1815.] Foreign Intelligence-Italy-Russia. this river were inclosed with dykes like the Rhine, a space might be gained sufficient for the support of 30,000 families more than at present reside on its banks. The soil belongs to the most fertile in Europe; the arable land producing from fifteen to twenty fold. So luxuriant is the growth of wood on the islands of the Danube, that willows and poplars attain, in five years, a height of from 20 to 25 feet. The supplies furnished by the kingdom of Saxony to the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops, as well as the French army, from the 1st of Jan. to 18th Oct. 1813, amounted to upwards of 30 millions of dollars. The damage sustained by the war, during the same year, is stated in the returns received by the Central Committee for Relief at Dresden, at more than 13 millions, but the real amount may be estimated at double that sun. The military imposts levied in the Saxon dominions, exclusively of the districts of Lusatia and Henneberg, since the beginning of 1809, have amounted to 8,674,039 dollars. All these sums form a total of 52,596,626 dollars, or upwards of ten millious sterling, The bridge over the Elbe at Dresden, which was blown up by the French on quitting that city, has been repaired, under the direction of Thormayer, in the short space of three months, and at the very moderate expense of 22,000 dollars. The bridge over the same river at, Meissen, which was likewise destroyed, has also been rebuilt and was opened on the 13th November. ITALY. Metz, a celebrated German designer and engraver, -resident at Rome, has finished a print of the Last Judgment, copied from the admirable fresco painting of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, in the chapel of the Vatican. In the Academy of the Fine Arts of St. Luke at Rome, are deposited four designs by the architect Basilio Mazoli, member and professor of that Academy, three of which represent the ground. plan, exterior and interior view of the grand monument proposed by that artist, and which, by direction of the English Consul-general Fagan, is to be erected at Rome, in everlasting memorial of the triumph of religion. The building is to be erected upon a platform in the centre of a circular space, for which the Monte Pincio is considered most eligible it is divided into five spacious balls, the four exterior of which ་ 45 are to be dedicated to the four great allied powers, and the central one to the memory of deceased persons who have distinguished themselves in the great struggle for independence, and whose names and actions are to be here inscribed. On the side next to the city his Holiness appears on his knees in the act of returning thanks to Heaven. From the middle of the structure rises a pyramid, which is crowned by the figure of Religion in the attitude of triumph. The excavations at Pompeji are prosecuted with an activity unexampled under the former government. From 1790 to 1805, from five to 15 labourers were regularly employed; at present 300 men are kept constantly at work, clearing away the rubbish. Some of the beautiful ceilings and floors that have been found, have been deposited in the gallerics of the Museum, and others in the rooms of the Academy of Design, for the study of artists. Messrs. Rosini, Scotti and Passetti of Naples are indefatigably engaged in unrolling and decyphering the Herculanean M. SS. Fragments of a Latin Poem on the war between Antony and Augustus, and of the second book of Epicurus on the Nature of Things, have already been published, and hopes are entertained of recovering the whole of the latter. A work of Polystratus, a disciple of Epicurus, is also at press, and it is intended to be followed by fragments of Koletes on Flato's Lysis, and of Kaniseus on Friendship. A complete Treatise on Rhetoric is likewise in the printer's hands. RUSSIA. Gustavus Adolphus founded two Gymnasia in Abo and Wiborg. His suecessor, Queen Christina, by the councils of Count Peter Brehe, raised the former, in the year 1640, to the rank of an university, and endowed it with an annual revenue of 5701 silver dollars. After the new organisation of the State under King Frederic I. in the year 1748, the revenue and expenditure of this University amounted to eight thousand and fifty-three dollars. The late unfortunate Monarch, Gustavus Adolphus IV., was a liberal patron of the University of Abo, as well as of every other scientific establishment in Sweden. On taking possession of Finland, the Emperor Alexander took this Institution under his special protection, decreed twenty thousand silver rubles* annually, towards the com * The intrinsic sterling value of the silver ruble, of Alexander's coinage, is three 46 Foreign Intelligence-Denmark. pletion of the Academical Hall, directed the inhabitants of Russian Finland to prosecute their studies at Abo, erected six new professorships, and several adjuncts, increased the stipends, and made a rich provision for the public institutions, so that its wealth now amounts to some 50 thousand silver rubles. A grant of nine hundred and sixty silver rubles, yearly, has been made, in addition to the former funds, towards keeping up the library; a similar annual sum has been also granted to the 'Botanical Garden and Museum, and for the purchase of physical and astronomical instruments. The remaining annual grants are 240 silver rubles for the Anatomical Theatre, 576 for the Chemical Laboratory, 192 for the Cabinet of Cons, 150 for the Printing Press, and 1410 for the different buildings of the University. The amount of its stipends is nearly 5,000 silver rubles yearly. The privy