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Intelligence in Literature, and the Arts and Sciences.

press a Voyage round the World from 1806 to 1812, in which the author visited the Japan, Kamtschatka, Aleutian, and Sandwich Islands; including a narrative of his shipwreck on the island of Sannack, and subsequently in the ship's long boat.

Baron DE BERENGER will in a few days present to the public a complete account of the late Stock Exchange hoax, under the title of The Noble StockJobber, or Facts Unveiled; in which every stage of the author's intercourse with Lord Cochrane and the Cochrane family will be minutely detailed, in the shape of a simple narrative, tending to disprove Lord Cochrane's affidavits.

In the month of May will be published 2 Historical Account, interspersed with Biographical Anecdotes, of the illustrious House of Saxony, exhibiting the descent of the present royal and ducal branches of that family, and also of his Serene Highness Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. It will form a crown 8vo. volume, embellished with portraits.

Dr. ADAM DODS, of Worcester, has in the press The Physician's Practical Companion, arranged in alphabetical dissertations in an 8vo. volume.

A volume of poems by a lady, entitled Melancholy Hours, will appear in the course of the present month.

Mr. HOLMES is about to publish a Treatise on the Coal Mines of Durham and Northumberland, containing accounts of the different fatal explosions which have taken place within the last twenty years, and the means proposed for the remedy of them, illustrated with engravings of safety-lamps, &c.

A life of the venerable antiquary Willian Hutton, of Birmingham, is about to be published under the auspices of his daughter.

We trust that the guardians of the public morals will exercise their vigilance to prevent our suffering more irreparable injury from the renewed intercourse with France during peace, than even the late protracted and sanguinary war was capable of inflicting. We are induced to offer this hint in consequence of having observed an announceinent, that a complete course of instruction is opened by M. CORBAUX, (a Frenchman we presume) in Red Lion-street, Holborn, relative to the exercise of that human faculty denominated Animal Magnetism, which instructions, theoretical and practical, will be followed by a monthly publication, entitled Annals, and in tended for diffusing a general knowledge

[May 1,

of that important matter." It is notorious that in the proverbially immoral metropolis of France, the professors of this pretended science have been merely the priests of the most profligate sensuality; and for the honour of our country, we trust that they will never be permitted to erect their altars in the ca. pital of the British empire.

We have noticed in some of our late numbers the discoveries recently made in the Ambrosian library at Milan. It is perhaps not generally known, that in the dark ages, when even the art of making parchment was almost lost, or people were too poor to procure it, a methed was devised of effacing the writing of manuscripts, however valuable, for the purpose of substituting prayers, legends and litanies in their stead. The observations of late scholars have led them to examine twice-written parchments of this kind, which are denominated codices rescripti, and thus many important fragments have been preserved. The celebrated library of the Dukes of Bruns wick, at Wolfenbüttel, contains several such parchments which originally con tained portions of the ancient Gothic translation of the New Testament, by Ulphilas, afterwards erased to make room for useless liturgies. The Am brosian library is particularly rich in Codices of this kind, the decyphering of which, under the rude characters of the monks, is extremely difficult and injarious to the eyes. To this cause it is owing that the treasures lately discovered have remained so long con. cealed.

Mr. J. B. RIDDEL, of Edinburgh, states, from experience, that the fatal accidents which sometimes occur from the fury of over-driven horned animals, might easily be prevented by tying a small rope round the neck, and fastening it immediately below the knee joint of one of the fore legs. The length of the rope must be sufficient to allow the animal to move his head gently up and down with the motion of the leg, and at the same time so short as to prevent him from tossing his head above the level of the shoulder.

Mr. GEORGE BUCKLEY, millwright, of Taunton, has invented a portable apr paratus, by which the weight of the atmospheric air and of gases in general is determined with the most undeviating accuracy, by the application of the principle of the discovery to the commou balance...

The safety-lamp of Sir H. Davy has

1816.]

