temptations to infanticide which shame has been known to occasion, as well as want. The administration continues to watch over these little unfortunates, and allows pensions for their board until the age of twelve; after which, masters will take them for their own earnings.

It has not been reckoned sufficient to organize in a new and better spirit the antient institutions, and to found such others as were wanting; it has also been deemed fit to connect them under the superintendance of a common authority, which can prescribe to each the expedient limits of its division of humane labor. For this purpose, a central committee of the public charities has been formed; together with especial committees for managing the establishments for the sick, for the old, and for children.

• Besides the bureaux of these four committees, each establishment keeps accessible account-books with great exactness; so that the central administration can readily and weekly ascertain any thing that it wants to know concerning the state of the several institutions. A certain attention in comparing the number of inmates with the habitual outgoings is the best preventative of embezzlement.

From this short account, it appears not only that the management of the old hospitals has been greatly improved, but that many entirely new establishments of beneficence have been created since the Revolution; yet such has been the economy resulting from vigilance and order, that, in comparing the former disbursements with the new, the last are found to be less considerable. When facts speak so loud, it is needless to subjoin reflections.'

No. 73. The Cottage. This beautiful and affecting paper describes the real retreat of a venerable member of the Convention, whose virtues and sufferings deserved a better lot at the hands of his countrymen.

On Humility. The author has heard of such a virtue in the provinces: but, like the girl of Petronius, a Parisian does not recollect ever to have had the honour of her company. On the Advantages of Paris.-The Taffety-coat. The next paper recounts a curious experiment made in the lunatic hospital at Charenton, to induce the patients to act plays for their amusement. Their friends were invited to the exhibitions, and an excellent effect was produced; so that a lunatic Theatre de Charenton is now established.

The Quarrel at a Theatre. The learned Young Ladies. Contradictions of Geographers. We are here introduced to a club of authors, who breakfast together at the Rocher de Cancale, and puff each other's productions with profitable efficacy.

This work much resembles, in form and purpose, The Spectator, The World, and similar English periodical essayists. If it has not all the quickness of perception and refinement of sagacity which formerly distinguished the Parisian writer, it surpasses the compositions of an anterior period in the moral, the principled, the prudent, and the rational, taste in conduct,

which it aims at inculcating. Pictures of Paris have too often been adapted for the toilette of dissipation, and the boudoir of sensuality: this may be placed on the work-table of respectability.

The Continent will now be again pouring on us the literary accumulation of years; and translation is once more a career of pressing utility. Under some such title as The Importer, select essays from this and other similar publications in foreign languages might be brought together, in a form adapted to amuse the ladies of London, and to connect, by the sympathies of common studies, the heroines of European fashion.

ART. XI. Histoire des Arts en France, &c.; i.e. The History of the Arts in France, as exemplified in Monuments; followed by a Chronological Description of Statues in Marble and in Bronze, of Bas-reliefs, and of the Tombs of celebrated Men and Women, collected in the Imperial Museum of French Monuments. By ALEXANDER LENOIR, Administrator of this Museum, Conservator of the Objects of the Arts at Malmaison, Member of the Celtic Academy in France, &c. &c. 4to. pp. 480., and folio V.. lume of Plates. Paris. 1811. Imported by De Boffe. Price 51. 5s. Boards.

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N the tremendous storm of the French Revolution, many monuments of art perished; and had not the National Assembly wisely appointed a Commission of Monuments to rescue from destruction those that remained, the Vandalism which then displayed itself would have been still more pernicious in its effects. Of this commission, M. LENOIR was appointed a member, Oct. 12. 1790; and not only the French public, but well-informed Englishmen, know with what ardor, perseverance, and success, he executed the task imposed on him*. More than five hundred monuments of the French monarchy were collected by him in the convent of the Petits-Augustins; and, having been first restored and classified, they were elegantly disposed in the Museum of which he deservedly has the care. Ártists have been often employed in taking sketches of the curious objects in M. LENOIR's collection; and the folio volume of plates annexed to the work before us will afford a complete idea of the various treasures which it contains. Not satisfied, however, with arranging and giving representations of the antiquities in this Museum, the author has endeavoured to

* For an account of M. LENOIR's former work on this subject, (which is partly incorporated with the present,) translated by Mr. Griffiths, see M. R., Vol. xli., N. S., p. 512.

convert

convert them to useful purposes, by making them illustrative of history, and by unfolding the state of the arts at the time of their respective execution. The Museum having been his hobby-horse, he has devoted himself incessantly to every branch of study by which he could throw light on the curious objects which he has amassed; and we may regard the press at volume as the result of his researches. His plan cannot be more clearly explained than by himself:

