As a specimen of the spirit and authenticity of the facts detailed in this history, we translate the following "Portrait de Pitt," after the French success in Germany.

"If the two greatest victims of Pitt are in such profound dejection, what sorrow ought not this impious Minister to experience, whose breath has re-kindled flame which has just consumed the first throne of Ger. many, a whole Austrian army, and now attacks the fugitive cohorts of Russia! In him is realized the fabulous torments of Prometheus; all the miseries of three Coalitions overwhelm him: his atrocious politics are the source of them: he cannot taste repose, and he dare no longer appear in public. Peace! Peace!' is re-echoed from all parts; and the word peace is his greatest punishment.

"He dispatched from all parts couriers and agents, some secret, and others invested with a diplomatic character like Lord Harrowby. There is nothing which he neglected to annoy his enemy; emissaries were in all parts charged to destroy the magazins in France and her Allies.

"Heaven saw not without indignation such perfidy and atrocity. "While Pitt delighted in these black projects, the pleasures of which he relished, the horizon became dark, a thick fog extended over the City of London*: about four o'clock in the afternoon the vapour became still thicker, and no person remembers to have seen a similar darkness in the day-time.

"It is impossible to tell all the accidents which this fog occasioned on the Thames and in the streets; the lamps gave no light, and it was with difficulty one could pass by the lights in the shop windows; the carriages could not move without driving against each other; the confusion was dreadful, the embarrassments and dangers continual. A great number of persons were grievously wounded; ladies were overturned in their coaches, and severely bruised by these disasters; coachmen fell from their seats, and were trampled to pieces by the feet of their horses; this darkness, joined to that of the night, did not dissipate till the next day.

"This event appeared to the populace of London as a sinister presage to the Allies and to themselves: they publicly cursed the Minister, au thor of such miseries. To these evils were added irreparable losses: Nelson was killed in combat: the fleets of England were sunk by the storms, and her expeditions failed. The clamours of the people resounded to the ears of Pitt; he concealed himself from their murmurs, by shutting himself up in his palace, and feigning to be sick. His physicians ordered him to the baths; happy should he find them sufficiently efficacious to wash away the spots of blood with which he is covered!”

Shouid any of our readers wish for more extracts from this History, we must refer them to the volume. Nor can we make any remarks on such a tissue of vulgar and palpable falsehoods, recorded as historical facts! Had we attempted to write an eulogium on the late great Minister, we might have produced a more elegant, but certainly not

ནསིཊྛཱཏྠ

"A fog, in fact, covered the City of London during the whole of the 6th of November."

a more

a more honourable one, than the virulent abuse and savage rejoicings of the inveterate enemies of his country at his death. The author, indeed, throughout the whole of this volume, seems much more rejoiced at the death of Mr. Pitt, than at the issue of the battle of Austerlitz: unfortunately il a raison; the losing or gaining of a battle is but the affair of a day, but the death of a great statesman is a loss which ages may not recover *. Meantime we think it not unworthy of being recorded on the tomb of the immortal William Pitt, that the fell enemy of his country ordered his death to be announced on all the theatres in Paris, with as much eclat as any of his most splendid victories.

The whole of this History of Buonaparte's Campaign in Germany, is equally as false as the fog in London; yet it is believed in France. We are, indeed, perfectly aware of the design and effect of such false representations; but we are no less firmly persuaded that all influence raised on such a basis, must finally terminate in disgrace and

ruin.

Dictionnaire des Beaux Arts.

A Dictionary of the Fine Arts. By A. L. Millin, Member of the Institute, Keeper of Medals, &c. in the Imperial Library, Professor of Antiquities, &c. &c. 3 vols. 8vo. of 820 Pages each. 11. 16s. Paris. 1806. Imported by Deconchy.

