Page images
PDF
EPUB

particular Regiments severally noticed; and praise or censure deservedly applied to many living Actors of that memorable Drama. By M. Young. 8vo, 6s.

Harold the Dauntless, a poem in Six Cantos. By the Author of the Bridal of Triermain; to which work it forms a second volume; foolscap 8vo, 7s. 6d.

The Search; and other Poems. By J. Edmeston, Jun. 12mo, 4s.

POLITICS.

The dangers with which Great Britain and Ireland are now Menaced by the De. mands of Irish Roman Catholicsshown, and proved from Authentic Documents. 8vo, Ss. An Appendix, containing important Documents, 1s. 6d.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

A Letter on the Distresses of the Country; addressed to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, in consequence of his motion respecting "the Revulsion of Trade, and our sudden Transition from a System of extensive War to a state of Peace;" in which the supposed Influence of our Debt and Taxes upon our Manufactures and Foreign Trade is investigated. By John Ashton Yates. 8vo, 5s.

On the Present State of Public Affairs, 8vo, 3s. 6d.

Cursory Hints on the Application of Public Subscriptions in providing Employment and Relief for the Labouring Classes; in a Letter to the Editor of "The Times.' By a Member of the University of Oxford. Svo, 1s.

THEOLOGY.

With

and Natural History; together with some
Details respecting the Manners and Cus-
toms of the Inhabitants. By W. Plees,
many Years resident in Jersey.
bigbly finished Engravings, and a correct
Map of the Island, 4to, with Proof Impres-
sions of the Plates, 11. 158. 8vo, 1. Is.

A view of the Agricultural, Commercial, and Financial Interests of Ceylon. With an Appendix; containing some of the principal Laws and Usages of the Candians; Port and Customhouse Regulations; Tables of Exports and Imports, Public Revenue and Expenditure, &c. &c. By Anthony Bertolacci, Esq. late Comptroller-general of Customs, and acting Auditorgeneral of Civil Accounts in that Colony. With a map of the Island, compiled at Columbo from the latest Surveys, in the year 1813, by Captain Schneeider, Civil Engineer. 8vo, 18s.

.....

LITERARY INFORMATION.

Mr. Sotheby (late Leigh and Sotheby) will submit to the Public the following Collections during the present Season.

The interesting and rare Collection of the Rev. Henry Meen, B. D. late Rector of St. Nicholas, Olave, and St. Nicholas, Cole Abbey; Author of Remarks on Lycophron, and Succisivæ Operse.

The Duplicates of the Library of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London.

The very valuable and highly interesting united Libraries of Thomas Holis, Esq. and Thomas Brand Hollis, Esq. Including likewise the Theological and Political

Prayers and Meditations, extracted from Library of the late Rev. John Disney,

the Journal of the late Mrs. Trimmer. 12mo, 3s. bound.

Sermons, preached in the Parish Church

of Kilmallie. By the Rev. John Ross, A. M.

[blocks in formation]

D.D. F. S. A. removed from Hyde, near Ingatestone, Essex. Among the former are a complete Collection of the different

Editions, and various Works of Milton; likewise Violet's various Pieces. A very large Collection of Historical Tracts rela

tive to the Grand Rebellion and Commonwealth. The entire Collection by and relating to the Works of Dr. Priestley.

A very valuable and extensive Collection of Ancient and Modern Coins and Medals, collected by Thomas Hollis, Esq. and Thomas Brand Hollis, Esq. removed from Hyde, Essex, comprising numerous and highly preserved Specimens in the Saxon and British Series, Pope's Medals, large Roman Brass, Greek and Roman Medals, &c. &c. in Copper, Silver, and Gold.

A considerable Selection of Bronzes, Vases, Lacryme, Lamps, Terracottas, Raphael's China, and other Curiosities of the Hollis' Collection.

Foreign 8. That the names of all future benefactors to the funds of the college, be also re

Foreign Literary Gazette. gistered as such; with the amount and

INDIES EAST.

Hindoo College, at Calcutta.

A second meeting, for the purpose of establishing a College for the Education of Hindoo Children, has been held at Calcutta, at which a President, Vice President, and Committee were chosen, and further progress made in promoting the design of the Institution.

It is greatly to be hoped that the fickleness of the Asiatic mind will not deprive this undertaking of that support which it well merits. There can be no doubt of the beneficial results of the plan, if the native Hindoos will but steadily support it.

The following is the general plan, under which it is proposed to form this useful establishment.

1. That the primary object of this institution be the tuition of the sons of respectable Hindus, in the English and Indian languages, and in the literature and science of Europe.

