in the modern languages by Legrande. The manufcripts are divided agreeably to this claffification, and are well arranged. Since these subjects are foreign to my sphere of ftudy, I fhall only relate fuch obfervations as I made, in a curfory manner. Here is a complete collection of Colbert's letters, in about fixty volumes. A volume of letters, fome in English and others in French, written by Henry VIII. of England, in a good, legible hand. A volume of letters from King Henry IV. of France to one of his miftreffes: his handwriting is tolerably neat and legible, and he has expreffed himself with much vivacity and gallantry. To indicate the ardour of his amorous attachment, he fays, 'Je vous aime plus, que vous aimez vous meme. I love you more than you love yourfelf. Here is a large collection of the French king's heures, or miffals, all written very beautifully on the fineft vellum, and embellished with elegant borders and fine drawings, most of them fcripture hiftories. On every leaf of one of those misfals is a beautiful drawing of a flower, with its name in Latin and French, fo that it forms a collection of botany as well as religion. Vanquished Italy has been obliged to contribute her mite to the treafury of the National Library; for all the most valuable printed books and the fcarceft manufcripts have been taken from the Italian libraries. Among thofe Italian manufcripts, I particularly obferved two Codices in parchment, a Terence, and a Horace, from the library of the Vatican. I am no hunter after various readings; yet it is poffible that thefe Codices have no critical merit, but are remarkable only for their external beauty and excellent prefervation.

"Two rooms belonging to the library are filled with a large collection of prints, which are under the fuperintendence of Joly. Some pieces are bung to the walls, but most of them are in port-folios and cafes. Here in particular is a collection of about fixty volumes of prints of remarkable tranfactions and events in the hiftory of France, arranged according to the

year, or reign, down to the time of Louis XV." P. 271.

MEETINGS OF THE INSTITUTE-
MERCURY FROZEN.

“ AMONG the transactions of the meeting on the 11th Nivôse, 7th year, or 31ft of December 1798, I fhall only mention the very remarkable experi ments made on artificial cold by Fourcroy and Vauquelin. These experiments, which were formerly made on a fmall scale by Lowitz at Petersburgh, have not only been repeated, but very confiderably extended at Paris. Within a large tub was placed a smaller one, and the interval between them was filled with a mixture of fnow and falt, which produced a remarkable degree of cold. Within the fecond was placed a third, and the interval between the fecond and third was filled with a compofition confifting of eight parts of muriate of lime, and fix parts of snow.. In the inner tub was very foon produced an intense degree of cold, which funk the common thermometer of Reaumur to 32o below zero. In order to keep out the external warm air, the whole apparatus was covered with a glafs cafe. By these interesting experiments, 20lb. of mercury was made to freeze in thirty feconds into a folid mafs, which affumed a cryftallized form Spirits of wine, the ftrongest vinegar, nitric acid, pure ammonia, and æther, froze in like manner. A finger applied to this mixture or folution, in four feconds loft all fenfe of feeling, became frozen, and as white as paper, with a very acute fenfation, refembling a violent pinch. Moft liquors froze, in a platina crucible, in thirty feconds; but, in a crucible of porcelain or clay, they required about two minutes, which is easily accounted for, from metals being more capable of conducting heat than clay.

"The atmospheric cold, when thofe experiments were performed, was 7° by the centigrade thermometer, or 5, 6° of Reaumur's. Decimals being quite fashionable in France, thermometers are used, in which the distance

between

between the freezing and boiling points is divided into Too, inftead of Reaumur's divifion into 80°. The Swedes have long used this divifion, under the name of Celfius's, or Chriftiernin's thermometer." P. 310.

THE AEROSTATIC SCHOOL AT

MEUDON.

"THE Aeroftatic School in Meudon was established by a decree of the Committee of Public Safety, the 31ft of October 1794. This feminary confifts of a director, fub-director, a fecretary, a magazine-keeper, and fixty pupils, who are inftructed in all that relates to the aeroftatic science, efpecially fuch parts of it as may be directed to military operations. There are two rooms fet apart in the old caftle for the conftruction of the air-balloons, with all the apparatus neceffary for that purpofe. The pupils, with Conté the director, lodge in the new caftle. M. Conté is an able phyfician as well as a chymift; he cannot be too highly praised for his unremitting attention to the regulations and management of the school. He is well known for his inventions, fuch as the aeroftatic telegraph, and his factitious black-lead pencils, which are brought to fuch a degree of perfection, as to rival the beft in England: they are not prepared from the native ore, but a compofition which confifts, as far as I have learned, of iron and fulphur.