New Constitution of the Institute of France.

been fully proved in several coal mines in Northumberland. It has been also tried in the William pit, Whitehaven, as may be seen by the following extract of a letter from Mr. MURRAY, lecturer on chemistry, dated Whitehaven, March 29:-"I have elsewhere combated the opinion of Dr. Thomson on the question of the entire safety of Davy's lamp. On Thursday last, the wire-gauze cylinder was put to the severest test possible, in the dangerous workings of the William pit here. Mr. Peele (of whom honourable mention is made by Sir H. Davy) and myself, descended into the William pit (the most dangerous in the kingdom), where we had the opportunity of putting this valuable discovery to the most complete proof. The wire-gauze cylinder was, with the lamp burning brightly, introduced to one of the blowers in a dangerous recess, where, had we penetrated with a candle, our destruction would have been inevitable: the effect was grand beyond description. At first a blue flame was seen to cap the flame of the lamp, then succeeded an increase of lambent flame, playing in the cylinder; and shortly after, the flame of the fire-damp expanded, so as completely to fill the wire gauze. For some time the flame of the lamp was seen through that of the fire-damp, which became ul. timately extinguished without explosion. Results more satisfactory were not to be wished. There are some,' Sir H. Davy observes, who underrate the resources of science.' Sophistry here, however, is put to the blush; its complete safety is amply demonstrated. The triumph of humanity, so far as this extends, is unmingled. The miner who was with us gazed in the full burst of astonishment, and rejoined, I would have thought it impossible.' We only wanted the presence of Sir Humphry Davy to have participated in our feelings of astonishment at, and admiration of, the imposing spectacle."

purpose

The experiments made for the of trying the efficacy of Capt. Layman's method of preparing timber for shipbuilding, recently referred to in the House of Commons, are thus recorded in a minute of the Board of Agriculture, dated June 2, 1812.

"The Board adjourned to examine some experiments proposed by Cap. Layman of the Navy, on the preparing of forest trees for immediate conversion, by which the specific gravity is diminished and the sap-wood preserved from decay, as well as the strength and dura

327

tion of the timber increased."-The fol-
lowing is the result:
Experiment.

1. Poplar (Lombardy), fresh cut, broke

with

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Seasoned English oak, broke with 784 4. Ditto ditto prepared, bore,

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Sap-wood, of oak, prepared and
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Counter part piece of ditto, in its
natural state, exclusive of its na
taral propensity to rapid decay

6. Common white deal, in its natural

state

7. Counter part to ditto, prepared and
preserved, bore

FRANCE.

902

1007

1070

930

536

339

508

A royal ordinance of March 21st, has given a new organization to the INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. It is in future to consist of four academies-The French Academy; the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres; the Royal Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. All these will be under the special direction of his Majesty, and their general anniversary will be on the 24th of April, the day on which he returned to his kingdom. The FRENCH ACADEMY shall be composed of the following members:— Messrs. de Roquelaure, bishop of Senlis; Suard, perpetual secretary; Ducis (since dead); Count de Choiscul Gouffier; Morellet; Count d'Ague-seau; Count Volney; Andrieux; Abbé Sicard; Count de Cessac; Villar; Count de Fontanes; Count François de Neufchateau; Count Bigot de Préameneu; Count de Segur; Lacretelle, senior; Count Daru; Raynouard; Picard; Count Destutt-Tracy; Lemercier; Parseval Grandmaison; Viscount de Chateaubriand; Lacretelle, junior; Alexandre Duval; Campenon: Michaud; Aignan; de Jouy; Baour-Lormian; de Beausset, bishop of Alais; de Bonald; Cont Ferrand; Count de Lally Tollendal; Duke de Levis; Duke de Richelieu;

This experiment was made to shew in how short a time wood could be prepared for use from a growing tree; but a young Weymouth pine, three days in preparing, had the cause of premature decay completely removed, and the strength increased from 213 to 150.

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New Constitution of the Institute of France.

