The newspapers of the last few weeks teem with biographies of Pinkerton, the geographer; although there was much of mere book-making in this author's works, still he was unquestionably an able and ingenious man. His work on medals evinced considerable talent and research, and his splendid modern Atlas eclipsed every thing of the kind that had preceded it. We are sorry to add that he died in great poverty and distress at Paris. All the Critical Journals from the Quarterly Review, downwards seem to be agreed as to the merits of the admirable little volume, entitled 'Six Months in the West Indies.' It presents the only fair and impartial view of West India Slavery that has yet been given to the British public; a view widely at variance with that delineated at the late various public meetings throughout England, by the 'righteous over much' ultra Philanthropists of the African Society. A Greenock newspaper mentions the discovery of a curious piece of antiquity in a quarry (Auchmead), which is being wrought in that part of Scotland. It is described to be a silver or mixed-metallic horse-shoe, connected with a petrifaction of wood, and both embedded 5 feet deep in the solid rock. This situation refers it to a period so remote, that even an antediluvian existence is attributed to it. Dr. P. A Nuttall has just published an edition of Virgil's Buclogues, with an interlineal translation, and a treatise on Latin versification. We can conscientiously declare that we are not acquainted with so useful an elementary work of the kind as this. The treatise on Latin versification contains more valuable information, simply and perspicuously conveyed, than is to be found in all our old grammars put together. There are few subjects in which people are so absurdly bigotted as school books, (witness the sale of one half the elementary books now before the public) or the merits of Dr. Nuttall's volume would speedily ensure for it universal adoption in our public as well as private seminaries. The present London Lion' is Carle Von Weber; and all the world and his wife are running to hear his very delightful opera of Oberon. It is not, we believe, generally known, that the public is indebted for the introduction of Weber's music into this country, to Mr. Brockedon, the artist; who being struck with the beauty of some of it which he heard while travelling on the continent, brought it over, and made Mr. Arnold acquainted with its merits. The score of Der Freischutz was subsequently obtained, and the opera was brought out at the English Opera House in that superior style which at once stamped it with popularity. On the 17th of last month, the pictures, drawings, and sketches of the French Painter, David, were sold in Paris. The catalogue, drawn up by M. Pérignon, is extremely interesting; it mentions the Mars disarmed by Venus; the Andromache weeping for Hector; the Apelles painting Campaspe; the Buonaparte at Mount St. Bernard; with several other pictures of the principal events in the life of Napoleon; besides numerous sketches and studies made during the artist's residence in Rome. Among the modern subjects, is the drawing of the Tennis-court, several portraits, and two pictures of the members of the Legislative Assembly, and of the Convention. David was one of the most sanguinary ruffians of the Legislative Assembly, if he be not grossly belied. The Northern Society at Leeds, intend having an Exhibition this year, composed of both Modern and Ancient Pictures. Mr. Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, has, we understand, already offered in the handsomest terms, as many of the splendid Paintings and Drawings by Turner, which enrich his collection, as the Society may wish to exhibit. The Gallery will open in July. This is the best Institution of the kind out of London. If Manchester, instead of expending all its money upon a building, had, in the first instance- formed an Institution to occupy it, it might have had some chance of rivalling its neighbour; as it is, it can never be expected to possess an Institution half as likely to benefit the Fine Arts as the one in question. There is about to be published, in one volume 8vo., the narrative of a tour through Hawaii, or Owhyhee; with an account of the geology, natural scenery, productions, volcanoes, &c. &c.; history, superstitions, traditions, manners and customs of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands; a grammatical view of their language, with specimens; the account given of the death of Captain Cook by the natives; and biographical notices of the late King and Queen, who died in London. By W. Ellis, missionary from the Society and Sandwich Islands. We trust this volume will be free from the cant usually to be met with in publications emanating from British missionaries. The Lord Chancellor has been sitting to Sir Thomas Lawrence for his full-length portrait. The painting is said to be for the King. The subject of the Seatonian prize poem for the present year is The Transfiguration. The subjects for the present year are, for the Members' Prizes for Senior Bachelors: Quales fuerunt antiquorum Philosophorum de animi immortalitate opiniones, et ex quânam origine ductæ ?