"The balloons in Meudon are made of a peculiar kind of thick taffety, wove for that purpose. When fewed they are varnished over: fo that the pores are clofed in fuch a manner as to prevent the evaporation of the gas in a very confiderable degree, which is the reafon that those balloons hold the hydrogen, or inflammable air, many months; whilft others that are not prepared in the fame manner are found to be exhausted in a few days. To the improvement of the gas, M. Conté has not a little contributed to the manner of filling the air-balloons. The mode is to erect a fmall furnace, through which feveral large iron pipes pafs (commonly from four to fix), which are filled with iron filings. The ends of these tubes extend out of the fur

nace, and are furnished with a cock, which may be opened or fhut at pleafure. A fmaller tube is joined to the

end of these pipes, and is then inferted in the lid of the copper or veffel, half filled with water, and fo air-tight that the fteam can only find its way through the red-hot tubes in the furnace. From the oppofite end of these red-hot tubes, which run out of the furnace, a small tube goes into the veffel, which is fill ed with a folution of cauftic lye, or alkali, and then it paffes to the tube which conveys the hydrogen gas into the balloon.

"The whole apparatus, caldron, furnace, &c. may be erected and work ed in two days. A balloon of about thirty feet diameter may be filled in two or three days. When a balloon of this fize is newly filled, it will carry up a weight of 2000 pounds, and twenty men at leaft. In two months, it lofes fo much by evaporation, that it will only bear 500 pounds, and ten men. I have feen the experiment tried in the Champ de Mars on the feast of the new year, in the 7th year of the republic. Such balloons are always found ready filled on the terrace at Meudon, where they ftand in the open air without receiving any apparent injury, in confequence of the peculiar texture of the taffety, and the excellence of the varnith. The upper part was covered with a coat or cafe of fine leather, from whence the ropes defcended, to which the car was attached. All these military balloons are tied together, and aeroftatic foldiers taught to manage them.

"In mild or ferene weather a num ber of thefe foldiers afcend, always accompanied by an officer or fubaltern. Two companies of aeroftatic folders are always quartered at Meudon. Eạch confifts of one captain, two lieutenants, two fergeants, two corporals, one drummer, and forty privates." P. 35%

IV. Sketches of the State of Marmers

and Opinions in the French Republic, towards the Close of the eightecut Century. In a Series of Letters. By HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 677. 125.Robinfons.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I. Points of Comparison

between Bafil and Boeotia-Revolution at Bafil.---II. Remarks on

Ufurpation, and which are to bring about the Fall of Bonaparte."--XL. The Subject continued.--XLI. Profpect of Peace.-XLII. On national Feres--Obfervations on the State of Literature in the Republic.

APPENDIX.

No. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. Juftificatory Pieces refpecting the Counter-revolution of Naples.--VII. Analyfis of the Conftitution.-VIII. Ode on the Deliverance of Italy.

EXTRACTS.

OF

FRENCH MONUMENTS SCULPTURE, IN THE CONVENT OF THE AUGUSTINS.

"THE monaftery where the monuments collected from the ecclefiaftical domains, under the conftituent and legiflative affemblies, were depofited, became the afylum of thofe more celebrated pieces which Jacobinical fury, during the reign of terror, had devoted to destruction, as emblems of feudality, and confpiracies in favour of royalty. In the autumn of 1795, this depot was, by a decree, erected into the museum of French monuments, under two points of view; that of hiftory in general, and of the hiftory of the art as far as it relates to France. The care of this museum has been confided to the antiquarian Lenoir, and he has fhown no lefs knowledge in the arrangement of the monuments, than zeal in their prefervation. They are claffed according to the refpective ages in which they were executed, each in different apartments; and the antiquarian may fpend his claffic hours in meditating on Celtic altars erected under the reign of Tiberius, to Jupiter, by the trading navigators of Paris, and to Volcanos, and Erus, the Gallic god of war; or in poring over the ftatues of Clovis, Pepin the Short, Charles the Bald, and Ermentrude his wife; or rambling with the connciffeur down the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fucceeding centuries, until he paufes at the ftatue of Voltaire by Pigalli, and of Helvetius, Rouffeau, Raynal, and the illuftrious of our own times.

"The order, the art, and a kind of melancholy enchantment which reign through this museum, do honour to VOL. V.--No. XLIII.

the tafte and knowledge of the distributor. In a vast fepulchral apartment, the architecture of the age to which the fculpture belongs, and the vault of which is fretted and fown with stars, while a gloomy light penetrates through Gothic windows, repofe the monuments of the firft race of kings from Clovis to Charles Martel. On the left of this conqueror are ranged his defcendants, down to Hugh Capet. The adminiftrator has given this divifion to the generic title of the thirteenth century, because the lift terminates with that age, though the vault contains the ftatues of perfonages living in the beginning of the fixth century.