councillor Speransky was its first Russian chancellor, but that dignity has since been filled by the late General Count Armfelt. At Gatschina, an imperial country palace, not far from Petersburg, the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorowna, has, at her own expense, founded a house of education for orphans: a proportion of whom are sent from the Orphan House in St. Petersburg, and are maintained, instructed, and brought up here. A stone building of three stories and of handsome structure, contains the children with their teachers and attendants. A Protopope superintends the education of the boys, the upper class of whom is instructed even in some degrec in Latin. The whole of the children are clad in white. In the schoolroom, which contains above fifty boys, there is a book-case, filled with the works of some of the ancient authors, and a small collection of philological treatises, &c. An inspector is always present during the hours of instruction, who watches over the attentiveness and good behaviour of the children, in order that the teacher may not be interrupted in his labours by the necessity of punishing or reprimanding his scholars. The younger boys receive instructions in elementary knowledge and religion; the girls of the upper class, in the French language, drawing, sewing, knitting, cooking, and embroidery; and those of the lower, in reading, writing, &c. A female inspector is also always present shillings and two-pence, and three shillings and three-pence. [Feb. 1, during the hours when the girls are receiving instruction. In many districts of the extensive governments of Koliwan and Tobolsk, to the south even beyond the Jenisei, there are still in existence considerable monuments, which record the character and customs of the ancestors of the present Tartars. Many years ago, a variety of metal vessels, arms, sacrificial cups, coins, ornaments, and such like articles were dug out of several graves, which must have been from four to eleven centuries old, and a similar discovery was made a short time since. Among these antiquities were found some human figures of colossal size, carved out of stone, and adorned with a variety of hieroglyphics. Of this symbolic writing, several remains have been discovered on some rocks near the Tom and Jenisei. Here and there the remains of ancient towns and fortifications have been found, as those, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Tobolsk, of the ancient capital Sibir, from which the whole country probably took its name of Siberia. DENMARK. The results of the "Review of the Literature of Denmark for the Year 1813," as stated by the secretary of the Royal Library at Copenhagen, and as far as can be learned from the transactions there, are that in this year there were published 244 books of every description, in the Danish tongue. The excess of original writings over translations within this period, and the great diminution of translated novels, is very remarkable, as compared with former years. Historical, political, ethical and theological literature had greatly the advantage in the scale, when weighed against the publications in physics, natural history, and medicine. Although above a fifth part of these labours of the pen had its origin in the controversy respecting the Jews, it is evident, however, that the literature of Denmark has, on the whole, rather gained than lost. The encouragement which the Government, in spite of its embarrassments, has afforded to the sciences and their cultiva tors is worthy of remark; nor less so that so many important works, calculated chiefly for the scientific class of the public alone, should have made their appearance at a time, when the taste for reading must have been so much curtailed, when the commerce in books was in so woeful a state, and the vent of Danish publications was almost entirely confined to Copenhagen. PROCEEDINGS OF PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETIES. ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.-The class of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the Institute held its annual public meeting on the 9th of January, under the presidency of the Chevalier Lefèvre-Gineau. The following papers were read:-1. Announcement of three subjects of prizes proposed for the competition for the years 1816 and 1817.-Decision of the prizes for 1815. The medal founded by M. Lalande for the "Observation or Memoir, most interesting or useful to Astronomy, which shall have appeared in the course of the year," has been decreed to M. Piazzi, astronomer royal at Palermo, for his great catalogue of near 7,500 stars, published in 1814. This laborious performance is the result of fundamental calculations, and of a direct comparison of the prinThe commiscipal stars with the sun. sioners directed to examine the works qualified for the competition were of opinion that the commendations of the class are due also to M. Cacciatore for the attention and industry bestowed by him on the improvement of a work of such eminent utility. The class was not acquainted with any work published during the past year which seemed worthy of the prize of Galvanism. 2. Historical Account of the Life and Works of M. Parmentier, by the Chevalier Cuvier, perpetual secretary. 3. On the Pontine Marshes and the Means of Draining them, by M. de Prony. 4. Historical Account of the Life and Works of the Abbé Bossut, by the se cretary. 