become considerable, that means will be afforded of giving rewards and premiums to teachers of distinguished merit and ability; to which ushers, as chiefly holding the labouring oar, will most likely succeed. What an expansive field is here before us! If encouragement be given to good teachers, we may reasonably hope that they will exert themselves to obtain the rewards, which will be both honourable and profitable; for the enlightened committee of this society, who know how to estimate the feelings as well as the wants of their brethren, will, no doubt, suggest various ways to gratify the objects of their attention, and spur them on to laudable industry and emulation. Thus the country may expect, by degrees, that an improved set of teachers will arise; and from improved teachers we shall find better scholars: the mind will be opened and meliorated, and sound principles inculcated. But the more immediate purpose of this institution is to relieve and protect the aged, the helpless, and the unfortunate: and it is not a little remarkable, that while almost every other profession is provided with asylums, either by institutions of national munificence, or by endowments of private bounty, schoolmasters alone have yet made no appeal to the generosity of the public,' although no class of men have a stronger claim on public gratitude; nor is there any occupation that has a more rapid tendency to exhaust the powers, both of body and mind, than the labours of a school when conscientiously discharged. As humble instruments have been, not unfrequently, the means, in the hands of Providence, to work great ends, so I have already had much satisfaction in seeing very liberal encouragement given to this institution, merely on my stating its object and plan; and the approbation which has been thus manifested by many wise, good, and exalted persons, gives me confident hopes that the society will in time be greatly patronized, and produce extensive benefit to the country.” At the general half-yearly meeting of the society for the support and encouragement of Sunday Schools in England, Wales, Ireland, and the adjacent islands, held on the 11th of April, the committee reported, that within the last half year seventy-eight schools had been added to those which were previously upon the society's list. Since the commencement of this institution, the society has distri buted 285,672 spelling books, 62,166 testaments, and 7714 bibles, to 3348 schools, containing upwards of 270,000 scholars; in addition to which the sum of 41767 has been given for the payment of such teachers as could not be procured without pecuniary reward. Among the details which mark the progress of the society, the committee particularly ad 事 verted to the result of their proceedings in the islands, and in Ireland. In the Isle of Man alone, fourteen schools, comprehending a total of 1030 scholars, are now established; and at Dublin a Sunday School society has recently been formed with the promise of speedy and extensive operation FRANCE. M. PARMENTIER has published some reflections on the hypnum crispum, a species of moss, proposed, on account of the dearness of wool, as a substitute for stuffing mattresses and furniture. The moss, which is of a moderate length, and has a somewhat fragrant smell, grows upon trees, particularly beech, is gathered in August and September, and when beaten like flocks, does not retain moisture or form into lumps like them. It is little liable to decay, and it is only necessary to dry it in the shade to preserve its fragrance. Neither sweat nor urine produces any fermentation in this moss, as it does in wool; but lest moisture should cause it to germinate, it may be steeped in lime-water, which destroys its power of vegetation. It is said to be free from the property of imbibing and commu nicating contagion, which animal sub stances possess. M. GAUSS, a correspondent of the National Institute, has this obtained year the prize-medal, founded by the celebrated Lalande, for the author of the best astronomical memoir. According to a calculation by M. CoQUEBERT MONTBRET, the French empire at present contains the following population: inhabitants who speak the French language, 28,126,000; the Ger man, 2,705,000; the Flemish, 2,277,000; the Breton, 967,000; the Basque, 108,000: forming a total of 38,262,000. The Ionian Academy, instituted at Corfu, the ancient Corcyra, has announced, that, after the example of an cient Greece, it will every four years decree various Olympic prizes for the promotion of the arts and sciences. At these Olympic festivals, the prize will be adjudged to him who, during the preceding four years, has written the best work in the modern Greek language, and produced the best modern Greek translation from a foreign language, particularly the French. The olive wreath with which the victor is to be publicly crowned, will be hung up in the academy, with an inscription recording his name, work, and country. The first distribution of prizes is fixed for the 15th of The Society of Emulation, of Colmar, has been for several years successfully engaged on projects of important agricultural improvements, to be introduced into the department of the Upper Rhine; and its views in this respect are powerfully seconded by baron Desportes, the prefect of that department. Among these ameliorations may be instanced the plan for an extended cultivation of the mulberry-tree, in order to form establishments for breeding silk-worms; a culture which will be the more desirable, as from local circumstances, which are not likely to be removed, the vineyards in this departiment are much on the decline. There have been already formed very considerable nurseries for this tree, which will soon afford materials for numerous plantations; and in addition to these, the society have lately acquired three hundred trees of the growth of five years, which will enable them to begin their observations and experiments with silkworms immediately. In the first place, however, they found it necessary to procure a good elementary treatise on the cultivation of the mulberry-tree. In consequence of an application which they made to such of their own members as possessed any experience on this subject, M. CALVEL, who was before known as the author of some excellent works on plantations of this kind, as well as on general subjects of agriculture, undertook to supply this desideratum; and his composition has given so much satisfaction to the society, that they have resolved to print it in the French and German lan guages, and to present the author with a gold medal of the value of three hundred francs (121. 