by opposite parties, will one day be in that of France. La Harpe, who received his dramatic education at Ferney, and who was fostered in the principles of Voltaire his master, thought he had found in the History of England a subject entirely dramatic. A noble-minded Queen, who never suffered herself to be governed by ambitious ministers, and who was ever ready to embrace any enterprise which might restore her to a throne from which she had been driven by the weakness of her husband; a Captain celebrated for his victories, creating and dethroning kings; a Prince endowed with noble qualities, though a slave to a violent passion, and employing his power only to betray him to whom he is indebted for his crown; these at first glance seem to be the elements which constitute tragedy; but the pages of history seldom present subjects for a complete tragedy. La Harpe has taken from history only the names of the principal characters: the story is borrowed from a novel by the Abbé Prevost, entitled Marguerite d'Anjou, and in adapting it to the stage, it was found necessary to introduce various incidents, which not only violate history, but are even contrary to all probability." Warwick obtained extraordinary success our supposition, that the preceding untired Reformers presented, on the The often repeated statement, that a meeting of the allied Sovereigns and Ministers would take place this summer, acquires almost certain confirmation, and Dusseldorf is the spot now nominated for the congress. when first produced; yet many able critics The character of Edward is forcibly conceived; it does the more honour to the imagination of the poet, because the first News of mercantile importance has been received from Spain. In pursu ally unfolding in that country, four of A storm of wind has done much damage in London and on the Coasts.Many lives are lost. VARIETIES. LECTURES AND LECTURERS.-M. Ben jamin Constant has been delivering lectures on the History of Religions, in the Athenée Royal of Paris. Mr. Coleridge has gone more than half way through a course on the Belles-Lettres somewhere in Fleet-street. Mr. Hazlett has been handling Poetry and the Drama at the Surrey Institution. Mr. Thelwall has just completed three or four &c.; one of these we attended, and found courses on Poetry, the Drama, Elocution, it highly entertaining as well as curious. We have noticed the Royal Academy and Royal Institution Lectures; and have heard a highly favourable account of a Mr. Webster, who lectures on Steam Engines, with a beautiful apparatus. In France they do these things for fame; in England chiefly for profit. Frenchmen in our country, follow our fashions. However, from the multiplicity of instructors, it is clear, that only time and money are necessary for the purpose of learning wisdom. idea which might naturally arise to a young South American colonies, on the paycently appeared on the medical horizon. man of 24, would be to represent Edirard as an imperious tyrant, in order to throw additional lustre over the character of Warwick. La Harpe has not however adopted this casy and common-place combination of contrasts; he has made Edward a noble and generous Prince, who never for a moment forgets what he owes to Warwick until he is completely overcome by an upgovernable and violent passion. The denouement of the tragedy is forcible and affecting; but it is unfortunately too evident that the author knew not how to dispose of Margaret; he has consequently kept her as much as possible out of sight. DIGEST OF POLITICS AND Authentic accounts received direct from Algiers, prove the correctness of ment of a duty of three per cent. We are sorry to announce that the COFFEE. A new enemy of coffee has reDoctor Michel Petoez, of Presburgh, has fulminated a large and erudite volume against the perfumed bean of Arabia. Fontenelle's bon-mot respecting coffee is well known: and since his time much has been written both for and against a beverage, which some prescribe as salutary, and others declare to be the most pernicious that can possibly exist. Our home news is of little interest. Dr. Petoez maintains his opinion with a The ministerial Indemnity Bill has degree of confidence which reminds us of been read a third time in the House of the paradox of the advocate Linguet, who Lords; there was a divison of 98 to attempted to prove, with Hippocrates in his 27 on this question. In the lower house hand, that bread was neither more nor less there has been some important business, than slow poison. He likewise bears some little resemblance to Dr. Hufeland, who, in but no regular debating. The army his Macrobiatic, or the Art of living to an estimates for 113,000 men have been advanced age, declaims against the use of voted; several finance subjects partially cheese, of which he himself eat a prodidiscussed; and some petitions from thegious quantity every day of his life. We may quote from the Austrian Chro- | Zelima. The Royal Society of Agriculture nicle, a short specimen of the declamation According to Dr. Petoez, it is so evident that these disorders are all occasioned by coffee, that should a physician wish to calculate the degree of duty he may have to perform among his patients, he must first ascertain whether they make a practice of drinking coffee; if so, he may be sure that his visits to them will be tolerably frequent. Why does the plague prove so fatal to the inhabitants of the Levant? Because they drink coffee. The scrupulous observers of the Koran, who abstain from wine, and deny themselves the use of any agreeable drink, and consequently coffee, never