nothing can prevent his selling them at an under price, according to his necessities. No one who has known any thing of the forcible sales made in distressed circumstances, will think a loss of fifty per cent. very extraordinary in such cases. I cannot illustrate this point better than by shewing a real transaction of a British nobleman in the sale of sundry bills at short dates, belonging to the firm of one of the money-lending houses. £ £ 500 sold to A. for 400 given to 1000 narrowed by the competition, as all who If such respectable lenders exacted such sums, we may be sure that the common money lender required far harder conditions, and where a mode of effecting the loan wholly unlawful was adopted, the price paid must have been still much higher. The case now related, furnishes a good illustration of the direct pressure upon the borrower, occasioned by the restraints, because, at any rate, the price of insurance, which formed part of the expence, and that of annuity securites* was entirely caused by the course into which the necessity of evading the usury laws drove the transaction. Thus the usury laws, which were originally intended to serve the necessitous, have, by a change in the position of mundane affairs, now become the means of preventing a man from borrowing money at its market value. Because if no such laws were enacted, the necessitous might be able to keep his goods and sell them himself; and I have myself seen 120001. charged to a noble Duke for several of these annuity securities, and 5001. for a single one. £5100 £ 400 to * 900 1800 1000 800 1000 sold to K. to K. To such a loss as this, the most exorbitant usury bears no proportion; yet this is the way in which the distressed are compelled to pay for money, by the law, which says, he shall not borrow at the rate of five and a half per cent. The pressure upon proprietors of real estates is no less severe. Besides the evils above mentioned, as arising out of the usury laws, there is another in my estimation far more important than all the rest, the corruptive influence which they exercise upon the morals of the people, by the pains they take, and cannot but take, to give birth to treachery and ingratitude. On this head Mr. Bentham, says, that "to purchase a possibility of being enforced, the law neither has found, nor what is very material, must it ever hope to find, in this case, any other expedient than that of hiring a man to break his engagement, and to crush the hand that has been reached out to help him. "In the case of informers in general, there has been no truth plighted, nor benefit received. In the case of real criminals invited by rewards to inform against accomplices, it is by such breach of faith that society is held together, as as in other cases, by the observance of it. In the case of real crimes, in proportion as their mischievousness is apparent, what cannot but be manifest even to the criminal, is, that it is by the adherence to his engagement that he would do an injury to society, and that by the breach of such engagement, instead of doing mischief he is doing good: in the case of usury this is what no man can know, and what one can scarcely think it possible for any man, who, in the character of the borrower, has been concerned in such a transaction, to imagine. He knew that even in his own judgment, the engagement was a beneficial one to himself, or he would not have entered into it: aud nobody else but the lender is affected by it." W. S. R. May 31st, 1821. For the Monthly Magazine. NOTES relative to the MALDIVE ISLANDS, by CAPT. SCHULTZ, Commander of the Heystein, shipwrecked on one of them July 20, 1819. HE of Mall is in 4° of winds, but in general they rise to the height of seven feet. Every where on the eastern side nature has fortified this island, and art has done it every where else. In the bastions and curtains, of which there are ten, I have counted a hundred pieces of cannon, some of them brass; the largest are 12 pounders, mostly of Dutch fabrication. I cannot speak highly of these guns, as to their construction, and much less of their disposition; the fortifications, in fact, are crumbling to ruin. The whole island is covered with buildings remarkably neat and agreeable. A town has been planned out, with broad streets intersected at right angles, which are carefully swept every morning. In the western part, on quitting the boats, you enter through a number of small gates; the sultan inhabits this quarter; his palace forms a sort of citadel, with lofty walls mounted with artillery: the approach is intercepted by a fossé 14 feet broad. It is a stone building, two stories high; very magnificent, Tnorth latitude, though of small and its flat roof does not help to set it extent, the sultans of the Maldives, from its advantageous position and local conveniences, have chosen it for the seat of empire. It is very strong by nature, and is capable of being rendered much more so by art. This island is about 3 miles in circumference, of a circular form, and is surrounded with a bulwark