PROCEEDINGS at large of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE of France, on the 4th of January, 1799, as published by the Secretaries. NOTICE of the Labours of the Clafs of which is at this day multiplied so advan- occupied the clafs of Phyfical Sciences, two new genera of plants have been pre. fented by Citizen L'HERITIER. The first, discovered at Madagascar, by Citizen BRUGUIERE, an affociate member of the Inftitute, is to affume the name of Bruguiera. Grateful fcience will be anxious to confecrate to the memory of this learned naturalift, whom death has just taken from us, the plant which was the firft fruit of his labours in the Voyage round the world which he undertook with Kerguelen. The fecond genus, difcovered at the ifle of France by the fame author, belongs to the family of the Orchis. As it is a plant parafiftical to the trunks of trees, Citizen L'Heretier propofts, for this reafon, to name it the Rhizodendrum, There is a tree, originally of North America, the young branches of which are covered during vegetation, with a visCous humour, which, if touched ever to flightly, fticks ftrongly to the fingers and blackens them. Citizen VAUQUELIN confiders it as a principle different from all hitherto known in the vegetable kingdom, but which, nevertheless, approaches nearer to refin than to any other fubftance. The production of this fpecies of glue, has caused the name of Robinia vifcofa to be given to the tree here treated of, to diftinguish it from another robinia or falfe acacia, to which it bears the ftrongest affinity. Citizens CELS and VENTENAT have fhewn, that this tree belongs to a genus which has been defcribed by the Citizens JUSSIEU and LAMARCK. It is to Citizen MICHAUT, affociate member of the Institute, that we owe this new acquifition, ftill more important perhaps than that of the falfe acacia, The difficulty of collecting the varied productions of different climates, has the greateft obftacles to the ftudy and progrefs of natural hiftory. This difficulty exifts no longer with regard to the plants which grow in the states of Tunis and Algiers. The public now poffeffes a Complete Flora of Mount Atlas, a work long defired by botanists; and it is to Citizen DESFONTAINES that the obligation is folely due. Citizen BROUSSONET, whom the love of the fciences has conducted into the fame part of Africa, has investigated the particular proceffes employed at Fez and at Tetuan, in the preparations of goats' fkins, with which morocco leather of different colours is made. He has laid down the most precife inftructions on this fubject, and has defignated the plants which are made ufe of in Barbary for thofe kinds of preparations. Induftry, which is able to convert every thing to fome advantage, and which for that reafon ought to lole nothing, makes ufe of old ropes and old fishermen's nets to make tow, which ferves afterwards to fabricate paper of different thickness and quality. Citizen TEISSIER has fhewn how useful it would be, to encourage in our maritime departments, the manufacture of that very thick paper which ferves for the careening of veffels, by always turning to profit the tow made of old cordage, which is moreover used for calking ships. The fame author has obferved a pretty fingular fact, the cause of which is not as He has obferved in many yet known. places, milk newly drawn, and of fine white colour, become blue in the space of two or three days, even after having un. dergone the operation of boiling. This phenomenon does not appear to depend either upon the age or the health of the cows, nor the state of the dairies, nor of the veffels into which the milk is put, nor from any defect of care or cleanliness. All the milk and its produce, although blue, is good, and may be used without any inconvenience. Perhaps fome plants of the nature of woad and indigo, on which some cows feed during the fummer, tinge the milk with this factitious colour. But this is merely a conjecture, and Citizen Teiffier propofes, in order to discover the truth, to make the neceffary obfervations and experiments, in the places where the phenomenon has been obferved. In a memoir on a new claffification of fhells, Citizen Lamarck has fhewn the neceflity of augmenting the number of genera, and of reducing to narrower limits the characters which diftinguish them. He extends this namber to a hundred and feventeen. Linnæus and the other naturalifts had only carried it to fixty. This new claffification will enable us to refer all the teftaceous animals we with to inveftigate, with greater facility to their refpective genus. In the numerous family of fpiders, there are fome which have been furnamed miners and mafons, because they have the property of burrowing a fubterraneous gallery or cavity, which they fhut with a fort of trap or moveable door. Citizen LATREILLE, an affociate member of the Institute, has indicated the characters proper to this induftrious family, and the means of not confounding it with other infects of the fame name, but of a different fpecies. It is well known, that phosphorus and many faline combinations of the phosphoric acid, have been found by chemifts in urine. The Citizens FOURCROY and VAUQUELIN, have been enabled to difcover by fome new experiments, alumine and phosphate of magnesia, in this liquid. They have obferved, that a particular animal matter which characterises urine, and which gives it all its properties, very readily formed ammoniac, which caused magnefian phosphate to pafs into the class of triple falts, rendered it much lefs diffoluble than before, and fufceptible of precipitation in crystalline flakes or