verb signifying to go, sexoμas, εάβων. Hence of the anterior part of the trunk, arising from an too the different forms of the Greek and Latin unusual development of the bones of the shoulder. names for Carthage, Carchedon, Gr., Carthagon, They are remarkable as being the only known fish, Lat., in which the second interchange of d and g not being cartilaginous, which have not movable opercompensates for the inverse change of the aspi-cula, the bones of which these organs are composed rates ch and th. 6, f in Latin corresponds to being soldered on either side to the tympanum and in Spanish, faba, Lat., haba, Sp., a bean; fabula-ri, preoperculum. The opening of the gills is formed Lat., habla-r, Sp., to talk; facere, Lat., hac-er, by a single slit in the skin. The lower jaw is transSp., to do; fato (fatum), Lat., hado, Sp., fate; verse, and the upper projects considerably beyond it, formoso (formosus), Lat., hermoso, Sp., beautiful. and forms a small attenuated muzzle. There is For the relation of sw and w with h, see Dr- but a single dorsal fin, which is of small extent, and situated on the fore part of the body; the anal fin, on the contrary, is very large, and occupies the entire length of the tail. This genus contains but very few species, the principal of which, the Silurus Aspredo of Linnæus, inhabits the rivers and lakes of North America.

GAMMA.

Secondly, the several aspirates are, as above stated, interchangeable with the medials and tenues of the same organ. Examples of these changes will readily suggest themselves in every language. The most deserving of attention are perhaps those which exist between the English and German:

initial ✯, in German, corresponds to ch, sh in English.

final g

final ch final t

w, y,

ASPROMONTE, a small town in Naples, the of the king of Italy, when he had injudiciously scene of the defeat of Garibaldi by the troops created a rising against the French occupation of Rome. The event took place on August 29, 1862. Garibaldi himself was wounded, and his volunteers surrendered, he having ordered them to abstain from firing on the royal troops. ASPROPOTAMO. [ACHELOUS.]

ASS, a domestic animal, too well known to need description, and too much undervalued in our island to receive much attention. The ass is the patient drudge of the cottager, and its services are mostly paid by ill treatment. In the East,

was kept for the service of man, it is more justly

(Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik; Becker, Ger- however, where, from the most remote times, it man Grammar, English edit. p. 26.) ASPLENIOPTERIS (Sternb). [PTEROPHYL-appreciated, and its use is not limited to the hum

LUM.]

ASPLENIUM, a genus of ferns belonging to sub-order Polypodiacea. The species are known by the name of Spleenworts.

bler classes. The finest asses are those of Arabia; their coat is smooth and clean; they carry the head elevated, have fine and well-formed legs, which they throw out gracefully in walking or A. Adiantum nigrum, Black Spleenwort, is a galloping. They are used only for the saddle, native of Europe, and is abundantly distributed and are imported in great numbers into Persia, throughout the United Kingdom. It is one of where, according to Chardin, they are frequently the ferns formerly much used in medicine, and is sold for 400 livres; they are taught a kind of stated by Ray to be efficacious in cough, asthma, easy ambling pace, are richly caparisoned, and pleuritis, jaundice, stone, gravel, and other dis-used only by the rich and luxurious nobles. A eases. A. Ruta muraria, Wall Rue, is very fine breed, of Arab lineage, used exclusively for common on rocks and old walls in Great Britain and the saddle, exists in Syria;-a small spirited and throughout Europe, and is also a native of North graceful kind is also found in Syria, upon which America. It was at one time used as a remedy the ladies ride from preference; and besides in coughs and asthmas, obstructions of the liver, this there is a stout breed fitted for ordinary and in cutaneous diseases; but has now fallen labour. Another breed, that of Damascus, is into disuse. A. trichomanes, Common Spleen-characterized by the length of its body and of its wort, has been also used in medicine, and for the same diseases as the previous species, but it has fallen now entirely into disuse. The other British species of Asplenium are A. alternifolium, A. septentrionale, A. marinum, A. viride.

These and other ferns may be easily cultivated, by placing them in situations resembling their natural habitats. They require a pure atmosphere, plenty of space, and natural shade, with a due supply of water. They may be planted on decayed wood, in holes of rocks and brick, with almost any soil.