Abbé de Montesquiou; Lainé; and two vacancies to be filled up. The ROYAL ACADEMY OF INSCRIPTIONS AND BELLES LETTRES Consists of the following: Messrs. Dacier, perpetual secretary; Count de Choiseul Gouffier; Count Pastoret; Baron Sylvestre de Sacy; Gosselin; Daunou; Desales; Dupont (de Nemours); Baron Reinhard; Guinguené; Prince de Talleyrand; Count Garan de Coulon; Langlès; Pougens; Duke de Plaisance; Quatremère de Quincy; Chevalier Vis conti; Count Boissy d'Anglas; Millin; Baron Degerando; Dom Brial; PetitRadel; Barbie-Dubocage; Conut Lanjuinais; Caussin; Gail; Clavier; Amauly Duval; Bernardi; Boissonade; Count de Laborde; Walkenär; Vanderbourg; Quatremère (Etienne); RaoulRochette; Letronne; Mollevault, and two not yet named. The ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, is divided into eleven sections. These are, 1. Geometry, Messrs. Count Laplace; Chevalier Legendre; Lacroix; Biot; Poinsot; Ampère. 2. Mechanics, Messrs. Perier; de Prony; Baron Sané; Molard; Cauchy; Breguet. 3. Astronomy, Messrs. Messier; Cassini; Lefrançais-Lalande; Bouvard; Burckhardt; Arago. 4. Geography and Navigation, Messrs. Buache; Beautemps; Beaufré; Rossel. 5. General Physics, Messrs. Rochon; Charles; Lefevre Gineau; Gay Lussac; Poisson; Gerard. 6. Chemistry, Messrs. Count Berthollet; Vauquelin; Deyeux; Count Chaptal; Thenard; Proust, 7. Mineralogy; Messrs. Sage; Hauy; Duhamel; Lelièvre; Baron Raimond; Brongniard. 8. Botany, Messrs. de Jussieu; de Lamarck; Desfontaines; Labillardière; Palissot-Beauvois; Mirbel. 9. Rural Economy, Messrs. Tessier; Thouin; Huzard; Silvestre; Bosc; Yvart. 10. Anatomy and Zoology, Messrs. Count Lacépede; Richard; Pinel; Chevalier Geoffroy Saint Hilaire; Latreille; Dumeril. 11. Medicine and Surgery, Messrs. Chevalier Portal; Chev. Hallé; Chev. Pelletan; Baron Percy; Baron Corvisart; Deschamps. Chevalier Delambre is perpetual secretary for the Mathematical, and Chevalier Cuvier for the Physical Sciences. The ROYAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS Consists of five sections: 1. Painting, Messrs. Van-Spaendonck; Vincent; Regnault; Taunay; Denon; Visconti; Menageot; Gerard; Guerin; le Barbie, senior; Girodet; Gros; Meynier; Vernier. 2. Sculpture, Messrs. Rolland; Houdon; Dejoux; Lenot; Cartellier; Lecomte; Bosio; Dupaty. 3. Architecture, Messrs. Gondoin; Peyre;

[May 1,

Dufourny; Heurtier; Percier; Fontaine; Rondelet; Bonnard. 4. Engraving, Messrs. Bervic; Jeuffroy; Duvivier; Desnoyers. 5. Musical Composition, Messrs. Méhul; Gossec; Mopsigny; Grandmenil; Cherubini; Lesueur. To these are to be added in the Academies of Inscriptions and Sciences, a class of ten free academicians for each, to be elected according to the usual forms. The Academy of Sciences will also have a class of free academicians, whose number shall be determined by a particular regulation. All the members heretofore belonging to any of the four classes of the Institute, are to retain the whole of their salaries. The old members excluded by these regulations are: French Academy, Garat; Cambaceres; Merlin; Sieyes; Röderer; Arnault; Lucien Bonaparte; Regnault (de St. Jean d'Au gely); Maret ( Duke of Bassano); Cardinal Maury; Etienne. Academy of Inscriptions, &c. Lakanal; Lebreton; Gregoire; Mongez; Joseph Buonaparte. Academy of Sciences, Monge; Carnot. Academy of Fine Arts, David; Castellan; Thibault; Breton.

JOSEPH LAVALLEE, who lately died in London, was the author of more than forty works, exclusively of those which he published anonymously. The loss of his place in the Legion of Honour, obliged him to quit France, overwhelmed with debts, and destitute of every resource but a discredited pen. As a wr ter, he was not deficient in wit or imagination, but faithless, intemperate, and unprincipled.

The Paris papers state, that M. DE PRADT has received more than 120,000 francs (5000l.), for his three works on the Embassy to Warsaw, the Congress of Vienna, and the War in Spain. They add that Rousseau's Emile produced the author only 100 crowns.

