colouring as gaudy as possible. Bactchuy, two highly-finished sea views. Weenix, two large pictures, dead and live game. The subject is certainly not very interesting, and yet I have never seen any thing more admirable, not only for the high finish, which is such as to distinguis the very down of the feathers, a hair, a blade of grass; but for the vigour of effect, as a whole, the originality, the simplicity, the truth of attitude, of motion, of composition. When you look near, the details appear to have been the principal object and great aim of the artist; step back, and all is freedom and bold touches; the bounding deer seems starting from the canvas. Ruisdale's landscapes are cold and black, and yet beautiful. Wooverman introduces always, it seems, a white horse in his pictures; there is at Mr. Hope's a white horse, par excellence, full of fire and impatience at the sound of the war-trumpet."

We pass over his observations on Covent-Garden Riots, Auctions, the Opera-house, his seview of several English Farces, and a variety of minor topics, to notice the conclusion of his remarks on Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth.

"Mrs. Siddons, as Lady Macbeth, was that night a merciless tigress, thirsting for blood and carnage. She goads on her husband to the consummation of his crimes, with unrelenting ferocity. Yet, after placing by the bed-side of the king the instruments of his murder, and while anxiously waiting for the performance of the deed, she

says,

Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done't.

This unexpected sentiment of humanity and momentary feeling of tenderness crossing the murderess's mind, like a flash of lightning in the darkness of the storm, is expressed without pomp of language, and rests for its effect on the simple energy of the contrast:

A sunny island in a stormy main;

A spot of azure in a clouded sky.

Macbeth himself, a prey to the terrors of guilt, thinks he heard a voice cry, Sleep no

more!"

"Towards the end of the play, when the castle is surrounded, and all the delusive dreams of ambition have vanished, leaving only remorse and despair, Lady Macbeth comes out of her apartment, walking in her sleep, pale and dishevelled, and seems to be intent on rubbing out some stains she has on her hands. It is blood she thinks she sees, and tries in vain to efface; - her discourse, incoherent, interrupted, indicates the agitation of a tortured mind."

The remarks of Mr. S. on the Sinking Fund, the depreciation of currency, &c. manifest a mind well acquainted with the elements of political economy, and stored with the information which the best English writers have given on this subject. The general review of the London school of painting is excellent.

After leaving London our author pursues his journey to Bristol, whence, by way of Ross, Monmouth, Newport, Cardiff, and Landaff, &c. he arrives at Liverpool. The following is a sketch of Welsh scenery and habits:

--

"Wales seems more inhabited, at least more strewed over with habitations of all sorts, scattered or in villages, than any part of England we have seen, and which are rendered more conspicuous by white-washing of the most resplendent whitaness. Every cottage too has its roses, and honeysuckles, and vines, and neat walk to the door; and this attention bestowed on objects of mere pleasurable comforts, is the s urest indication

of minds at ease, and not under the immediate pressure of poverty. It is impossible indeed to look round without the conviction, that this country is, upon the whole, one of the happiest, if not the happiest in the world."

We were somewhat surprised to find that our author maintained such a profound taciturnity respecting one of the finest and most opulent commercial sea-ports in the world. Comparing Liverpool with the city of New-York, in a mercantile point of view, he scarcely touches upon its literary institutions, its public buildings, and the general character of its inhabitants. The remark which he makes after his arrival at Ormskirk does not enhance our opinion of his taste. "August 2, we slept yesterday at Ormskirk, thirteen miles from Liverpool, and did not lose by the change!!!"

After some remarks, en passant, on the lakes, with which we were not wonderfully struck, we are conducted to Edinburgh, and after travelling through various parts of Scotland we again come to the subjects of every lake tourist; Windermere, Borrowdale, Skiddaw, Southey, and Coleridge; and again arrive at Edinburgh, not forgetting in our way the far-famed "smuggled" weddings at Gretna-Green.

"Auld Reekie," as the Scotch metropolis is often denominated, with its courts of equity, its routs, its Scott, its university, and its methaphysics, occupies a considerable portion of his attention; and his account of two of the greatest philosophers whom Scotland has produced, Adam Smith and Dugald Stewart, conclude the first volume of his work, and leave us with no despicable idea of his talents for metaphysical investigation. With this we shall conclude our present remarks, reserving the second volume for a separate article.

[To be concluded in our next.]

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

Discovery of a new Alkali-Mr. Arved son, a young Swedish chemist, has discovered a new fixed alkali, in a new mineral, called petalite, which was discovered some time ago by M. D'Andrada, in the mine of Uten, in Sweden. It is distinguished from the old alkalies: 1st, By the fusibility of its salts; 2nd, By its muriate, which is deliquescent, like the muriate of lime; 3d, By its carbonate, which does not readily dissolve in water; and 4th, By its great capacity of saturating acids, in which it even surpasses magnesia.