THE importance of such a Dictionary is self-evident; but its relative value must depend on the copiousness, accuracy, and general merit of the different subjects discussed. We have already numerous Dictionaries of the Fine Arts, but with a few exceptions, they are better adapted to make us sensible of our wants, than vain of our acquirements in this department of literature. The present editor, indeed, is known as a most laborious and generally accurate compiler, and occasionally an original writer on subjects that require more learning than genius. M. Millin, however, has borrowed largely from the more original and ingenious work on the Fine Arts in Ger man by Sulzer, to which he has added some particulars from Watelet, Levesque, Lord Kaims, Richardson, &c. The author has, very judiciously we think, rejected Poetry, and Eloquence from this work, as [ tending to make it too voluminous, and refers to his Dictionary of Mythology for information on such subje&s. He might, however, have given a much better reason for this supposed omission, namely, that Poetry and Eloquence have been very improperly denominated

* The history of man furnishes millions of heroes, but a very few bundreds of legislators. Rev.

arts,

arts, as they require no mechanical aid to give them perfection, and should have been much more properly classed among the sciences, being entirely intellectual.' The following is a summary of the plan of this Dictionary.

"I have first endeavoured to give a History of the Arts, for it is in. dispensable to a proper comprehension of their theory. By the History of the Arts, I do not understand that of artists, which is nevertheless con. nected with it, but that of the progress of the arts in different ages, and 'among different nations. The greater part of the articles of this nature are extracted from, my course of public lectures. The Theory of Arts is also an essential part; it is that which teaches artists how to act, and amateurs how to judge. I have here thought it my duty to combine the excellent observations of Sulzer, Wateler, and Levesque, to which I have joined those of the best authors on this subject. Pra&ice cannot be ac. quired but by usage; to wish to give rules would not be to act as an his. torian, but as a master of the art: I have not, therefore, attempted all, but have attached myself principally to the explanation of those which it is necessary to know, in order to understand the practice of the different arts among the ancients and mederns, and also the explanation of technical terms. My intention was, to confine myself to the arts relative to design; but at the instance of the bookseller, I have included music. I confess that I have very little knowledge in the theory or practice of this art; but I have extracted from the best authors, and in the historical part, some original and curious articles will be found. To combine as much as possible in this work, I have joined interesting and necessary details, sufficiently copious, on the manners, customs, and dresses, of the different nations. To the above I have added lists of the best works on every subject, extracted from the bibliography of Blankenburg appended to Sulzer's work."

The first volume occupies the alphabet from A to G inclusive; and notwithstanding the immense number of pages, the most striking defect is the want of terms. By the title Dictionary of the Fine Arts, we understand a book containing all the names and terms, with their explanations, which occur in the arts of sculpture, painting, architecture, music, dancing, &c. That is not the character of the Dictionary before us: in it the editor evinces great negligence of terms; and only gives a slight historical sketch of the various branches of the arts; their changes and progress in the different countries in which they have been cultivated. It is, indeed, rather to be considered as a series of historical essays, arranged in the order of the alphabet, than as a Dictionary explaining the arts, and defining their terms. In architecture, the editor is particularly defective; and it is in vain that we look for explanations or definitions of the architectural terms, abajour, abavents, abbaye, aboutir, abreuvoir, afaissé, afleurer, aleges, and axe, even in the first letter. The following article will convey a fair idea of the style and manner of this Dictionary, and is also one of the original articles of which the author boasts.

"ACADEMY OF Music. It was thus that we formerly called in

France,

France, and that is still called in Italy, an assembly of musicians, or ama teurs, to which the French have since given the name of Concert. It is to Italy that Europe owes the revival of music, as well as all the other arts it was also in that country that associations for the performance of music first became permanent, and were sanctioned by the Government. In 1543, the Academy of Philo-Harmonics was instituted at Vicenza, whence it has since passed to Verona. In 1565, another Academy, under the name of degli Incatenati (the enchained), was incorporated with the former; and their members, united, obtained the grant of a piece of ground from the magistracy of Verona, on which they built a grand and beautiful edifice, where public concerts were held every week. About the year 1732, a theatre was added for the performance of the opera. In 1662, a society of the same kind was formed at Bologna, under the title of Academy of Philomuses, which took for symbol a hill, or mount, covered with reeds, with this motto: Vocis dulcedine captant. In 1663, emulation gave existence to another society in the same city, that called itself de' Musici Filachisi, having as a symbol two tambours, with the device: Orbem demulcet atatu. This Academy seemed to have no other object than to parody the preceding, neither of which, it appears, exist at present.

