the above kind, but many parts of it are badly conceived and worse executed. As far as relates to the expression of natural passion (and it is this expression which constitutes the essence of all works of high art in the department we are contemplating), the inmates of a court are as much objects of still-life as the chairs they sit on, or the clothes they wear. If passion itself be not altogether banished from the precincts of a palace, every outward expression of it is, in modern times, as studiously kept out of sight as a personal defect would be. It is high treason against the majesty of etiquette. How, then, can a court ceremony be made the subject of a great work of art in the historical class?-We repeat, the work before us, regarded in this light, is totally worthless. But it appears that this picture was undertaken at the Emperor's express desire, and executed under his own immediate inspection; so that he may be considered as having in some measure had a hand in it and in fact he had so, to a very curious and characteristic effect, as will be seen hereafter. It also presents a vast collection of authentic portraits, including a great number of the most remarkable persons who have figured in the extraordinary events of the last twenty years in connexion with the greatest character of modern times. It is in this point of view that the work before us becomes highly interesting, and that we recommend it to the attention of our readers. Separate, but unauthenticated portraits, of most of these persons, have, from time to time, reached the public eye in England; but here we have most of them gathered together round their great master, painted by the best artist he could find in his kingdom, and for his own immediate inspection; so that we may safely regard them as unexceptionable in this respect; and the picture altogether, as painted under the most favourable circumstances that a picture of this kind can be.

It is singular, that, though the picture professes to represent the Corona tion of Napoleon, the time chosen is the moment when he is placing the crown on the head of the Empress Josephine. It appears that this arrangement was chosen by himself, aud it is one of those curious particulars to

which we have alluded above. It seems to have been adopted simply because it represents him in the most graceful and favourable point of view. In performing this ceremony, he himself placed the crown upon his own head; and this act, whatever might be the policy of it at the time, would not have told so well, either as a part of the work, or with Posterity, for whose especial use the picture was painted. The same view towards posterity induced him to order that Madame Mere should be introduced into the picture, with all her household, though she was not present; and it made him insist on having the Pope, drawn in the direct and unequivocal attitude of blessing the ceremony; though, in point of fact, the old man obstinately refused to do so, and sat still during the whole of it, with his hands on his knees, as the painter had at first represented him. These little touches of shallow art-of almost low cunning-contrast most strangely, and at the same time, most instructively, with the grand and comprehensive reaches of state policy, which Napoleon was so capable of conceiving, and of carrying into triumphant execution.

But the portraits are, after all, nearly the sole attraction of this picture; and on their account, notwithstanding its almost entire want of merit as a great work of art, it must be considered as one of the most interesting of all that have been before the public, singly, for many years. Among these portraits, that which would naturally attract the attention first, is far from being either striking or characteristic. It is as imperial and inexpressive as the crown it bears. To say the truth, we do not conceive M. DAVID to be capable of giving the true character of Napoleon's head. It was more like a fiue marble bust, than a living and breathing type of the mind within it. Not that the expressions were not there; but they required a more than common keenness of glance even to detect them; and to represent them, required the hand of a Titian, which DAVID had not. Napoleon's was a shut countenance; DAVID seems to have succeeded much better, in the more marked and open ones-those which gave their worst and best of thoughts, their worst and best of looks. Conspicuous

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among these latter we have Talleyrand; who, if he held that " speech was given to man to conceal his thoughts," did not seem to be very scrupulous about letting the general habit and tenor of them peep out of his face. The head of this extraordinary person is no less striking than it is repulsive. There is a little of the look of Voltaire in it—a little of his piercing glance into the human heart-added to the cunning, impudent, and self-satisfied look of a mountebank at a fair-a French mountebank. Near to Talleyrand stands Cambaceres-bold, firm, prudent, and full of thought. This is one of the most marked heads in the picture. Immediately behind Napoleon, we have two very interesting portraits; those of the Pope, and the Cardinal Caprara, the Roman Legate. In the former of these there is, together with a kind and gentle simplicity of expression, a look of mild abstraction, as if he felt himself to be "a weed that had no business there." The Cardinal Caprara has a rather singular head, and one that combines expressions which seem hardly compatible with each other. The forehead, however, is fine, and produces a very good effect in this part of the picture. In the group to the right of the centre, we have three distinguished persons standing by the side of each other :-Eugene Beauharnois, Caulincourt, and Bernadotte. The first of these was a chivalrous and high-spirited person; but he does not look such here. We are sorry for this; we like to see "the mind's observance in the face," whether it be good or bad. But somehow or other it did so happen that these "children and champions of the Revolution" were not the chief favourites of Nature-if we may judge by the outward gifts she bestowed upon them. And, to say the truth, there was a strange mixture of that which was not good in the best of them. Well-they are in the service of the Bourbons now, and their looks may perhaps improve!-Caulincourt and Bernadotte have heads, uncharacteristic, hard featured, and coarse, but bold, wary, and resolute. One of them is a legitimate now; but his looks bely him-which is as it should be.

