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and her luxuriances; when all at once, methought a tall figure of majestic ap pearance, with a word in its hand, and its feet bathed in human gore, ftrode across the verdant carpet, and at every step left ftains of blood. I awoke at the frightful vifion, and involuntarily exclaimed "Ambition."

The next degree of greatpefs that deftroys the focial intercourfa 'twixt nation and nation, and man and man, is that which denominates "a Politician." A great Politician. (as it is called) is the legitimate offspring of Cunning and Corruption, capable of doing great mifchiefs, and incapable of humanity. From him the polluted tream flows into the opinions and fentiments of all ranks, from the higheft to the loweft, and turns the natural courfe of human actions. The prefent refined fyftem of art, and fimulation in politics, buúnefs, and manners, may be attributed to the falfe and dangerous opinion that little is to be gained by ingenuoufnefs and truth. The conqueror fmiles at the notion of good faith in treaties; the ftatefman ridi cules what he calls romantic honefty; and the man of bufinefs looks with ineffable contempt on the plain dealer. The manners of the times affume the fame character of deception, and falfe pretences are the refources of the greater as well as the fmaller fwindler. The fpirit of politics is transfufed into the most common actions of life; and fpecioufnefs of words, failure of promifes, and concealment of truth, contitute the character of our tranfactions in the world, affitting the general depravity, till it will fwell to that enor mous height when it must break its mounds.

It is not fufficient that fome will fay, it has ever been fo, and ever will be; that we must go with the ftream; and that a virtuous adminiftration exifts only in theory. Such wife and excellent maxims have but one fault, they are not true; both moral and phyfical evil increafe or decreafe in an equal ratio with the good or bad difpofitions of the times; and it is in the power of men and nations, by their mutual reciprocities and regard for justice, to be much happier, collectively and individually, than they are. -manners of the prefent day prefent only great and monstrous deviations from morality, religion, and virtue, fo etablished, that they frown with auda

The

cious effrontery upon the humble advocate of truth, and threaten and awe the juft man and patriot into filence. There is, indeed, a being who erects himself into public notice, falfely called a patriot, who founds the trumpet of reform; all are aftonithed to behold his pure and difinterested actions during an election; he thakes hands with the butcher, drinks his glafs with the tallow chandler, and hugs the greaty rogues, they please him fo," his heart overflows, and his tongue moves with the stream of his time-ferving honesty, while it lafts: but view him leated in Parliament, and where does he take his place? True to his principles, we find him on the Oppofition fide. farce! played by Crooked Policy. What has Truth to do with Party. Truth difclaims the diftinction, and afferts her proud prerogative in any place; Party is the convenient meditun of Ambition.

Abfurd

True Patriotifm has

nothing to do with her, and acknowledges No Side but Truth.

But to return to the epithet Great There is in the opinions of philosophy a much higher denomination; it is Good; a title little elteemed, and Teldom fought for. Let us not ima gine, however, that it is extind, or that Ambition may not, in the hour of peace, direct its views for the happie nefs of mankind, and become a candidate for the best of all distinctions. Let the Conqueror recollet that he has, according to the ancient and received opinions of the best men, to live elfewhere than in history.

It becomes, then, the Conqueror të confider, whether there is not much more honour to be achieved in aiding the patriot interefts of a noble and once happy Repi blc, from a pure and difinterested love of liberty, and a defire to meliorate their condition, than from any motive of aggrandizement of territory, which, while it pretends to ferve, robs them of their dearest privileges and hereditary rights. The fate of Poland is a difgrace to Europe, and the injuftice of high Powers an example of fraud to leffer communities, even from the public to the private family.

Happy for us, in this country the title of Good is to be found in the Crown. The King is good the King loves his fubjects; and the laiting cement of their affections will fup port the pillars of the Throne.

is in him to give health to the fickly conftitution of the common-wealth: it is in him to make all party yield to truth it is in him to fay, "Stand by, and let me fee my people. Let there

be no longer a fufpenfion of their liberties; let every man be tried whom you fufpect; and we shall find how rich and fafe we are in the people's love." G. B.

RESTORATION OF PICTURES DECAYED OR INJURED. [The following curious Account of the Restoration of a Picture of RAPHAEL, which had been much injured in its journey from Foligno to Paris, is extracted from a recent French work, published by the Administration of the Museum at Paris.]