—Middle Bachelors: Quibusnam præcipuê artibus recentiores antiquos exsuperant ? A. M. Lagnel has constructed a machine, which is at present at work on the Rhone, by which he contrives to tow vessels against the stream at the rate of three quarters of a league in the hour; the ordinary rate of vessels towed by horses being two leagues and a half, or three leagues in a day. He has presented a model of his machine, on the scale of an inch to a foot, to the French Academy of Sciences. Dr. Holland states, that when travelling in Iceland he heard one of Mozart's melodies played and sung by an Icelandic girl, and that some months afterwards he heard the very same air sung to the guitar by a Greek lady, at Salonica. Yet the son of that immortal genius, who has dispensed delight from one extremity of Europe to the other, and still rules the entranced senses of millions, Charles Mozart, is a poor music-master at Milan! The specimens of natural history brought home in the Blonde are intended for the British Museum, and consist of geological specimens, together with a few specimens of silver and copper ore from Coquimbo, Chili, and a specimen of tungsten from South Shetland; also an interesting series of volcanic rocks, lava, and sulphur, from the Galapagos, and from the interior of the crater of the volcano Pali, in Owhyhee. There are above one hundred varieties of birds, chiefly from Chili, with a few from the Sandwich and other Islands in the Pacific. Insects, shells, and marine subjects from the coast of America and the Sandwich Islands, constitute the remainder of the collection. The Croakers have testified, (as Mause Headrigg did in the grass-market') against the cost of the late purchases for the National Gallery. They think £9000. too much, forsooth; and seem to consider that their tastes ought to have been consulted on the occasion. On the other hand, by all persons who have the smallest pretension to any acquaintance with the Fine Arts, they are considered cheap. Each diurnal and weekly scribe finds something to cavil at; the Titian is too blue, the Caracci too black, and the Coreggio, a copy!-The Times and Herald differ upon the subject. But this they do on every thing that is national. John Bull considers he has a prescriptive right to abuse every thing, from the national King, Church, and Constitution, to the national Gallery. Would that such hyporcritics were hung on its walls, as warnings to other birds of ill-omen. The three paintings lately obtained for this Institution are by Poussin, Annibal, Caracci, and Titian. A splendid collection of paintings, the property of Lord Berwick and other amateurs, has been disposed of by auction within these last few days. The pictures were about two hundred in number. The principal picture was an historical composition of Rubens-The Continence of Scipio, an absurd subject for an artist to choose, since it is one of that class which is impossible to express by the pencil; this, however, was always of the least importance to Rubens, provided he could make a picture splendid and harmonious in colouring, which he has most successfully done in the present instance. The picture is from the Orleans' collection, and appears to have been painted about the same time with those of the Luxembourgh at Paris. This was reserved for the last day's sale.-A picture, which excited much interest, was a Virgin and Child, by Murillo, long distinguished as a chef d'œuvre in the Santa Cruz collection,' and for which Lord Berwick gave two thousand five hundred pounds. This was knocked down to a dealer for five hundred guineas. Mr. Phillips stated, that there was a similar one in the possession of Marshal Soult, for which the Marshal asked eight thousand guineas. Our directors of the National Gallery were in fact lately treating with the Marshal for the purchase of it. The Murillo is admirable for its composition and fine tone of colours, but the characters have a defect very common in this artist's work-vulgarity. This is more apparent in the Child, probably because we more expect a divine air. A most beautiful Fete Champetre, by Watteau, in his highly finished manner, and resembling in its tones those inthe possession of his Majesty, fetched twenty-two pounds. A portrait of Rembrandt's Wife, as Lucretia, in a Dutch dress, by Rembrandt, fetched 190 guineas. A Ruysdael, with figures by Ostade, from Count Walmoden's collection, 90 guineas. A very celebrated picture by Vanderheyden, about a foot square-View near the Hague, with a group of Cattle in the fore ground, fetched 61 guineas. A fine picture by that finished painter, Vanderwerf, of Adam and Eve lamenting the Death of Cain, 35 guineas. A very clever Battle Piece, with portraits of Louis XIV. and Staff, by Vandermeulen, 32 guineas. A