1816.] Intelligence in Literature, and the Arts and Sciences. lowing, of the same date, addressed to ourselves, to so innocent a cause: "SIR, "Walsall, Sept. 18, 1815. "In your miscellany of July last you state that the Old Monthly Magazine was voted from our Society with execrations. The statement being totally void of truth, 1 am requested by the committee to desire you will apologize to the public in your next publication and correct the error, and remain "Your humble Servant, "SAM. FLETCHER, President." The only character that we can attach to these lines, after the preceding explanation, is that of wilful and deliberate falsehood:-and we shall now leave it to the Rev. Mr. PRATT, the Rev. Mr. GLEADOW, Mr. C. FORSTER, Mr. C. DARWALL, and the other highly respectable members of the committee, to judge how far it is consistent with the interests of the society or creditable to themselves as gentlemen to continue the highest honours of their institution to a person who has so grossly committed himself. We beg leave to return our sincere acknowledgments to our friends-or rather the friends of social order, religion, and morality-in that committee, for their support; though, by the bye, we have a strong presentiment that this exposure will convert the violent respect professed for the WALSALL SOCIETY by Sir R. PHILLIPS into as violent a feeling of a contrary nature. The long-promised Historical Survey of Cornwall, by Mr. C. S. GILBERT, is announced for speedy publication by Mr. JOHN CONGDON, of Plymouth. It will form two volumes, royal 4to. with Humerous graphic embellishments, from drawings by that meritorious artist Mr. H. PARKER, jun. of Plymouth. The first volume embraces a general history of the county and its inhabitants, its geography, natural history, antiquities, and heraldry, illustrated with engravings of at least 500 shields of armorial bearings, and accompanied with biographical sketches. The second is devoted to its topography. Mr. JOHN TUKE, of York, will publish, in the course of next summer, a new and corrected edition of his four-sheet Map of Yorkshire, together with an Alphabetical Index of the Towns and Villages in that extensive County. Mr. ROBERT SOUTHEY has in the press a poem with notes entitled A Pilgrimage Eto Waterloo. Mr. D'ISRAELI is preparing for publication An Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of James I. 231 Mr. CAMPBELL's Selections of English Poetry, announced some time since, are not to appear for the present; as it has been judged better that the critical part of that work, containing a View of English Poetry, should be made part of Mr. Campbell's Lectures on Ancient and Modern Poetry, which are in preparation upon a very extensive scale. Mr. WM. MARINER is preparing for publication an Account of the People of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The author belonged to the Port au Prince privateer, the greater part of whose crew was massacred by the natives of Lefooga, and was for several years afterwards a constant associate of the king and the bigher class of chiefs. His work will form two 8vo, volumes. Miss HOLFORD bas in the press a new poem entitled Margaret of Anjou. Mr. WM. WILKINS, the eminent architect, will speedily publish in an 8v6. volume, with plates, Atheniensia, or Remarks on the Buildings and Topography of Athens. Mr. MURRAY, of Albemarle-street, has announced for publication a Narrative of the Adventures and Travels of ROBERT ADAMS, a sailor, who was wrecked in 1810 on the west coast of Africa, detained three months in slavery among the Arabs of the Great Desert, and resided several months at Tombuctoo. It will be printed in 4to. uniformly with Park's last Journey and Life. Mr. WM. JONES, late acting surgeon at Serampore, will soon publish A Collection of Facts and Opinions relative to Widows burning themselves with the Dead Bodies of their Husbands, and to other destructive Customs prevalent in British India. Mr. BOOTHROYD, who is on the point of completing his Biblia Hebraica, has in forwardness Reflexions on the Authorized Version of the Scriptures, Reasons for attempting its Improvement, and a Specimen of such an attempt. A Translation of a work entitled De Cultu et de Amore Dei may shortly be expected The Elements and Genius of the French Language; being a natural and rational method of teaching a Language with Sciences, deduced from the Analysis of the Human Mind; is in the press. Memoirs of the Ionian Isles, and of their Relations with European Turkey, translated from the original manus ript of M. de VAUDONCOURT, late general in the Italian service, with a very accurate and comprehensive Map, will speedily be published. 