needles. Thefe two chemifts have examined the different alterations of which this liquid is fufceptible, and have given an account of the spontaneous changes which it undergoes, and fhewn that the investigation of it, as yet scarcely commenced, according to them, is one of the objects which ought the most to fix the attention of phyficians; as it presents one of the most important problems for them to refolve, relative to the physical state of the healthy or fick perfon. The attention of the clafs of phyfical fciences, has been further occupied with fome obfervations of Citizen BEAUME on the decompofition of calcareous muriate by lime, and fome enquiries into a malady which Citizen Portal has exhibited, by fpecifying the remedies competent to cure it. NOTICE of the class of Moral and Political Sciences, by Citizen LACUEE. It will create no furprise to learn, that, among the memoirs which have been read in the clafs of moral and political sciences, during the course of the last three months, there are three which treat on the propereft means of establishing and propagating liberty. Liberty, which was always the divinity of men of letters, ought, under a republican government, to be ftill more particularly the object of their worship and of their meditations. Citizen TOULONGEON, convinced that true freedom can only exift where the liberty of the individual is fecure from every affault, has been confidering the means of protecting individual liberty in a reprefentative government. The liberty of manifefting our thoughts, that of going and coming, and that of carrying arms, have been fpiritedly defended by our fellow member. His obfer vations on thefe three fubjects will be always ufeful to repeat, in countries which enjoy liberty to preferve it there, and to introduce it into thofe which are deprived of it. The author is further of opinion, that there can be no perfonal liberty, where the citizen is not at his option, not only to refufe all public functions. excepting thofe of the foldier and juror, but even to abdicate the right of citizenship; lastly, that to preferve perfonal liberty, it may be neceffary, in certain cafes and under a very weighty refponfibility, that the individual fhould even have the right of disobedience. Our fellow-member DESALES, has been investigating the liberty of fuffrages; he has expreffed his opinion on this fubject in a memoir on the use of fecret balioting among a free people. The author affumes, that the ufe of a fecret balloting implies a previous fuppofition, that free men would have the weakness to give a vote different from that of their real fentiments; he thinks further, that this form of balloting declares in general, that this mode of expreffing our wifh, allowing it may be proviforily retained in the political world, ought to be banished from from the literary world, and particularly from the National Institute, from that body as free by its effence as it is by its compofition. The purchase and slavery of negroes have been the fubject of the meditations of our brother GREGOIRE. After hav ing fhewn that the buying and felling of negroes, take their date from an epoch anterior to the difcovery of the new world, and coincident with the moment in which flavery was abolished in Europe; after having explained the part which the different nations have taken in the traffick, and fhewn what people have appeared the leaft cruel mafters, the author traces minutely the efforts of the friends of the blacks; he analyses their writings he denounces the English government, whofe acts in favor of the negroes appear to him rather the effect of a profound machiaveEifin, than of the love of humanity; and laftly, attempts to exculpate the friends of the blacks, from the reproach of having carried their attachment to their unfortunate clients fo far, as to become the enemies of the white proprietors in the colonies. In the fecond part of his work, Citizen Gregoire propofes to treat of what yet remains to be done by the friends of the blacks to complete their work. A question of focial fcience, no lefs important than thofe I have juft fpoken of, has attracted the attention of Citizen VILLETERQUE. In fome general confiderations on the natural affections and maternal power, the author examines whether mothers should not poffefs greater power, than what they have been allowed to enjoy to this day. Our fellow member, on the authorities of Locke, Hobbs, and Condorcet, advances that the higher we augment the power of fathers, which he calls a power of institution, without having refpect to that of mothers, which is a power truly natural, the further we fray from that unity of direction neceffary to analogous means which fhould lead to the fame end; and that it is perhaps from this oppofition not rightly adjufted that many disorders rise in civil affociation: Citizen VILLETERQUE obferves further, that it is by uniting the powers of fathers and mothers by equal rights, or the only modifications of which would be relative to different duties, that we may best increase the happy influence which these two authorities ought to have upon manners. Citizen BOUCHAUD, who had before communicated to the clafs three memoirs, relative to the magiftrates of Roman colonies and municipal towns, has read, during the last quarter, a fourth on the fame fubject; thus, the friends of antiquity have no further information to delire on that part of the government and laws of antient Rome. Although the history of ancient Greece has been written by men celebrated for their genius, or esteemed for their vast and profound erudition, we have on the whole but very inaccurate