10s.) tivation. Though this wool is not a complete substitute for foreign cotton, it however produces a stronger thread, which is particularly fine and fit for any kind of woven stuff. The experiments of M. Angelo having been tried and approved of by a committee of select, learned, and skilful, workmen, his Austrian majesty was pleased to enable him to prosecute his invention on a larger scale; binding him, at the same time, to publish the manipulation of the properties of the plants, and of the whole previous process of this new materialf or spinning. The emperor therefore commanded that a large house at Tuln should be appropriated to this ingenious gentleman, for the establishment of a manufactory of stuffs from this wool, and that a capital of 20,000 florins should, be advanced to him out of the public funds, with the promise that after the lapse of three years, if the manufactory attained such a degree of perfection as to produce in the first year 500cwt. of goods, in the second 1,000cwt. and the third 1,500cwt. the 20,000 florins should become his own property, and that he should receive for each of the two years, 25,000 florins more, as the reward of his industry, in addition to the premises belonging to the manufactory. He has however been obliged to make known the secret of his invention, and the whole course of his proceedings, and to give instruction to any of his majesty's subjects wishing to form a like establish ment. M. EBEL, of Bavaria, has recently published a geological work on the structure of the Alps, which is reported to contain much novelty, and to coincide entirely with the experiments made by Humboldt. According to their system, it is not true that granite is the nucleus of the surface of the earth; on the contrary, we find as many strata of granite as of any of the other integral substances of mountains. These strata of stones in the mountains were formed by crystallization in the sea of Chaos, and are found in a great measure on the same line from Savoy to Hungary. The earth, according to these ideas, resembles a prism of crystal, the edges of which have been worn away by the flux and reflux of the waters, without the ruins of these points having entirely filled up the ca vities. This view of the subject is expected to lead to important results; but it will at the same time discourage those who who still hope to find the solid nucleus of the earth. It begins to be embraced by the geologists of the continent, in preference to the systems which they had before adopted. ITALY. In the month of October last, a fresh search was made for antiquities in the ruins of the ancient Pompeii, by order of their Neapolitan majesties. On this occasion, the CHEVALIER ARDITI, SUperintendant of the Royal Museum, presented several pieces of ancient pitch, a vessel full of wheat, a piece of coral, several beautiful paintings, and a lamp of baked earth in the form of a leaf, and bearing a Latin inscription. This lamp was covered with a very fine varnish, or vitrification, which gave it a silvery or pearly appearance. It seems therefore that those authors are mistaken, who assert that this vitrification was not invented till the fifteenth century, by a Florentine sculptor. Their majesties having expressed a desire to have some of the ruins dug up under their own inspection, the workmen had the good fortune to find several pieces of money of various denominations; a number of bronzes, among which was a very fine vase, and an urn for wine; some articles formed of bones; a great quantity of glasses, of various shapes and sizes; and in particular, several vases improperly denominated Etruscan, with Latin in scriptions. They also discovered various works in marble, some comic masks, a few small but elegant altars, adorned with basso relievos and weights, marked on the upper side with cyphers. Hitherto only a single subterraneous habitation, erroneously called a cantino, but which ought rather to have been named cryptoportico, had been found at Pompeii. In the recent excavations, another, consisting of several stories, was discovered. It is remarkable, for having in one corner, a pipe or tube of stucco, intended for the conveyance of smoke. This discovery scems to set at rest a question long agitated by the learned, whether the ancients were acquainted with the use of vents or chimnies for carrying off smoke. In the same apartments were found several pieces of marble and alabaster, valuable on account of the basso-relievos and inscriptions with which they are adorned. Their majesties then pro ceeded to a triclinium, or dining-apartment, recently discovered. The walls are covered with paintings in the best taste, representing fishes, birds, and game of all kinds. Here are three couches of masonry, in perfect preservation, upon which the ancients reclined during their meals; and near them is still to be seen a marble foot, which must have served to support the table. RUSSIA. The celebrated traveller, M. HENDEN STROM, has paid a second visit to the countries discovered to the north of Siberia, which are denominated in the best maps, the country of Listickof, or Sannikof. He has found them to be only an island; but farther to the north, this traveller discovered a country watered by considerable streams, which he thought formed part of the continent. He examined the coasts to the extent of one hundred and seventy wersts, and found them covered with great trees petrified, and lying in heaps one upon another. The hills are formed of scarcely any thing but slates, petrified wood, and coal. This country he has named New Siberia. In his researches there, M. Hendenstrom has found the claws of a gigantic bird, which seems to have belonged to a species at present unknown. These claws are described as being each a yard in length. The Yakuts have assured him, that in their