of rocks, except in the western part. Here the inhabitants have an artificial fortification, uniting the two extremities of the natural rock. Two passages have been left for the entrance of boats, but these can be closed, should an attack be apprehended from the inhabitants of the Lackadives, whose hostility to the Maldivese is inveterate and of long standing. The surf is very violent on the shore, which renders all approach dangerous to an enemy. The natural rock is not contiguous, but forms a girdle, at a little distance, between which and the island the sea is as tranquil as a pond. Here their trading vessels anchor, and it is also the station of the fishing boats that belong to the inhabitants. The former are to the number of seven; they make voyages to Ceylon, to the coasts of the Indian continent, to Calcutta and to Tchittegang. The fishing vessels are from 50 to 60. The tides are irregular, from being much disturbed by the off. The numerous houses of the inhabitants are commodiously contrived, and the eye is every where greeted with rows of apartments well arranged. They are mostly constructed of wood, and many are so altogether. The buildings that most attract a stranger's notice, are two vast mosques of an imposing architecture. The sultan repairs to one every Friday, to perform his devotions, when his health permits. He was indisposed during the whole time we were at Mall, and but seldom went out of his palace. For the same reason I was prevented from seeing the citadel, though I had a promise of being presented to his highness, as soon as he should be in a condition to receive visits. To every house there is a well of excellent water: a number of public fountains with basins supply the people with water sufficient for their ablutions. Here and there appear cemeteries; the tombs which they contain have an up right stone loaded with inscriptions, in the language of the country, but in Arabic characters. The government appears to be despotic; the power is hereditary in the family of the sultan; all of the blood royal live with him in the citadel. His armed force of 150 men have also their quarters 1821.] Notes relative to the present state of the Maldive Islands. quarters there. From every informa-. tion that I could procure, the government here is rather patriarchal than arbitrary, and the conduct of the reigning sovereign does not discredit the imputation. To the poor he distributes victuals and apparel; crimes are seldom heard of, and there are few offences that call for severe chastisement. Should an individual chance to disturb the public tranquillity, the punishment would be jostling him about the streets by the people, or throwing water and sand over him; this would be deemed an adequate correction. If an offence be repeated by an evil disposed subject, confinement for a day or two in the stocks is considered as a sufficient stimulus to reform: but this punishment, I was assured, occurs only once or twice in ten years. In a word, the inhabitants of Mall, to the number of 2000, seemed to me to lead an undisturbed life, exempt from numberless evils that beset societies more civilized and less industrious. The sultan, whose name is Mohammed Ainack Daun, has a ministry consisting of eight persons, who assume the title of vizirs; four are of the first class, the others are inferior. The general or commander-in-chief, Mohammed Dâs Maina; the receiver-general of the revenues, Dara Manufaon, and the Shah Bander, Ahmet Vellane, belong to the first class. The last of these persons was detained at home, by some disorder, all the time I was resident, and this prevented me from knowing the real nature of his functions. To these four, the other vizirs are subordinate, and act by their directions. These magistrates, as also the governors of the islands, have no handling of the public money, but the government assigns to them some island to defray their charges. The sultan's revenues are brought to Mall from the other islands; they consist of cocoa-nuts, tortoise-shells, couris, &c. which are brought to Mall at fixed periods. Those that lie nearest furnish the capital with poultry, eggs, citrons, bread, fruits, plantains, &c. The isles dependent on the sultan are calculated at 1200, and though the number is considerable, I do not believe it exaggerated. I have more than once observed, that what seemed an island at a little distance, was in facta groupe of ten or twelve islets. I found it impossible to collect any authentic MONTHLY MAG. No. 359. 