and incomplete notices relative to the geography of that country, fo interefting by the remembrances which it excites, and by the monuments which it contains. Citizen MENTELLE has undertaken to fill up this deficiency, with a view to render the refearches of travellers, who fhould incline to make Greece the object of their ftudies, lefs painful, tedious and unprofitable. He has already communicated to the clafs, two memoirs on this fubject. In the firft, he defcribes the country of Trazene, and the territories of Epidauris; in the fecond, he difcuffes fome points of geography peculiar to Argolis. Whilft citizen Mentelle was employed in rendering eafier, the discoveries which yet remain for us to make in the ancient times and world, our fellow member BUACHE has been attempting to furnish us with the means of difcovering in the immenfe ocean, men and countries new to us. May his work, which will be read in the course of this fitting, reanimate amongst us the taste for voyages destined to enlarge the sphere of our knowledge, of our commercial relations, and of our glory! And above all, may the nations which this work fhall have affifted us to discover, never be convinced by their own experience, that the virtues have made lefs progrefs in Europe, than the sciences and arts! Citizens LEGRAND-DAUSSI and ANQUETIL have been both engaged in refearches on the laws and manners of the firft ages of the French Monarchy. The object of Citizen LEGRAND being to compare together the Salic code, the code of the Burgundians, and that of the Vifigoths, he traces the history of each of the codes; he analyfes them, examines their defects and their particular merit, their afflictive penalties, and their compofitions in money for crimes; their laws concerning the ftate of the Gauls, women, flaves, and lastly the confirmative fanction which each of them received, before capable of being put in execution; a fanction which for the Vifigoth code was that of the clergy; for the Burgundian code, that of of the grandees; for the Salic code, that of the people, the king having no fhare either in the making or acceptation of it. beauty, and that beauty refides, not in exterior forms, not in academical propor tions, but in the actions and the affections of the foul, and in the fentiment which animates them; in a word, that as it is the foul and the life which make the beautiful, it is the expreffion of the moral, fentimental, and virtual life which makes beauty. The laft work of which we have to give an account, is a report made in the general fitting by Citizen BAUDIN, in the name of a commiffion appointed to examine, how on the deceate of any of its members, the Institute fhould render them the last devoirs. This report having been rendered pub It is with regret that we cannot follow Citizen Legrand, neither in the examen which he makes of the four verfions of the Salic code, nor in the proofs which he gives that we poffefs the primitive and original law; nor in the profound difquifitions into which he enters to afcertain it, and to prove that it is not unfavourable to women, as it has been so often repeated. Compelled by the abundance of memoirs of which we have to give an account, we can only ftate here, that the primitive original law is, according to Citizen LEGRAND, that which, in the fourth volume of the collection of the hiflic by a circulation in print, and diftritorians of France, is printed the fecond, and that this law is favourable to women; for the celebrated article of terra jalica, is not only quite different there, but the word falica is not even to be found there. Without doubt, at this epoch, adds our fellow member, there was no fuch thing as falic lands; they could not take place till after the conqueft. Then probably Clovis thought fit to reform the law; and this change was of those which he must have judged necessary. Citizen ANQUETIL, in his work intitled, "A Memoir on the Ufages, Manners, and Laws of our Ancestors during the first and the fecond race," after having traced the different revolutions which the French government experienced under Clovis and his immediate fucceffors, dwells with a just complacence on thofe moments equally brilliant and happy, wherein the nation reftored to its rights, was admitted to the auguft functions of legislation. Citizen ANQUETIL read also some obfervations on the political and commercial interefts of France and Turkey. In the courfe of this labour, he offered to the clafs, the analysis of a memoir prefented to the ancient government by a French ambassador, who had refided fixteen years at Conftantinople. This memoir proves, that the design of establishing a French colony in Egypt has been long concerting; but to execute this great project, it was requisite to find a man who fhould unite the genius of war with that of government and civil administration, and men of this character are never to be found, unless among free people and after great political revolutions. The proper beauty of animated beings, is the fubject of a work of our fellow member MERCIER. In his difcourfe he endeavours to make it appear, that the purely phyfical fair or beautiful is not buted at the commencement of this fitting, we need not here offer the analysis of it; but why may we not day, that the Inftitute by first promulgating the re-establishment of a ufage dictated by nature, commanded by morality, and adopted by all civilized peo ple; by first giving public teftimonies of attachment and respect for the mortal remains of one of its members; by impo fing on itself for the future the obligation of affisting at the funeral rites of any