5. Historical Account of the Life and Works of the Count of Rumford, by the secretary. As none of the papers transmitted by the candidates for the physical prize of fered by the class was deemed worthy of that prize, the question was withdrawn, and the following programme substi tuted in its stead : When a body cools in the air the loss of heat which it is every moment sustaining is the greater, the more difference there is between its temperature and that of the atmosphere. This loss of heat is not the result of one single cause it is owing to the radiant caloric which the body throws out on all sides, and to the caloric which is taken from it by the surrounding air. It would, there fore, be important to determine the influence of these two causes of refrigeration, not only in respect to the air, but also in regard to other elastic fluids, at different temperatures, and under different pressures. For these researches the ordinary mercurial thermometer might be employed; but as we are not exactly acquainted with the quantities of heat indicated by each degree of the thermometer, it would be necessary to ascertain the law by experiments. The class in consequence proposes for the subject of the prize in Physics, "To determine, 1. The progress of the mercurial thermometer, at least from zero to 200 centigrade degrees; 2. The law of refrigeration in vacuo; 3. The laws of refrigeration in the air, the hydrogen gas, and the carbonic acid gas, at different degrees of temperature, and for different states of rarefaction." The prize will be a gold medal, of the value of 3,000 francs; the term fixed for the competition is the 1st of October, 1816; and the result will be made public on the first Monday in January, 1817. The Class proposes for the subject of another prize in physics, to be adjudged in Jan. 1817, the following programme: Fruits acquire new properties on arriving at maturity even when they are cut off from vegetation; they then speedily pass over into another state; and we are still ignorant of the changes which take place in their composition, and of the causes which produce them. The Class calls the attention of natural philosophers to a phenomenon which is capable of throwing great light on the theory of vegetable combinations, and whose developement promises results useful to society. It therefore proposes for the subject of a prize, to be decreed on the first Monday in January, 1817-" To determine the chemical changes that occur in fruits during and after their ripening. In order to the solution of this question, it will be necessary to examine with eare the influence of the atmosphere which surrounds fruits, and the alterations that it undergoes. The observations may be confined to a few different kinds of fruits, provided general consequences can be deduced from them." The prize will be a gold medal, of the value of 3,000 francs, and memoirs must be transmitted before Oct. 1, 1816, to the secretary of the Institute. As the Class has received no essays that fully come up to its views on the "L'onore conferito da Grandi à bravi artisti dà vita e vigore alle Belle Arti; come il poco incoragimento, e le critiche severe, le fanno languire." Condivi, Vita di Michel Angiolo Buonarotti. The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland; comprising Specimens of Architecture, and Sculpture, and other Vestiges of Former Ages, from the Earliest Times to the Union of the Two Crowns; accompanied by a Sketch of Border Antiquity: together with Illustrations of Remarkable Incidents in Border History and Tradition, and much Original Poetry. By WALTER SCOTT, Esq. Parts I to VII. THE engravings of this interesting work are by Mr. John Greig, whose abilities in this line of art are well known, and not slightly appreciated, from original paintings made expressly for this purpose by Mr. George Arnold, A.R. A. Mr. A. Nasmyth, and Mr. L. Clennell. Among the most prominent and curious specimens of our early architecture displayed in this work, are the castles of Morpeth, Newcastle, Warkworth,Carlisle, Newark, Rothwell, Bamborough, and Mitford; the abbies of Melrose (celebrated by the muse of Walter Scott) and Jedburgh; the monasteries of Tynemouth and Kelso; the cathedral of Carlisle, &c. &c. From this enumeration may be gathered the nature of the work, which is certainly one of the most curious and interesting topographical publications that has appeared for a long time. Catalogue of a choice Collection of Modern Prints, from the Works of the most esteemed Masters; consisting of Subjects Sacred, Poetical, and Domestic, Landscapes, Rural Scenery, &c. Published by THOMAS MACDONALD, Poets' Gallery, Fleet-street. We have noticed this little catalogue, which scarcely consists of sixty prints, as well on account of the excellent prefatory remarks on the utility and relative value of engravings, with which it is prefaced, as the superior excellence of many of the prints. It commences with a just comparison of the relative merits of the pencil and the chisel, and of the more fortunate situation of the modern artist over his predecessors, from the invention of the burin, which insuring his works by its multiplying power from the vortex of oblivion, disseminates the knowledge of them in an unlimited manner. The author justly remarks that the art of engraving is to painting what printing is to literature, and fairly claims superiority for the modern over the ancient school of engraving. The various styles or modes of engraving are well though briefly described, and the difference of manner well balanced. "Prints," says the author, "are not valuable merely as copies of pictures, however fine such pictures may be; they have a positive worth of their own, independent of the original from which they are taken." He observes that prints embody in a small space the whole