The Grand Duke of Baden has published an Edict for the regulation of the press, and preventing the piratical reprinting of books in his domimons. To every author who publishes a work, affixes his name to it, the copy-right is secure during his whole life, and during one year after his death it is continued to the person to whom the sale of the work is corumitted. FRANCE. There is now living at Marseilles, a girl called Rosalia-Zaccharia Ferriol, aged ten years, and born at that city, of French parents, who possesses all the characters of the Albinos. The colour of her skin is of a dull white; her hair is straight and somewhat harsh to the touch, and is of a shining white colour, as are likewise her eye-lashes and eye-brows. Her eyes are large and rolling, the Iris being of a clear blue with red streaks, and the cornea of a bright and vivid red. The sensibility of the visual organs is very great, the child not being able to bear much light, that of the sun obliging her to close her eyes. This girl, though much deformed in person, enjoys good health, and has never been afflicted with any disease except the small-pox. She is very fond of high seasoned food, is lively and intelligent. The father has chesnut-coloured hair, and appears to enjoy good health; the mother is a brunette, strong; and neither she nor her husband have ever been afflicted with any severe disorder; she has had five children who are all living, but never during pregnancy was indisposed more than women usually are. All her children, except the girl above described, have chesnut-coloured hair, and are perfectly well formed. The following is a list of all the cities in France which contain a population of thirty thousand people and upwards. Paris. 547,756 Strasburgh 49,056 Marseilles 96,413 Cologne 42,706 Bourdeaux 90,992 Orleans 41.987 Lyons 88,919 Amiens Turin Nantz 79,000 Bruges 77,162 Angers 41,279 Brussels is kept in excellent order. The Botanical Gardens of Upsal and of the Dublin Society are described as greatly superior in value and arrangement to this of Leyden. Amongst the plants are the remang of vegetable antiquity, in the shape of a pain, which stands in a tub in the open air, supported by a thin frame of iron work; it is about fourteen feet high, and was raised from seed by the celebrated Carolus Clusius, who died professor at Leyden in 1609. This plant is said to be the palun mentioned by Linnæus in his Prælectiones in Ordines Naturales Plantarum, published by Giseke, in 1792, at Hamburgh, which Linnæus suspected to be a Chumerops, but which, as Dr. Smith, observes his editor, rightly refers to the Raphis flabelliformis. It comes from China and Japan; and there is a tree of this kind, and about as large, in the Botanic Garden at Paris, and another at Pisa. In this garden is also the Ginkgo of the Chinese, a standard twenty feet high; Strelitzia Regina, which has never yet flowered in any garden out of England; the Olea Laurifolia, a new species, according to Van Royen; Royena lucida, in flower, as large as a moderate haw thorn tree, and thought to be very handsome; and a singular plant from the Cape, supposed to be an Echites, with a large tuberous root raised high above the surface of the ground, two or three weak stems a foot high, and large darkbrown flowers. In the University Library, is Rauwolf's Herbarium, which is very magnificent, and the plants well preserved; also Boccone's Herbarium of the Plants described in his Fasciculus Plantarum, published by Morison at Oxford, in 1674. These specimens are very poor. Herman's Collection of Ceylon Plants is also here, and a volume of West India Plants, belonging to Herman, which are very scarce in Lioliand. Holland still possesses several artists, who maintain the glory of the ancient Dutch Set.ool. M. BUCH, director of the academy of design at Amsterdam, is es timated to be a good histon.cal painter. The pictures of flowers and sea pieces, by DE VANOS are spoken of with great 66,297 Montpellier32,723 praise. The landscapes of HAAG, and Antwerp 56,313 Metz 32,099 the animals of SHOUWMAN, are much es Ghent Liste Toulouse 55,161 Caen 30,923 HOLLAND. The Botanical Garden at Leyden, occupies about four acres of land, and teemed. IPER, has exercised his pencit with success in allegorical pieces, and Pon MAN has given specimens of disin guished talents in engraving Kuiper's two pictures of Peace and War. VINCRIES and HODGES have long enjoyed the repu tation of skilful engravers, SCHEVEOMAN has obtained a prize given by the National Economical Society, for a new invention of engraving in imitation of chalk, and the Society of Haerlem has bestowed another on HORSTOCK, a painter of Alkmaer, who has found out a method of rendering water-colours more durable. The number of students in the university of Leyden does not at present exceed two hundred, and those of Utrecht three hundred and sixty. The library of the University of Leyden is celebrated through Europe for the many valuable specimens of Oriental literature with which it abounds. Golius, . on his return from the East, and who af terwards filled with great reputation the Arabic professorship of the university, enriched this valuable depository of learning with many Arabic, Turkish, Chaldean and Persian manuscripts. Joseph Scaliger bequeathed his valuable collection of Hebrew books to it. The precious manuscripts contained here are