suffer from that distemper. and Botany at Ghent, has furnished this A Continental Journal states, that a LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. THE CHRONICLES OF EUSEBIUS. In the 14th Number of the Literary Gazette, we mentioned the highly important discovery of a complete MS. translation of the Chronicles of Eusebius, preserved in the Library of the Armenian College at Venice. We gave at the same time a copious account of it from a publication of the learned M. Angelo Maio, librarian of the Ambrosian Library at Milan, to whom the learned world was indebted for the first knowledge of the existence of this literary The Arabs are the greatest coffee-drinkers treasure. As we had the satisfaction of in the Universe. Consequently Arabia, being the first to announce it in England, though formerly the birth-place of philo- we feel now the greatest pleasure in being sophers and celebrated physicians, is now able to state, that the impatience of the in a state of the profoundest ignorance. learned world, which has been highly The heating properties of coffee have para- excited by this interesting information, lyzed the intellectual faculties of the Arab, is likely to be gratified, proposals hayand withered the flowers of his genius. ing been published at Milan, for the pubFinally, coffee is the source of every dis-lication. We shall not fail to acquaint our order, and were it not an incontestible fact, readers with all the further particulars that Pandora emptied her box before the that we may receive on this subject. use of coffee became known, the Doctor would probably assert, that that charming mischief-maker needed only to have employed it as the means of producing all human miseries. All this is excellent, and surely no one will attempt to deny the following convincing reasoning! Were I, says the Hungarian physician, to instance an unfortunate being who grew old in the abuse of coffee, I should poin: to the Bust of Voltaire. Would you wish to know how this poisonous beverage directed his ideas, by means of exalting his imagination? Read his works!!! An Essay on Music, considered in its re- ing resisted every remedy, have at length METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL. FEBRUARY. Thursday, 26-Thermometer from 36 to 40. snow. Sunshine at times in the afternoon. Stars remarkably bright in the evening. Barometer from 29, 75 to 29, 52. Wind S. S. W. and W. 1.-Raining till about ten, when the sun shone pleasantly; the afternoon and evening clear: the warmth of the sun had not fully opened the crocus by noon. Rain fallen, 125 of an inch. Saturday, 28-Thermometer from 34 to 49. Barometer from 29, 87 to 29, 60. Wind S. W. 2.-The morning clear, with light cirri passing over: the afternoon quite overcast: rain in the evening, which was followed, before ten, by very heavy gusts of wind. Rain fallen, 1 of an inch. MARCH. Sunday, 1—Thermometer from 36 to 46. Barometer from 29, 75 to 29, 80. 1 Wind S. W. 2.-Early part of the morning clear; but showers and sleet began to fall before eleven, and continued till the evening, which became clear. Much lightning in the N.W. and W. all the evening. Rain fallen, 15 of an inch. Monday, 2-Thermometer from 32 to 50. Barometer from 29, 86 to 29, 77. Wind S. W. 2.-Clear till eleven, when ninibus formed. Heavy rain in showers all the afternoon. In the evening it blew very hard, till about nine, when it became suddenly calm, and very clear. Rain fallen, 15 of an inch. Tuesday, 3—Thermometer from 31 to 50. Barometer from 29, 95 to 29, 70. Wind S. and S by E. 3 in gusts. The early part of the morning clear, but soon became hazy: the haze dispersed and clouds formed by noon; afternoon and evening quite overcast. Began to blow very hard by ten. Rain fallen, 05 of an inch. Wednesday, 4-Thermometer from 35 to 47. Barometer from 29, 60 to 28, 96. ing, with hail storms. Very windy all the early part of this mornand S. 3. Clear till about two this afternoon, Wind S. by W. and when it became quite overcast. Barometer fell from 29, 47. at four in the afternoon, to 28, 96. The Russian poet Schakowsky, who con- by eight in the evening. The blowing dreadful : ducts a Journal at St. Petersburgh, has re- much damage it is feared must be done by the ceived from the Emperor of Russia a pen-violent gusts. I think the wind was to the Eastsion of 4000 rubles for his last work, The ward of South. Bard of the Ruins of the Kremlin. March hack ham, comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb. The Abbé Janelli has recently discovered in the Royal Library at Naples, a inanuscript of Dracontius, a christian poet of the fifth century. It contains two little poems hitherto totally unknown, the subjects of which are taken from mythology. The manuscript is printing at the Royal Printing-office of Naples. ROME.-The great basin of granite, which lay in a ditch on the Campo Vaccino, is brought before the palace of the Quirinal, where it is to be placed between the celebrated Colossi, and the Obelisk, and converted into a fountain. They still continue digging in the Campo Vaccino, and these excavations excite great interest in the lovers of antiquity. Lately the steps of the pillar of Phocas were cleared, as also the pavement of the street in which it stood. M. Seraphin von Coneghem, to whom the botanical collections of the Netherlands are indebted for various rare and beautiful plants, which he brought from the Island of An authorized Answer to Lord Bathurst's St. Bartholomew, is shortly to sail for the Speech is about to appear from the St. East Indies, on board the Belgian frigate | Helena Detenu. Forster's collection of Proverbs. the Thermometer, may have been moved by the I fear the Index that marks the lower state of violence of the wind. Edmonton, Middlesex. Latitude 51. 