1814.] Musical Hints-Nautical Improvements. a square table, on each side of which there shall be sixteen keys, the pipes corresponding to which shall be in the centre of the table, on the first side the two octaves shall be taken from the principal stop of an organ, so selected as to reach from the lowest to the highest probable notes required in a glee or other piece of vocal music in parts. In the same manner may be selected two octaves of the fifteenth to represent the treble; then two octaves of another stop for the counter-tenor, if the principal should be adequate to represent the tenor; and perhaps the stopt diapason would afford the proper pipes for the bass; I say perhaps, because I only offer this as an introductory hint for the construction of such an instrument. It is evident that any four individuals, capable of perforining on the piano-forte, might sit down to this instrument, each having the full score of the piece before them, but each selecting their own part, and performing it with the right hand on that set of keys intended to represent the tone and quality of each parti cular part. By this means any piece of music might be got up at a cail, or at least after half an hour's practice, and an additional source of amusement would be afforded when social or domestic parties should meet to enliven the sameness or insipidity of rural retirement. It has, I believe, been attempted to set full pieces on barrel organs; but these must be much deficient in effect, as the same principles exist there as when the instrument is played on with the finger. I would, therefore, propose that an instrument should be formed with a barrel of such a length as to play on sixty-four pipes placed in a row, and which pipes should be similar to those of the former instrument. By this means any piece of music, whose score did not consist of more than four staves, might be played with the same distinct effect as if executed by four distinct performers, or by four singers, thus giving an expression and character to the harmony that cannot be produced by any instru ment now in use. My second plan is to improve the tone of any common square piano-forte now in use; and the object is to guard against a deadness of sound, a deficiency in the vibration of the instrument, that must exist from the manner in which the body is bound by the frame, or even from the effect of its resting on a solid basis. I propose, therefore, to have four small 123 pillars made of brass, of the same height as a piano-forte stands at present, and with the tops turned like a shepherd's crook, or nearly like the letter S. These must be set upright and connected by small brass rods; and at the same time so placed as just to inclose the horizontal space of the instrument; after which the body must be lifted off the common frame, and fitted with brass clamps at each corner, each rising about two-thirds of an inch above the instrument, and having a hole so that it may be hooked on its correspondent brass pillar. The instrument will then rest on nothing, but merely hang at an equipoize between the pillars, perfectly at liberty to vibrate in all its parts, yet perfectly at rest with regard to the perfor mer. That a fullness of tone, and length of vibration yet unknown, must be the natural consequence of this arrangement, particularly if executed with skill, I think there can be no doubt; and it may perhaps be an additional consideration, that any degree of ornament and lightness may be given to the "pensile piano-forte," so as to render it probably even more elegant, as a piece of furni ture, than any instrument now in use. Should these hints lead any scientific artist to the improvement of “celestial sounds," it will be a high gratification to Your obliged Correspondent, London, Aug. 8. AMPHION. NAUTICAL IMPROVEMENTS. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. SIR, I OBSERVE that in last month's number, page 52, you notice a proposed pian of Mr. Cadogan Williams, for the division of ships holds into several compart ments, in order to guard against lea ́s at sea indeed, I have also seen the same subject advertised in the newspaj ers, bur scarcely thought it worthy of attention until it found a place in your pages. But the fact is, Sir, that Mr Cadogan Williams ought to know that there is nothing novel in his plan, as the junks upon the canals in China have long been fitted 124 Saints of the Romish Calendar. Dart, but has not been extended to any others. With respect to the Arrow, in particular, it is a fact, told to me by an officer on board that ship, some years ago, when I was examining her at Portsmouth, that she sprung a leak in the foremost room, as it was called, during a cruize off the coast of France, when the water rushed in so as completely to render her water-logged by the head, at the same time that it acted with such force upon the planking of the deck, as partly to blow it up, an accident that was only avoided by scuttling the other buk-heads, and thereby permitting the water to flow freely through the ship into the pump-well, when it was got under by the usual mode of the chainpump. Again, Sir, if the thing was even proper, each division of the