said to exceed eight thousand. Since the last war commenced, no addition of English publications has been made to this library, which contains the Transactions of the Royal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Histories of Gibbon, Robertson, and Hume. The king of Spain presented this library with some magnificent folios, descriptive of the Antiquities of Herculaneum. Most of the books are bound in fine white vellum, and decorated with considerable taste and splendour. There is a Museum of Natural History, principally collected by Professor Allemand, containing some fine ores, corals, and pebbles, and also some rare quadrupeds and amphibia; also a young ostrich in the egg; the nautilus with the animal in it, and some papilios. In the anatomical theatre are the valuable preparations of Albinus, and amongst them some specimens of the progress of ossification in the fœtus. The King of Holland has appointed a director-general of the Fine Arts, to whom will be committed the care and superintendance of the Royal Museum, and of those in the departments. He is to be president of the Academy of Arts, and editor of a Journal, a number of which is to appear every month; and will endeavour by all means in his power to attract celebrated artists to the Hague. Every year the Academy will adjudge a prize of 3000 florins for the best picture, the subject of which is to be taken from the national history, and one of equal value MONTHLY MAG., No. 158. for the best piece of sculpture; a prize of 2000 florins for the best engraving. Eleven pupils are to be sent to Rome and Paris, and are to reside two years in each of those cities. The Lectiones Attica, a MS work of M. Lussac, which was intended for the press, has been saved from the dreadful catastrophe of Leyden. M. Lussac himself perished in the ruins. A great number of Arabic MSS. have been destroyed by the same unfortunate explosion. ITALY. There had long been in the city of Genoa, an hexagonal vase, known by the name of Sacro Cutino (the sacred plate), which was supposed to be an emerald, and, consequently of inestimable value. On plundering Italy during the Revolu tion it was sent to Paris, and deposited in November last, by the Emperor's or ders, in the cabinet of antiquities in the imperial library. This vase was considered as a precious relic; and Father Gaetano, a learned Augustine monk, published in 1727, at Genoa, a Disser tation, in which he inserted all the authorities that tended to prove that this was the very vase in which the Paschal Lamb had been served up to Christ and his Apostles, on the even of his Passion. He accounted for its falling into the hands of the Genoese in the following mauner; these people distinguished themselves in the first Crusade, and particularly at the taking of Cæsarea in 1101. An immense booty was found in this place, which was divided into three parts, one of which consisted of nothing but the Sacro Catino. All the Crusaders agreed, that the Genoese should be recompensed for their intrepidity in first entering the town by having the first choice; and they chose the Sacro Catino. They kept it with the most sacred care, in a receptable made in the wall of the cathedral at Genoa, the keys of which were deposited with the most distinguished personages of the republic. No per son was permitted to touch it, and it was shewn to the faithful only twice a year, at a great festival. Thus it was not pos sible to examine whether the vase was an emerald or not; but this examination has just taken place by a committee of chemists from the Institute, Guyton, Vauquelin and Haäy. They have declared that the Sacro Catino is nothing more than a piece of coloured glass, but they think it worthy of preservation on account of its having been such an object of devotion, and because it is a curious 4 F specimen specimen of the art of glass-making in the Lower Empire, at such an early period. It is supposed to have been made about the time when Constantine established the seat of his empire at Byzantium. An old national diversion has lately been revived at Pisa, by order of the queen of Etruria. It is called Giuoco del Ponte. As the River Arno divides the town into north and south; one hundred and eighty inhabitants of the north quarter contend with an equal number of the south quarter, for the possession of its marble bridge. They attack by divisions of thirty, and the struggle lasts three quarters of an hour, consisting in the parties pushing against and driving back each other. Those who penetrate beyond the middle of the bridge are proclaimed victors. The contest concludes with a splendid repast, and a ball. Pisa having been founded by a Greek colony, this festival is thought to be a remnant of the ancient Greek games. It had ceased to be celebrated for the last twenty-two years. PORTUGALL The University of Coimbra has been enriched by the acquisition of the large library of M. Hasse, who died lately at Lisbon. The scarce books and MSS. in that library amount to about 12,000 volumes. Besides some Latin and Spanish works of the fifteenth century, the student will there find the best works on Spanish and Portuguese literature, and almost every thing that exists either in print or MS. relative to the Portuguese Laws and Legislation. AMERICA. Dr. NEVIN, who was exiled to America for the part he took in the rebellion in Ireland, and who at