defunct; and by addreffing to government its views on this important part of morality and public police, has obeyed the voice of duty as well as that of the heart. Charged by the conftitution and the laws, with the improvement of all the means of human knowledge, and particularly fuch as may have a tendency to render men better and happier, it must neceffarily combat by its works, prejudices, the effect of a popular delirium, and vices, produced by a forgetfulness of morality; as it has fo often attacked prejudices the offspring of defpotism, fuperftition and pride. It has even further duties to difcharge; it should join example to precept, in order to testify to France, the importance and dignity of its miffion, and proclaim to all men who cultivate or who teach the fciences and the arts, that in a republic, the inftitutor, the man of erudition, the man of letters, ought not to limit their labours to differtations on manners and virtues, but that to difcharge in its whole extent their useful and glorious magiftracy, they should conftantly fet their fellow citizens the example of an inviolable attachment to the laws of their country, and of an ardent love for all the virtues which the most justly celebrated republicans have conftantly profeffed, and to which they were indebted for their happiness and glory! (The other claffes in our next.) WAL WALPOLIANA; OR, BONS MOTS, APOPHTHEGMS, OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE AND LITERATURE, WITH EXTRACTS FROM ORIGINAL LETTERS, OF THE LATE HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD. NUMBER XII. This Article is communicated by a Literary Gentleman, for many years in babits of intimacy with Mr. WALPOLE. It is partly drawn up from a collection of Bons-Mots, &c. in his own band-writing; partly from Anecdotes written down after long Conversations with him, in which be would, from four of Clock in the Afternoon, till two in the Morning, difplay thofe treasures of Anecdote with which bis Rank, Wit, and Opportunities, had replenished his Memory; and partly from Original Letters to the Compiler, on fubjects of Tafte and Literature. CLVIII. HEROISM OF A PEASANT. HE following generous action has THE always ftruck me extremely; there is fomewhat even of fublime in it. A great inundation having taken place in the north of Italy, owing to an exceffive fall of fnow in the Alps, followed by a Speedy thaw, the river Adige carried off a bridge near Verona, except the middle part, on which was the houfe of the tollgatherer, or porter, I forget which; and who, with his whole family, thus remained imprisoned by the waves, and in momentary danger of deftruction. They were discovered from the banks, ftretching forth their hands, fcreaming, and imploring fuccour, while fragments of this remaining arch were continually dropping into the water. In this extreme danger, a nobleman, who was prefent, a count of Pulverini, I think, held out a purfe of one hundred fequins, as a reward to any adventurer who would take boat, and deliver this unhappy family. But the rifk was fo great of being borne down by the rapidity of the ftream, of being dashed against the fragment of the bridge, or of being crushed by the falling ftones, that not one, in the vaft number of fpectators, had courage enough to attempt fuch an exploit. A peafant, paffing along, was informed of the propofed reward. Immediately jumping into a boat, he, by strength of oars, gained the middle of the river, brought his boat under the pile; and the whole family fafely descended, by means of a rope. "Courage! cried he. Now you are fafe." By a ftill more ftrenuous effort, and great ftrength of arm, he brought the boat, and family, to fhore. "Brave fellow, exclaimed the count, handing the purfe to him, here is the promifed recompence." "I fhall never expofe my life for money, anfwered the peafant. My labour is a fufficient livelihood for myself, my wife, and children. Give the purfe to this poor family, which has loft all." CLIX. SENTIMENT. What is called fentimental writing, though it be understood to appeal folely to the heart, may be the product of a bad one. One would imagine that Sterne had been a man of a very tender heart—yet I know, from indubitable authority, that his mother, who kept a school, having run in debt, on account of an extravagant daughter, would have rotted in jail, if the parents of her fcholars had not raised a fubfcription for her. Her fon had too much fentiment to have any feeling. A dead afs was more important to him than a living mother. CLX. VERTOT. In writing the history of the Knights of Malta, Vertot had fent to Italy for original materials, concerning the fiege of Rhodes: but, impatient of the long delay, he completed his narrative from his own imagination. At length the packet arrived, when Vertot was fitting with a friend: he opened it, and threw it contemptuously on the fopha behind him, faying cooly, Mon fiege eft fait *. CLXI. AKENSIDE AND ROLT. Akenfide's Pleafures of Imagination attracted much notice on the first appearance, from the elegance of its language, and the warm colouring of the defcrip tions. But the Platonic fanaticifm of the foundation injured the general beauty of the edifice. Plato is indeed the philofopher of imagination-but is not this faying he is no philofopher at all? I have been told that Rolt, who afterwards wrote many books, was in Dublin when that poem appeared, and actually paffed a whole year there, very comfortably, by paffing for the author. CLXII. MONTESQUIEU. Madame de Deffant faid of Montef quieu's celebrated work, that it was d'efprit fur les loix †. *My fiege is made. Wit upon laws. |