hold would require a distinct set of pumps, (a thing totally incompatible with the interior construction of a ship;) for to allow the water of the leak to find a passage through the limbers into the pump-well, as at present, would counteract the objects intended by the proposed construc tion. I will only add further, that the Chinese junks being built with flat bottoms, and being nearly in the shape of a parallelipipedon, or of a long box, there caunot be any material breakage in the stowage; but in a man-of-war, or an Indiaman, where stowage is so nicely attended to, it would be accompanied with such a loss of room, that the usual freightage would be diminished at least one-ufth, and in many instances much more. Mr. Williams may, perhaps, not understand this-but let him ask any practical seaman how the hold of a merchant-ship is to be stowed with tea-chests or sugar hogsheads under such circumstances; and then, if the seaman thinks the query deserving of an answer, he will be convinced of the impracticability of the proposition, as applied to sea shipping, though it might perhaps answer on the Paddington Canal in a voyage to Uxbridge! Yours, &c. [Sept. 1, pal saints of the Romish Calendar are usually depicted, with just so much of their history as will serve to explain the reason of it. St. George is known to every one by the dragon and virgin with which he is accompanied; and his history, from the Seven Champions of Christendom, is familiar to all. St. Christopher is represented as a man of gigantic stature, with a staff in his hand, and carrying our Saviour upon his shoulders through a river or brook. The cause of this representation is involved in obscurity, as this saint was not in existence until more than two centuries after the death of Jesus Christ. St. Catharine is known by her wheel. St. Jerome is usually represented in study, with a clock near him, to indicate that he did not pass his time without taking account in what manner it was spent. I should be glad to see from any of your ingenious correspondents a further elucidation of this subject. I am, Sir, London, Aug. 5. A CONSTANT READER SACRIFICES and SENTIMENTS of the RUS To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine, STR, FROM an address of Capt. Ortenberg, in the Russian service, to his coun trymen the Germans, dated Moskwa, March 31, 1813, I have extracted the following facts, which I doubt not will prove interesting to English readers. "The When the French had reached Moskwa, some of their officers immediately went to the Karätnoi Räd, a street occupied on both sides with repositories of carriages for sale, and looked out a number for their generals, which were to be fetched away the following day. The same night all these repositories, with the whole of their contents, amounting in value to several hundred thousand rubles, were consumed by fire. French have not got them at last!" said the owners. It is, indeed, impossible to convey any idea of the indifference with which the Russians bore the incalculable losses which they sustained on REPRESENTATIONS of the SAINTS of the the taking of that capital. "If only that fellow perishes," said they, "we shall feel a pleasure in the sacrifice, and Russia will be saved We shall retrieve, or at least be able to dispense with what we have lost. That loss is indeed heavy, but he is not the richer for it." PALINURUS. ROMISH CALENDAR. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. SIR, IT may afford some amusement to your numerous readers if you, or your correspondents, will take the trouble to inform them in what manner the princi The roads from Moskwa to Jaroslaw, 1814.] Sacrifices and Sentiments of the Russians in 1812. Nischnei-Novogorod, Räsan, and Tula, were for some weeks so thronged with carriages coming from the metropolis, that they went two or three a-breast. The inhabitants of the villages along these roads abused those cowards, as they called the fugitives, who had quitted the capital, and cried, "Why does net the Emperor take every man of us?" The women were still more incensed, and shewed the knives which they were determined to employ against the French. The potatoes in the neighbourhood of the city sufficed but for a short time to feed the horses belonging to the French army. Some tradesmen, who, trust.ng to the generosity of Buonaparte, had not fled, came to entreat him to put an end to the horrible pillage. These persons he would have employed to purchase in the villages several hundred thousand rables worth of corn, for which he would probably have paid them in the forged notes which he brought with him in great quantity. They declined the commission, alleging that the farmers would put them to death without mercy, as traitors to their country. They fled the same night from the city, leaving behind them all they possessed. Not a single farmer carried a load of corn or wood to Moskwa, whilst it was in the hands of the French. The national spirit could not have been more energetically displayed. On the levy of the militia no person excused himself on account of sickness, a numerous family, or any other pretext; all went, not only willingly, cheerfully. but even If the Russians neglected no opportunity of cutting off the French, they as invariably spared the Spaniards. The Io Hispanez, and their physiognomy, immediately made all the Russians their friends, and such of them as were taken prisoners were treated with the greatest kindness. 