Landscape by De Koning, an inferior master, 180 guineas; a Landscape by Gaspar Poussin, 100 guineas; and Joseph interpreting his Dream, by Victor, a second-rate pupil of Rubens, for 125 guineas. The sale of the above and many other admirable pictures proportionably cheap affords a proof how greatly the 'Black-masters' are decreasing in pecuniary value. Baudin, (brothers) booksellers, Paris, have just published the work which Buonaparte wrote in his twenty-first year, for the Academy of Lyons, and which is often referred to in the Memorial from St. Helena. The popular belief in the venomous nature of the toad, which has of late years been rejected as a 'vulgar error,' decidedly so by Cuvier and other eminent naturalists, turns out to be correct. O'Keefe is publishing his Reminiscences (and very amusing they are) in the New Monthly Magazine. He is in, by no means, the indigent circumstances we were led by the public newspapers to suppose. The Boa Constrictor, it appears, from recent experiments made in India, casts its first skin on the fourteenth day after it is hatched from the egg, which is about the size of that of a goose, and soft. The serpent is at first about eighteen inches in length, and grows rapidly. A medal has lately been struck in Germany, in honour of the celebrated Goethe. The design is by Professor Levezow, and the execution by Koenig, medalleur to the King of Saxony. On the front is the head of the poet, (a striking likeness,) crowned with the consecrated laurel, with the inscription, John Wolfg von Goethe.' On the reverse, the full-length figure of the poet, in the antique costume, between the tragic and comic muses, who are crowning him with the garland of immortality. The very excellent article, entitled The British Empire,' in the last number of the Monthly Review is said to be the production of the Rev. Mr. Croly. How could such a paper as this and the one on the Currency ever harbour under any blue cover more exclusive than the sky? One of the neatest and most useful volumes we are acquainted with has lately issued from the press, entitled A General Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom.' By John Burke, Esq. We have had occasion to make some pretty frequent references to this volume, and find it more correct than such works generally are; although not altogether faultless. The graphical illustrations are numerous and well executed. There is no lover of the drama who will not regret to hear that that incomparable actress, Mrs. Siddons, has met with an accident which may prove fatal to her. She lately had a severe fall, which has affected the spine of her back in such a manner as, at her advanced time of life, must be contemplated as dangerous in the extreme. A Russian Peasant, of the name of Fedor Slapuschkin, has attracted so much notice as an uneducated poet, that the Minister for Public Instruction has published his book, Leisure hours of a Villager;' and the Emperor, Empresses, and Royal Academy, have distinguished him by presents and honours. An expurgated edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is, we perceive, about to be published. Mr. Bowdler has acted the part of Procrustes on the occasion. Really this sort of humbug has reached a very absurd climax. Mr. Bowdler might give the young ladies of England an expurgated edition of Mr. Moore's poetry with some prospect of advantage; but we cannot believe that any good can result from this cutting and maiming' of our standard historians. We do not believe that any person has ever been made an infidel by reading Gibbon; nor can we suppose that the many gross allusions which occur in Shakespeare have ever operated disadvantageously on British females. Passages calculated to excite unmitigated disgust are never dangerous. It is the pruriencies of such writers as the author of 'Little's Poems,' and the Odes and Epistles,' which are really pernicious in their tendency. This is what John Bull has nicknamed, not unhappily, HUMFUMMERY ! In the last number of the Revue Encyclopedique there is an account of a very extraordinary proposal, viz. to communicate verbal intelligence in a few moments to vast distances, and this not by symbols, as in the telegraph, but in distinct articulate sounds, uttered by the human voice. This plan originated with an Englishman, Mr. Dick, according to whose experiments the human voice may be made intelligible at the distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. Mr. Stuart Newton's scene from the Beggar's Opera has already been purchased by the Marquis of Lansdowne, and will appear at Somerset-house. It is by much the best work this rising Artist has as yet produced. Macheath is excellent. The very handsome rascal is dressed in the true taste of his time, a scarlet coat with wide sleeves, richly embroidered, a satin waist-coat flowered in silver, purple breeches with rolled stockings, and a pair of most formidable jack boots. He sits in a lolling attitude, his legs stretched