The Cymreigyddion Society have lately offered a silver medal to the author of the best Welsh Essay "On the utility of the Eisteddfodau and the Cymreigyddion Society," and also a silver medal to the author of the best Awdl on the four seasons of the year; the competitors must be natives, or residents of Dyfed, or Members of the Society.

Married.] Capt. G. Morgan, to Miss M, Davies, late of Carmarthen.-At Carmar then, David Kirby, esq. to Sarah, daughter of the late Capt. Robert Nanny Wynn, of the E. I. Co's Service.-The Rev. W. Herbert of Llanladarafawr, to Miss E. Morrice, of Carrog, Cardiganshire.--James Mack Child, esq. of Begelly-house, Pembrokeshire, to Miss E. C. Townsend Webb Bowen, of Camrose House.

Died.] At Carmathen, 25, Mr. J. Pugh, generally esteemed and regretted.

At Haverfordwest, Mr. J. Evans, of Market-honse, much regretted.

At Aberystwith, 79, Mrs. E. Griffiths, suddenly.-62, Ann, wife of Frederick Jones, esq. of Brecon, deservedly esteemed. John Lloyd Jones, esq. 75, receiver general for the counties of Radnor, Brecon, and Montgomery.-At Tan y Bryn's, near Bangor, Mary Ann, wife of the Rev. James Cotton, and daughter of the Bishop of Bangor.

SCOTLAND.

A secession has lately taken place from the Andersonian Institution, of Glasgow, and a subscription been entered into for a new institution for the instruction of mechanics. Three hundred and seventyfour individuals have subscribed from half a guinea to a guinea each, a good library has been selected, and offers have been made, by several scientific men, of lectures and apparatus.

Married.] The Rev. Andrew Leslie, to Miss Eliza Franklin, of Edinburgh.-Mr. J. Wallace, of Edinburgh, to Miss Calvert, of Knaresborough.-Julius Gumphrecht, esq. of Glasgow, to Miss D. Schlesinger, of Manchester.-Evan Bailie, jun. esq. of Dochfour, to Lady Georgiana, daughter of the Duke of Manchester.

Died.] At Edinburgh, Capt. Alexander Skene, R. N.-Col. Robert Wright, of the Artillery.

IRELAND.

The charter to incorporate the Irish Artists, under the title of The Royal Hibernian Academy," has lately passed the Great Seal of Ireland.

The south of Ireland has presented a more than ordinary picture of distress, assassinations, and fears among the gentry, from the burnings, or rather heart-burnings, of the poor unemployed peasantry. The gentry have been obliged to fasten up their doors and windows at six o'clock in the evening, and continue on the defence, armed, until an advanced hour the next morning. Tithes, and other gluttonous exactions, are the complaints of the poor Irish; and it seems effects will not cease until causes are removed. One family, of the name of Franks, has been massacred, and mutual exasperation exists between the rich and poor,-the Catholics and Protestants.

Married.] Adderley Beamish, esq. of Palace Ann, Cork, to Fanny, daughter of the late Gen. Bernard.-Frederick Lindsay, esq. of Loughry, county Tyrone, to Agnes, daughter of Sir Edwin Bayntun Sundy,

bart.

Died.] At Dublin, the Hon. George Finch, brother to the Earl of Aylesford.

DEATHS ABROAD.

In India, Lient.-col. William Lambton, superintendant of the Grand Trigonometrical Survey in India; while proceeding in the execution of his duty from Hydrabad towards Nagpoor.

At Paris, Alexandre Marie Gonjon, ancient Captain of Artillery, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, ancient pupil of the Polytechnic School, &e. He published a number of political pamphlets, as also a descriptive table of the works of Voltaire. He was one of the editors of the Fastes Civiles, and the sole author of the third volume; an associate also of the "Chronological Tablets of the French Revolution," of which three numbers only appeared.He was the son-in-law of M. Fissot, and assisted him in many of his literary labours. His earlier years were devoted to study; he then made many campaigns in the army, but returned again to his studies, and was preparing several important publications. He has left a daughter four years of age, that, in that time, has lost a mother, brother, grand-mother, great grand-father, and father. M. Gonjon's death is ascribed to a malady contracted from a grievous fall he had at the battle of Eylau.

which received pecuniary aid, was as

follows:

Tipperary (part) Cork (city)

Limerick (city).. Galway (town)