I'

SUBJECT OF THE PICTURE.

Nthe midst of a glory of Angels, the Virgin Mary Gts holding in her arms the infant Jefus, who is playing with his mother's mantle; the receives with humility and modesty the vows and the prayers which are addreffed to to her by St. John, St. Francis, and St. Jerome, in favour of a Chamberlain of the Pope, who, with hands joined, implores with fervour her protection.

In the middle of the picture, and beneath the Virgin, with eyes raised towards her, an Angel holds a tablet deftined to receive the name of the Chamberlain, the donor of the picture.

The ground reprefents a landscape. Raphael executed this work for Sigifmund Conti, a learned man, Chamberlain and firft Secretary to Pope Julius II. The picture was then placed at the high altar of the Church of Araceli at Rome. Afterwards, about the year 1565, it was removed to Foligno, and given to the Church of the Religieufes of St. Ann, called Le Conteffe, from the Lifter Anna Conti, niece of Sigifmund. It was lately brought from that church to Paris, being one of the hundred articles included in the Treaty of Tolentino.

RESTORATION OF THE PICTURE.

The Adminiftration think they can render an important fervice to the Arts, by giving to the Public an extract from the interefting Report made by Citizens Guiton, Morveau, Bertho, let, Vincent, and Taunai, Members of the National Inftitute, to that learned body, refpecting the operation to which this valuable picture has been fubmitted.

When it was received at Foligno, it was in fuch a ftate of deterioration that the Commiffaries of the Arts in Italy hefitated whether they ought to fend it to Paris, nor did they determine upon fending it until they had fixed together the feveral parts of the picture which

were broken, by means of pieces of gauze pafted on the furface. Befides this injury, the white wood, of about thirty-two inches in thickness, on which the picture was painted, had a cleft of about ten in width at its fuperior extremity, which defcended from the centre, diminishing progreffively to the left foot of the Infant Jefus; on each fide of the fracture the wood was bent. A great number of fcales were already detached, and moreover the painting was pricked in many parts.

It was time to think of faving this valuable picture from the ruin which threatened it, and the Administration decided that it should be taken off, being well convinced that it could only be refixed upon another ground. But as a religious refpect would not permit an operation of this importance, particularly when applied to a picture of Raphael, they requested the Minifter of the Interior to invite the National Inftitute to appoint from its own bofon a Committee to make a Report on the projected Restoration, in order to tranquillize timorous perfons, or filence thofe of bad faith, and above all, to render public operations the most fimple, and far diftant from Charlatinism and juggling.

This Commiffion was compofed of Citizens Guiton and Bertholet, Chymifts, and Citizens Vincent and Taunai, Painters.

They agreed with the Adminiftration as to the urgent neceffity of taking off the picture. The following are the operations which followed.

The furface being rendered fmooth, a piece of gauze was fpread over the picture. Citizen Hacquin cut feveral little trenches in the wood at some distance from each other, which were continued from the fuperior extremity of the centre to the place where the ground of the wood prefented a furface more

straight.

#raight. He then introduced into the trenches small pieces of wood, and covered the whole furface with wet linen, which he was careful to renew. The action of the fmal pieces of wood, fwelled by the humidity againit the fortened wood of the picture, forced it to refume its first form, the two edges of the cleft approached, and the Artist introduced iome urong glue to unite the two feparated parts; he then applied cross bars of oak to preferve the picture. whilft drying, in the form which it had taken.

The drying proceeding flowly, the Artist applied a fecond gaze on the firit, and fucceffively two theets of paper of a fpongy fubitance.

This preparation being dry, he turned the picture on a table, and proceeded with great care to feparate the wood on which the picture was painted.

The firft operation was executed by means of two laws, of which the one worked perpendicularly and the other horizontally: he then used a plane, and afterwards another of a different conItruction until the wood was reduced to the thickness of a common fheet of paper.

In this state the wood was fucceffively moistened, by compartments, with pure water, until the Artist was enabled to feparate the pieces with care by the point of a knife.

Citizen Hacquin, after having taken off the whole impreffion to the paste on which the picture was painted, and above all the maltics which in former restorations had been thought neceffary, difcovered the firit sketch of Raphael.

In order to render the painting more yielding, he moiftened it with cotton dipped in oil, and afterwards, by means of wax, moistened with oil, took off the impreffion from the pafte, and fixed it by means of a soft brush.