composition of a picture; and in some instances, as in the works of Raffaelle, where we do not look for colouring, we may find in a print nearly all the excellencies we look for in a picture. He boldly asks, how by any other means than by engraving could many in this country otherwise have known any thing of the Transfiguration of Raffaelle, or the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci. England, he says, "may boast of having raised the art of engraving to as high a state of excellence as any nation; and in some branches she is without a rival;" and instances the fine mezzotintos of Earlom, Turner, Say, and Meyer, as proofs of this assertion, corroborating it by particular instances of chef-d'auvres of the several artists. gives his reasons for publishing princi pally in mezzotinto, which are sufficiently He 1815.] Intelligence in the Fine Arts-Royal Academy. satisfactory; but a great nation should cultivate great works; and the grand manner of a large historical print in line engraving must always be pre-eminent where such a feeling for the grand in art is duly cultivated. INTELLIGENCE. We have just received from Frankfort on the Maine a Catalogue raisonné of a most excellent collection of pictures and other works of art, which are now on view in that city, previous to their public sale at the Easter fair in March next. They were collected by the late Mr. John Henry Gerard Laensberg, during a period of more than thirty years; in which time he spared neither pains nor expense to render his cabinet choice and select. The authenticity of the collection is witnessed by four gentlemen of responsibility at Frankfort, and the house of Boydell, in Cheapside, is appointed agent in London for the sale of any of them by commission, and of whom may be had the well written and modest catalogue. It appears they are to be sold in order to effect a more equal distribution of the property among the heirs. This admirable collection consists of nearly 370 pictures, and some sculptures. Among the former are some well known pictures of the best old masters, of Rubens, Vandyck, Rembrandt, Wouvermann, Sachtleven, Art Van der Neer, Jean Steers, Neefs, Roos, Elsheimer, &c. &c. and some of the most esteemed modern continental masters, as Dieterich, Schütz, Hurt, Morgenstern, and Pforr, a celebrated animal painter, whom death snatched off at too early an age for the interest of the arts. The sculptures are not less valuable than the pictures, consisting mostly of the works of Melchior and Olmacht, and among which is a beautiful crucifix of Quesnoy Fiamingo, which is an acknowledged masterpiece of art. ROYAL ACADEMY.-On Monday, Jan. 2, J.M.W.Turner, esq. professor of perspective, commenced his lectures to the students of the Royal Academy, in the great exhibition room; John Soane, esq. professor of architecture, president pro tempore, in the chair. He addressed the students on the importance of this elementary branch of the fine arts, on which so much depends, and instanced most of the old masters, whose great excellence, if not entirely dependent upon, has been increased by it. He directed their attention to geometry as its basis, and assured them that nothing NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 13, 49 but a close attention to its laws would give them that power of fore-shortening which appears so astonishing, yet true, in the hold adventuring of these patriarchs of art. He pointed out to them, in his successive lectures, the best means of acquiring this indispensable branch of knowledge, in a clear, if not a brilliant mode; and gave a satisfactory course of instruction in a manner not very captivating for its delivery, to which the students paid a becoming and praiseworthy attention, On Thursday, Jan. 5, Henry Fuseli, esq. professor of painting, commenced a truly excellent course of lectures on painting, (instead of Mr. Soane on architecture, as at first announced,) which he opened by a few introductory remarks on the rise of this noble art in Italy. These lectures may be reckoned among the finest compositions in our language: bold, energetic and terse, in style; vigo rous, enthusiastic, deep, and critical, in substance; tending to keep the views of the students nobly directed; free from any sordid bias; and altogether of the cast and complexion of thought which formed the Michael Angiolos and the Raffaelles of past times, and which, if duly attended to, cannot fail to raise the English school of painting to a higher pitch of sublimity than it has ever yet attained. The learned professor seems to admire the daring vigour-the almost impossibilities of Michael Angiolo more than the softer, more chastened and subdued style of Raffaelle. In his first lecture he introduced the well-known sonnet to a painter, attributing to him all the varied excellencies of every preceding great painter; and humourously compared it with one who should say, in complimenting a poetical friend, that the sublimity of Milton, the varied numbers, deep insight into human nature, and pathos, of Shakspeare, the majesty of Dryden, and the sweetness of rope, all contributed in forming the concentrated beauties of Mr. Nicholas Rowe. It is not saying too much, when we give it as our decided and long-formed opinion, that to no one has the Royal Academy been more indebted for example, precept, soundness of intellect, learning, and independence of spirit, than to the present keeper and professor of painting. According to our promise last month, we proceed to extract, for the information of our readers, that section of the laws which relates to the admission of students. VOL. III. II |