Pompeii and Herculaneum. - It appears to be the most general opinion that the two celebrated cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were overwhelmed and destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. It is now, however, maintained, that this was not the case. Pompeii is said to be covered by a bed of lapillo, of the same nature as that we observe daily forming by the agency of water on the shore at Naples; while Herculaneum is covered

by a series of strata, altogether forming a mass sixty feet thick, of a tuff, having the character of those tuffs formed by water. From the facts just stated, it is conjectured that the cities were destroyed by a rising of the waters, which deposited over them the stratified rocks, and not by matter thrown from Vesuvius. It is also said, that no eruption of Vesuvius took place in the year 79.

Cobalt and Silver Mine.-It is stated that the machinery for working the cobalt and silver mine on the west edge of Dartmoor is just completed; and the workings will shortly assume a regular form. The large black masses of arsenical cobalt, contrasted with the white curls of capillary silver and crystallized sulphuret of silver, which fill the cavities of the quartz gangue, form specimens peculiarly interesting, and almost rival those from Mexico.

The late Dr. Burney's Library. The Committee of the House of Commons, whe

zel nut, at the depth of one, two, three, four, and five feet. The layer of clay lies in an immense bed of sand, in which there is not the smallest trace of amber; which proves that the formation of it is very recent, and that it has been effected merely in the clay, "probably by the decomposition of some vegetable substances strongly impregnated with resin. M. Drapier has not been able, notwithstanding all his researches, to discover any trace of the vegetable which may have contributed to the formation of the resin. The workmen, who make flooring tiles of this clay, had long observed the amber in it; and took the greatest care to separate it, because the amber burning when they baked the tiles, left interstices, which caused them to be rejected by their employers. They had also observed that this amber, when burning, emitted a particular smell, like incense; and they sold it to the clerk of the parish, who used it instead of incense, in the church. It is of a beautiful colour, and as transparent as can be wished. The yellow amber is generally found only on the shore of the sea, particularly the Baltic, which renders this discovery the more interesting.

county or large district Agricultural Societies (as shall make application to the board, through their president or vicepresident, for it,) to be offered by them for the best-cultivated farm within their respective county or district.

Prevention of Forged Bank Notes.-It has been recently submitted to the BankDirectors to introduce, by a chemical process, into the substance of the notes, and during the manufacture of the paper, a small portion of a peculiar liquid gold which shall have the appearance of what is termed by artists dead mat gold, and which may be made to represent a variety of small numerical figures, corresponding with the respective value of the notes. These figures, it is maintained, cannot be 'imitated, except by those who are possessed of the apparatus by which the processes are carried on: and as the apparatus is so large as to require to be worked by a steam-engine, counterfeits of such a fabric could not be produced, as under the present system, in concealment or a corner.

Novel application of Coals.-Dr. Jass. meyer, Professor of Chemistry in Vienna, has made the discovery of a means to extract from coals two hitherto unknown acids, a resin, a resinous gum, and other elements, which he has employed with surprising success, to the purpose of dying

Agriculture-The board of Agriculture · offer eighteen premiums to any persons who shall make and report the most satisfactory experiments on soiling, stall-wool, silk, hair, and linen, and has pro feeding, storing turnips, the food of horses, mangle wurzel, substitutes for clover, mildew in wheat, harvesting corn and hay, salt as food and manure, burnt clay, bogs, blindness for horses, and on keeping farming accounts; and the board purpose to give their gold medal to each of such

duced from them red, black, yellow, and various shades of brown and gray. Count Von Chorinsky, President of the Aulic Chamber, and many other enlightened judges of these matters were present at these experiments, and testified their en tire approbation of this useful discovery.

Hel

LITERARY ANNUNCIATIONS.

Mr. H. BASDEN, of Deal, has in hand a work to be entitled "Diurnal Retrospect; or, Letters for every day in the year." It will principally consist of Historical and Biographical papers, introduced in the following manner :- January 2, 1801, J. C. LAVATER on this day fell a victim to the cruelty of war, &c. &c. March 7, 1804. On this memorable day-a day to which succeeding generations, when "every distinction between Christian brethren shall be annihilated," will look back with joy and gratulation was founded the

་་་པ་

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, &c. &c. Mr. Basden respectfully solicits communications for the above work, addressed to him (post paid), and in order to give validity and respectability to such communications, it is proposed (if agreeable to the writer) to publish the name of the friend contributing it.

Mr. A. J. Valpy, to whom the lovers of Classica Literature are already under ma ny obligations for his noble edition of Stephen's Thesaurus, has announced for speedy publication a new and corrected

GENERAL MONTHLY CATALOGUE.