Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1885 — HISTORICAL. [ARTICLE]

HISTORICAL.

One of the first appeals of one nation to another, as if they formed one commonwealth, was in the twelfth century,' and in the thirteenth century we find the good kifcg r St. Louis, of France, chosen arbitrator between Henry lIL, of England, and bis Barons. In the middle ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the eleventh century, there may bo said to have been no international law. or only a confusion of customs, some of which had been influenced by principles of equity, while others rested on barbarism. Louts XI., of France, claimed all shipwrecked goods as legal property of the crown; the only exceptions being in favor of the Dutch and Flemings, and of the Hanseatic League. Timor--dinance of 1543 is said to bp the first legal evidence of a reform of this practice in France; by this act, the wrecked persons were permitted to claim their property within a year. Cahronades were much used during the war of 1812-15 on the ocean. They are a kind of short iron cannon which is attached to its carriage by a joint and bolt underneath tho piece, instead of trunnions. It is only in this respect that the carronades differ from other heavy guns and howitzers. The name is derived from Carron, a village in Stillingshire, Scotland, whero the gnn was first made. . In Maryland, in early times, a box of forty pounds of tobacco was levied upon every taxable inhabitant for the pay of the preacher’s salary. This was collected by the Sheriff, who charged 4 per cent, for his services, and also deducted from tho total collected 1,000 pounds per annum for the payment of the parish clerk. By the laws of Virginia every clergymen received annually 1,500 pounds of tobacco and sixteen barrels of flour. The term broken heart, as commonly applied to death from excessive grief, is not a vulgar error, but may- arise., from violent muscular exercise or strong mental emotions. This afi’ection was, it is believed, first described by Harvey; T>ut since bis day several cases have been observed. Morgagni has recorded a few examples.;. Among them. that of George 11., of England, who died suddenly of this disease in 1760, and, what is very curious, Morgagni himself fell a victim to the same malady. In January, 1778, while the channel in the river Delaware was nearly free of ice, some Whigs of Eordentown, New Jersey, sent floating down the stream some torpedoes in the form of lcegs filled with gunpower, and arranged with machinery so that on rubbing against an object they would explode. It was hoped that some of these torpedoes might touch a British war vessel, ex> plode and sink her. One of them, touching a piece of floating ice, flew up and created intense alarm. For twen-ty-four hours afterwards not a thing was seen floating on the bosom of the river without being fired at by a British musket or cannon. Francis Hopkins, one of tho signers of tho Declaration of Independence, wrote a satirical' poem on this subject called “The Battle of the Kegs.”