workshops of the manufacturers, in the fields of the husbandmen, and in the counting-houses of merchants, those elements of science which are indispensible to them, in order to direct their labours with economy, and to execute them with more perfection and dispatch.'

On every occasion, when there is an exhibition at Paris, of the productions of French industry, the authors of the latter work, the publication of which commenced in 1820, make a complete description of them, according to the technological order, pointed out in a prospectus drawn up with great perspicuity. The species of industry exerted by each exhibitor, the history of his establishment, and the progress he has made in his art, a comparison with similar productions of foreign industry, the extent of the fabrics, the sales and exports, the honourable recompense obtained by the manufacturer; all these form the matter of this very valuable journal.

The Annales des Arts et Manufactures, bear a great similarity to our own Repository of Patents and Inventions.' The 'Journal Hebdomadaire,' was received at its commencement in France with great favour, as it attempted to gratify a wish generally felt, of introducing a knowledge of the state and progress of the arts and trade of England. But as it was conducted by a political writer, instead of a man of science, it was, of course, full of gross errors, in the description which it gave of British industry. It has been replaced within a few months, by the 'Feuille Hebdomadaire,' which has met with some success. The 'Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie,' which has been published now twenty-four years, is reputed to be the best repository devoted to the arts in France. Each article of it is a regular report, made in the name of a committee, composed of competent judges; the matter submitted for investigation is carefully described, and if the explanation of it requires any drawings, they are sure to be correct. Matters of mediocrity receive no compliment in this bulletin; and nothing of an inferior quality is admitted into it, unless to be censured and condemned. The Flambeau,' is not worth notice.

THE MILITARY SCIENCES.

1. Journal Militaire (monthly).

2. Journal des Sciences Militaires (do.).
3. Le Spectateur Militaire (do.).

It is to military men alone that these compilations are addressed, which are devoted to the science of strategy. The Journal Militaire,' which was begun in 1790, is solely occupied by the laws, decrees, instructions, and circulars relating to the national forces by sea and land. It is the only journal in which the military corps can find the documents necessary to their administration. Minister of War makes a stoppage of fifteen francs a year, from general officers and commanders of corps, and supplies them

with this compilation in return, which has an unlimited number of pages, that depend entirely on the fertility of the minister's brain. From that fertility the Journal Militaire' is now supplied, in time of peace, with a number of pages far more considerable than in the time of war, under the sway of Napoleon.

The Journal Militaire,' is principally devoted to furnishing instruction on matters of administration, or military police. The 'Journal des Sciences Militaires,' and the Spectateur Militaire,' do not, however, neglect this branch of the service; but they are more full and diffuse on those points which elucidate the principles that contribute most essentially to the success of military operations. With this view, the different arms, their division into regiments, battalions and companies; their various organizations, exercises, manœuvres, marches, encampments, engagements, sieges, fortifications, reconnoissances, passages of rivers, debarkations and stratagems; the military hygieia, the police of the army, the interior regimen of corps, are the principal matters discussed in these two depositories. But the first of them, which is under the direction of general de Vaudoncourt, devotes more pages to the subject of fortification, artillery, and topography; and sometimes diverges into other matters, such as the project of uniting the two oceans by a canal acrose the isthmus of Panama, and other points which are foreign to his plan. The second, on the contrary, is engaged more at large with the legislation and administration of armies. The Journal des Sciences Militaires,' is, therefore, the proper journal for the engineering officer, the geographical engineer, and the officer of artillery. The 'Spectateur,' is principally addressed to the infantry, as well as the cavalry officers, who, in both these branches, will find in the articles supplied by generals Lamarque, Fririon, Gourgaud, Pelet, and colonels Bory, St. Vincent, and Marbot, the most useful instruction, as well as a mass of reading both entertaining and select.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES.

1. Journal des Voyages (monthly).
2. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (do.).

3. Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (do.).

The passion for travelling, and reading books of voyages and travels, is more ardent and universal in England than in any other country; and it is in consequence of this spirit, that no nation has contributed so powerfully to the promotion and progress of the geographical sciences, nor has produced so numerous a collection of books of travels in remote and unknown parts of the world. An Englishman talks in as familiar a style of going to the East or West Indies, as a Parisian would of going to St. Cloud; and traverses the Atlantic with less fear than a Frenchman feels at a trip across the Straits of Dover. Yet, strange to tell! Paris possesses a Geo

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graphical Society, composed of more than 500 members; it has, besides, a Georama in the number of its public monuments, and three journals devoted exclusively to geography and voyages; whereas, in London, the resort of the most renowned navigators, the centre of the commerce of the world, a metropolis abounding in men of science, there is but one geographical miscellany, The Sailor's Magazine; nor is there any society especially established for the promotion of the science. It has nothing at all like the Georama, an immense sphere of 40 feet diameter, which represents our globe.

THE COMMERCIAL SCIENCES.

1. Le Guide du Commerce (daily).

2. Prix Courant (do.).

3. L'Echo de la Halle aux Bles de Paris (twice a week).
4. Cours de la Banque et de la Bourse (daily).

5. Bulletin des Capitalistes (do.).

6. La France Commerciale (do.).

7. Mercure Commercial (twice a week).

The first of these journals gives a daily list of the ships that load and unload in the ports of France, as well as in foreign sea-ports; it describes the nature of their cargoes, their destination, the names of their proprietors, consignees, captains, the names of the passengers on board, &c. The second and third contain the price current of wholesale merchandise, quoted as authority by the mercantile brokers of Paris. The fourth states the prices of the public securities, the exchanges, the rates of exchange for Paris, London, and Amsterdam, and the prices of the shares of the most important joint stock companies. The Bulletin des Capitalistes, has for its object, to fix the state of opinion on the degree of public or private utility, on the good or bad administration of affairs, and on the real or fictitious security presented by all the financial, agricultural, and industrious enterprises that take place in France. La France Commerciale is occupied with the internal and external commerce of that kingdom; and the Mercure treats of the state of manufactures and fabrics.