37. 32 N. Longitude 3.51 W. JOHN ADAMS. Strawberry Wild, in flower under a hedge ex The Chevalier Arditi has announced in the Italian Journals, that the wishes of Li-posed to the North, the 26th. terary Europe will at length be realized by to the North, above ground. Hyacinth, or Hyacinthus non scriptus, situated the publication of a volume on the Temple of Isis. Gooseberry, the buds of some bushes burst the 27th. C. H. ADAMS. Bensley and Sons, Bolt Court, Fleet Street. AND Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Politics, etc. No. 60. Tign to vlnou di ti SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1818. 4.0 to hum modten ad REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. EXPEDITION TO THE POLE. The Possibility of approaching the Norit Pole, asserted. By the Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON. With an Appendix of Papers on the same subject, and on a North-West Passage. By Col. BEAU FOY, F.R.S. 8vo. pp. 259, THIS is a well-timed revival of several tracts, originally read by their Author to the Royal Society, and published in the years 1775-6; further elucidated by Colonel Beaufoy's papers. The almost imprecedented interest which has been excited, respecting the Expedition now about to sail on a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole, similar to that under Captain Phipps. (afterwards Lord Mulgrave,) nearly 45 years ago, not only shews how anxiously alive the British people are to undertakings of this sort, but how great a blessing we enjoy in the Press, when its labours are devoted to purposes of general utility and science.1 Most of our readers are aware that so early as 1597, the solution of the geographical problem now again brought upon the tapis, i.e. a passage to the East Indies by the North Pole, attracted much notice, when, the possibility of accomplishing that object was suggested by a Bristol merchant, to Henry VIII. But it was not till almost a century after, in 1607, that the first Expedition was fitted out by a body of London merchants, and sailed with the design of navigating the circumpolar seas. From that period to the present, many efforts have been made to approximate the Pole; accounts of most of which are contained in the volume before us. That of Captain Phipps, in 1773, is the most formal and remarkable. He reached the high northern latitude of between 80° and and 810, where his progress was arrested by a barrier of ice, extending for more than 20 degrees. Nevertheless, Mr, Barrington, at whose motion this Expedition had been appointed, persisted in his opinion, that it was practicable to proceed further, and in support of this theory, he sought out all the written, traditionary, and viva voce, evidence which is in this volume laid before the public. The mass of VOL. 11. ་ ་ : 2d, That the Polar seas are sometimes navigable. pealle 3d, That there is a passage by the North, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; anding env PRICE 18. Climy and David Boyd (two inbutstances) 4th, That the ices in these latitudes are formed, not in the Polar seas, on, the coasts of Labrador, &c. the rivers of Siberia, Tartary, &c., and being first carried northward, there form the ice-berg's, and other congelations, which again drifting to the south, have given rise to the belief, that they were produced in the ocean under the North Pole, (the ideal primum frigidum of the later Philosophers,) which was consequently, unapproachable. We shall not enter into the details by which these, several propositions are upheld, but we may shortly state that the first and second rest on the concurrent, testimony of every navigator who has penetrated into the most northernly latitudes; the sea being invariably found the freer, from ice the higher they reached and also on the circumstance of the whales coming down from the north, where their breathing would not allow them to exist were the sea covered by an icy crust. In support of the third assumption, the nature of the currents, the ipse dixit of the inhabitants on the side of Davis' Straits, and the almost irrefragable proof of recently cut wood, trees, &c. being met with driven from the Pacific shores, are all validly urged. The fourth is sustained by the actual observation of intelligent men who have visited the regions alluded to, and by philosophical experiments on the freezing of salt water. Such is the general scope of Mr. Barrington's reasoning, which is very convincing, besides being extremely curious in some of the particulars, which we shall proceed to notice. After recording at some length the different latitudes which are said to have been reached by navigators referred to, they are recapitulated as follows, taking Mr. Mr. John Adams and Mr. James Mr. James Watt, Lieut. R.N Montgomery (two instances) Five ships in company with Hans Derrick o Captain Johnson and Dr. Dallie (two instances; to which perhaps may be added Captain Monson, as a third) Relation of the two Dutch masters to Captain Goulden Dutch relation to Mr. Grey 82 Indeed there is one instance stated, where the voyagers assert they had passed the Pole two degrees; but in all these cases it ought to be observed, that imperfect instruments, and mere conjectures from the sailing of the ves– sels from certain points and headlands, are too frequently the data on which the observations are founded, and cannot therefore be implicitly relied upon. Still however the aggregate seems to warrant the conclusion, that the Pole may be more nearly approached than it has hitherto systematically and scientifically been. It ought also to be considered that much depends upon the season in which the attempt is made, for the changes in the ice, both in The import of the term ice blink, is very necessary to be understood. "It is described to be an arch formed upon the clouds by reflection from the packed ice. Where the ice is fixed upon the sea, you see a snow-white brightness in the skies, as if the sun shined, for the snow is reflected by the air, just as a fire by night is; but at a distance you see the air blue or blackish. Where there are many small ice fields, which are as meadows for the seals, you see no lustre or brightness of the skies."