before him in their irons, his hat cocked magnificently over his left eye, a glass of port in his left hand, and the right reposing amidst the rich lace that adorns his bosom. His eyes are half shut, and a half smile plays upon his lips. Lucy, a comely black-haired vixen, leans on his shoulder to the right, with one beautiful little hand extended, as if hesitating between expostulation and a slap; but Polly is the gem of the picture. She sits at the other end of the little green table on which the Captain's half-exhausted bottle of port, and a flask of brandy with the corkscrew just inserted, are displayed with her hands clasped before her, gazing on the Lothario with looks so gentle and imploring, that it seems rather unaccountable how the burden of his thoughts should be •How happy could I be with either,' Polly is a charming blonde, and, though not quite a lady, seems well entitled to have such a personage as Miss Lucy as her maid. In an archway behind, Mr. Lockit is seen with the Captain's sword and pistols under his left arm,, repelling with the right the advance of three more young ladies, one of them as ladies wish to be,' the second with a baby in her arms, and the third, and most remote, brandishing a maturer production over the heads of the others, that it at least may obtain a glimpse of its papa. 6 There is no accounting for the rate at which some persons estimate ther own value. A correspondent who signs himself Y. O. D., and who expresses his anxiety to be allowed to devote his moments to that very pleasing production, the Literary Magnet,' at the very moderate premium of £156. per annum, sends us a song about London Lasses as a specimen of his talents, one verse of which (in allusion to Master Cupid) is as follows: Venus with a view to teaze him Sent him next to Mount Parnassus; This is, we assure our readers, about an average specimen of the talents of from a dozen to twenty literary aspirants who apply to us from month to month for em ployment and remuneration, on a scale of liberality, the exhorbitance of which, is in exact proportion to their relative ignorance and imbecility. It is invariably with communications to which no stretch of politeness on the part of the authors would induce us to give insertion, that we receive such modest proposals as the foregoing; 'three pounds a week for present means;' so that when the entire energies of this person's powerful mind are devoted to our pleasing production' we might expect, to have to pay him twenty pounds a week. This is really somewhat beyond a joke. THE LITERARY MAGNET. JUNE, 1826. THE SILK TRADE. * To those who may wish to become acquainted with the history of the silk trade in this country, Mr. Moreau's work will be found highly useful. They cannot fail to admire the clear, succinct, and accurate manner in which he has compressed so many facts in so narrow a compass. We state this in the outset, in justice to the author, to whose minute and admirably arranged details, it is here impossible to do more than allude. We must be equally brief in our allusion to the history of the trade-the rigid prohibitions by which it was originally, and, till lately, fostered; the restrictions by which it was beset; and the numerous bounties and drawbacks by which it was protected and encouraged. The first gave it the monopoly of England, to the exclusion of the foreigner; the second gave it a local monopoly in favour of certain persons; and the third operated as a poll-tax upon the nation at large, to enable the manufacturers of silks to obtain a remunerating profit on such goods as they were pleased to export to our allies, the republicans of America. Such was the silk trade-it was created by prohibitive laws, and, like the exotic plants in our conservatories, kept alive by artificial means. Had the government of this country at any remote period-when, for instance, our supplies were limited by embargo or blockade-encouraged at home the cultivation of the grape, in order to produce a supply of wine of internal growth, equal to the quantity we had been accustomed to import and consume, it is not improbable that, by virtue of prohibitory laws, and an artificial atmosphere, we might have produced an article equalling, in our own estimation, the wines of Portugal and Spain. Had such an experiment been tried, and continued for any considerable length of time, there cannot be a doubt, that year after year, we would have improved our grape culture, * Rise and Progress of the Silk Trade in England, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. (Feb. 1826.) Founded on Official Documents. By Cesar Moreau. London. Treuttel and Co. 1826. 5s. Speech of the Right Hon. W. Huskisson in the House of Commons, Thursday the 23d of February, 1826, on Mr. Ellice's Motion for a select committee, to inquire into and examine the Statements contained in the various Petitions from Persons engaged in the Silk Manufacture. 8vo. pp. 59. 1s. 6d. London. Hatchard and Son. 1826. |