a small party of trappers, he contrived to control them, and even to win many to his aid. He held the appointment of Administrator, and exercisel supreme power in his own district. buildings consisted of extensive corrals and dwelling houses. He pad for labor in goods, and his stock at the time, amounted to 1000 horses, 2500 cattle, and 1000 sheep. He has 40 Indians at work for him, and had commenced extensive operations in farming.

His

He was frank, intelligent, conversed in several languages, and had a wife and daughter, whom he expected to join him. There were nine different tribes of Indians in the neighborhood, and within a short distance of New Helvetia. In the evening, the party was favored with a dance by Indian boys. Capt. S. may well be called a pioneer. It is by such men and with such energies, that a new empire will be built up on the shores of the Pacific.

MR. WALDO'S BEQUESTS.-Probate was granted on the will of the late Daniel Waldo, of Worcester, on Monday. The Worcester Spy gives the following accurate list of the public donations bequeathed by the will:

To the Calvinist Society in Wor-
cester, dwelling-house and ves-
try, valued at

To the Massachusetts General
Hospital,

To the Massachusetts Medical So-
ciety, in Worcester county, for
the purpose of erecting a Hos-
pital in Worcester,

To the American Board of Foreign Missions,

To the American Board of Domestic Missions,