353,000 554,950

100,000 66,000 26,000 2,907,000 5,544,650 There is an error in the casting up of the table of acres, minus 200,000. The total should be 5,744,650, and the whole is under-rated,-the fractions being omitted. The Report moreover states, "It would thus appear that the distressed districts were equal in extent to one-half of the superficial contents of Ireland." But such is by no means the case. The province of Munster (with the exception of the county of Waterford alone,) and Connaught, comprising the distressed districts, contain, it is true, ten counties among the largest in the island; but their superficial contents are by no means equal in extent to the ten counties of Ulster, and the eleven counties of Leinster. The former containing, as in the Table (corrected), 5,744,650, and the latter two provinces 6,256,650, Irish acres: in all, according to Beaufort, 12,001,200, equal to 18,750 Irish square miles, which make 30,370 English square miles, equal to 19,436,000 English acres. Now, as the fractions were omitted in Beaufort's tables, it may be fairly stated, that Ireland contains, in round numbers, 20,000,000 of Irish acres, and 7,000,000 of inhabitants. But though, perhaps from inadvertency, there is so considerable an error in the calculation of the Report, yet that does not in the least invalidate the conclusion to be drawn from it, viz. that the distress felt by the natives of the south and west of Ireland is to be ascribed, -1st. To the want of productive employment; 2d. To the land being for the most part let out in small farms, -from twenty to five, and even three, acres each; and, lastly, from the late failure of the potato crop.

The over-populousness of the country is chiefly owing to the system of

2

In a general point of view, 7,000,000 of inhabitants, and 20,000,000 of English acres, after deducting lakes, rivers, and bogs, &c. give much less than three acres to each individual; and when it is considered that the rural population comprises more than three-fourths of the whole, and that they have absolutely no other mode of supporting existence than what is derived from agricultural labour, it sufficiently accounts for the distressed and disturbed state of the country. Dublin; Nov. 10. W. E. W.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

EVERY jounebrations of travel

VERY journal has been so filled

lers in France, that it appears scarcely possible to treat of any thing new on a subject so exhausted. A book of Travels in France generally consists of descriptions of the measurement of public buildings, given for the handredth time, with mathematical precision; remarks on the badness of the vehicles; modes of eating, interspersed with novel and interesting observations on the state of the weather at particular hours of particular days; inn-keepers' impositions, and of course the imminent perils of the traveller. In short, if we desire to become acquainted with the manners of the people, we must leave the rule-andcompass traveller, and go back to our old friend Smollett, whose descriptions of the French, notwithstanding the fretful and diseased spirit with which they were written, are unrivalled for their spirit and accuracy. Lady Morgan excels in describing the policy of governments, and the force and energy with which she depicts the character of the true patriot; indeed, she has invested her descriptions of the latter with a degree of individu

ality

ality which appears to bring us perfectly acquainted with the subject of them; such, for instance, is her account of La Fayette. Her "France" is a standard work, and perhaps the only recent book of travels on the Continent likely to be enquired after by our grand-children, if we except the highly interesting and unpretending "Diary of an Invalid." Sensible as I am of the tedious common places and repetitions, so nauseating to the reader in the generality of publications of the foregoing description, I am of opinion that every traveller of observation may meet with something worthy to be communicated, though a quarto may not be the most inviting medium for conveying the information. "The Irishman's Notes on Paris," in the recent numbers of your liberal and independent miscellany, support me in this opinion; and are infinitely more calculated to attract attention and to afford amusement, by appearing in the Monthly Magazine, than if they had been ushered to the public in the form of a book, with the usual logbook additions of the state of the atmosphere, &c.

Under this impression I am induced to offer you the observations of an Englishman, made during six months' residence in Paris; and should they appear worthy the attention of your readers, I propose to continue them in some of your future Numbers. Barnstaple; Sept. 3, 1823.

T. MORTIMER.

Paris Streets-Public Buildings, &c. The houses of Paris surpass those of London in external appearance; but, from the narrowness of the streets in which they are erected, and the striking inferiority of the shops, they fail in producing the same lively effects on the eye of the stranger. In the good old times, when the priest and the noble engrossed all the comforts of life, but little attention was paid to the convenience of the footpassenger, and nothing short of a general conflagration can enable the present or future generations to lessen the perils to which the poor pedestrian is perpetually exposed from the want of a foot-path. The drivers of the cabriolets, who are perhaps not much more enlightened than the aristocrats of old, appear to inherit their contempt for the tramping multitude, as to splash an individual of this de