ASPRE DO, in zoology, a genus of abdominal malacopterygious fishes, characterized by the horizontal flatness of the head, and the enlargement

ears; it is much employed by the bakers of Damascus in carrying flour and brushwood. The ordinary asses of Persia are strong, but in other respects not to be compared to those of Arabia. As we proceed farther eastward the ass degenerates, and in India it is very small, of inferior qualities, and used only by the people of the lowest caste.

The finest asses of Europe are those of Malta and Spain. Italy also possesses a superior breed; and the same remark applies to some parts of France, as Le Poitou and Le Mirebalais. In the north of Europe the ass is little known; and in England, although it is said to have been known and kept in the reign of Ethelred, it could not

have been common, and perhaps soon became ex- selves a branch of the great Mohammedan sect of tinct, for it was either extremely rare or not extant until after the time of Elizabeth.

The hybrid, between the male ass and mare, is termed a mule; that between the horse and female ass a hinney. The latter is seldom to be seen, and is of little value. The mules of Spain are celebrated for strength, stature, and beauty; nor are those of South America (where numbers of asses are kept for interbreeding with mares) much inferior.

the Shiites, the supporters of the claims of Ali's posterity to the caliphate. [ALI BEn Abi Taleb.] But among the Ismaelites there were many who were Mussulmans only in appearance, and whose secret doctrine amounted to this, that no action was either good or bad in itself, and that all religions were the invention of men. These unbelievers were formed into a secret society by one Abdallah, a man of the old Persian race, who had been brought up in the religion of the Magi, and There are abundant allusions both to the ass was a hater of the Arabs and of their faith. Under and to the mule in the Scriptures, which prove the protection of the Ismaelites a lodge of the the estimation in which they were held; the secret doctrine was established at Cairo, and its highest personages riding on ordinary occasions members spread over a great part of Asia. Their upon them. The horse was used in war, or ostensible object was to maintain the claims of the employed to swell the pomp of solemn processions. Fatimide caliphs to universal dominion, and to Although we cannot determine the time in which urge the destruction of the caliphs of Bagdad as the mule came first to take its place among our usurpers. One of the adepts, Hassan ben Sabah, domestic animals, we know that it must have thought of turning these instruments to his own been antecedent to the time of David, for he had saddle-mules; and from other passages it would appear that they were common. We read of the couriers of Persia and Media riding upon mules and camels. (Esth. viii. 14.) The most valuable mules in Syria, bred from mares of the Arab strain, are in great request, and celebrated for beauty and spirit.

The wild origin of the domestic ass is believed by Darwin and others to be the Asinus tœniopus, found in Abyssinia, and which has long acute ears and the bray peculiar to the domestic kinds. It also has cross bands on its legs, a feature occasionally met with in tame breeds.

Shagreen leather is made from the skin of the ass, which is also used for other purposes. [HORSE]

advantage, and after many vicissitudes and wanderings obtained possession, by the aid of his brethren, of the hill-fort of Alamoot (or vulture's nest,') situated to the north of Casvin, in Persia, and there (A.D. 1090) established an independent society or order, consisting of seven degrees, with himself at the head as sheikh al jebel, i.e. sheikh of the mountain.' Under him came three dai al kebir, the grand priors of the order; 3rdly, the dais, or initiated masters; 4thly, the refeeks, or companions; 5thly, the fedavees, or devoted; 6thly, the laseeks, aspirants or novices; 7thly, the profane, or common people. Hassan drew out for the dais, or initiated, a catechism consisting of seven heads, which did away effectually with all fixed rules of morality or faith. But this secret knowledge was confined to a few; the rest were bound to a strict observance of the letter of the Koran. The most effectual class in the order were the fedavees-youths often purchased or stolen from their parents when children, and brought up under a particular system of education, calculated to impress upon their minds the omnipotence of the sheikh, and the criminality as well as utter impossibility of evading his orders, which were like the mandates of Heaven itself. These fedavees were clothed in white, with red bonnets and girdles, and armed with sharp daggers; but they assumed all sorts of disguises when sent on a mission. Marco Polo gives a curious romantic account of the garden at Alamoot, to which the fedavee, designed for an important mission, was carried in a state of temporary stupor produced by powerful opiates, and where, on awakening, he found every thing that could excite and gratify It is very valuable as an antispasmodic, and in his senses. He was made to believe that this was case of weak digestion, hysteria, colic, asthma, a foretaste of the paradise of the prophet, reserved and hooping-cough. It is employed externally as a for his faithful and devoted servants, and thus counter irritant. In cases of organic disease of became willing to encounter death, even under the heart, especially enlargement, and in fulness or congestion of the brain or spinal chord, or in any organic disease of these, assafoetida is improper.