232 Intelligence in Literature, and the Arts and Sciences. [April 1, M. PUIGBLANCH, the Spanish patriot, is about to publish The Inquisition Unmasked, or the Triumph of Humanity and Liberality in Spain; being a history of the conduct and objects of that tribunal, and a, dissertation on the necessity of its suppression, Miss GRIFFITH's novel, She would be a Heroine, will very speedily make its appearance. The poems of Milton, Thomson, Young, and a few other leading authors, will shortly be published, with new embellishments from the designs of Mr. Westall. Mr. P W. CROWTHER is preparing for the press, The Christian's Manual, compiled from a translation of the Enchiridion Miitis Christiani of Erasmus, with copious scripture notes, and extracts from the most eminent divine and moral writings. The profits of this work will be devoted to the benefit of the City of London Auxiliary National Schools. Mr. THOMAS WILSON, dancing master from the King's Theatre, has in the press, a Descriptive Treatise on the Method of Waltzing; it will be published in parts, embellished with engravings. The seventh and eighth volumes of CAMPBELL'S Lives of the Admirals, commenced by the late Mr. HENRY REDHEAD YORKE, the publication of which, from a variety of unforeseen circumstances has been delayed so long, are now at press, and in a great state of forwardness; and it is fully expected, that both the volumes, which will complete that interesting national work, will be ready for publication early in the ensuing summer. Mr. WARDLAW, of Glasgow, has in the Press, Unitarianism Incapable of Vindication, in reply to the Rev. JAMES YATA'S Vindication of Unitarianism. Marquis DE LAVALLEE, who died a few days since in Leicester Square, had been engaged for several years past upon a History of the different Factions which have agitated France during the period of the Revolution, and had nearly compleated it. He has also recently been employed by Mr. Bowyer, of Pall-Mall, in writing Biographical Memoirs of Bonaparte, his Ministers, Generals, &c. which will shortly appear. A new edition of the collective works of the late Kev. RICHARD CECIL, M. A. Minister of St. John's chapel, Bedfordrow, revised by the Rev. JOSIAH PRATT, B. D. wilt speedily be published, in three large volumes, octavo. Mr. JOHN GWILLIAM has circulated proposals for publishing by subscription, in 4to. a poem, entitled, the Conflict of Waterloo, together with several others upon various occasions. Captain TUCKEY has at length sailed on his interesting expedition to the river Zair in Southern Africa. The gentlemen engaged in the scientific department, are Professor Smith, of Christiana, botanist and geologist; Mr. Tudour, comparative anatomist; Mr. Cranch, collector of objects of natural history, and a gardener to collect plants and seeds for his Majesty's garden at Kew; besides Mr. Galway, a gentleman volunteer. Their vessel, the Congo, is fitted up expressly for the accommodation of the officers and men, and for the reception of such objects of natural history as may be collected. She is about 90 tons, schooner rigged, and draws about five feet water. She is accompanied by the Dorothy transport, which takes out two double whale boats, so fixed together as to be able to carry 18 or 20 men each, 1 and accommodate them under an awning with three months' provisions. These boats are intended to be drawn up to the upper part of any rapids or cataracts, that may occur to obstruct the passage of the Congo. With these means there is very little reason to doubt, that the source of this extraordinary river will not much longer remain a secret; and whether it shall prove to be identical with the Niger or not, the almost perpetual flooded state of the Zair is an inte resting problem to solve. The country through which the river flows, has never been explored beyond about 150 miles from its mouth. Dr. PINCKARD has prepared a new edition of his Notes on the West Indies, with the additions of many letters from Martinique, Jamaica, and St. Domingo, and a plan for the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies, in 2 volumes 8vo. Mr. BOHTE, of York-street, Coventgarden, has just published a catalogue of German works which he has for sale, including nearly all the most valuable modern publications in that language. The first part of the historical account of the battle of Waterloo, by Mr. MUDFORD, with splendid graphic illustrations from designs by Mr. ROUSE, will be published on the 1st of April. This truly national work, which will form a worthy record and monument of the achievements of Britons, will be comprised in four parts, each containing about 70 pages of letter press, and six plates, making, 1816.] Literary Intelligence-France. when complete, a magnificent volume in 4to. At a time when foreign literature is so generally cultivated, especially French, German, and Italian, a catalogue containing the latest and most admired authors in the above languages, cannot fail of being interesting. Impressed with this idea from the many applications, Mr. BooSEY is induced to submit to the public, his General Catalogue for 1816, containing a large collection of books in the above languages, with the addition of the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Russian, besides a considerable number of gram mars, dictionaries, and elementary works in most of the European and oriental languages, and for the accommodation of those who direct their attention to German literature only, he has published the German part separate, in which will be found among many others, the works uf, Archenholz, Biumauer, Bouterwek, Bredow, Bürger. Cramer, Engel, Eschenburg, Gellert, Gestier, Gleim, Goethe, Hagedorn, land, Jacobi, Kant, Klopstock, Kotzebue, La Fontaine, La Motte Fouqué, Lessing, Matthison, Meissner, Möser, Müller, Nemnich's well known works on trade, Pfeffel, Ramler, Richter, the Schlegels, Schmidt, Sebiller, Ticck Voss, Wieland, Zimmermann, &c. together with old Germair romances, and other works in that branch of literature now so much cultivated, and all the best plays, almanacks (Tuschenbücher), &c. in series, and for the present year. We shall feel happy if the introduction of the following notice transcribed from the Bury Post, shall serve to promote its object-the relieving of a modest and worthy man and au ingenious poet from difficulties under which we regret to learn that he at present labours: "It has been discovered that Mr. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, the well known author of the Farmer's Boy, and other entertaining poems, is now residing in the parish of Shefford, in Redfordshire, under considerable embarrassment, which his delicacy has induced him to conceal, and that the conditions of his engagements with the booksellers prevent him from relieving himself by a new edition of his former works, or by a new publication, It is therefore proposed to open a subscription in his favour, as well for the purpose of expressing the sense entertained by his countrymen of his unassuming merit, as of supplying him with the means of immediate comfort. Mr. Deck, of Bury, will receive subscriptions, and account to the subscribers for the application of them." Mr. GILLET, of Crown-court, FleetNEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 27. 1 233 street (the printer of this Magazine), has undertaken to receive the contributions of the friends of literary merit in London, and to forward them to their destination, FRANCE. At the meeting of the Class of Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the Royal Institute of France on the 8th of January, the following subjects for prizes were proposed: A demonstration of Fermut's theorem, that no power exists beyond the square which can be divided into two other powers of the same degree. A demonstration of this theorem for the fourth power was given by Fermat himself in one of his inarginal notes on Diophautus. Euler afterwards demonstrated in a similar manner, the theorem as applied to the third power; but we still want a demonstration for the higher powers, or for those whose exponent is a prime number; for from them all the others may be immediately deduced. The prize will be a gold medal of the value of 3000 francs, to be given in January 1818. Five years since the Class of Sciences proposed as the subject of a double prize, the theory of the planets whose eccentricity and inclination are too considerable to allow of the exact calculation of their disturbances by methods already known. The Class did not require any numerical application, but only analyti cal formulas, yet disposed in such a manner, that an intelligent calculator might be able to apply them with certainty either to the planet Pallas, or to any other hitherto discovered, or which may hereafter he discovered. Two memoirs only having been received, in which the authors have not sufficiently couformed to the intentions expressed by the Class, it has prolonged the time for another year. The prize will therefore be adjudged in January 1817, and consist of a gold medal of the value of 6000 francs (2501.) Essays must be written in French or Latin, and none will be received after the 1st October next. founded to reward researches underAs nothing worthy of the annual prize has been received, the Class suggests the taken for the advancement of galvanisin following points as still wanting to complete the theory of this important part of science. As it has been determined in a great number of cases what combinations result from the action of a calculable electricity, it would be important to determine, on the contrary, what measure of electricity results from the different comVol. V. 2 H 234 Literary Intelligence—Spain—Italy. binations in which bodies pass to a sensible and calculable electric state. A tolerably complete set of experiments undertaken with this view, would probably possess considerable interest and utility. Another phenomenon not less interesting, and which particularly concerns the animal economy, is that which manifests itself when alternate portions of nerves and muscles of the same animal, or of different animals, are capable of forming a circuit, the contacts of which produce the same excitations that result from a circle composed of metals, intermediate between the muscles and the nerves. This experiment might, perhaps, by its developements, tend to throw new light on the still obscure theory of the nervous influence on the organic actions, and on the result of these actions. M. QUATREMERE DE QUINCY has just published a work in folio with fifty plates, mostly coloured, under the title of The Olympian Jupiter, or the Art of Antique Sculpture considered in a new point of view. It comprizes an essay on the style of polychromian sculpture, an explanatory analysis of the toreatic, and the history of the statuary art in gold and ivory among the Greeks and Romans. The author has subjoined the restoration of the principal monuments of that art, and a practical demonstration or revival of its mechanical proocsses. In this performance he has found means to combine the solidity of science with the charms of ingenious hypothesis. In the night of the 22d of January, M. Poss, assistant astronomer at the Observatory of Marseilles, discovered a comet in the northern part of the heavens, between the tail of the Little Bear and the head of the Cameleopard, at about 241 deg. of right ascension, and 86 deg. north declination. The fogs prevented this comict from being observed at Paris, till the 1st of February, on