and

scription is a never-failing source of amusement to them: this species of practical joking, renders walking in Paris extremely disagreeable, even dangerous. Among the principal advantages of Paris, may be reckoned the vicinity of the public buildings and walks, most worthy of attention, to one another, thus:-La Place Vendome, Les Champs Elysées, the palace of the Tuileries, its beautiful gardens, and the Louvre, are all within a quarter of an hour's walk; and such a walk, for variety of interesting objects, as cannot any where be equalled. Another advantage, and that not a secondary one, is the faci lity with which all the public institutions may be seen, and the total absence of expense in seeing them. In experiencing the unfeed attention of the attendants, an Englishman cannot help being mortified, by reflecting on the different conduct pursued by the ruling powers at home; where the stranger meets with nothing but extortion and incivility;-where naval heroes, buried at the public expense, have their tombs converted into a two-penny puppet-show, to gratify the grasping avarice of some pitiful-spirited dean. I once went to St. Paul's with a naval officer who had fought under Lord Collingwood, and who expressed a wish to the guide to see where the remains of his gallant commander were deposited. Never did I see disgust more visibly portrayed than on the countenance of the officer, when he was asked for some halfpence, the customary fee for that purpose. Such despicable proccedings subject the nation to the contempt of all foreigners who visit our country, and who, unfortunately, seldom separate the conduct of the ruled from that of the rulers.

The King.

After the just and excellent description of Louis, given by Lord Byron in his "Age of Bronze," it would be superfluous to enlarge on the character of this monarch. He is certainly by far the most intelligent and amiable of the family. This cannot be a very consolatory reflection for his subjects; for, if such priestly barbarities as the demolition of the tombs of Ney and Labedoyere-the refusal to inter an actress in consecrated ground-the silly removal of the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau from the Pantheon,-if such monkish acts have been com

mitted

mitted under the most enlightened of the race, what have they to expect from his still more bigotted successors? Crimes, Suicide, &c.

Every crime of any magnitude committed in England immediately finds its way to the Newspapers. This is by no means the case in France; and on this account a Frenchman, who reads our daily journals, is astonished at the number of our atrocities, and forms a comparison, as false as it is favorable, to his own country. The proneness of the English to commit suicide is a charge frequently urged against us to prove the gloominess of our dispositions. To confute this ac cusation, there needs nothing more than an occasional visit to La Morgue, where you can scarcely ever enter without seeing two or three bodies waiting to be owned by their relatives. As drunkenness is the parent of so many vices, and the French are more temperate than ourselves, in addition to which they live under less sanguinary laws, another great incentive to crime; we must concede to them the possession of more virtue as a nation. But, comparing the crimes committed in the two capitals, we must arrive at a very opposite conclusion. Notwithstanding the boasted vigilance of the police, the comparison would be astonishingly in favour of London, as far as regards crimes of magnitude, and leaving out of view petty delinquencies. I was in Paris at the time our Newspapers were filled with the account of the murder of Mrs. Donatty; and I recollect being particularly struck with observing, in the French papers, a short paragraph to this effect: -The body of Mont, a respectable shopkeeper residing in the Rue de la Seine, was yesterday recognised by his relatives at La Morgue: the body, on which were discovered several stabs, was observed floating in the Seine. Mont had been missing a fortnight. I looked in vain in the succeeding journals for any thing more relating to this horrible assassination; nothing more was said of the unfortunate shopkeeper. Had such an event occurred in England, every provincial paper would have repeated the murder, and every public-house and barber's shop throughout the kingdom have canvassed the intelligence. Thus, by giving greater publicity to our crimes, we are unjustly taunted with the number of our murders and suicides; whilst there are more of the

latter committed in Paris, owing to the government gambling-tables, in one year, than throughout England in double that period.

The Useful and the Ornamental.

In almost all the conveniences of life, we are centuries in advance of our neighbours. Perhaps the best idea of the French character may be formed by considering in what they excel us.-trinets, China, artificial flowers, obscene snuff-boxes, and, in the humble opinion of the writer of these observations, in music, painting, and statuary. In the Palais Royal, you see steel most delicately wrought for the adornments of the person; whilst their knives, locks, workingtools, and surgical instruments, indeed every thing really useful of that material, is miserably inferior.

Cleanliness.

Since the days of Smollet there has been no revolution in this particular. The number of inhabitants in every house, and the common staircase, contribute very much to their continuance in filth. The absence of the plague is among the greatest wonders of Paris; as you vainly seek for cleanliness in their palaces or their temples, those only excepted which are dedicated to Cloacina, which are purified by perpetual ablutions, and are to be found, for the convenience of both sexes, in the most public parts of the city.

For the Monthly Magazine. NOTICES relative to the ORIGIN and PROGRESS of the ART of PRINTING, including some BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of JOHN GUTENBERG.

A

NUMBER of works have appeared on the subject of typography, treating of its history, both general and particular; a bare list of the writers would be sufficient to form a volume. But, few of these works being now to be had of the booksellers, and there being no little diversity of opinions among the authors, correct information on this interesting part of literary history appears desirable and necessary. Some critics would depreciate the value, sometimes, indeed, excessive, attached to certain ancient editions; but, it is not the less true, that very excellent various readings are found in them, different passages having been mutilated or disfigured in later editions. M. de Sallengre discovered, in the first edition of Pliny, printed at Venice in the year 1469, by

Jean