The Hon. and Rev. FRANCIS HENRY EGERTON has printed at Paris the fragments of two odes of Sappho, the one preserved by Longinus, the other by Dicnysius Halicarnassensis, with the text opposite. The notes, the principal design of which is to compare the readings of different MSS. in the altered passages, display profound erudition. We learn with regret from an elegant Latin advertisement, that the health of the learned editor has obliged him to suspend a work which was to have been attached to that here announced.

Mr. CRAWFORD, an Englishman, seltled at Paris, has collected genuine por traits of Sully, d'Aguesseau, Bossuet,

1816.]

French Literary Intelligence.

Racine, Montesquieu, Malesherbes, and other eminent Frenchmen, and formed a gallery which is described as, the most interesting in the metropolis.

M. MALTE BRUN has concluded his periodical Annales des Voyages with the 73d number, which completes the 24th volume. It was the only repository of geographical information in the south of Europe. He has announced a new miscellany, under the title of Minerve, to contain original essays and translations from foreign languages on philosophy, history, literature and geography; but so small is the encouragement given in France, to works of a serious and merely instructive tendency, that it is doubtful whether he will obtain a sufficient number of subscribers to this undertaking.

DESSAY, the bookseller, has announced under the singular appellation of Cartes Encyprotypes, an atlas, in 40 sheets, the maps of which are to be engraved after a new method invented by M. de FREISSINET. By this method the maps are not first drawn upon paper, but traced on the copper itself, which is for this purpose, covered with a kind of varnish; and thus the little inaccuracies which so frequently occur in transferring objects from paper to the copper are avoided.

M. LACRETELLE has published the third volume of his able History of the Religious Wars of France, which will be concluded in the fourth.

PRUDHOMME, notorious for his revolutionary writings, cannot yet take leave of the public, notwithstanding the change in the times. He has published the first volume of a compilation, with the singular title of, The Hell of Statesmen, and the Purgatory of Nations, or lives of eminent Heroes, Statesmen, Scholars, Criminals &c. in five volumes.

M. de CHATEAUBRIAND is engaged upon 'an historical poem, in the style of his Martyrs. The subject is taken from the history of the Moors in Spain, and the work will be entitled Les Abencerruges.

M. DUCRAY DUMENIL has announced a new novel, in four volumes, under the title of Jean et Jeannette ou les petits Aventuriers Parisiens.

M. PANCOURCKE is proceeding with the publication of his grand Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, the 15th volume of which is on sale. He promises a supplement to it, for the purpose of embracing discoveries, made posterior to the appearance of the regular articles.

M. DETERVILLE is about to put to press a new edition of his Grund DictionNEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 27.

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naire d'Histoire naturelle, revised and improved, in 36 volumes octavo, which are to appear at the rate of three every three months.

M. GRABI is printing a collection of the works of Lesage and Prevost, which will form 56 volumes. Those of Lesage in 16 volumes, are already published, and the 26th volume of Prevost's has just appeared.

Michaud's Dictionnaire de Biographie, has reached the 14th volume.

The first five volumes of a new edition of LAHARPE'S Cours de Litterature, is just published by Crapelet. It will be completed in fifteen, with the addition of a discourse on the style of the sacred scriptures and articles on Fabre d' Eglantine, d'Hele, Collin-d' Harleville, Lebrun, Mirabeau &c.

The

A writer in the Journal de Paris, recommends the following circumstance, which lately happened in the neighbour hood of Brest, to the attention of the dramatists of his country. A man coveted a farmer's pig; broke in the night into the humble abode of the unsuspecting animal; knocked him on the head; threw the carcase across his shoulder, and carried it off. Punishment often follows closely at the heels of guilt, robber came to a ditch in his way; in crossing it, he fell with his load, and next morning the murderer and robber was found lifeless by the side of his victim. "Here is a subject !" exclaims the narrator," here is a moral denouement, if ever there was one! Ah! gentlemen of the Magpie, the Ravens, the Dog of Montargis, &c. &c. allow a place in your menagerie for the Pig of Brest! Consider what an effect will be produced by a title of this kind on a play bill: The Pig, the Avenger of Guilt, or the Robber Punished by Himself. I would lay any wager that it runs a hundred nights, and eclipses all the animals that are now the rage."

M. Jouy, whose lively work L Hermite de la Chaussée d' Antin, is known to the English reader, by the title of the Paris Spectator, has published the first volume of a sequel to it which he styles, The Hermit of Guiana, or observations on the manners and customs of the French, at the beginning of the 19th century.