hunting excur sions, they have frequently met with skeletons, and even feathers, of the bird. This discovery cannot fail of proving in teresting to naturalists, since it strength. ens the probability that, together with the Mammoths, Mastodontes, and other gigantic quadrupeds, now extinct, there existed both in the animal and vegetable kingdom, species of corresponding dimensions, and in all probability a world quite different from our own. M. KARAMSIN, historiographer to the emperor, is diligently employed upon a History of the Russian Empire. He has already brought it down to the time of Dmitrji Donskoi; but does not intend to give the result of his labours to the public, till he has arrived at the epoch of the elevation of the Czar Michali Fedorowitsch to the throne. It is said that M. Karamsin has received considerable assistance from the Wolhynian Annals, discovered by him, together with the ecclesiastical ordinances of Joho, metropolitan of Kiow, cotempo rary with Nestor, and the code of Prince Swatosław Olgowitsch, who lived in the 12th century; as also from the Russian Chronicles of the fourteenth century Count SANTI, the Russian envoy at the court of Stockholin, has just published a Statistical and Topographical Tableau of the Grand Duchy of Finland. This work displays the industry and knowledge of the author, as much as his translation in French verse of the maspoet KELter-pieces of the Swedish GREN, announces his talents and refined taste. GREECE. M. FAUVEL, a correspondent of the French National Institute, and resident at Athens, has addressed a letter from that place to M. MONGEZ, from which the following is an extract: "I have already informed you of a discovery that has been made here, on the subject of the ancient Athenian festival called Hy drophoriæ, concerning which our knowledge before was very imperfect. This was a ceremony in memory of Deucalion's flood, and its celebration consisted partly in casting vessels into On the 10 h of July, 1808, M. Roque, a French merchant residing here, having employed some workmen to clean out his well, which is is situated near the entrance of the agora (the market,) they found several remains of antiquity, which have served to throw a light on this point. The first objects of their discovery were a quantity of common earthenware vases, unvarnished, of different forms and sizes. Fifteen feet below these, were about twenty Athenian medals of bronze, representing incidents in the story of Theseus, and bearing the legend ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ. There was also a handsome marble figure of a philosopher, with scrolls bound together lying at his feet: this piece was only eight inches in length, and of capital workmanship; but the head was wanting. With these were several articles of figured bone, bodkins, syringe pipes, spatulas, ear-pickers, and dice; the last much resembling those used at present: wells and streams of water. all these articles had become of an emerald colour, through the operation of the water, which appeared of a vitriolic quality. There were, besides, artificial pine apples and peachstones, very little injured by time. The well in question is of the depth of a hundred feet: at the bottom were found some thin leaves of lead, which I unfolded, but they bore no marks of having been used for writing on. On some of the vases are written the following names, with a pen and ink: XaMOPOITOT, and CN MITPOAPаANA: and on a piece of lead, with a hole in it for the purpose of putting a string through, is written EICIA POY. One of the vases is still covered with bitumen, and was certainly used for keeping wine: it has no handles, and is pointed at the bottom, and MEXICO. Few parts of North America have been the subjects of mineralogical research in so great a degree as this country. The mines with which it abounds, have been explored by the Spaniards with much care: the government has encouraged scientific chemists to analyse the ores, and has established a seminary of mineralogy at Mexico. The Mineralogical Tables of M. KARSTEN, Superintendant of mines to the king of Prussia, have been translated into Spanish by don ANDROS MANUEL DEL RIO, and printed at Mexico, with an addition of peculiar value, adapting them to the state of the science in that country. The first four columns of the tables contain the classes, orders, genera, and species, of the minerals; and the sixth, the ingredients of which they are composed, according to the latest investigations. In the fifth column, don Andros has given a capital example of mineralogical topography, by indicating the particular places in the district of Mexico, in which the minerals described by European writers have been discovered; leaving blank those articles which have not come with in his observation, to give an opportu nity to students and others of supplying these deficiencies. By these means we may venture to hope that in the course of a few years we shall possess a knowledge not only of all the minerals of Mexico, but likewise of the spots in which they are found. Don Andros has besides given, in his edition of these tables, many original particulars con cerning the four classes of earths, stones, salts, and metals: he has also added to the value of his work, which is printed in small folio, by an account of the fossils that have been lately described by M. HAUY in his Mineralogy; and has made use of informatic, which he has derived from M. HUMBOLDT, the celebrated traveller. DON ANDROS DEL RIO has also pub Jished at Mexico, the second part of the Elements of Oryctology, arranged according to the system of M. WERNER. This work, which was composed expressly for the use of the royal school of minera logy, is embellished with three geological engravings, designed from the opinions of Humboldt on the structure of the earth. Switzerland. MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF THE FINE ARTS. The Use of all New Prints, Communication of Articles of Intelligence, &c. ure requested under COVER to the Care of the Publisher. fight." De Loutherbourg, P. J. And Cowper, in the following energetic Marchant, Nathaniel lines: Nollekens, Joseph Thomson, Henry West, Benjamin Woodford, S. Bigg, W. R... .... ASSOCIATES. Bone, |