"Time has committed confiderable ravages on the most of these figures, but not fo great as to conceal the ruder hand of the workman, and the degra dation into which the arts had fallen during the Cimmerian night of the middle ages. The monuments of the thirteenth century betray the timidity of the artist, the fervile copyift of the manner and drefs of the times; but their ftatues, at least, have shape and figure. We find the monument of Philip the Bold, and his wife Ifabella of Arragon; a well-executed statue of Lewis the Ninth, in ftone, and another in marble of his brother Charles, placed on the throne of Sicily by Pope Clement the Fourth. It was the oppreffion of this defpot which drove his fubjects into revolt, and which produced that dreadful massacre of the French, on the Easter of 1282, fo well known by the name of the Sicilian vefpers; the horrible burft of the heart fwelling under oppreffion, although our modern fanatics in philofophy ignorantly place it to the account of fuperftition, and talk to us of Sicilian vespers, when they would load it with its moft heavy accufation.

"The fourteenth century prefents us with the figures of Philip the Beautiful, Lewis the Mutinous, and Philip the Tall; of the Duke d'Alençon, killed at the battle of Creffy, and of John the Good, made prifoner at the battle of Poitiers, and who died at London. The celebrated Conftable, whofe ftatue has borne away the prize of fculpture in the national exhibition of the prefent year, Bernard du Guefclin, and his faithful companion in arms, the brave Sancerre, lie fide by fide.

E

More

More honoured ftill ftands the marble ftatue of Charles, juftly furnamed the Wife; during whofe reign the arts and fciences were greatly cultivated. It was a favourite maxim with this prince, that arts and science could never be fufficiently honoured, and that the profperity of a ftate depended chiefly on the encouragement they received. Charles the Wife laid the foundation of the prefent national library. The first ftock confifted of twenty volumes, which were placed in one of the towers of the Louvre, called the tower of the library. The collection was certainly not confiderable, but every thing must have a beginning, and books at that period were fcarce.

"The fifteenth century prefents but few fpecimens of progrefs in the art of fculpture, and fewer ftill of fubjects whofe remembrance was worth the preferving.

"The fixteenth century opens with the father of modern hiftory, Philip de Commines, the cenotaph of whofe monument is of fingular beauty. The arts at this period began to throw afide their rude drefs, and aflume the tone and manner of a more advanced age. The ftatues of Lewis the Twelfth, the Well-beloved, and Anne of Bretagne, are frightful reprefentations of death, boldly and finely executed. This fuperb monument had fuffered moft from the reign of terror. The twelve apoftles, which ornamented the arcades, and the cardinal virtues, which group around the bafe of the monument, had loft fome their arms, others their hands and nofes, and fome the favages had wantonly condemned to what they called the guillotine. Such of the fcattered members as have been found are reftored, and new ones. are made to fupply the place of thofe which were irretrievably loft.

"The fepulchral chapel of Francis the First had alfo palied under the reforming touch of the Jacobins. The ftatues of this prince, of Chude of France, his queen, larger than real life, are fublime in their execution, and difcover profound knowledge of anatomy in the artist, whofe name remains unknown. The roof of the chapel is compofed by Gougeon, and it is probable that the ftatues were formed by the hand of this French Phidias, who was killed in the mallacre of St. Bar

I

tholomew, and whose monument makes part of this century.

"The injuries done to the monument of Francis the Firft are perfectly repaired. Catharine de Medicis, and Diana of Poitiers, celebrated the one for her political crimes, and the other for her beauty and her galiantries, repose in the chapel of the Valois. The ftatue of the latter, in the attitude of fupplication for her frailties, had not the power of exciting commiferation in the hearts of her Jacobin judges. The terrorifts of Anet, which inherited from her beneficence, for there fhe dwelt in regal fplendour, lifted against their benefactress the deftroying axe. The ftatue of Henry the Fourth, in this clafs, is the trueft refemblance of that prince extant; a fact which has been verified by the administrator, when in the violation of the royal dead at St. Denis, in 1793, the body of this prince was found entire, with the lineaments of the face unaltered, and perfectly correfponding with thofe of the statue.

"Among the monuments of the feventeenth century we dwell with fentiments of veneration on the ftatues of the philofophic hiftorian De Thou; Defcartes, whofe fublime errors difcovered to Newton the fublimer mechanifm of the univerfe; Turenne, repof-ing in the arms of immortality, and whole remains, rescued from the barbaric profcription against the dead, were concealed for a while as a fubject of natural history among the skeletons of monkies; Lebrun, the Apelles of the French school; Pouflin, furnamed the Painter of philofophers and poets; Lefueur, the French Raphael; Corneilic, La Fontaine, Racine, with others of inferior note, fuch as minifters and kings, Mazarin, Richlieu, and Lewis the Fourteenth.

"The eighteenth century prefents us with the illuftrious of our own times; the monuments and bufts of Montefquieu, Fontenelle, Helvetius, Winckleman, Voltaire, Buffon, Rouffeau, Diderot, Gluck, and Bailly, executed by Pigalli, and artifts now living, together with the bufts of Crebillon, Maupertuis, and the minifter Fleury, whofe dear delight was peace; the labours of Lemoine, Bouchardier, and Coufton.

"These form a part of the multitude of pieces which compofe this vaft mufeum,