After three months drying, a gauze was pafted on the impreffion in oil, and over that a fine linen cloth.

When the cloth was dry, the picture was detached from the table and turned, in order to take away the gauze and papers first applied with water. This operation being done, he proceeded to fmooth the inequalities upon the fur face, which proceeded from the shrinking of different parts. For this pur pofe the Artift applied fucceffively, on the inequalities, a strong paste, and having placed a piece of paper on the moilt.

ened part, he applied a hot iron; and on the part which had thrunk, by which they were returned to their originai thape, but not till he had dif covered, by infallible means, the des gree of heat which the iron ought to poffefs before it was permitted to approach the picture.

We have teen that he had fixed the painting, difembarrailed from its im preffion, on the paite, and all other foreign fubitances, on an impreffion in oil, and that he had rettored to a fmooth form the fhrunk parts of its furface; but the chef d'œuvre till remained to be done, namely, to fix the picture folidly upon a new ground. For this purpose he difengaged the gauze, which had been proviforily placed on the impreffion, added a new coat of oxide of lead and oil, applied a gauze, rendered very fupple, and upon that placed another preparation of lead and an unbleached cloth cut in one piece, and impregnated, on the exte rior furface, with a refinous mixture, on which was fixed a fimilar cloth fixed in a frame. The body of the picture, difembarrassed from what had been previously placed on it, and furnished with a new ground, was then applied, with exactnefs, to the cloth, impreg nated with the refinous fubitance, avoiding every thing that might injure it by a too great or unequal extention, and forcing all the points of its extent to adhere to the cloth fixed in the frame. By this process the picture was incorporated with a bafe more durable than the first, and fortified against thofe accidents which had produced its dete rioration, fince it has been finally re ftored, which is the object of the fecond part of this Report.

This fecond operation, which wẻ will call Picturesque Restoration, was confided by the Administration to Citizen Roefer, to whom we are indebted for the reparation of the molt valuable pictures, and whofe fuccefs multiplies the motives for confidence. The Com. miffaries, after having pointed out the procefs employed for this purpose, declare, that it is as perfect as it was poffible to defire, and thus conclude their interesting Report.

"We felicitate ourselves on having at length feen this chef d'oeuvre of the immortal Raphael reftored to existence, in all its primitive beauty, and by fuch means as leave no room to fear the

returà

return of accidents, whofe ravages threaten the objects of general admi. tation."

The Administration of the Central Mufeum of the Arts, who, by its Science, Las perfected the art of Re, toration, will, doubtless, neglect nothing to preferve the art in all its integrity; and, in fpite of reiterated fuccefs, 38 will not fuffer the application of the Art to objects, unless they are fo de. teriorated, that it will be better to run the risk infeparable from delicate and

multiplied operations, than to abandon them to the deftruction with which they are menaced. The invitation which the Administration of the Mufeum has made to the National Inftitute to follow the process of Reftora tion with refpect to the picture of Raphael, is a fure guarantee that the enlightened men who compofe it, feel that they ought to render an account of their conduct to the whole of enlightened Europe.

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.
A HINDOO ANECDOTE.

NEAR the city of Smyrna, a Bramin lately died, and left a wife behind

bim.

In countries fubject to the authority and government of the Mahomedans, the custom of women committing themfelves to the funeral pile with the bodies of their deceafed husbands is, if not abolithed, at least under very great reftrictions; as it is not allowed to be practifed but by exprefs permiffion.

The widow of the Bramin, therefore, waited in parfon on the Governor of the City, and in the most pathetic manner implored his permition for the high honour of burning with the body of her deceased husband, which the Go vernor peremptorily refuted to grant her. Nothing difcouraged thereby, the continued her entreaties-prof trated herself on the ground before him, and mingled her tears with the duft.

All entreaties were vain the Governor remained inflexible. Rage and defpair then filled the breast of the beautiful victim-and they broke out in these, and fuch like, exclamations. "Ah! miferabie me! Why was my mo ther burnt? why my aunt? my two fifters Ah! miferable me 1-Why am I, alone, refused the honours of my fex?"