Bulletin Universel des Sciences et de l'Industrie (annual). This miscellany, which is published under the direction of M. le Baron de Ferussac, treats of all those matters in general, which the former journals discuss in detail. All the sciences, however, are not, strictly speaking, treated of in this journal; and those that are handled in it, are far from being discussed with that superiority of talent which characterises the Annales de Chemie de Mines de Mathematiques et des Voyages. But we have already overstepped the limits which we have assigned to this subject in the present number. We shall resume it, however, without delay.

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ART. IV. Opere di Pietro Giordani. 14 vols. Modena. London: Treuttel & Würtz. 1826.

ITALY never perhaps was so fruitful in stupendous works of genius, as in the eighteenth century. A splendid crowd of distinguished men arose, as it were by enchantment, to spread wide the light of profound erudition through every department of human knowledge. Civil history could boast of two illustrious authors in Giannone and Muratori: literature, antiquities and fine arts, produced three of not inferior merit in Tiraboschi, Maffei, and Lanzi. Verri and Galiani had discovered many truths of political economy, before the acute intellect of Adam Smith had rendered this a science: and Cesare Beccaria and Filangieri, following the slight tracks that had been partially opened by Montesquieu, gave a powerful impulse to political and legislative theory. Genovesi shook with a strong arm the throne of Descartes, and gave popularity to the philosophy of Bacon and of Locke; and Giambattista Beccaria shared only with Priestley the glory of having defended, enlarged, and established the brilliant discoveries of Franklin, concerning electricity. Spallanzani, Frisi, and Lorgna, enlarged the sphere of natural history, mechanics and hydraulics; and while Volta and Galvani wrested from nature the secret of a new agent for the progress of physics and of chemistry, Piazzi and Oriani discovered new constellations, and displayed them to the contemplation of the world.

Nor did the language of the muses remain uncultivated. Italy did not, certainly, at that time, attain a new epopea-perhaps she never will. The names of Dante, Tasso, and Ariosto, appal even the most vigorous minds from attempting this career. But a new kind of lyric was invented by Varano, Mazza, and Parini: comedy, and the musical drama, were raised to the greatest perfection by Goldoni and Metastasio; and tragedy, the only crown that was wanting to embellish Italy, was at length formed in gigantic splendour by Alfieri.

So much glory was however partly obscured, by a defect of no slight description. Purity of language, particularly towards the latter end of the century, was almost entirely neglected. It seems as if the avidity of research after facts had occasioned propriety of diction to be overlooked; and Italian style insensibly fell from its primitive height and purity. What contributed exceedingly to this decay, was the abundance of French books, translations of which were hastily published by men of no taste-either for the purpose of exciting still further the emulation of Italian science, by the discoveries made beyond the Alps-or, as is more probable, to minister to the miserable and interested speculations of booksellers.

Nor was that all. The Italian language might at that time be said to have been neglected, but not yet degraded and disfigured.

But when, at the commencement of the present century, Italy was subdued by the French, disorder had no limits. The conquered were compelled to learn the language of the conqueror; to understand him, and to be understood. The acts of government were generally dictated in French. The editors of public journals had hardly time to change the terminations of the words, in order to divulge these orders; and they stained these rapid translations with terms, phrases, and constructions, that accorded as well with the genius of Italian speech, as with that of Malabar. The youth, who drank deep at this poisoned fount, forgot entirely that pure spring which for five centuries had been the glory and the pride of Italy.

Meritorious men, jealous of the honour of their country, at length excited a universal cry against these abuses. They called to mind the old Athenian proverb, that "it is more infamous to lose our language than our liberty:" they called to mind the noble conduct of the ancient Greeks, who, when fallen under the Roman yoke, received their chains in silence, but would never consent to receive the Latin idiom; insomuch, that the proud conquerors were themselves compelled to study Greek, in order to maintain their dominion.

Strenuous and emulous efforts were made, to reclaim the erring mind from such an excess of debasement. The generous appeal to national dignity met at first with obstinate opposition. Those who, in the pravity of heart and head, shrunk from the extensive and accurate research required for the study of their own language, pretended that it ought to be freed from ancient rules, that it might be accommodated to the new acquirements and new wants of the human mind: and victory was, for a while, on their side; because some supporters of the contrary opinion, falling into the opposite extreme, thought it necessary to write the Italian language according to the rough manner and rude grammar of Guitton d'Arezzo and of Semintendi. But moderate and discriminating philosophers arose to demonstrate, that the harsh penuriousness of the ancients was equally blameable with the unlimited freedom of the moderns; and shewed how to conciliate the purity and elegance of the thirteenth century, with the copiousness which the progress of modern intelligence may require. This struggle lasted many years; but the victory was at length decisive in favour of the last. The contest was productive of much intellectual light; for the most intelligent among the combatants, in discussing the precepts, gave models of the most pure and elegant style. The disquisitions published upon this argument, by Cesari, Perticari, Colombo, Rosini, Niccolini, and that great poet of the age, Vincenzo Monti, do honour to Italy in this respect; and it may be said that the Italian language is in their works fully re-established in its primitive lustre, and equally freed from harshness and corruption.