-Marten's Voyage to Spitzbergen. Thus, from the appearance or nonappearance of this blink, the seamen can tell whether the sea is or is not clear to the north of them; whether it is in ice fields, or in tremendous masses, like an icy continent. quantity and in situation, from year to | to be formed on land and precipitated | Number of the Literary Gazette (No.58) year, is astonishing: Jong ygf present- inĵo the sea, where they unite into diff the commertin saidvaj all ing an impenetrable wall, where the continents. It is here observable that no next there is clear water. 211t evidently appears that revolutions Black Sea, parts of the Baltic, and the known to be frozen but the of this kind have taken place, within White Sea, which have no tides, and -the last three years; most importantly are less salt than other seas, from the It sea was might not he so great as sanguine minds predito the northern parts of our island it cate, it is worthy of consideration, that must be of immense importance. The transit from the Shetland isles to the would by this favourable to the present Expedition'; great influx of fresh rivers into their northern parts of a few weeks, way be the voyage of only a and though our climate has not yet ex-basins à for perienced any alteration from the re- Mr. Barrington does not anticipate moval of the immense East Greenland any danger to the navigators in an atglaciers, it is worthy of peculiar re- tempt to arrive at the Pole, though he pressed by the crew of a vessel called the of those parts. It is needless Sea Nymph, the Captain of which, to trace the ramifications by which James Wilson, having in 1754 passed such a trade would beneficially affect mark, that almost all last year, the cli-mentions a whimsical appréhension ex-Citants acceptable to the in inate of St. Petersburgh, and indeed of the whole northern continent of Europe, was mild and temperate beyond what it ever was remembered. This through floating lee from 74° to 81° our "agriculture, manufactures, and navigation we shall only say, Heaven prosper the undertaking. BEPPO a Venetian Story. Svo, pp. 49, observation, which we derive from an and thence pursuing the whales to 80 intelligent fiend, is of great weight, 15' where the sea was perfectly clear, and seems to have escaped the notice wished to push further towards the of the cable writers who have recently North but the sailors hearing of this treated upon this subjects so all intention, remonstrated, that if they Encouraged by the Known dispersion should be able to proceed so far, the of the long-existent ices in the Arctic ship would fall into pieces, as the Pole we are not much deceived, this is seas, the Expedition is now most oppor- would draw all the iron-work out of our amusing companion Whistlecraft tunely fitted out. The proper time for her. Should the vessels be blocked again (see Literary Gazette, No. 26,) sailing is about the middle of April,, in in the ice, it will not be difficult (with under a new banner. The author is a order to be in with the edge of the ice the preparations made to winter perfect knight-eriant of Parnassus; t about the 10th of May, when it begins within the Arctic Circle and even in this tilt he is harnessed for the held in to separate and open from this time the instances where the ships have been one kind of armour, and the next tourtill July or August the sea is clearest lost, it generally happens that the crew's nament he enters the lists cap-a-pee în of these frozen incumbrances, as, from have been able to save themselves. With another. In all he is one of the most September to the middle of May, it regard to temperature, it seems pro-entertaining combatants we ever coped is most impeded It further appears bable that the nearer the Pole they get, with; curvetting and prancing about, thats ca northerly wind, wheit of long they will experience a less degree of with as little dread of being pierced by duration, opens and separates the ice cold our arguments for this are not a critics spear, as if he were invulner (a strong presumption that it does not the supposed expanse of water in that able. With us he shall be so, for we blow over an ioy continent,) and that region, but the heat which must na- will not even break a lance against him in June Hands July there is usually a turally accrue from the reflection of the in sport. smart abreeze from the south-south-solar rays on the flattened surface which westhauspicious for pushing towards the oblate spheroidal shape of the earth the Pale roll ni ed grofores ton gives (according to Newton) at the of It may at this time be interesting to Poles, gar 15.25 of indi w describe the various kinds of ice which We shall not enter into the consi- certain Lady went to see the show, 1 wood Bad malibogrd eidt auitor |