present resides at New York, is employed in writing the History of Ireland for the last Twenty Years, in which it is said he has made great progress. A traveller has presented to the Museum of Baltimore, an enormous tooth of a Mammoth, brought by him from the banks of the Missouri. He says, that, while engaged with other persons in researches relative to the existence of mines in the neighbourhood of the river, they found a space of about a quarter of a mile of extent wholly covered to the depth of six feet, with bones of an enormous size. He offers to procure for any person who will pay him for the expence and trouble, a complete skeleton of the Mammoth, fifty-four feet in length, and twenty-two feet in height. Each of the jaw bones has eight enormous grinders, It is hoped further researches will be made on the spot by some intelligent naturalists. Through the spirit of enterprize that distinguishes the emigrants, the arts and sciences begin to be introduced in Louisiana. Schools have already been esta blished in several villages. The inhabi tants of New Orleans have petitioned Congress to found a college, to be situated two miles from that city, where there will be less danger from the bilious fever, which prevails during the autumnal months. A journal has been begun at St. Louis, entitled the Missouri Correspondent and Illinois Gazette. MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF THE FINE ARTS. The Use of all New Prints, and Communications of Articles of Intelligence, are requested. TH HE finished and unfinished portraits of the late John Opie, Esq. R.A. which remained in his possession at the time of his death, were last month sold by auction by Mr. Peter Coxe, Some of his slight and unfinished sketches sold at a low rate, but such as were in a more finished state, generally speaking, produced a liberal price. The subjoined account comprehends several that come under both these descriptions Sketch of a Head, being a study for the Samuel in the possession of Sir J. Leicester, Bart..... A Watchman and his Dog, a small upright.... A subject from a ballad of Mrs. John Hunter's, &c. ..... 770 A Village Girl in a Landscape.. 11 0 6 :} Portrait of Mary Wolstoncroft } Godwin..... The Young Sportsman. 660 17 6 6 660 26 5 0 26 50 24 20 300 41 10 6 The A Lady clothing a Cottager's Family 125 the Laughing Girl, by Sir J. 430 O The history of this admirable painting is somewhat curious. It was originally purchased by the conductors of the Po lygraphic Society for fifty pounds, and from it they took innumerable copies. When the scheme was abandoned, and the pictures in their possession sold, it was purchased by Mr. Opie. The price now given for it, evinces the high estimation in which the admirers of the fine arts hold the works of the late President of the Royal Academy ; and it does credit to the present times, by proving that we have men of discernment sufficient to see the beauties of a capital performance, though the painter was neither an ancient master nor a foreigner, but a modern, and an Englishman. Large as the sum it sold for may seem, it sinks to a mere milk-score when compared with the five thousand guineas, for which a picture by Rembrandt was last month struck down at Christie's Auction-room, Pall-mall. We have been told, that it was bought in by the proprietor, and afterwards sold by private contract to a wealthy connoisseur for five thousand pounds. This picture was painted for a pensionary of Holland, and remained in his family until the subjugation of that country by the French, when it was with all possible secrecy and dispatch conveyed along the shores of the Baltic to a port, from whence it was shipped for England. It is unquestionably a capital, a most capital, picture; most of the figures are extremely fine, and the light diffused over the whole is inimitable, and perhaps, as consonant to truth and nature, as the art of painting can possibly represent. It is not only in Rembrandt's best manner, but it is the finest picture we ever saw from his pencil. Still, the sum said to be paid for it iş immense. Mrs. Opie has presented an elegant print from a design by Smirke, to all the gentlemen who attended the funeral of her deceased husband. A similar print was presented to all the friends of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who attended the remains of that artist to the grave. From what cause it has arisen we do not presume to determine, but certain it is that the portraits of the Royal family have been rarely so delineated and engraved, as to merit being placed in any very high class as prints. This portrait is, however, an exception to the general rule, for it is painted in a manner worthy of Sir W. Beechey, and extremely well engraved in mezzotinto. Earl Camden, K.G.I.Hoppner,Esq. R.A. pinxit. W. Ward sculpt. This is a very respectable portrait, and engraved in mezzotinto, in a very good style. The Rev. Walter Blake Kirwan, Dean of Killala M.A. Shee, R. A. pinxit. Engraved and published by G. Clint. This portrait was exhibited a year or two ago at the Royal Academy, and we remember being struck with it, and thinking it an exceedingly well painted picture of a popular divine. The painter has given him a singularly spruce appearance: how far that may be consonant to the original, we do not know; the same character is, however, transferred to the print, which is engraved