ASSAFETIDA is a guin-resin, obtained from the roots of the Férula assafoetida, a perennial plant growing in Persia, in the province of Lar, and in Khorassan. In its recent and purest state it is white and transparent, but by exposure to the air it becomes of a clear brown colour, sometimes verging to red or violet, and of a waxy appearance. The inferior sort is dark-brown, of a dull fatty appearance, viscid, and greasy; it is called assafoetida in masses. The smell of assafoetida is penetrating, very disagreeable, and lasts some time. The taste is bitter, unpleasantly aromatic, of an alliaceous or garlic-like character.

Assafoetida acts on the human system as a stimulant, more especially of the nerves of the chest and abdomen. It also influences, like all gum-resins, the vessels distributed on the lower portion of the abdomen, or the pelvis.

ASSAM. [ASAM.] ASSASSINS, a military and religious order, formed in Persia in the eleventh century. It was a ramification of the Ismaelites, who were them

the most appalling forms, in order to secure a permanent seat in the abode of bliss. Marco Polo's narrative is confirmed by Arabian writers, and Von Hammer inclines to believe it true in the main; others attribute the visions in the garden to the effects of the intoxicating preparation administered to the fedavees. The name of hashish, which is that of an opiate made from hemp-leaves,

is supposed to have been the origin of the word 'Assassins.' The word becoming familiar to the crusaders was by them carried to Europe, where it was used as synonymous with that of sicarius, or hired murderer.

small, designedly done to another by an actual contact with his person. The injury need not be done by the immediate hand of the party; nor is it material whether the act is wilful or not, provided it proceeds from a mischievous design. In The Assassins, either by force or treachery, a case where a lighted squib was thrown into a gained possession of many other castles and hill-market-place, which was tossed about from hand forts in Persia. The sultan Melek Shah attacked to hand and at last struck a man in the face them, the doctors of the law excommunicated and put out his eye, it was holden to be an asthem, but the fedavees carried secret death among sault and battery by the first thrower. their enemies; the sultan's minister, Nizam ul A person who commits an assault and battery Mulk, was stabbed, and his master soon after died is liable to an action of trespass by the party insuddenly, it was supposed by poison. The As-jured, and also to a criminal prosecution for a sassins spread into Syria, where they acquired misdemeanour and breach of the peace; but if a strongholds in the mountains near Tripoli; and defendant is found guilty upon an indictment, the sultan of the Seljukides was glad to come to and the court is informed that an action has been an agreement by granting them several districts. brought for the same injury, a nominal sentence Hassan ben Sabah, having extended his order is usually passed, unless the prosecutor will conover great part of the Mohammedan world, died sent to discontinue his action." at Alamoot in 1124, after thirty-five years' reign. He had several successors, all of whom adopted the practice of secret assassination, and several princes fell under the daggers of their followers; among them was Raymond, count of Tripoli, in 1151. At length the great Mongol conqueror, Mangoo Khan, sent his brother Hulakoo to exterminate the murderous sect. Alamoot was taken, and their last chief, Roken-ed-deen, was made prisoner; the fortress Kirdcoo resisted for three years, but at last all the haunts of the Assassins were taken, and the inmates were massacred without distinction, A.D. 1256.

The Syrian or western branch of the Assassins, however, continued to exist for some years later under their Dai al Kebir. Massyad, not far from Beyroot, was their principal stronghold. The history of this branch is the most familiar to Europeans, being much interwoven with that of the crusaders and of the great Sultan Salah-ed-deen. The latter was several times in danger from the daggers of the Assassins, and Conrad, marquis of Tyre and Montferrat, was murdered by two fedavees in the market-place of Tyre, 1192. At last the Syrian Assassins were conquered, and their stronghold taken, by Bibars, the Mamluke Sultan of Egypt, fourteen years after the destruction of the eastern branch by the Mongols. Many, however, found refuge in the mountains of Syria, and became mixed with the Yezeed Koords; and some of the tenets of the order are believed to linger still among them.