2. That the admission of students, consistently with the above primary object, be left to the discretion of the managers of the

Institution.

3. That persons who are not students be allowed to attend any literary or scientific lectures, in the English Department, with the consent of the committee of managers

4. That the terms on which students, shall be admitted to receive instruction in the college, be fixed, from time to time, by the managers of the institution.

5. That a fund be raised by voluntary contributions for the purchase of a sufficient quantity of ground in a convenient situa-, tion, within the limits of the city of Calcutta, and for erecting a suitable college, with other requisite buildings thereupon.

6. That a book of subscription for this purpose be kept open for a period of one year, and that all persons who have already contributed, or may contribute during the present year, to the funds of the institution, be considered original benefactors and founders of the College.

7. That the names and contributions of such original benefactors and founders be recorded in the annals of the college; and be also engraven on a tablet of marble, to be affixed in some conspicuous part of the principal edifice.

VOL. V. No. 30. Lit. Pan. N. S. Mar. 1.

date of their respective contributions.

9. That if at any time it be found necessary to limit the number of students to receive iustruction in the college, a preference be given to the sons and relations of those who have been recorded as founders and benefactors, or registered as benefactors of the college.

It was also resolved, that William Coates Blacquiere, Esq. Ram Gopal Mulik, Copee Mohun Deb, and Huree Mohun Thakoor, be constituted a committee, for taking measures towards providing a proper situation for the seminary, and that the native part of the committee reconsider and report on the means of providing funds.

The committee were of opinion that the Indian method of instruction, with the British improvements, should be adopted in the college, and resolved that the secretaries be desired to ascertain and report what teachers will be necessary, and can be procured for the Bengalee and English departments of the college, assuming the number of students to be 200.

The amount subscribed for the establishment of the Hindu college, was 59,300 rupees on the 6th.

ITALY.

Valuable Library of Curious Books.

The late Gaetano Poggiali, of Leghorn, was celebrated throughout the literary world, of which Europe is the centre, by his bibliographical knowledge, as well as by the beautiful editions he published of the principal classic authors of Italy, such as Dante, Tasso, Ariosto, Machiavel; the old Italian Theatre in eight volumes, 8vo. the best Italian Satires, in seven volumes, 8vo. the best Italian Novels, in twenty-six volumes, Svo. &c. &c.

The library which he had collected, comprized nearly 18,000 volumes of the choicest works; and was the completest known in respect to Italian literature. It included not only the most rare editions, but also works previously unknown. The copies also were selected with the greatest care, and the major part were in perfect preservation and magnificently bound.

The classification of this library was under the following arrangement:

I. A collection of the books cited by the Academy della Crusca, with two supplements; the first, containing the works of the authors cited, not mentioned by the Academy; the second, the works which

2 M

the Academy intended to consult, for a new edition of its dictionary. A catalogue raisonné of this collection, with notes bibliographical and critical has been printed.

II. Editions of the fifteenth century, to the number of nearly four hundred, among which are the rarest editions of the Pinelli library, and many others, unknown.

III. Books, printed on Turkish paper, or on marbled paper, or other coloured paper, of every age, to the number of 238.

IV. Works, printed on vellum, of all ages, many of which are unique; to the number of 82.

V. Many copies of works, printed on silk, silk paper, and India paper.

VI. A numerous collection of novels and romances, among which are many not inserted in the catalogue of Count Bor

romeo.

VII. Several collections of editions, pub

lished by Bodoni; selected copies.

VIII. Works in Science, of every kind. This class forms by far the most voluminous department of the library.

IX. Manuscripts, to the number of about four hundred, written, some on paper, others on parchment. Many of them have been used by the authors of the dictionary della Crusca; many have never been edited; and some of them are of the handwriting of personages and authors of the greatest celebrity.

Sig Domenico Poggiali, son of the proprietor, and Sig. Francesco Pistolesi, are engaged in preparing a catalogue raisonné of this library for publication.

To this library is added a collection of about twelve thousand engravings, ancient and modern, of the most fanious masters, all of them proof prints, or choice impressions, en velium, India paper, &c. in colours, or plain.

Among the ancient masters in this collection, may be noticed Mark Antonio Raimondi, Lucas van Leyden, Agostino Veneziano, Martino Schorel, Andrea Manezua, Rembrandt, Eneas Vico, Martin Rota, Lucas Cranach, &c. and among modern masters, Berwic, Sharp, Edelinck, Strange, Earlom, Heath, Elmes, Smith, Morel, Ryland, Hackert, Bromley, Le Bas, Cochin, Moreau, Morghen, and many others.