which day, at eight o'clock p. m. it had 59 deg. 57 min. of northern declination, and 341 deg. 25 min. of right as cension. This comet exhibits no trace - either of tail or nucleus, and it is not discernible with the naked eye. • SPAIN. Dr. MICHAEL CABANILLAS, honorary physician of the King's chamber, and inspector general of epidemic diseases in the kingdom of Valencia and Murcia in 1805, lived from the 7th of June to the 17th July in that year, shut up in a hospital of infected persons, with his two sous, and 48 other individuals who [April 1 had not had the yellow fever. They slept in the same beds, and inhabited the same rooms as the patients afflicted with that disease to the number of 3087, of whom 1287 died. Neither the doctor nor his sons, nor any of the 48 other persons experienced the slightest effect of the contagion, owing to the use of acido-mineral fumigations. ITALY. M. LEONI, of Milan, has translated several tragedies of Shakspeare. It is remarkable that this is the first attempt at clothing the works of our immortal bard in the language of that country, in which the scenes of some of his finest performances are laid. Abbate ANGELO MAJO, some of whose recent literary discoveries in the Ambrosian Library at Milan we have already noticed, has just published another hitherto unedited work, for which the world is indebted to his reseaches, under the title of Q. Aurelii Symmachi Octo Orationum ineditarum Partes (90 pp. 8vo.). Symmachus, a celebrated Latin orator, flourished about the middle of the 4th century, and was admired by his contemporaries for his eloquence. fle wrote and delivered a great number of orations, as we learn from the testimony of Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, Cassiodorus, Photius, and Nicephorus, but especially from the collection of his own letters, the only per formances of his that were yet known, as all his oratorical works were given up for lost. Fortunately, two copies of considerable fragments of eight of his orations, have been preserved in a MS. in the Ambrosian Library. They consist of four panegyrics, two addressed to the Emperor Valentinian 1. one to Gratian, and one to the Roman Senate. The four others are to private persons, to the father of the orator, Trygetius, Synesius, and Severus. They bear the stamp of their age, and are full of fire, fancy, bold images, ingenious antitheses and sentences, and great erudition. The learned editor has annexed another fragment of an ancient orator, likewise discovered in a MS. of the same library, together with some variations to Pliny's Panegyric from similar sources. He bas also accompanied this first edition with an excellent introduction; critical, and historical notes, and fac similes of the characters of the two MSS. in which these treasures have been so long cop cealed. GERMANY. A new journal for astronomy and the sciences.connected with it, began to be 1816.]* Literary Intelligence-Germany-Austria. published with the present year by * The nature of the contents of this pamphlet forbids the introduction of the facts there stated into this Magazine. Any of our readers who may feel interested in the subject, shall be welcome to a sight of it, on expressing a wish to that effect, 235 in England have drawn considerable.attention to the system of craniology founded by Dr. Gall. To, such of our readers as are interested in this subject, the following notice, communicated by Dr. MARTINS of Munich, of a volume in imp. fol. just published there by Dr. SPIX will be acceptable. It is entitled: Cephalogenesis, sive Capitis ossei Structura, Formatio et Significatio per omnes Animalium Classes, Familias, Genera et Etates digesta, atque Tabulis illustrata, Legesque simul Psychologie, Cranioscopie ac Physiognomonie inde derivatæ, The head is here considered in its evolutions throughout the whole series of animals, from man to the insects, at all periods of life, from the embryo to old age. Its relations to the other parts of the human body, and its functions as the principal organ of the soul, are illustrated in a new manner; and the work contains also a critical review of all tha has appeared on the subject. Of the engravings nine are shaded, and nine in. outline for demonstration. They are from drawings by the masterly pencil of KOECK, painter to the Academy of Münich, celebrated for his admirable designs for the works of SOMMERING, WENZEL, FISCHER, &c. They exhibit exact representations of the skulls of animals of all classes, and afford an accurate medium of comparison, which discovers the laws followed by nature in the formation of the different varieties of the head. By the evidence of these laws the author has attempted to solve the wonderful problem involved in the structure, composition, and proportion, of that part of the animal frame. Psychology will thus obtain a true foundation in nature itself; cranioscopy and physiognomy will be reduced by some new measures to laws both simple and comprehensive; zoology will be enriched with views and principles of the greatest importance with respect to the classification of animals; and the whole of natural history will be improved by the discovery of an organic law, hitherto overlooked, which the author calls Ler Circuitus Organorum. Dr. MARTINS farther informs us, that the King of Bavaria has it in contemplation, to send a scientific expedition into the interior of America. |