ASSAULT, Military, a sudden attack of a fort by storming parties,'' supports,' and firing parties.'

The punishment for common assaults is fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court. By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, persons convicted of assaulting magistrates, officers, or other persons concerned in preserving wrecks, are liable to be kept in penal servitude for seven years, or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, at the discretion of the court. The statute contains other provisions of a like special nature, as to assaults upon a peace or revenue officer in the execution of his duty, and the like. By the same statute, a man may be convicted of an assault under an indictment of a greater offence.

Though the 33 Henry VIII. c. 12, has been repealed by the 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, and this again repealed by the above statute of Victoria, it seems that the penalty of the loss of the right hand attached by the common law to assaults committed in the actual presence of the Queen or in her constructive presence in the superior courts of law, still remains.

By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, sect. 42, persons guilty of common assaults may be convicted summarily by two magistrates, who are empowered to impose a fine not exceeding 5l., with the costs; and in case of non-payment, to commit offenders to prison for two months.

ASSAULT is in Scotland a punishable offence, usually prosecuted by the public prosecutors attached to the sheriffs' courts, to the police courts established by statute, and to the justice of peace courts. It is seldom brought before the supreme criminal court, unless it be of a highly criminal character; and it is then generally charged as assault with some specific aggravation, ASSAULT and BATTERY. An assault has as assault aggravated by being to the effusion of been commonly defined an attempt or offer with blood,' or as being to the danger of life,' or 'by force and violence to do a corporal hurt to being committed against a magistrate,' or 'by another.' Thus, presenting a gun at a person being perpetrated with a lethal weapon,' an exwithin the distance to which it will carry, throw- pression applicable to a sword, hatchet, hammer, ing a stone or other missile at him, drawing a or any instrument more formidable than an ordisword and waving it, or even holding up a fist in nary walking-stick. Criminal prosecutions for a threatening manner, are instances of assault. assault, at the instance of private parties, are But no words, however insolent and provoking, almost unknown. The party injured may pursue unaccompanied by an act of violence, amount for civil damages before a jury; but such prosecuto an assault. tions are not frequent. There is no division, as A battery, which is said to imply an assault, in England, into assault,' and 'assault and bat consists of any kind of corporal injury, however tery. Many of the statutory regulations, as to

assaults by manufacturers, &c., extend to Scot-parting process is therefore had recourse to; this land. The later statute law on this subject, consists in dissolving the silver by dilute nitric acid, having been passed to alter laws peculiar to Eng- which leaves the gold pure. [HALL MARK.] land, does not in general apply to Scotland. The Iron ores are chiefly of three kinds: the im6 Geo. IV. c. 129, however, relative to assaults pure protocarbonate, commonly called the argilconnected with combination, applies to that part laceous iron ore; the peroxide, including the of the kingdom. The respective punishments of specular and hæmatite iron ores; and the black, the various kinds of assault, have thus, in Scot- or magnetic ore, which is a compound of the protland, been in a great measure fixed by the oxide and peroxide. The principle of assaying practice of the several criminal courts. these ores consists in separating the oxygen from ASSAYE, a small town in the province of the iron, by the greater affinity of charcoal for Bahar, Hindustan, about 28 miles N.N.E. from that element at high temperatures. The ore, Jaulna, in 20° 14' N. lat., 76° 40′ E. long. This some charcoal, and an alkaline flux, are heated in place is principally known as having been the a crucible; and the result is that all the imscene of a battle fought on the 23rd of September, purities in the ore are made to leave the iron, so 1803, between the English army, under the late that the latter is presented in a purely metallic Duke of Wellington, then Major-General Wel-form.

lesley, and the confederate armies of Dowlut Rao Copper ores for the most part contain sulphur; Scindia and the Rajah of Berar. The British and in order to assay them, a flux is prepared of army amounted to 4500, of whom 2000 were fluor spar, borax, slaked lime, argol, and nitre. European soldiers and 2500 Sepoys. The com- The ore is pounded, calcined in a crucible at a red bined army amounted to 30,000, and was com- heat; then cooled; then heated again with some manded by the French general Péron. The vic- of the flux until it is brought to a liquid state. tory was gained by the British, at the cost how- The liquid metal is poured into a mould, and ever of 428 killed and 1138 wounded. The quenched when solid but yet hot. There is then enemy fled, leaving 1200 men dead, 98 pieces of found a portion of metal underneath a layer of cannon, and a large quantity of ammunition and coarse slag. The metal is separated from the

stores.