The works of Albert Durer offer a great number of rare and select proofs. The same may be said of the works of Callot,

Stefanino della Bella, Nanteiul, Balechou, Wille, Woollett, and Bartolozzi. The collection of the works of the last-mentioned artist, is one of the most complete that exists, amounting in number to no less than twelve hundred and twenty-four prints.

Mushrooms; Instruction concerning.

It must be acknowledged that in all countries there is considerable danger attending the eating of mushrooms; and yet, in all countries there is a strong desire to obtain them, and use them as food. The Imperial Government of Venice has published an Instruction on this subject, that deserves to be noticed, and even to be made generally known. It is entitled Osservazioni, &c. -Observations on Edible Mushrooms; it is published with the approbation of the faculty of Medicine of Padua; by the Professors G. A. Bonato, A. dalla Decima, and V. L. Brera.

This Instruction is intended for the use

of the inhabitants of the country; and is

divided into four chapters. The first explains the injurious and even fatal effects, consequent on the eating certain species of mushrooms. In the second chapter is given a list of thirty-one different kinds of mushrooms, and their varieties, which are found on the Venetian Territory; with their systematic names, their provincial or local names, and the synonyms of several. The third division contains precautions to be taken to ascertain the dangerous species; and the fourth chapter marks the treatiment to be adopted, in cases of poisoning by mushrooms. The work concludes with a list of the principal works on the subject.

Such works cannot be made too popular: every year during the season, our newspapers record fatal accidents, from want of information and caution on this

subject.

POLAND.

New University.

It appears from the French papers, that the Emperor of Russia, as King of Poland, has issued a ukase at Warsaw, by which he founds a University in that city. The ukase is in Latin. The University will be composed of five faculties: Theology, Jurisprudence, Political Economy, Philosophy, and the Fine Arts. The Professors of the first order will be declared nobles, and may trausmit their nobility to their descendants, if they have been Professors for ten years. The Rector of the University will be the Censor of all books published by the professors.

PRUSSIA.

Counsellor Graevell has published a tract, at Berlin, which has made considerable impression on the public mind. He examines the question, Whether Prussia really wants a Constitution? He notices the dangers of change, of re-action, &c. in

strong terms.

RUSSIA.

Catherinens Verdienste, &c. Memoir on the comparative Study of Languages, promoted and encouraged by the Empress Catherine II. of Russia; by Fred. Adelung. Qto. pp. 210. Petersburgh,

1816.

translated a part of these formed into a
table, into the Caraib dialect. The au-
thor possesses the original in the Empress's
own hand writing. The further preparation
of materials was afterwards entrusted to
Dr. Pallas; and the first volume appeared
in 1786, the second in 1789. The whole
work is printed in Russian characters, and
is accompanied with some observatious on
the pronunciation of these characters in
the Russian tongue.

The work has always been rare at Pe-
tersburgh itself. The Empress gave it only
to individuals, and those not many, whom
she deemed worthy of confidence. The
Bookseller of the Imperial Court obtained
no more than forty copies for circulation in
foreign countries. What remained of the
edition, which was but few, was deposited
in the Cabinet Archives, from whence a
copy was not to be procured without a
special order from the Emperor.
M. Th. Jankiewitch de Miriewo
subsequently engaged to publish a
edition, which appeared in 1790 and 1791,
in four volumes, quarto. This edition,
now become equally rare, is sometimes
ministration of the public schools, at a
high price.

The Empire of Russia reckons more than
a hundred different languages and dialects
in its vast extent. Many learned men, and
among them Leibnitz, entertained the no-
tion of forming a universal vocabulary of
all the languages in the world, in order to
obtain additional instruction on the origin,
the filiation, the affinity, and the transmi-
grations of the various nations now scat-
tered over the face of the earth. Leibnitz
wrote on this subject in 1713, to the Czar
Peter the Great, and in 1716, to the Chan-sold among the books, proper for the ad-

cellor Schaffirow; both these letters, printed in the introduction to the present work, are preserved in the archives of the ministry for foreign affairs at Moscow.

This project laid dormant till the reign of Catherine II. when it was executed, towards the close of the last century. The Comparative Universal Vocabulary, published by her command, is the subject of the present memoir. M. Adelung has been assisted in his labours by a great number of manuscripts, bequeathed to him by the celebrated Pallas; by those found among the papers of Bacmeister, and by many other notices and communications, as well verbal as in writing. The volume has been inted at the expence of the Chancellor of State, Count Nicholas Petrovitch Romauzoff.