217 data respecting the population, and when I mentioned to the commanderin-chief, the facility with which the governors might form an enumeration, I was not a little surprised to find this proposal checked, as dangerous, and likely to draw on the Maldives those calamities that befell David for a similar curiosity. The sultan's regular force of 150 men have a red uniform: their arms are the musket and the telwar. Each individual receives 15 syrs of rice per month, besides betel and pay; every year they have two suits of clothing and two shawl-handkerchiefs. At present these men do no actual service, and they live in the citadel, at their ease. In former times national animosities kindled long and violent war between the Lackadives and the Maldives, but since their sovereign, the Queen of Cannanore, has submitted to the English authority, those dissensions have ceased. Islamism is the only religion in the Maldives; the inhabitants engage in no enterprize without first imploring the divine aid; to judge from their words and actions, they have no small share of piety. There are books among them in their own language, and they seemed to me very anxious to see their children taught reading and writing in schools. An old tradition, current among them, makes their ancestors come from the coast of Malabar, some centuries ago. Their language, however, seems peculiar to the people of these islands; at least, we could trace no affinity with any of the languages familiar to the crew of our vessel. They readily speak the Hindostanee, but this must be ascribed to their frequent intercourse with India; this it was that enabled us to keep up a reciprocal conversation. With respect to their ideas of marriage, these islanders are not limited to very rigid obligations of decorum. A plurality of wives is allowed, but concubines are not. This practice is evidently from the management of their priests, who receive a roupee on such occasions from persons in easy circumstances, and half a roupee from others; the poor, however, pay but four annas. This fee may look like simony, but it is not exorbitant. In divorces there is little appearance of formality, and I cannot find that a husband is obliged to provide for a wife whom he puts away. The young wo 2 E men The rare occurrence of divorces must be ascribed to the sage and exemplary conduct of the women, and to the satisfaction which it inspires throughout the domestic household. Industry is their grand characteristic; idleness seems a stranger to them; you see them always employed in spinning or in dyeing stuffs, or weaving caire, or cleaning couries, or in the minor affairs of domestic management. Their dress is modest and becoming; cotton or striped silk about the neck; sleeves long and broad with broaches; sometimes a ruff or neck-covering of gold-lace, with additional ornaments of ear-rings and a gold necklace. Prostitution and adultery are, in a manner, unknown, but women detected in it are liable to a singular punishment. My friend, the head vizir, informed me, that long ago, five women convicted of illicit commerce with the crews of some Arab vessels, were transported separately into an uninhabited island, for a limited time, where they would have neither succours nor visitor. When the term of exile was elapsed, one only was alive, and she died soon after her return. This example produced such an effect that there has been no occasion since to inflict a similar punishment. nished him with as much of the former as could be obtained by opening the windows, but the latter he must wait for a few days longer. The same night was applied to each of his feet a large plaister of treacle, not over thick, but completely covering the whole extent of the redness; the plaisters were not renewed, but remained until last evening, he continuing the same gentle medicine daily as before described. I had not heard of this curious application, and was this day proceeding to make inquiry respecting his health, when I met him in Aldersgate-street, walking with one of his family. He was emaciated, low in spirits, and walked with difficulty, but without pain, and his feet were reduced to their usual size,in fact he wore his ordinary shoes. JOHN BADCOCK. It T was in the year 1351, that Petrarch revisited France. He staid there two years, dividing his time between his favourite solitude of Vaucluse and the city of Avignon. During this period, on the 6th of December, 1352, Clement VI. died, and the Cardinal Stephen Alberti was elected as his successor under the name of Innocent VI. The new pope regarded Petrarch with by no means a favourable eye, and strongly suspected him of dealing I mended as a cure for THE GOUT by with the devil," so that the poet, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. do not find the article treacle recom any medical writer. Mr.. was attacked for the third time within twelve months, in both feet. The frequency of its recurrence since he first called in medical aid, induced him to resolve upon doing without advice this time; and all the physic he now took, was first a brisk cathartic, and subsequently what he described as simply "opening physic." His feet were swelled to an enormous size when I saw him five days after; he suffered excruciating torments, and lost his wonted vigour in consequence: he panted for the open air, and sighed for his horse exercise. I instantly fur disgusted with his ignorance and bigotry, returned to Italy in the month of May, 1353, without having paid his respects to his Holiness. On his arrival at Milan he was received with such distinguished