with great spirit and fidelity in mezzotinto. Alexander the First, Emperor of all the Russias. Published for Ackermann. The emperor is delineated in his military dress, with hat and feather, star and garter, &c. and in colours has a most splendid appearance. The character of the face is extremely spirited. The portrait from which it was copied, was brought to England by Mr. Peterson, and is said by all who have seen the original, to be a very accurate resemblance. James, Earl of Malmesbury, K.B. of bis MaT. jesty's most Honourable Privy Council. Lawrence, R.A. pinxit. Engraved and published by W. Ward. This is a good print; but the lights and shades are rather violently opposed, which renders it in some degree spotty. Daniel Lambert. H. Singleton, pinxit. C. Tur ner sculpt. published by Daniel Lambert. Among all the portraits which the collectors of heads have got together, (and the late Mr. Gulston had upwards of twenty thousand,) it will not be easy to find one who may more truly be de nominated a very great man. The picture was well painted; and as to resem4F2 blance blance it is not likely that a man of Mr. Lambert's capacity, will be mistaken for any other person. The print is engraved in mezzotinto, and a good copy of the original. A portrait of Master Betty, engraved by Mr. Heath, from the late Mr. Opie's picture, is recently published. The painting bove a very striking resemblance to the original: we do not think the print is quite so happy in the likeness. In what class will future collectors place this young gentleman; among the players or the parsons? He is said to be preparing himself for the church, and he will not be the first theatrical divine. Many, who may be so denominated, have made much noise in the pulpit and the world too. Bobtail, the Property of Lord Egremont; and Parasol, belonging to the Duke of Grafton; being the third and fourth Plates of Horses, painted, engraved, and published, by J.Wbassell, Winchester-row, Paddington. These are very good prints in their way, and to gentlemen of the turf must be highly interesting. Messrs. Boydell & Co. have published Number One and Two of" Finished Etchings," by Letitia Byrne; and they do great honour to the very ingenious artist, being, generally speaking, eminently picturesque and beautiful. Proposals are issued for a print of the Battle of Maida, to be engraved and published by A. Cardon, from a picture painted by P. I. de Loutherbourg, which is to be taken from drawings made on the spot by Captain Pierpoint Mr. Ackermann has published a fourth Number of Bryan's Drawing-Book; and the opinion we gave of it in last month's Retrospect, is amply confirmed by a very rapid sale, and universal approbation. To the very picturesque and beautiful portrait of Mrs. Duff, (which he published a few weeks since) there is now added the following lines: "Stranger or friend, in this faint sketch behold An Angel's figure in a mortal mould; And earth return'd it spotless as it came C. I." It is highly to the honour of the British Institution, that they so generously encourage young artists to become candi dates for national celebrity. They have recently announced to those who studied in the Gallery last summer, their intention of giving a premium of one hurdred pounds for the best original picture, which shall be sent to the Gallery in the ensuing summer; fifty pounds for the second in merit; and forty pounds for the third. We have ever since the commencement of this Magazine, endeavoured to point out any productions of art or science which were either ancient or modern, if deemed worthy or public attention; and are sorry that we have hitherto in a degree overlooked stained glass, an article now in very high request among persons of the first taste, and again becoming the favourite decoration of our churches. "Where storied windows, richly dight, A very large collection of specimens, painted in the year 1500, &c. &c. from one guinea to one hundred guineas each, are now selling at the gallery at No. 97, Pall-mall. The rooms which contain this collection are open to the public from ten till five o'clock; we shall not therefore attempt to describe what it is impossible to convey an idea of by words; nor will the limits of this publication per mit us to specify the subjects. Suffice it to say, that they consist of whole length figures, Scripture History, &c. &c. &c. We have lately seen a medallion of General Washington, published by Mr. Eccleston, of Lancaster, price one guinea. On the obverse is the General's portrait, taken from an original painting. On the reverse, an American Indian, with his bow and arrow, and an appropriate legend. The dies are engraved by one of the first artists in that line, at Birmingham, and the relievo is remarkably high and bold. The portrait is said to be a very striking likeness; and the resemblance of a man who effected so great a change in the western world will naturally excite curiosity. How devoutly is it to be wished, that gratifying this curiosity, and transmitting an idea of his person to posterity, may induce his successors in that extensive republic, or men in the most elevated situations in Europe, to emulate his virtues. The portraits of Doctor Sawnel Johnson, which have been hitherto pub lished, were taken at an advanced period of his life, when his sight was very much impaired, A picture of this great man, painted |