The first chapter treats on the endeavours, made by various learned men in Russia to combine a comparative Dictionary of the Languages spoken throughout the empire, from the close of the seventeenth century to 1780.

The second chapter contains the history of the origin of the Universal Comparative Vocabulary of Languages; with a detailed description of the work. The conception of this performance belongs to Catherine II. who engaged in it herself, during nine months of the year 1784. She collected in this time between two and three hundred radical words in the Russian language, and

was Russian

The third chapter comprizes Critical Analyses of the Universal Vocabulary, with certain Supplements and Additions.

In the fourth, and last, chapter, the author discusses the influence of the Universal Vocabulary on the General Study of Languages, and introduces several notices on the labours of various philologists dead, or still living in Russia.

The Bible Society of Petersburgh, under the direction of the Counsellor of State M. de Turgenet, which lately published a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew, in the Calmuck language, is about to publish a translation of the New Testament, in the Persian language.

The Latin title of the Calmuck Gospel is in these terms, erms, Evangelium S. Matthai in linguam Calmucco-Mongolicam translatum ab Isaaco Jacobo Schmidt; cura et studio Societatis Biblicæ Ruthenicæ typis impressum. It forms seventy pages in Qto. Petersburgh, 1815.

SWEDEN.

The King of Sweden has commanded Professor G. A. Silverstolpe, of Linkoeping, Historiographer of the kingdom, to compose a History of Sweden and Norway, during the time the two kingdoms were united. At the same time, the King conferred on the Professor the title of Counsellor of the Chancery, with a pension.

2 M2

:

i

1.

"

SPECULATION,

A CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ENGLISH
NATION.

disposition to emigrate to America, and elsewhere, which was not diminished at the Restoration of Charles II. when thousands who found themselves obnoxious to the Government, withdrew to the western Continent, in search of safety and peace.

We have lately had occasion to describe | our compatriots as injuring themselves and As discoveries advanced, the rumour of their Country, by the EXCESS to which wealth attached to them spread more powthey sometimes have carried principles erfully and extensively: and the scale on good in themselves, and by the hazards to which their concerns might be conducted which they have exposed their propertybecame enlarged, daily, in the opinion of their own capital-with that of others, those who esteemed themselves knowing. borrowed with the intention of deriving services for mutual benefit. It is probable, The funding system, introduced by that could we trace our Commercial Annals | William III. at the close of the seventeenth

to early ages, we should find somewhat of the same disposition prevalent among them. But, not to go further back than to the period of the discovery of America, we find that event giving rise to undertakings executed with every exertion of that ardour which has ever distinguished Englishmen.

Columbus brought to Europe gold: the successors of Columbus in the discovery and conquest of America brought gold: the desire of easily and rapidly acquiring that precious metal operated on others beside Spaniards; and the expectation of finding treasures yet unexplored, prompted the fitting out of many expeditions by private persons, for the purpose of further acquisitions. In this, our island took the lead; and the expeditions of Raleigh, and others, to the new world, are so many demonstrations of the speculative disposition of our countrymen. That those expeditions failed in their principal design, is well known; but they added the know. ledge of country after country, across the Atlantic, to the infinite advantage of the Public, though seldom much to their own.

century, with the establishment of the Bank of England, contributed greatly to direct speculators to the powers of combined capital, and they found that what was impossible to a few was easy to many; what even the revenue of the state could not accomplish, the subscriptions of a number of merchants had effected, and would continue to effect. They saw no limitation to the power of numerous associations, acting together in one body; and they perceived that this combination of power might be directed to an infinite variety of objects. Of this they took advantage: the turn of the Nation for Spe❘culation afforded opportunity: the example of a neighbouring nation, impoverished by war, as well as England itself rouzed the passions of the multitude, and all anticipated the enjoyment of sudden wealth.

The most astonishing instances of this mania were discovered in the famous South Sea year (1720) when the power of invention was pushed to the utmost, and was rivalled only by the power of delusion; in which, not a few of the simple kind only, were involved, but the whole nation, with its most conspicuous characters, either openly, or covertly, We look back on that period with astonishment,-and

To the discovery of America, and of a passage to the East Indies by sea, we are indebted for much of the readiness with which commercial adventures of long course were undertaken: these occasion-yet, perhaps, could the sufferers under

ally, though only occasionally, afforded great profits;-and their cost was forgot in the gain they produced. The evils of the following times at home encouraged a

those projects have looked forward to some of the proposals which have found patrons in the present day, they would have felt at least an equal degree of overwhelming

« PreviousContinue »