125 pose; but the fellow scizing him by both hands, pulled him into the pond, and there held him till he was quite dead, on which he mounted his horse and rode away. At Preobraschensk, an ancient residence of the Czars, very near Moskwa, (where Peter the Great, in his youth, formed for his amusement the first regiment of guards named after the place, chiefly of boys and foreigners,) a French dragoon had shot some ducks upon a pond, and ordered a peasant, who happened to be near, to fetch them out. The man immediately stripped, plunged in, and fetched the ducks. On the bank, which was steep, he held up the prize, and signified to the dragoon that he was to come and take them. The Frenchnan alighted from his horse for the purNEW MONTHLY MAG-No. 8. Such was the hatred excited in the bosoms of the Russians by the atrocities of the invaders. We are told, for example, that in houses forsaken by the owners, the French nailed such servants as they found there, by their feet to the floor, to make them confess where the valuable effects were concealed. They violated females in the very sanctuaries of the churches, and there too they were accustomed to slaughter the cattle which they had driven together. No part, however, of the plunder which they col lected in the sacred edifices reached France. The great silver chandelier, weighing 2800 pounds, which they car ried off from the church of Uspenski, iu the Kreml, and threw into the Dnieper, because they could convey it no farther, was recovered by the Russians, and replaced in its former situation. The cross taken down by Napoleon's command from the steeple of Ivaweliki, in the Kreml, and destined to figure as a trophy at Paris, was likewise left behind at Moskwa. It cannot be surprising that, conscious of the barbarities exercised upon the unoffending inhabitants of Moscow, the French should have dreaded a severe retaliation, when the victorious Russian warriors lately approached their capital. The forbearance and generosity of the latter are infinitely more glorious than the most brilliant victories ever achieved by their unprincipled enemies. I am, &c. Dresden, June 20, 1814. GERMANICUS. 126 Mr. West-Error in our Version of the Psalms. "At the time the writer saw Mr.West, (the past summer,) he was giving his last finish to his grand picture of Our Saviour's Arraignment before Pilate, and Condemnation. This historical painting is pronounced by connoisseurs in England, to be unrivalled by that of any age or nation. The size of it is 22 feet by 15 feet, and it contains between ninety and an hundred figures. Mr. West's genius is in this painting fully developed. He has given a faithful and brilliant representation of the inspired narrative. Here the malignant persecuting Jews seem to be actually crying out, “ Crucify him! crucify him!" Here Pilate stands doubting, fearing; impressed with the perfect innocence of his divine prisoner, and at the same time inclined to gratify the wishes of the blood-thirsty priests and angry populace. It would be difficult for so ind fferent a judge as the writer, even to undertake the description of this painting. Its subject, and the masterly manner of its execution, make it perhaps the most interesting picture ever exhibited to the inspection of man, and establish the gratifying fact, that [Sept. 1, America has produced the greatest historical ainter of modern times.* "Mr. West is no cosmopolite. Born in America, he still feels all the attachment to his native country which becomes the patriot. In a conversation with the writer, in June 1813, he entered at length into the subject. He remarked, that nothing in nature could gratify him so much as to land at Boston, and to travel thence through the country to Philadelpina. He spoke of the scenes of his childhood; of the increase of population and wealth of his rising country; of the great improvements in the arts, (which he feared would be much retarded by the present unnatural war;) and dwelt with enthusiasm on the grow ing glories of his native land. Mr. West does not, however, think it criminal to be grateful to a king, or to the nobility and gentry of his adopted country, who have so greatly fostered and encouraged his genius, and who, by their extensive patronage, have been in a great mea sure the authors of his fame and for tune." I am, &c. Portsmouth, July 20. ROBERTUS. ERROR in the TRANSLATION of the PSALMS, To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. HAVING observed that your monthly Your constant reader and well-wisher, Φιλομαθής. As I was the other day comparing our English translation of the Psalms with the Hebrew, on coming to the 28th verse of the 105th Psalm, the passage, "He sent darkness, and it was dark, and they were not obedient unto his word, ap 66 peared to me in the Hebrew to signity quite the reverse, viz., in which I was confirmed by turning to the ver sion of Sternbold and Hoskins, where I The Americans may be