from foreign ingredients. This complicated routine is followed when the ore contains many foreign bodies besides sulphur; if sulphur be the only one, the operation is much simpler; and if sulphur even be not present, the assaying is still easier.

slag, reduced to powder, and again heated until ASSAYING, a chemical operation, which the sulphur is driven off from it. The copper is differs from analysis only in degree. When an brought to a certain state of purity by this oper analysis is performed, the nature and proportions ation; and the process is repeated a second and of all the ingredients of a substance are deter- a third time, until the copper is perfectly free mined; but in assaying, the quantity of any particular metal only which the ore or mixture under examination may contain is ascertained, without reference to the substances with which it is mixed or alloyed. Assaying is sometimes conducted entirely in what is called the dry way, or by heat; at other times in the moist way, or by Lead. The principal ore of lead is the sulacids and other re-agents; and in some cases both phuret, commonly called galena; but the carbomethods are necessarily resorted to. (See Plate for nate, or white lead ore, is sometimes found in representations of assaying stove and instruments.) considerable quantity. The former of these is The assaying of silver and gold is effected by a assayed by being put into a crucible with iron process called cupellation. Cupels are small flat and flux, all in small grains; and after being crucibles made by pressing bone ash, moistened covered with a layer of salt, they are heated with water, into circular steel moulds, and they until the lead becomes separated from all im are dried by exposure to the air. The principle purities. The second kind of ore is assayed in upon which the operation depends is, that all the same way, but with a different flux. metals with which gold and silver are usually alloyed, are convertible into oxides by exposure to atmospheric air at a high temperature, whereas the precious metals remain unacted upon.

Tin. The ores of tin are principally of two kinds, the oxide and the sulphuret. The oxide is assayed by simple fusion with a flux, which removes the oxygen. The sulphuret is assayed by being first pounded and calcined, to drive off any sulphur or arsenic; and then meited again with a flux of alkalies, fluor spar, and lime, by which the tin becomes separated from all the other impurities.

To assay silver by cupellation, the silver is flattened, and wrapped up in an envelope of lead. A muffle or oven is heated in an assay furnace, and the two metals put into it. The metals melt, and the lead becomes converted into an oxide, which, as well as any baser metals before com- Zinc.-The ores of zinc are of two kinds, the bined with the silver, is absorbed by the sub- carbonate, or calamine, and the sulphuret, or stance of the cupel, until at length the silver is blende. The carbonate is assayed by being left absolutely pure. broken into small pieces, brought to a red heat, The assaying of gold is performed, to a certain cooled, reduced to a fine powder, mixed with extent, exactly in the same way as that of silver; powdered charcoal, and melted in a crucible, and if the gold were alloyed only with copper, under such conditions that the zinc may leave the the process would be as simple as that of silver ore, and combine with a thin layer of granulated assaying. Usually, however, gold contains silver, copper so as to produce brass; and the quantity of and this cannot be got rid of by cupellation: the the brass so produced tests the richness of the ore

in zinc. The sulphuret, or blende, is assayed nearly in the same way.

narrative of the life of Mohammed, much inter polated with Maltese words, apparently with the intention of rendering the original text unintelligible. Vella's imposture was now made clear, and he was sentenced to imprisonment. (Cesarotti, Opere, vol. xviii.; Fundgruben des Orients, vol. i. ; Allgemeine Literarische Anzeigen for 1795.)

ASSEMBLY, GENERAL, of SCOTLAND. [GENERAL ASSEMBLY.]

ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL. (NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.]

ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. [WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.]

ASSENT, ROYAL. When a bill has passed through all its stages in both houses of parliament, if it is a money bill it is sent back to the House of Commons, in which it had of course originated; but if not a bill of supply, it remains