Turning to the group opposite Napoleon, we have a few portraits which

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are still more interesting than most of the above-named. In front of this group kneels the kind, good, and universally beloved Josephine, on whose head the Emperor is about to place the crown. She is represented (we know not by what pictorial licence) as some twenty years younger than she must have been at the time of the event. But we can forgive the painter for flattering her, since he has made the Prince of Benevento look like what he is. Behind the Empress, as one of her Dames d'Honneur, stands the gentle and heroical Madame Lavalette, looking like herself. Perhaps, in our present stage of civilization, nature is not to be trusted in all things. She is obliged, sometimes, to bely herself, in her own defence. Accordingly, she occasionally writes a lie upon the face of man; but, on that of woman, never. The only other conspicuous person in this group is Murat. The best that can be said of him is, that he looks out of his place here-his hand fingering a velvet cushion, instead of grasping a sword, and his white plume waving above a kneeling lady, instead of floating in front of the tide of battle. The remainder of this group is wretchedly painted, though the heads included in it are all portraits; there is no individual character in any one of them, unless it be in that of D'Astroz, Grand Vicar of Paris; and three or four of them might be mistaken for likenesses of one and the same person. Above this group are three galleries, one over the other; the lower containing the Emperor's mother and her household, who were not present at the ceremony; the second contains several heads that would be interesting to us, if they were executed with any talent. Among them are DAVID himself, and his wife and two daughters; Gretry, the_musician; Lebrun, the poet, &c. But they are so ill painted (probably, on account of its being necessary, for the sake of etiquette, to keep them under, and throw them into perspective,) that they are little better than so many blots in the picture. The gallery above contains such of the public as were allowed to be present. The last department of the work that we shall notice, and by much the least meritorious as to the detail of it, contains the brothers and sisters of Napo

leon; Hortense, the beautiful wife of Beauharnois; the wife of Joseph Napoleon; and a long list of forgotten chamberlains, governors, chevaliers d'honneur, &c., &c., making up the secondary officers of the imperial court. Nothing can be much worse executed than the details of this part of the picture: the drawing is wretched, the colouring execrable, and the individual character given to the faces is none at all. But the composition and general effect (particularly of the back part of the group, which leads the eye out of the picture,) is not bad. On the whole, notwithstanding we feel ourselves called upon to state our decided opinion, that this picture justifies all the censures which have been passed on the French school, and on its author In particular, who is the celebrated

leader of it, yet we are equally bound, and still more willing, to add our no less decided opinion, that it is a work likely to excite great interest in this country, chiefly for the reasons we have stated above. In fact, the principal portraits contained in it may safely be accepted as the most authentic we shall ever obtain, of the persons represented. The picture is the largest now existing, or that has ever been painted in modern times.

THE WORKS OF CANOVA.-Engraved in outline by H. Moses.-The first number of an elegant publication, under the above title, has just appeared. Rather than give a hurried and inadequate notice of this very pleasing work, we shall defer our remarks on it, till next month; by which time a second number will be before us.

Oxford, Dec. 7.-The following subjects are proposed for the Chancellor's prizes, for the ensuing year, viz. For Latin Verses-Ars Geologica. For an English Essay On Public Spirit amongst the Ancients. For a Latin Essay-Conditio Servorum apud Antiquos.

The first of the above Subjects is intended for those gentlemen of the University who have not exceeded four years from the time of their matriculation; and the other two for such as have excecded four, but not completed seven years.

Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize.-For the best composition in English Verse, not containing either more or fewer than fifty lines, by an under-graduate who has not exceeded four years from the time of his matriculation--Stonehenge.

Cambridge, Nov. 16.-The Seatonian prize for the present year has been adjudged to the Rev. Edward Bishopp Elliott, M. A. fellow of Trinity college, for his poem on Antiochus Epiphanes.

The subject of the Norrisian prize essay for the ensuing year is-The Office and Mission of St. John the Baptist.

Nov. 22.-A grace passed the Senate, "To purchase the late Dr. E. D. Clarke's collection of minerals at the sum of 1500l." Royal Academy.-On the 64th anniversary of the Royal Academy last month, the medals of the year were delivered by the President as follows:

First Medal-School of Painting, for the Portrait of Govertius, to Mr. T. Y.

Hurlstone.-Silver Medal-Life Academy, Mr. J. Wood; and the same for a Model, to Mr. R. R. Hughs.-Silver MedalsSchool of the Antique, Mr. J. A. Cahusac; and, for a Model, Mr. W. Theed.Silver Medal-best Architectural Drawing, Mr. C. Purser; and Silver Medal for best Die of the Head of the Apollo, Mr. B. Wyon.

