"The last advices from Leghorn describe the genius of discord still prevailing in the unfortunate city of Constantinople, the people clamouring against their rulers, and the janissaries ripe for insurrection, in consequence of the backwardness of the Porte to commence hostilities with Russia."—English Chronicle, or Universal Evening Post, February 6th to 8th, 1783.
J. Locke.
Social Effects of the severe Weather, Jan. 3 and 4, 1854.—The daily and local newspapers have detailed many public incidents of the severe weather of the commencement of 1854: such as snow ten yards deep; roads blocked up; mails delayed; the streets of the metropolis, for a time, impassible; omnibuses with four horses; Hansom cabs driven tandem, &c. The effects of the storms of snow, socially, were not the least curious. In the neighbourhood of Manchester seventy persons were expected at an evening party, one only arrived. At another house one hundred guests were expected, nine only arrived. Many other readers of your valuable paper have, no doubt, made similar notes, and will probably forward them.
Robert Rawlinson.
Star of Bethlehem.—Lord Nugent, in his Lands, Classical and Sacred, vol. ii. p. 18., says:
"The spot shown as the place of the Nativity, and that of the manger, both of which are in a crypt or subterraneous chapel under the church of St. Katherine, are in the hands of the Roman Catholicks. The former is marked by this simple inscription on a silver star set in the pavement:
'Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est.'"
The Emperor of the French, as representative of the Latin Church, first raised the question of the sacred places, now likely to involve the Pentarchy of Europe in a quasi civil war, by attempting, through the authority of the Sultan of Turkey, to restore the above inscription, which had been defaced, as is supposed, by the Greek Christians; and thereby encountering the opposition of the Emperor of the Russias, who claims to represent the Eastern Church.
T. J. Buckton.
Birmingham.
Origin of the Word "Cant."—From the Mercurius Publicus of Feb. 28, 1661, Edinburgh: