thunder-storm, the lightning was conducted down the rod, and split the rock into several pieces without displacing it. begun to be cleared away, and several stalls and small houses removed which intercepted a view of the edifice. A beginning has also been made to clear M. Wiebeking, director of roads the three principal apartments in the and bridges to the King of Bavaria, baths of Titus, which has been most has discovered a method of construct- admired by strangers, and are suffiing wooden bridges, which, in point cient to impart a correct idea of the of strength and solidity, promise a celebrated grottos of Ludis and Arelduration of several centuries. They lio, imitated in the paintings of Ra are not less remarkable for the ele- phael. The remains of the Temple of gance of their form and width of the Antoninus and Faustina, and the arches. One upon this plan has been theatre of Marcellus, the portico of laid over the river Roth, five leagues Octavia, the temples of Concord and from Passau, consisting of a single Jupiter Stator, and other monuments arch two hundred feet wide. Another of ancient grandeur, are all under has been made for a large city, 2×6 repaił. feet wide. These arches may be so On digging lately at Frescati, near constructed as to admit of ships of the ancient Tusculum, a quantity of or merchant vessels passing arms, vases, human boues, and a brothrough them, an aperture being made ken statue, were found, probably that in the centre which can be opened of a Roman consul; and a few days and shut at pleasure. These bridges after another resembling a Roman may also be very speedily taken to pieces, if it be necessary to stop the progress of an enemy; the arch may be removed in one day, the abutments in another, without cutting the smallest piece of timber. Upon this new plan the expense of bridges for a century will ensure a saving of 11,680,000 florins. war Indies, East. The large Hindoo Temple, seated on the road to Chilpore, fell to the ground on Saturday, Sept. 2, 1809, and has since remained a magnificent heap of ruins. The spire and its surrounding turrets had long exhibited every appearance of complete decay and danger. Only three natives lost their lives on this occasion, and two others received violent contusions. Italy. Restoration of Roman Antiquities.Among interior objects lately discovered at Pompeii, is a large edifice adorned with columns, supposed to have been one of the chief public buildings of the town. matron, M. Vincenzio has lately published at Rome, Scientific Letters and Observations on Two Fasciculi of Antique Gems. He has also written a horses of the Quirinal have been Dissertation to prove that the Colossal changed in their places, and that, in fact, they were but badly placed at first. The Committee of Arts, appointed Towards the end of January last, a since the French government has been dreadful gale of wind from the southestablished, have issued orders for re- cast came on, when the waters of the pairing, with all possible dispatch, the Ochota, (which, after passing through two elegant temples of Vesta and For- the town, discharge themselves into tuna Virilis, great part of which yet the sea) rose twelve feet above their exist between the great sewer and the ordinary level, and above the tops of ancient bridge of the senate. From the houses. Between two and three the former the rubbish has already hundred of the inhabitants perished in their sleep. A transport belonging to be the shaft of a column exquisitely to the East India Company, carried ornamented with grape vine, &c. into the river by a tempest in 1803, Digging farther, they met with a prowas raised by the waves, and driven digious quantity of remains of elegant into the middle of the town. columns, beautiful arches, and every other appendage to the most splendid edifices, all within a circumference of two miles. The figures are all decidedly Mexican; but it cannot be true as reported, that some of them would vie with the best productions of Greece and Rome. South America. About the middle of June 1809, Some men, digging for gold in the province of Quito, came to an extremely hard substance two feet below the surface of the earth, which proved MEMOIRS OF REMARKABLE PERSONS. Sir FRANCIS BARING, Bart. Virginia trade, which he began with a His be adopted on this occasion. It is well known that the system of this country, with regard to all its foreign possessions, has ever been that of exclusive monopoly, accordingly, when the whole body of English merchants demanded some participation in the East Indian traffic, Sir Francis came forward as the advocate of the Company. He insisted that their heavy expense and their actual public services composed a debt, to the discharge of which an eternal monopoly of the East India trade would scarcely be sufficient! It is needless to add, that the charter was again renewed; and the relief of the body of English nei chants, from what their petition called "oppressive monopoly," left, like other evils, to the gradual effect of time, or the shock of some revolu tion. Upon the death of his father he was considered as a most worthy successor; and the richest houses, and the In 1796, upon Sir John Jervis being most wealthy heiresses at the east end rewarded with a peerage, and vacating of the town, considered him as a de- his seat for Chipping Wycombe, Sir sirable partner. He, at length, mar- Francis Baring was elected for that tied the daughter of Mr. Boston, an borough, and at the last general elecopulent merchant. Mr. Baring, from tion in 1802, he was again returned a proprietor, having become a direc- for the same place. tor of the East India Company, in the Sir Francis was esteemed as not less year 1784 canvassed the Cornish bo- amiable in domestic than in public rough of Grampound, and took his life. Although of a grave cast of seat in the House of Commons. The mind, he was not without a relish for nation was then just beginning to re- social enjoyments, and was, till within cover from the effects of the Ameri- a few years past, seldom absent from can revolution, and Mr. Baring had the parti and entertainments of his the honour of being consulted by the friends. The routes of his lady were premier with respect to the means to reckoned among some of the most brilliant in town; but he rather pre- tion of Minorca, the famous attack on ferred the more tranquil enjoyment of Gibraltar, and other remarkable ope a domestic circle, to those gay but rations. Having attained the rank of promiscuous assemblies. His table Captain, he went out in 1788 as sewas such as became his wealth, and cond in command of the squadron his solid hospitality was perfectly sent to the river Plate. suitable to the opulent character of an English merchant. His conversation, like his address, was simple; his great characteristics being method and dexterity in business, a sound judgment, and an upright heart. One of Sir Francis's daughters was married to Mr. Wall, an eminent merchaut; and one of his brothers was member for Exeter. He was of the middle size, and very thin, and was some time under a difficulty in point of hearing. He seldom spoke in parliament but on commercial subjects, and was for several years in habits of intimacy with the late Marquis of Lansdowne. He remained on this station until the peace of 1802, when he found himself reduced to beggary by some ill-judged speculations of his brother, and he was under the necessity of returning to Spain to claim the rank of Brigadier, which had been unjustly with-held from him. The Government having appointed him head of the missions to the interior of Mexico, or in other words to the country of El Dorado, established by the Jesuits, he passed two years in visiting that most interesting tract of the Spanish possessions. During this journey he had the misfortune to be deprived of his wife and one of his daughters, by whom he was accompanied. On his return to Buenos Ayres, he found that war was declared, and the town in the greatest consternation on account of the appearance of an English privateer in the River Plate. He had hardly taken the necessary steps, He died at his seat at Leigh, in Kent, on the 11th inst. in the 74th year of his age, being physically exhausted; but his mind remained unsubdued to the last breath. His bed was surrounded by nine out of ten, the number of his sons and daughters, all of whom he assisted to establish by fitting out some armed vessels, to in splendid independence. Three of his sons carry on the commercial house, and the other two are returned from India with fortunes. To his five daughters, married, he gave liberal dowries. He is supposed to have left freeholds to the amount of half a million, and to have been the holder of more than two millions of omnium. DON SANTIAGO DE LINIERS. HE Chevalier Liniers is the de secure the town from insult, and protect an East India ship of immense value, the object of the privateer, when the expedition from the Cape of Good Hope appeared at the mouth of the River Plate. "The Viceroy was guilty of a great error in politics, that of sending back to the Cape of Good Hope the English prisoners, who had been for a long time at large at Buenos Ayres, and who had therefore an opportunity of observing the weakness of the THE Chevolen noble family, and place, and the inadequacy of the prewas born at Niort, in Poitou. At parations for defending it, and in twelve years he was received into the general the whole colony. Commo Order of Maita, and became page to dore Sir Home Popham having, the Grand Master. He returned to through these persons, become ac France when he was fifteen, and was quainted with the feeble state of appointed an officer in the Royal Buenos Ayres, (it being the practice Piedmont Regiment of Cavalry. In to send in time of war all the troops 1774, he went to Spain, and, having to Monte Video, notwithstanding the entered into the navy in the following incessant representations of M. De year, was employed in the unfortunate Liniers, that Buenos Ayres was more expedition, under the command of exposed to a coup de main, than Monte Count O'Reilly, against Algiers. He Video) was incited by the prospect of continued to serve in the Spanish great advantage, which the attack of navy for several years, in the course a place so rich as Buenos Ayres held of which he was present at the reduc- out to a Commander who was no less a good speculator than officer, to reason to suspect his weakness from urge the fitting out of an expedition the fact of his caution. The Viceroy against that colony. The rashness of was satisfied with sending some badlythe project might have been forgotten armed militia to the coast, and sufferin its success, if, after the taking of ed General Beresford to land without Buenos Ayres, the British Command- opposition, within four leagues of ers had followed the example of the Buenos Ayres, on a marshy coast, immortal Du Guay Trouin, at Rio which the English troops had great Janeiro, by accepting a ransom for difficulty in passing through. The the place and returning. But success Leda, of 44 guns, was the only vessel intoxicates, and vanity and want of that covered the disembarkation. It judgment cost England much on this will be obvious that if M. De Liniers could have placed his flotilla, on account of the shoal water between the frigate and the shore, he might have destroyed, with grape-shot from his gun-boats, the troops who were in the mud to the very middle. But every thing fled before the English. The first who retreated was the Viceroy himself, throwing on the superior officer the task of making the best capitulation he could. occasion. "The English expedition arrived in the River Plate. An officer, who descried it from a light vessel, brought the intelligence to the Viceroy, the Marquis of Sobremonte, who was thrown into the utmost confusion by the news. He ordered M. De Liniers to repair to Ensenada, who observed that he could contribute more to the defence of the town by opposing the landing with his small naval force, than by removing to such a distance. He declared at the same time, that he was ready to obey these orders, and required that all the officers of the coast of Ensenada should be put under his command. The Marquis Sobremonte returned an insulting answer, and ordered him to set out in stantly, which M. De Liniers did under a firm persuasion that all would be lost. He reached Ensenada, but no orders to obey him had been transmitted there. As it, however, ordinarily happens in times of danger, that the governed have sometimes more instinct than the governors have judgment, every one put himself under the orders of M. De Liniers. "At the time that the English marched, as if they were going to a parade, from Barraccas to Buenos Ayres, M. De Liniers returned from Ensenada, and perceived from a height two feeble discharges of musquetry, after which the fire immediately ceased. He concluded that the town had surrendered; he immediately returned and took up his residence at a country-house within six leagues of Buenos Ayres. A countryman, whom he sent to procure him information, brought him back word that the town had capitulated, and that the English General had taken possession of it. "The first idea of M. De Liniers was to set out immediately, notwithstanding the dreadful weather, to cross "Liniers immediately made pre- the Parama at 50 or 60 leagues from parations for defending the post with Buenos Ayres, and to proceed to two gun-boats, a merchant vessel, two Monte Video; but on reflection, he light field pieces, three hundred mili- decided on applying for permission to tia, and a fort in decay. A landing enter the town, for the purpose of obwas attempted, but the English per- taining information of the enemy's ceiving the resolution of the troops, strength, and seeing with his own re-embarked and proceeded along the eyes the resources which circumcoast. M. De Liniers sent a messen- stances might offer, and the advantage gero the Viceroy to apprize him, it might be possible to derive from that from the number of vessels of them. He dispatched, in consequence,' which the convoy was composed, he a faithful messenger to General Bereswas of opinion that they could not have more than two thousand men on board: observing at the same time that a commander, who after making a demonstration of attacking, withdrew without trying his strength, gave ford, to inform him, that not having the honour to be attacked in the post committed to his care, he was not included in the capitulation, but that, with his permission, he would enter the town, for the purpose of seeing his children, and settling his affairs. This was very politely granted to him, with an assurance that he might enter and quit the town whenever he pleased. Monte Video, which was corroborated by the appearance of some English vessels in addition to those that blockaded the port;-all these circumstances gave rise to a Council of War, "M. De Liniers, in consequence at which the Governor of Monte of this permission, entered the town, Video read the Viceroy's dispatches, where he found the inhabitants in and laid before it the reasons which consternation, and burning with shame induced him to believe that the town at having been conquered by a hand- he commanded would be attacked, ful of troops. They were particularly the defence of which he considered enraged at the conduct of the Viceroy. to be his chief duty; and declared Several plans were proposed to M. De that he not only did not conceive Liniers for rescuing the town from the himself authorised to take the compower of the English. Some of these mand of the intended expedition, but were ridiculous; others too dangerous, that on no account could he agree to He endeavoured to shew them the separate his force. Upon this M. De consequence of such an attempt. He Liniers observed to the Council, that represented to them that having vo- if Buenos Ayres remained in possesluntarily surrendered, and the ma- sion of the English, Monte Video gistrates having taken the oath of must fall sooner or later; that he allegiance, the insurgents would ex- would again offer to attack Buenos pose the town to be sacked if their Ayres with 500 men; that in case he plan did not succeed, and that even failed in the attempt, the consequence success could not justify the violation would be the speedier fall of Monte of a solemn treaty; that they should Video; but that if he succeeded both expect their deliverance from Monte towns would be saved. The Council Video, whither he would go to make of War were of M. De Liniers preparations for it. opinion. "The complete success of this attempt of Don Santiago Liniers (for so we shall in future call him) was followed by the unlimited confidence of the inhabitants. He took advantage of it to inspire them with confidence in their own strength, by devoting themselves to obedience and constant practice in the use of arms, which would become formidable in their hands if their docility and perse verance did not relax. Having obtained all the informa- Buenos Ayres was retaken on the tion he desired, M. De Liniers secretly 12th of August, 1806. It is unneces left Buenos Ayres. His departure sary to enter into the details, which was soon known, and the agents of the are known throughout all Europe by Government did every thing in their the Spanish and English official ga power to arrest him; but he eluded zettes. their vigilance, and arrived, after a very extraordinary journey, at the colony of Saint Sacrement, from whence he wrote to the Governor of Monte Video, acquainting him of his arrival, of his plans against Buenos Ayres, and requesting to know if he could supply him with 500 chosen men. He was not long behind his letter, and found an expedition prepared on the plan be had formed. He applied to the Governor, under whose orders he was, for the com- "The enthusiasm with which Don mand of the advanced guard. The Santiago inspired the people of Buepreparations were carried on with nos Ayres, was such that the artisan great activity for some days; the left his manufactory, the merchant Viceroy having written to the Gover- his counting-house, and the lawyer nor of Monte Video that he had gone his cabinet, to learn to handle a mus to Cordova to collect troops and at- ket, or manœuvre a gun, and to march tack Buenos Ayres, and requesting to the sound of fife and drum. Pikes him to send him arms and a few com- and bayonets were manufactured, panies of troops of the line; and on muskets were repaired, trenches were the other hand intelligence having dug, stakes were driven to form been received from Buenos Ayres that pallisades and entrenchments, and the Commodore intended to bombard the inhabitants were daily exercised |