honour and courtesy by the Visconti family, who at that time held the sovereignty of that city, that he was induced to take up his residence there, and he spent the greater part of the following ten years at a villa about three miles from Milan. The way in which he passed his time here will be best learned from his own account. "My life," says he, in a letter addressed to his friend Guido da Settimo, "has "has been of an even tenor ever since increasing years, or rather the dew of the divine grace, have quenched that fatal flame which so long consumed me. In respect of fortune I am equally removed from either extreme, and enjoy that mediocrity which is so truly desirable. The only thing that disturbs my quiet and exposes me to envy is the great and unmerited esteem in which I am here held. I am not only beloved and honoured by the first prince of Italy and his court, but the people also show me the greatest respect, though I can scarcely be said to be known to them; so much am I affected by their kindness that I love the very soil and air, the houses and walls of Milan. I inbabit a retired spot on the western side of the city: and excepting on Sundays, when the people go in crowds to the church of St. Ambrose, it is a perfect solitude. When I go to pay my respects at court, or for any other purpose, I merely bow to those I meet without stopping to converse with any. Fortune hath occasioned no change in my diet, and as to my sleep, you know pretty well how I go on. Every day I curtail it, and there will soon be no opportunity for making further deductions from it. I I never lie in bed awake unless I am ill. Scarcely are my eyes open than I bounce out and go into my library, and this generally occurs about midnight, except when the nights are very short, or I have sat up late. I grant to nature no more than I am un able to refuse her. My sleep, my rest, my recreation, vary with circumstances. I am fond of repose and retirement, but to my friends I appear a perfect gossip, probably because I so seldom see them; and recompense myself in the conversation of a day for the silence of a year. "I have taken for the summer season a pleasant country house near Milan, where the air is very pure, and where I am now residing. I pass my time generally here, as being more free from interruption, and farther from the annoyances of the city. The country people bring me fruit, fish, ducks, and wild fowl, in abundance, so that I want for nothing. There is a handsome new convent of the Carthusians in the immediate neighbourhood, where I enjoy at all hours of the day the innocent pleasures of religion. The good monks would fain have received me as an inmate, but I thought it best on the *Ne balzo fuori. whole to reside at a short distance, so as to be able to attend their sacred exercises: for which purpose I am allowed the privilege of a free access at all times. You wish to know whether it be true, as you have heard, that I am grown rich; the simple truth is this, my income is indeed greater, but my expences have increased in an equal proportion, so that I am in reality much as I was. Riches by multiplying our wants and desires are often the cause of poverty. This has indeed not been the case with me hitherto, for I have generally found myself more tranquil and unambitious in easy circumstances; but any great accession of wealth might perhaps produce the same effect on me that it is generally found to have on others." The entrance of the foreign troops into Lombardy, a scourge to which the political weakness of Italy has exposed her ever since she fell from the 66 high estate" of her ancient glory, compelled Petrarch to remove to Padua, in which city, or its vicinity, he continued principally to reside during the remainder of his life. He probably wished to have closed it amidst the seclusion of his favourite vale, and proceeded as far as Milan on his way thither, but the hostile bands which infested all the passes into France, obliged him to give up his undertaking. Deeply affected by the spectacle of misery and degradation which his unhappy country presented, he renewed his solicitations, both with the emperor and the pope, Urban V. to exert themselves for its relief. So late as the year 1370, he set out on a journey to Rome at the request of the latter, but found himself unable to proceed farther than Ferrara. He lingered four years more amidst increasing infirmities, at his villa of Arqua, till on the morning of the day on which he had completed his 70th year, he was found dead in his library with his head resting on a book, in a scene and a posture altogether in character with the habits and pursuits of his life. Of the poetical merits of Petrarch it is difficult to exhibit any specimen to the English reader. The charm of all poetry depends so essentially on the selection and arrangement of words, that the most felicitous translation can do little more than present similar ideas under a totally different form. More especially is this true of the Italian sonnet, a light and elegant composition, |