M. Ducis, one of the patriarchs of French literature, a man equally esti mable for his character and his talents, died at Versailles, on the 31st of March, aged 83 years. He succeeded in 1778 to the vacancy left by Voltaire in the French Academy. Among his principal VOL. V. 2 U

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performances were adaptations of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Mucbeth, King John, and Othello,to the French stage. His fugitive poems have been collected in one volume. Amid the most scandalous prostitution of talent, he shared the danger and glory of silence with Delille, though he was more fortunate than the latter in witnessing the restoration of a family to which he was attached. On his first presentation to the king, his majesty reminded him of some lines that he had written, and turning to the Duchess of Angouleme, who happened to be present, "These four, in particular," said he, "I shall never forget:" Oui tu seras un jour, chez la race nouvelle De l'amour filial le plus parfait modèle; Tant qu'il existera des pères malheureux, Ton nom consolateur sera sacré pour eux.

Nothing could be more flattering to the poet than such an application of these unintentionally prophetic lines.

During the year 1815, the births in Paris amounted to 22,612, (of which 8976 were of illegitimate children) exceeding those of 1814, by about 1200. The marriages were 5575, divorces 32, being exactly the same as in 1814. The

deaths were 19,992, of which 416 were of small-pox. In 1814, the deaths amounted to 32,160: out of this number

3000 females are stated to have died of

saisissement. Perhaps some of our medical readers can inform us what disease is denoted by this term.

GERMANY.

Mr. C. J. BERTUCH, of Weimar, in his Geographische Ephemeriden, gives the following particulars of the writer whose Travels have just been published under the name of Ali Bey :-"He is a Spaniard by birth, whose real name is Don Domingo Badia y Leblich, of the military profession, and since his return to his native country has been promoted to the rank of general. His Travels contain so much that is extraordinary and romantic, that I should be tempted to consider him as an adventurer, were I not personally acquainted with him, had I not received an account of him previously to his departure on his expedition, and

[May 1,

had I not lately conversed with him here at Weimar on his tour through Germany. In the year 1804 I informed the public that two literary Spaniards, Don Simon Roxas Clemente and Don Domingo Badia, had received orders from King Charles IV. to proceed to Africa for the purpose of exploring that country. The former declined an expedition attended with so many difficulties; Don Domingo, however, persevered, and prepared himself for it so completely, that he not only acquired the greatest fluency in the Arabic and Turkish languages, but even submitted in London, in his 36th year, to the operation of circumcision, adopted the Turkish name of Ali Bey el Abassi, together with the manners and religion of the Mohammedans; so that he was enabled to travel without danger through all Africa and Arabia in the character of a Turk of quality who had resided for a considerable time in Europe. He purposely selected the name of Ali Bey, beBarbary: indeed he told me, that at which there were thirteen Ali Beys: and Cairo he had once dined with a party in the surname of el Abassi was designed to produce a notion that he was of the family of the Abassides, or descendants of Mohammed, (a collateral branch. of

cause it is one of the most common in

the prophet's family, which is widely spread in the East.) to procure him acand to excite respect in the vulgar. This cess to the great in the Turkish empire, mask was indispensably necessary to the five years' peregrinations Don Domingo success of his design; and during his acted the part of a Turk of distinction, and a descendant of the prophet, with such address, as to secure to him the most important results. On his return to Europe, finding that the government of his country had been overthrown during his absence, he resided partly in Paris and partly in London engaged solely in preparing his Travels for the press, and in 1814 came to Weimar to consult me respecting the publication of a Ger man edition of them. In his letters, several of which I have from him in French, he commonly styles himself General Badia."

TURKEY AND CHINA.

The fourth volume of that highly interesting miscellany published at Vienna, under the title of Fundgruben des Orients, contains the following curious parallel between the Turks and the Chinese, by the Abbé HAGER. We subjoin a verbal translation of it from the Italian original, leaving the reader to draw what inferences he pleases :

When the Turks would testify their reverence for the Supreme Being, the Emperor, and their superiors, they touch the earth

When the Chinese would testify their reverence for the Supreme Being, the Emperor, and their superiors, they touch the earth

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