Royal Society-On the 1st ult. being St. Andrew's day, the Royal Society held their Anniversary Meeting at their apartments in Somerset-place, when the President, Sir Humphrey Davy, Bart. after an appropriate address, presented, in the name of the Society, the gold medal, called Sir Godfrey Copley's, to the Rev. William Buckland, professor of mineralogy and geology in the university of Oxford, for his paper, giving an account of an assemblage of fossil teeth and bones discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, published in the last volume of The Philosophical Transactions. The Society afterwards proceeded to the choice of a council and officers for the ensuing year, when, on examining the lists, it appeared, that the following gentlemen were elected :-Of the Old Council.-Sir Humphrey Davy, Bart.; Wm. Thomas Brande, Esq.; S. Goodenough, Lord Bishop of Carlisle ; Taylor Combe, Esq.; Davies Gilbert, Esq.; Charles Hatchett, Esq.; J. F. W. Herschel, Esq.; J. Pond, Esq. Astr. Royal; W. Hyde Wollaston, M. D.; Thomas Young, M.D.-Of the New Coun

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cil-C. Babbage, Esq.; Sir Gilbert Blane, Bart.; Charles Lord Colchester; J. Wilson Croker, Esq.; John Earl of Darnley; C. Hutton, LL. D.; Sir H. Halford, Bart. Pres. Coll Phys.; Capt. H. Kater; W. Hasledine Pepys, Esq.; Joseph Sabine, Esq.And the Officers-PresidentSir Humphrey Davy, Bart.; TreasurerDavies Gilbert, Esq.; Secretaries, W. Thomas Brande, and Taylor Combe, Esqrs.

Glasgow University.-Sir James Mackintosh has been elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, by a considerable majority of votes above Sir Walter Scott, his rival candidate for that honour.

Literary Antiquities.-A letter has been received from Mr. Salt, dated at Cairo in August last, with the following curious information;-A roll of Papyrus, measuring about eleven inches in length, and five in circumference, has been discovered in the island of Elephantina, and purchased for Mr. Banks. It is found to contain a portion of the latter part of the Iliad, very fairly written in large capitals, such as were in use during the time of the Ptolemies, and under the earlier Roman Emperors. The lines are numbered, and there are Scholia in the margin. A copy is to be made from this valuable MS. at Cairo, that it may serve as a duplicate, in case of any accident in its voyage to England. The person who procured this treasure for Mr. B. is a young man, who has been in his employ for some years to explore such parts of the antiquities and geography of the East, as were left unascertained by Mr. B. himself.

Surrey Institution.-The late lectures at this institution have been respectably attended by the proprietors, subscribers, and their friends, among whom were a considerable number of ladies. The subject of the lecture by Mr. Jennings on the history and utility of literary institutions, seems to have been the approaching dissolution of the establishment, and its intended renovation upon a broader and more liberal scale. Mr. J. observed that literature is necessary to our effectual happiness; that proofs may be found of this truth in Turkey, Abyssinia, Egypt, Ireland, and Scotland; that literary institutions ought to embrace the whole circle of useful knowledge: by useful knowledge, is understood that which, whether directly or indirectly, contributes to our well-being and happiness. The most ancient book was the Bible; and it deserves our marked attention, even as a specimen of the earliest literature. It was in Greece that academies were first

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instituted, and Rome followed the example of Greece, in establishing academies and lyceums. The art of printing (in the fifteenth century) assisted in unfolding a series of novel and important dramas. The Italians first established academies. The family of the Medici, in the fifteenth century, contributed greatly to the diffusion of a taste for letters. Of the academy of the Lyncei, Galileo was a member. The Academie Française was established, in France, in 1635. The Royal Academy of Sciences, in 1666. Fontenelle was secretary to this academy forty-two years. The Institute of France was established in 1795. After noticing the Royal Spanish Academy, instituted in 1713, and the Athenæum, in 1820, a brief view of the chief literary institutions of this country was given. The Universities obtained only a passing notice; the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Painting, and the Society of Arts, were also briefly mentioned; but our Institutions, emphatically so called, demanded and obtained a more minute detail. The Literary Institutions of Liverpool were particularly noticed, not only as there the first improvement in our literary societies was made; but as that town itself contains, at the present moment, societies, and chiefly the Royal Liverpool Institution, which are deserving peculiar regard. The Athenæum was established in the year 1798. The Lyceum was established in 1802. The Royal Liverpool Institution, established in 1817, has more the character of a university than a literary academy.. It has professors in the different sciences, and schools for the classics and the mathematics, with masters to each; there is also a separate master for the Italian, the French, and the Spanish languages. It also contains an academy of arts, and exhibition rooms for sculpture, painting, &c. These literary establishments owe much to the persevering genius of Mr. Roscoe, who is at the present time president of the Royal Liverpool Institution. Of the four institutions of the metropolis, the Royal Institution, the London Institution, the Russell Institution, and the Surrey Institution, were concisely noticed. The lecture exhibited very considerable research, as well as much taste and judgment; it was delivered in an eloquent manner, and left a very favourable impression on the minds of the auditors,

Meridians of Greenwich and Paris.-Observations for finding the distance between ́ the meridians of Greenwich and Paris, commenced in the autumn of last year upon the French and English coasts.

