OBSERVATIONS ON FIRE-WORKS. In Europe, the invention of fire-works is of a recent date, and ascribed to the Italians. In China, however, fire-works have been known for centuries. Some recent exhibitions at Pekin prove, that the Chinese have attained to a degree of perfection, not surpassed by the artists of France, Italy, or England. The observations of Mr. Barrow, (_Travels in China_), on this subject are worthy of notice. "The fire-works, in some particulars," says he, "exceeded any thing of the kind I had ever seen. In grandeur, magnificence, and variety, they were, I own, inferior to the Chinese fire-works, we had seen at Batavia, but infinitely superior in point of novelty, neatness, and ingenuity of contrivance. One piece of machinery I greatly admired; a chest five feet square, was hoisted up by a pulley, to the height of fifty or sixty feet from the ground: the bottom was so constructed as then, suddenly, to fall out, and make way for twenty or thirty strings of lanterns, enclosed in a box, to descend from it, unfolding themselves from one another by degrees, so as, at last, to form a collection of full 500, each having a light of a beautifully coloured flame, burning brightly within it. This devolution and development of lanterns was several times repeated, and, at every time, exhibited a difference of colour and figure. On each side, was a correspondence of smaller boxes, which opened in like manner as the others, and let down an immense net-work of fire, with divisions and compartments of various forms and dimensions, round and square, hexagons, octagons, &c. which shone like the brightest burnished copper, and flashed like prismatic colours, with every impulse of the wind. The diversity of colours, with which the Chinese have the secret of clothing fire, seems one of the chief merits of their pyrotechny. The whole concluded with a volcano, or general explosion and discharge of suns, stars, squibs, crackers, rockets, and granadoes, which involved the gardens for above an hour in a cloud of intolerable smoke." Thevenot (_Travels in the Levant_) says, that during the bairam, or carnival, which takes place with a great deal of ceremony, the sultan causes fire-works to be played off all night; the sultan and sultanas diverting themselves with these and other amusements. Dr. Pococke (_Travels through Egypt_), says, that at Cairo, when the Nile is high, besides aquatic excursions, concerts of music, and other diversions, fire-works form a part of those pleasures and recreations. In a _Description of the East Indies_, fire-works are stated to be often exhibited at the marriage of the Banians or Gentoos.