In tracing the origin of the late Academie Royale de Musique, we pereive that it was not thus named because it was an establishment of the same nature as the Academies of Painting and Architecture, but that the title of Academy was given to it only in the sense of that word in Italy. To that establishment is added a theatre, now known under the name of Opera, or Theatre of Arts. It has often been wished, that this Academy of Music was organized like the other Academies, and in a manger to contribute more effectually to the progress of the art of music, and to its instruction. Several authors in different countries have wished that similar establishments were instituted. Formerly there were professors of musical theory in various places: Bartholomew Remo fulfilled this duty at Sala. manca. In the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in England, music is no longer publicly taught; but they still confer the bonnet of Doctor of Music. In France, an establishment has been founded since the Revolution, destined to teach music, under the name of Conservatory of Music. Lately, the Abbé Volger has had an extraordinary chair in the University of Prague, as Professor of Music.”

Few readers, we apprehend, will consider this meagre sketch as a history of musical institutions, still less a definition of the term, Academy of Music. No reference is made to the numerous musical societies in Germany and the North, as well as in this country; nor is the least notice taken of the particular regulations, and extent, of these institutions, or of the premiums and rewards which they voted to various performers. We have here, indeed, nothing more than the wellknown fact, that music began to be cultivated in Italy about the middle of the sixteenth century, and that it has since flourished in France!

M. Millin has given a verbose account of Alhambra, the Moorish royal palace at Grenada, indifferently translated from Swinburne; but he

he acknowledges, with more truth, perhaps, than he is aware of, that it is far from conveying an adequate idea of this extraordinary edifice, which is beyond comparison the greatest curiosity in Europe.

The article on ARCHITECTURE is sufficiently diffuse, and abounds in repetitions; although the author, without any just reason, has entirely omitted military and naval architecture, as if they were indepen dent of the arts! Civil architecture he arranges under the heads of the different styles, as "Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Phoenician, Judaic, Greek, Roman, Arabian, Gothic, Saxon, Chinese, &c. According to the epochs, architecture is distinguished into that of the best age of antiquity, that of the lower empire, that of the middle age, and modern architecture." We shall only notice the author's account

of the

"SAXON ARCHITECTURE, The style called Gothic passed to Eng. land from France, especially from Normandy. The ancient English, in consequence of their connexion with the Romans, at first adopted the Ro man taste in the construction of their churches. After the conquest of England by the Normans, this style was denominated opus Romanum by the monks, because it was an imitation of the Roman architecture degene rated. The two beautiful churches which still exist at Caen, are the ar. chetypes of those in England built at that period. In this style of architecture, the delicacy of the members takes place of the quantity of sculpture elsewhere lavished: a great number of churches in this beautiful style are still found in England.

"Under the reign of Henry III. a style, characterized by its pointed arches, was introduced into this country. This style, due to the croisades, or to the Moors in Spain, was always undergoing changes and modifications, and prevailed during the reigns of the three first Edwards. About the middle of the fifteenth century, a taste for novelty invented a multitude of ornaments, and at that period the florid Gothic predominated. After having exhausted all the forms of leaves, of knots, and of roses, the artists introduced the figures of angels with instruments."

The editor here confounds the Norman with the Gothic architecture; and to gratify his national vanity at the expence of truth, falsely asserts, that the Gothic passed from France to this country. The Norman, indeed, is a degenerated style of the Roman, and was really imported into this country; but all the true Gothic edifices in France were built by the English-a fact which M. Millin, in common with all the writers of his country, studiously endeavours to conceal. There is also reason to believe, that the pointed arch is much older than the croisades in this country. It is certain, however, that this same pointed arch is still seen on the borders of the Red Sea, in Cin Tartary, and several parts of Turkey; but it is much more probable that it travelled through Germany to this country, than that it was discovered in the East by some of the croisaders, and thence brought to England, or France, according to the false assertions of the French antiquaries.

In a long account of BEARDS, M. Millin only details some common

place