My purpose in this work is to give, 1st, A complete History of the Arts in France, and, 2dly, To present an Historical and Chronological Description of the Statues, Bas-reliefs, and Tombs of those Persons, Male and Female, who have rendered France illustrious. The History includes, 1st, A general View of the State of the Arts, from the commencement of the French Monarchy to the present Time; -2dly, A general Examination of the Arts, and of their constituent Parts; 3dly, The Relations which exist among the Fine Arts, and that which each of them derives from or lends to the Imagination;- 4thly, Architecture, its Origin, the Introduction into France of the Arabesque or Saracenic Architecture, improperly called Gothic, the Construction and distinguishing Characters of this Architecture, and a Sketch of the different Kinds of Architecture practised in France;-5thly, Sculpture, the Efforts of the first Sculptors, the State of this Art among the Gauls, and through the course of Ages to our own Times; 6thly, The Origin of Painting, the Manner of preparing Colours before the Discovery of Painting in Oil, the State of Painting in France during the Crusades, its Perfection under Francis I., the Causes of its Decline under Louis XV., and the Circumstances which led to its Revival in the succeeding Age; -7thly, Painting on Glass, the Chemical Processes employed by the Antient Glass-painters, and their Mode of Execution, the Advantages of the Employment of the Painter on Glass, Proofs that the Painting on Glass has never been a Secret, and that this Art has never been lost, and on the Manner of painting on Glass ; -8thly, Mosaic, its State in France, from the Commencement of the Monarchy and in the following Ages, and the Causes of its Perfection in the nineteenth Century;-9thly, Enamel Painting, its Progress under the Reign of Francis I., and its Perfection in the seventeenth and nineteenth Centuries; - 10thly, The Origin of the Gauls, the Dress and Weapons in use among them, the Druids or Priests of the Gauls, the Costume and Arms of the French under the first Race of their Kings, the civil and military Costume in France from the ninth to the fourteenth Century, the French Costume under the Reigns of Charles VII, Louis XII., and Francis I., the Causes of the Resumption of the Beard after the Fashion of Henry IV., and the French Costumes in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and the Introduction in France of those vast Wigs called in folio, and the Hoops worn by Women;11thly, Tournaments; 12thly, the Origin of the Constable of France, considered as the first Dignity of the State; -13thly, the

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Colours with which the old Churches were decorated,- 14thly, the Art of making Glass, its Origin, the Use of Squares of Glass in Windows, and a Description of the large Glass Windows which decorate the Museum.'

tion.

It will be apparent from this enumeration of the topics selected for discussion, that M. LENOIR has been very diligent in his researches; and that he wishes, while he classes his monuments, to deduce from them some general lessons of instrucThe condition of the arts at any period is considered by him as clearly indicative of the state of civilization; and hence he observes that architecture, like all the arts dependent on design, yields to the laws which rule the destinies of empires. Political events either depress or elevate the arts; and architecture, as connected with the wants of life and with domestic habits, indicates more than all the others those marked variations which occur in consequence of the changes of government during the revolution of ages. From the rudeness of the Celtic monuments both in design and execution, he infers that the Gauls were far from enjoying the civilization which prevailed among the Greeks and Romans; and from the compliments which he pays to the elevation of the arts in France, to the school of David, and to the riches which are destined to distinguish the hall of the nineteenth century,-the hall of the heroic deeds of Napoleon the Great, he would have us believe that France is at the pinnacle of political civilization. How little was this writer aware of the transient glory of his Emperor, whom he applauds in the highest strains! How little did he think that so short a time would hurl the object of his adoration from the summit of power; that he, who made all Europe resound with his victories, would be driven from his own capital; that the kings whom he had conquered would take possession of Paris, with all the treasures of arts which he had amassed in the course of his conquests; and that he, whose boundless ambition aspired at the subjugation of all Europe, should be sent in a state of degradation to the little island of Elba! Such is the fate of a man "qui res humanas miscuit olim!" M. LENOIR, and a host of writers who complimented Napoleon to the skies, must now obliterate such praises from their pages, and imitate our Walton, who, at a period in our history similar to the present French era, cancelled a dedication prepared for Cromwell, and substituted an address to the restored monarch Charles II. Even the epithet Imperial, which M. LENOIR has given to his Museum, must be changed; and all the symbols of the once great Napoleon must disappear. How many frontispieces and copper-plates must be destroyed!

Having given a brief sketch of the history of the Gauls, and noticed the monuments which are indicative not only of their knowlege of the arts but of the degree of luxury which prevailed among that people, M. LENOIR passes to the first ages of the French monarchy; prosecuting his researches from Clovis to Louis XIV., repeating many remarks which he had formerly offered on the decline of the arts towards the latter end of this period, and concluding his general considerations with observing that the sciences and the arts, as they stimulate industry and nourish commerce, eminently contribute to civilization; so that they may be compared to a river which, multiplying itself as it rolls its waters into different channels, fertilizes many provinces at the same time.'

The constituent parts of Architecture, Painting, and Sculp ture are enumerated with suitable comments; and, in a long chapter, the author inculcates the importance of governing the imagination and restraining its wild sallies. That celebrated painter, Julio Romano,' he remarks, having often disregarded reason in his works, and abandoned himself to the full effervescence of his imagination, we see him in the same composition elevating his style to sublimity, and afterward descending to the trivial and the mean.'

To the subject of Stained and Painted Glass, M. LENOIR devotes many pages: presenting us with a history of the art, with which (he thinks) Mosaic works are connected, describing. the substances which give different colours to glass, and detailing the process of constructing those beautiful painted windows which cast such a religious gloomy light through the interior of Gothic structures. We cannot transcribe even a quarter of this dissertation: but the following extract will serve to shew the investigating talents of the author:

Of the Painting on Glass, and of the Mosaic in France.

The fabrication of coloured glass is very antient; the utensils intended either for domestic or sacred purposes, as well as the glass paste imitating engraved stones or gems, which we have from the Egptians, Greeks, and Romans, prove that the antients knew the art of colouring glass, as well as that of enamelling earth and metals. It is certain that, when square pieces of glass began to be substituted in the place of alabaster or talc, with which the windows of temples, palaces, and private dwellings were once inclosed, Taste, that aliment of pleasure, that child of luxurious ease, excited a wish to decorate this glass, and to make it represent entertaining or historical subjects.

Painting on glass, the epoch of which invention reaches to the time of Cimabué, was not, then, in its origin, any other than decorative painting; and it is in this single point of view that we must consider our antient glass-windows, since they are usually constructed of highly tinted plates very little shaded, but so varied by the most lively colours as to represent a parterre enamelled with flowers.

• We