A Pricft, or Bonze, of the fame caft of Hindoos, happened to be present at this interesting fcene. He gazed ar Wently on the young woman; and now and then turning his eyes towards the Governor, filently reproached him, for refufing the prayer of the widow's petition. When the Governor took notice of this Prieft, he exclaimed, "Wretch, it is you who have administered intoxi

cating herbs, to excite phrenzy-it is owing to your pernicious doctrines, that a custom fo shocking to humanity is till in practice!-Go, depart hence, and be no more seen."

The Bonze, undaunted, stood his ground. He allured the Governor that he had never spoken to the woman before him; but confeffed he had prepared many others to undergo the fame facrifice; that it was an act agreeable to her god Brama; and for this reafon he begged the Governor, in the most respectful manner, to grant his confent; on which the widow redoubled her tears, prayers, and entreaties. The Bonze, thus encouraged to go on, added. "Sir! great, great will be her reward! great her recompenfe for it in the other world! there he will be re. joined to her husband, by a fecond inar, riage, and live with him to all eternity."

The widow's fine black eyes inftantly received new luftre. She darted a pierc ing look at the Bonze, expreffive of fatisfaction, mingled with a portion of terror." What," exclaimed the, "fhall I indeed find my husband in heaven? How have I been deceived by two old Bonzes !-They never told me this. They knew my husband well. They knew too how he treated me ! Then. Sir," fays the, turning round to the Governor, "fince the god Brama would reunite me to my husband, 1 renounce him and his religion for ever, and embrace yours." Then looking at the Bonze, ☀ You may, if you please, when you fee my husband, tell him what I have done, and say that I hope to find myself extremely well without him--for he was an old cross wretch; ftupid, jealous, and offensive,”

THE

LONDON REVIEW,

AND

LITERARY JOURNAL,

FOR OCTOBER 1802.

QUID SIT PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, QUID UTILE, QUID NON.

Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, in Company with feveral Divifions of the French Army, during the Campaigns of General Bonaparte in that Country; and published at Paris, under his immediate Patronage, by Vivant Denon. Embellished with numerous Engravings. Tranflated by Arthur Aikin. Two Editions. 4to. Two Volumes. 8vo. Three Volumes.

THE title of this work coin former fo great a degree with a former publication on the fame fubject, viz. Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, by SONNINI," on which we bestowed a very ample investigation in our Literary Journal for the months of February, March, and April 1800, Vol. XXXVII.; that fome of our Readers, at the first glance, will be apt to exclaim-What, more travels in Egypt! to which we may readily reply-Yes, Gentlemen! and we fincerely hope, as well for your information as for your rational amufe ment, thefe will not be the lait. The Paris Prefs has furnished employment for our Tranflators, Printers, Engravers, and Bookfellers; and we truft we may yet expect from fome of our own countrymen, who either as companions to, or Officers in, our gallant army in Egypt, had equal opportunities of exploring this wonderful country, one or more original works of equal merit with the labours of the ingenious and affiduous French writers above-mentioned, whofe mafterly performances are at once an honour and an ornament to polite literature.

It will be recollected by the conftant patrons of our Magazine, that Sonnini's travels commenced in the year 1773, and terminated in 1780, when he returned to France: thefe data muft also be the guides to those readers who with to make comparisons, and to attend to the connexion of the two works. Both Authors travelled over great part of the fame ground; their defcriptions,

VOL. XLII. OCT. 1802.

fubjects

fubjects they felected for engravings, will in fome inftances fo perfectly ac cord with each other, that no novelty, and but little variety, will be found, in thofe inftances, by the readers of the prefent work; bur in other respects it will appear to poffefs confiderable advantages over the former.

Denon embarked from Toulon for Egypt in the month of May 1798, and arrived at Alexandria the latter end of June following: here, then, is a lapfe of time, no less than eighteen years, which alone conftitutes a material difference in the description of the ftate of the country, at the former, and at the latter period; to which muft be added, the two years employed in new difcoveries and researches. To the present Author, therefore, we are indebted for the most recent account of the antiquities, curiofities, and internal circumftances of Egypt, the journal of his travels ending only in the year 1800. "An eye-witness of the military operations of Bonaparte, and protected in his excurfions by an escort of French foldiers, he had the most favourable opportunities of examining those stupendous remains, and eternal documents of the ancient civilization of the country, to which its then unfettled ftate had denied à peaceable admiffion. Hence, the work contains an agreeable mixture of incident and description; and Citizen Denon not being a foldier by profeffion, and, therefore, not hardened to the atroci

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