allowed to congratulate themselves that Mr. W. is an American; but we believe that the venerable least his knowledge of the fine arts, is purely president will say, that his genius, or at British. Is it to be supposed that, had Mr. West remained to this day in America, the world would have been enriched by his invaluable productions? The Americans may as well claim the military genius of the Hero of Maida, Sir John Stewart, because he was born in that country, and left it in his infancy. + Vide Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, 1814.] Humboldt's View of America and its Native Tribes. saw, "they did not disobey," and which certainly agrees with the Hebrew, that is, as it appears to me; though perhaps some of your correspondents may be enabled to explain it; but certainly one of the translations must be wrong. Alresford, Hants, July 26. P. S. In your last month's (No. 6) Oxford Intelligence, it should have been "to Mr. J. Leycester Adolphus," not "J. L. Leycester," that the English prize "Niobe," was adjudged. For the New Monthly Magazine. By ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. the IT cannot but excite astonishment, that, at the conclusion of the fifteenth century, there should have been found, in a world which we denominate the new, very same kind of antiquarian remains, the same religious notions, and forms of architecture, as seem to belong to the earliest ages of civilization in Asia. It is with the characteristics of uations, as with the internal structure of the plants that are spread over the face of the earth. The stamp of the original stock remains indelible, notwithstanding the numberless modifications produced by climate, soil, and various other inci dents. In the first period after the discovery of America, the attention of the Europeans was more particularly directed to the gigantic edifices of Corzco, to the high roads through the midst of the Cordilleras, to the lofty graduated pyramids, to the religious rites, and symbolical writings of the Mexicans. Descriptions of different provinces of Mexico and Peru were then as frequent as are, in our days, the accounts of the vicinity of Port Jackson, in New Holland, or the Island of Otalieite. It is absolutely necessary to have been upon the spot, in order to appreciate justly the noble simplicity and the character of truth and fidelity which pervade the narrations of the earest Spanish travellers: and, in perusing their works, we lament only the want of graphic illustrations, which would have given us more satisfactory ideas of many onuments, partly demolished by fanaticism, and partly fallen to decay through culpable neglect. The ardor for those American investigations diminished after the conmencement of the seventeenth century. The Spanish colonies, whose territory alone 127 had been inhabited by civilized nations, were shut against foreigners; and when, more recently, the Abbé Clavigero published, in Italy, his work on the ancient history of Mexico, doubts were raised concerning many facts which were formerly confirmed by numerous eye-witnesses, frequently persons by no means amicably disposed towards each other. Celebrated writers, who received less pleasure from the harmony of nature than from her contrasts, have represented America as one vast swamp, unfavour able to the propagation of the animal species, and not till of late inhabited by races of men not surpassing the South Sea islauders in civilization. An unlimited scepticism had banished sound criticism from the historical disquisitions on the Americans. The fictions of a Solis and some other travellers who had never quitted Europe, were blended with the faithful and simple relations of the earliest visitors of the New World; and it was deemed the duty of a philoso phic historian to protest, in the first place, against all that the missionaries had observed. Towards the end of the past century, a happy alteration took place in regard to the opinions entertained respecting the civilisation of nations, and the causes that alternately promote and obstruct its progress. We became acquainted with nations whose manners, institutions, and arts, are almost as different from those of the Greeks and Romans, as the origi nal forms of the extinct species of animais from those which at present engage the attention of naturalists. The society of Calcutta has thrown a brilliant light over the history of the Asiatic nations. The monuments of Egypt have, of late, been partly described with admirable correctness, and partly compared with those of the most distant regions; and my researches concerning the native tribes of America appear at an epoch, when that which does not approach to the style and manner of which the Greeks have left us inimitable models, is nevertheless deemed well worthy of attention. In the description of the historical monuments of America, I have endea voured to observe a due mean between two routes alternately pursued by those literati who have entered into the discus sion of such monuments, languages, and national traditions. The one adopting hypotheses which, though brilliant, rest on tottering foundations, have deduced general conclusions from a small num |