Lamps of unusual magnitude were employed as signals, and were distinctly seen across the Channel. The operations are carried on under the authority of the French and English governments; and the gentlemen engaged in this scientific undertaking are Messrs. Arago and Matthieu, of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, and Captain Kater and Major Colby, Fellows of the Royal Society of London. These latter gentlemen are continuing their observations, and are at Shooter's Hill near Greenwich, having for several months past given their exclusive attention to this important work.

Ancient Coins.-About 60 English gold and silver coins, of various denominations, belonging to the reigus of Henry V. and his immediate successors, were found, a short time ago, in an old cop upon Cockey Moor, near Bolton. They were deposited in a cow horn, and were probably hidden during the wars of legitimacy between the houses of Lancaster and York. One of the silver ones (a double groat piece) is of Henry V. and nearly as fresh as it came from the mint, except that the edges are clipt in two or three places.

Botany. A very fine specimen of the Dixonia Arborescens, or tree fern, has been brought to this country, from St. Helena, by Brigadier-general Coffin, and by him presented to his majesty's garden at Kew. It stands nearly four feet high, and pushed out three new branches during the voyage.

Action of Water on Metallic Arsenic. If water be boiled on metallic arsenic, which has been previously freed from any adhering oxide, still the water will be found to contain, upon examination, abundance of oxide of arsenic. If water be distilled from off the metal, oxide of arsenic will pass over in solution. These experiments indicate a decomposition of the water by the metal; but the hydrogen which might be expected to result from such decomposition, has not yet been obtained. It probably unites with the arsenic to form an hydruret.-T. G.

Considerations on the existence and state of Sulphur inVegetables-M.Planche suspended a piece of rag, impregnated with acetate of lead, and also a plate of clean copper, within the capital of an alembic in which he was drawing off distilled waters from plants, and found that the above re-agents were powerfully acted on, as if they had been exposed to a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen. He found, moreover, that water and sulphur boiled together, as also roll sulphur heated, without the addition of water, evolved sulphuretted hydrogen;

and from the two latter experiments he infers, that in plants the sulphur is in its simple state. According to M.M. Thibierge and Robiquet, the oil of mustard contains a large quantity of sulphur ; and from some comparative trials, it seems there to be in the state of sulphuretted hydrogen. In fact, distilled water, saturated with the essential oil of mustard, blackens the solution of nitrate of silver. Oil of caraways absorbs a very large quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, when it is passed through it; and assumes, in consequence, a very fetid odour. He supposes that the sulphur which exists as such in the mustard-seed, is converted into sulphuretted hydrogen during distillation with water, and in this state unites to the oil. A portion of the sulphur is deposited at the end of some days. The following plants yielded much sulphur: the flowers of the elder, linden, and orange-tree; the whole plant of pellitory and mercury; the flowering tops of hyssop, melilot, tarragon, and rue; the seeds of dill, caraway, cummin, and fernel; and clove-buds. - Journal de Pharmacie, Aug. 1822.

Population of England in 1377.-As a matter of historical curiosity, we subjoin the population of the principal towns of England in the year 1377, when an enumeration was made on account of a polltax :--London, 35,000; York, 11,000; Bristol, 9000; Plymouth, 7000; Coventry, 7000; Norwich, 6000; Lincoln, 5000; Sarum, Wiltshire, 5000; Gloucester, Leicester, Shrewsbury, each somewhat more than 3000; Lynn 5000; Colchester, 4500; Canterbury, 4000; Beverley, 4000; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 4000; Oxford, 4500; Bury, Suffolk, 3500. In that remote age the total population of England was 2,300,000, but the proportion of town population was far smaller than at present, since the number of towns containing above 3000 inhabitants was only 18.

On the Fabrication of Artificial Magnets. -Professor Steinhäuser has ascertained, that if by the process of Canton, we unite, in the form of a square, two steel bars, and two contacts of iron, it is better to operate by the double touch in a circle, than by a motion backwards and forwards. Again, when we combine these bars in a square, the force of that which we wish to magnetize, ought to increase in proportion as the other magnet has become more energetic; that in magnetizing horse-shoe magnets, it is much more advantageous to place two of these bent bars, with their friendly poles so situated