ASSEMANI, GIUSEPPE SIMO'NE, a learned Maronite, a native of Syria, who came to Rome towards the beginning of the eighteenth century, was made archbishop in partibus of Tyre, and librarian of the Vatican, by Clement XI. He was sent by that pontiff on a literary mission to Egypt and Syria, in the years 1715-16, and he brought back to Rome many valuable MSS. He then set about compiling his Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino Vaticana,' 4 vols. folio, Rome, 1719-28, which is a biographical account of the Syrian writers, divided into three classes, Orthodox, Jacobites, and Nestorians, with copious extracts in the Syriac text, and a Latin version, lists of their works, and comments on the same. The fourth volume of the Bibliotheca' is engrossed by a learned dissertation on the Syrian Nestorians. in the custody of the clerk of the enrolments in Assemani also completed in six volumes folio, Rome, the House of Lords. The royal assent is always 1732-46, the edition of the works of St. Ephraem, given in the House of Lords, but the Commons one of the old Syrian fathers, containing the Syriac are also present at the bar, to which they are text and a Latin translation, which was begun by summoned by the Black Rod. The Queen may Ambarach, another learned Maronite living at either be present in person, or may signify her Rome, and better known as Father Benedetti. assent by letters patent under the great seal, Assemani was also the author of other learned signed with her hand, and communicated to the works and dissertations. He died at Rome in two houses by commissioners. Power to do this 1768, at the age of eighty. is given by 33 Henry VIII. chap. 21. The comASSEMANI, STEFANO EVODIO, nephew missioners are usually three or four of the great of Giuseppe, was made Bishop of Apamea, and officers of state. The royal assent is rarely given succeeded his uncle as librarian of the Vatican. in person, except at the end of a session; but He published, among other works, Bibliothecæ bills for making provision for the honour and dig. Mediceo-Laurentianæ et Palatinæ Codicum MSS.nity of the crown, such as settling the civil list, Orientalium Catalogus,' 2 vols. folio, 1742, with have generally been assented to by the Queen in notes by Gori; and Acta Sanctorum Martyrum person immediately after they have passed both Orientalium et Occidentalium,' 2 vols. folio, Rome, 1748. Another member of the same family, called Giuseppe Luigi Assemani, published the Alexandrine Missal, with the liturgy of the various churches of Egypt, old and modern, 'Missale Alexandrinum S. Marci,' quarto, Rome, 1734; and also a chronology of the patriarchs of Chaldæa. The Assemani had a rich collection of Arabic and Syriac MSS., which Clement XIII. purchased for the Vatican Library, and of which Mai has made a catalogue. The Syriac MSS. alone are above 200

in number.

houses. The bills that have been left in the House of Lords lie on the table; the bills of supply are brought up from the Commons by the Speaker, who, in presenting them, especially at the end of a session, is accustomed to accompany the act with a short speech. The royal assent to each bill, when given in person, is announced by the clerk of the parliament. After the title of the bills is read by the clerk of the crown, the clerk of the parliament says, if it is a bill of supply, which receives the royal assent before all other bills, 'Le roi (or la reyne) remercie ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le veult'; if any other public bill, 'Le roi (or la reyne) le veult;' if a private bill, 'Soit fait comme il est desiré.'

ASSEMANI, SIMO'NE, grand-nephew of Giuseppe Simone, and like him born in Syria, came to Italy, and was many years professor of Oriental languages in the university of Padua. When the royal assent is refused to a bill, the He published several works in Italian and in form of announcement is 'Le roi s'avisera.' There Latin on Arabian literature and history. Asse- has been no instance of the rejection by the crown mani exposed the imposture of the Maltese, Vella, of any bill, certainly not of any public bill, which who pretended to have found, in an Arabic MS. had passed through parliament, for many years. in the convent of S. Martino at Palermo, a diplo- It is commonly stated, that the last instance was matic code of the Sicilian Saracens. Vella made the rejection of the bill for triennial parliaments a translation of it, and published it at Palermo in by William III. in 1693. But another instance of 1789. (Codice Diplomatico di Sicilia sotto il the rejection of a bill occurred towards the end of Governo degli Arabi,' 5 vols. 4to. Palermo, 1789- the same year, the rejection of the bill commonly 92.) The work was dedicated to the King of called the Place Bill, the object of which was to Naples. Assemani, to whom some of the proof exclude holders of offices of trust and profit under sheets had been sent, pronounced the text to be unintelligible, except some lines which were Maltese instead of Arabic. At last Joseph Hager was sent for from Vienna to Palermo, and he having examined the MS. found it contained a

the crown from the House of Commons. It was presented to the king with the Land-tax Bill; and he assented to the one and rejected the other.

Mr. Hatsell, in the second volume of his Precedents, states that the latest instance which he dis