contrived that the amusements of the people should be mingled with the religion of the country. 29.-SAINT PETER. The festival in honour of this apostle was instituted in the year 813. Hegesippus, Eusebius, and other early historians, say that he was crucified with his head downwards.-For an account of the Cock Mass, as celebrated in Columbia on this day, see our volume for 1826, p. 158. A description of the illu mination of St. Peter's, at Rome, as lately witnessed by an English traveller, is given in T.T. for 1827, p. 201. *30. 1828.—SIGNOR SAPIO Died, Æt. 76. Sapio, a long celebrated Professor of Singing, was an Italian by birth, and in early life settled at Paris. He filled there the office of chapel-master, was the instructor of Mary Antoinette, and had the honour of being preferred to Piccini, Sacchini, and Glück, his rivals at the French court. Such a connection, of course, drove him from France at the breaking out of the Revolution, although he had married a French lady. He came to this country, and so widely had his fame spread, that immediately on his arrival he was appointed singing master to the Duchess of York, and then to the Princess of Wales. His instruction was sought by all the highest nobility, and, for a long period, he continued at the head of his profession in the fashionable world. The musical historians and critics of his day ascribe the superiority of his style to its incomparable feeling and expression, while the facility with which he imparted its peculiarities to his pupils appears to have been unique. Signior Sapio was the father of Mr. Sapio, the distinguished tenor of Covent-garden Theatre, and of Mr. A. Sapio, the very promising young bass singer, attached to the Royal Academy of Music. JUNE 1828.-LIEUT.-COL. DIXON DENHAM DIED, Another victim to the pestilential climate of Sierra Leone. All past experience of the fatal effects of climate, in this colony, should certainly have taught us to receive, without surprise, the intelligence of such an event; but having, on the other hand, the knowledge of the singular success with which Colonel Denham had encountered all the rigours of a life in Africa, when on his travels to and from the city of Bornou, in the interior, during a period of more than three years; considering the experience and confidence in himself which he had thereby attained; and, above all, that, during a residence of eighteen months at Sierra Leone, in the exercise of very arduous duties, he had felt scarcely any ill effects, we had indulged a sanguine hope that he would have been spared to fulfil the wishes of the government and the country for the improvement of this ill-fated place-an object which he had deeply at heart, and which, for the reasons we have stated, there was room to believe he was destined to accomplish. His appointment to the government had given great satisfaction to all ranks of persons, and the highest hopes were entertained that a new era was about to commence in the colony; for, although so very short a period bad elapsed since his entering upon his duties as governor, he had, among other sound and judidious regulations, taken measures for inviting the native chiefs of the surrounding kingdoms to come down to the seat of government to trade-to promote the interchange of good offices between them and the people-and for the establishment of savingsbanks among the inhabitants of Free Town. Colonel Denham was a native of London, and only in his fortythird year; and, if to promote the cultivation of the human understanding-to extend the benefits of civilization-to rescue our fellow-creatures from the depths of human suffering, and restore the slave to freedom-be more glorious than the mere strife of conquest, and the acquisition or overthrow of human power, then will his death shed a brighter lustre on his name, than if he had fallen on the plains of Waterloo! He thought of his home, of the days of his youth, Of the friends who had loved him, and those who'd deceived; And the soft, mournful words which he now felt were truth, That at parting she spoke who his absence still grieved. 'I have loved thee, fair Science-for thee I've immured My youth in the closet of wisdom,' he cried; For thee has my manhood all suffering endured, And for thee, on my tomb, be it said that I died. My tomb!-but what tomb, save this waste, shall be mine? S. R. JACKSON. *JUNE 1828.-EARTHQUAKE IN WALES. The effect of an earthquake was severely felt by the inhabitants of Ishmael parish, about three miles from Milford, Pembrokeshire, and on part of the farm of Skerryback, occupied by Mr. William Whitton, and on the estate of the Rev. D. B. Allen. It commenced with a rumbling noise like distant thunder, and continued incessantly for about twenty minutes. A solid body of grey rock, adjacent to the Sandy Haven shore, and parallel with the sea opposite to the Stock Rock in Milford Harbour, was entirely rent asunder, and separated by the shock into a thousand pieces, throwing large masses of it to a considerable distance; the adjacent rocks, and part of the hill, on which there was a thriving plantation of timber overhanging, were separated from the main land by this dreadful convulsion of nature, and several of the trees split and torn up by the roots. The noise was terrific, and heard for many miles around. A cracking noise continued for some days in the rocks, as of the breaking of dry sticks. * JUNE 1828.-PROFESSOR WOODHOUSE died, Plumian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge University, a Fellow of Caius College, and one of the members of the Royal Society. In 1820, he was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics; and, on the death of Professor Vince, he succeeded to the Plumian Professorship. He was appointed by the University, in 1824, to conduct the observatory, then newly erected. Among the Professor's published works are-The Principles of Analytical Calculation, in 4to, in 1803; A Treatise on Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, in 1809; A Treatise on Isoperimetrical Problems, in 1811; A Treatise on Astronomy, in 1812; several Papers in the Philosophical Transactions, &c. Astronomical Occurrences In JUNE 1829. To the POLE STAR. [By Robert Milhouse. ], Chief amidst northern orbs! that dost remain In Heaven's wide field thou hast not one compeer, SOLAR PHENOMENA. THE Sun enters Cancer at 8 m. after 6 in the evening of the 21st of this month, and he rises and sets during the same period as in the following TABLE Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. June 1st, Sun rises 33 m. after 3, sets 7 m. after 8 Equation of Time. Apparent time, corrected by the quantities in the following Table, gives the mean time corresponding to the same epoch. TABLE Of the Equation of Time for every fifth Day. m. s. Monday.... June 1st, from the time by the dial sub. 2 35 ...... 1 45 0 49 16th, to the time by the dial add 0 13 ... 21st 26th. 17 2 21 LUNAR PHENOMENA. 1 New Moon.... 1st day, at 49 m. after 5 in the afternoon Last Quarter ..23d 23. 10... 6 in the morning Moon's Passage over the Meridian. The following transits of the Moon will afford opportunities for observation, if the atmosphere be clear in that direction at the several times: viz. June 9th, at 14 m. after 6 in the evening 10th 56 Venus is still at so great a distance from the earth as to appear very faint, though nearly wholly illuminated. The proportion of her phases is, June 1st Dark part...... = Illuminated part = 11.98191 0.01809 Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites. The following are the eclipses of the first and second of these small bodies that will be visible this month, and our youthful readers will bear in mind that they are recorded in mean time at the first meridian. Emersions. First Satellite... 3d day, at 0 m. 4 s. after midnight 1 in the morning ..10 at night ...... 0 in the morning 1 .10 at night |