a south-east direction. The noise was greater during the shock than before it, and for some seconds after it was so loud, that it made the circumjacent mountains re-echo with the sound; after which, in the course of about half a minute it gradually died away. At this time the atmosphere was calm, dense and cloudy, and for some hours before and after there was not the least motion in the air. Fahrenheit's thermometer, when examined about half an hour after the shock, indicated a temperature of 15 degrees below the freezing point of water. The preceding day was calm and cloudy, thermometer at 8 A. M. 140. at 8 P. M. 130. The morning of the 18th was calm and cloudy, but the day broke up to sun-shine; thermometer at 8 A. M. 19. at 8 P. M. 160. If this shock had been succeeded by another equally violent, it must have damaged the houses; but we have not heard that it occasioned any injury. A plan for the establishment of a Caledonian Asylum in London, for the maintenance and education of the sons and daughters of Scottish soldiers, sailors and marines, has been brought forward by the Highland Society. It is proposed that in this institution, besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, the boys shall receive such preparatory instruction as may be necessary to qualify them for the royal navy, the army, merchant-service, or the fisheries. The girls are to receive an education suited to their condition in life; and it is proposed to introduce into the establishment certain manufactures or mechanical arts, adapted to their subsequent pursuits. MELX's Brewery, a concern, which for magnitude, is scarcely equalled in the world, is soon to be sold by auction under a decree of the Court of Chancery. The following particulars will afford some idea of the extent of this establishment. The first lot comprizes the whole of the plant, that is, the brew-houses, ware-houses, rails, cuppers, vats, with the dwelling house, counting-houses, stables, and every other building upon the premises. These Cost the proprietors £200,000. But the buyer of this lot will not purchase the buildings alone; he will also secure an establishment which has brewed 190,000 barrels of parter in the year, the sale of the greatest part of which, will is all probability, remain with the house, while it continues to supply good beer. One third of this quantity is sent into the country; and this part consists of high-priced por ter, which yields a much better profit to the brewer than the inferior kinds. The present owners have actually bought and pulled down three breweries, the whole trade of which is now accumulated in this in addition to their original customers, and the good will of the concera goes with this lot. 10!, per cent is required as a deposit at the time of pur chase; 401. per cent additional on the 13th February, 1810, and two years more are given for completing the payment. The stock of beer, hops, malt, &c. on hand; the horses, drays, butts, casks, to be taken at a valuation, and twelve months credit to be given on the amount of these if required. The present proprietors possessing a great number of freehold, copyhold, and leasehold public-houses, have had a valuation put upon them: the purchasers of the first lot may either buy a part or the whole of them. The amount of the freehold houses is 14.2001.; that of the leasehold 47,100l. The very patronage, of this concern is an object. The proprietors appoint broad-coopers, appraisers, surveyors, &c. who are paid by the customers, without any charge to the house, and get nett incomes of 5001. or 1,000t. and one of them it is said, 2,000l. per annum. The house has for these teu years paid annually into their bankers hands from half a million to 800,0001, The premium of a piece of plate of the value of fifty guineas, proposed by the African Institution for the greatest quantity of cotton, the growth of the west coast of Africa, imported into this courttry, has been adjudged to Messrs. John and Alexander Anderson, of Philpot lane. The quantity imported by them was upwards of ten thousand weight, and it sold for 2s. 8d. per lb. These gentlemen have determined greatly to enlarge their cotton plantations on the river Sierra Leone, and their example is likely to be extensively followed. By means of the African institution a large supply of the Georgia Sca-island cotton seed, by far the most valuable kind, having been sent to the coast, it may be hoped that at no distant period, the importations from this quarter will fill up that chasm in the cotton market which the interruption of our commerce with America has occasioned. This is not the only benefit which we are likely to derive from an increased attention to Africa. A considerable quantity of African rice has been already imported into the West Indies, and a much larger importation may speedily be effected. In the present state of our West India colonies, this new and unexpected resource must prove prove of the very first importance, and ought to be anxiously cherished. In pursuance of the resolution of parliament passed in the last session, a national institution for promoting vaccination, is established under the management of a board which consists of the following members: Sir Lucas Pepys, Drs. Mayo, Heberden, Satterly, Bancroft, Sir Charles Blicke, Messrs. Chandler and Keate. The board have appointed the following officers:-director, Dr. Jenner; assistant director, James Moore, Esq. register, Dr. Hervey; principal vaccinator, J. C. Carpue, Esq. vaccinators at the stations, Messrs. T. Hale, Richard Lane, Edward Leese, S. Sawrey, and J. Vincent; and secre.ary, Mr. Charles Murray. Mr. JAMES SCOTT, of Dublin, states, that he has found by repeated experiments, that platina possesses, on account of its imperceptible expansion, a great superiority over other materials for making the pendulum-spring of watches; but that arsenic must not be employed in consolidating it, as it would then be liable to expansion. When properly drawn it possesses self-sufficient elasticity for any extent of vibration; it coils extreinely well, and if placed when coiled on the surface of a flat piece of metal, making one end of the spring fast, and marking exactly the other extremity, not the slighest expansion is visible when heat is applied. Mr. Scott farther remarks, that he has for a considerable time made use of platina for compensation curbs, and considers it as very superior to steel for every instrument of that kind. 11 To some enquiries respecting the smalJest number of Galvanic combinations, and the smallest surface of plates that is sufficient to decompose the fixed alkalis; and also, the best solution for charging a battery so as to produce the greatest power, professor Davy has given the following answer. In my early experiments upon potassium, I often procured it by means of a battery of one thousand pairs of plates of copper and zinc of six inches square, charged with a solution of concentrated nitrous acid in about forty parts of water. This is the lowest power that I employed; but as some of the plates had been much corroded by former processes, I should conceive that a combination of eighty would be sufficient, provided the whole arrangement was perfect. The decomposition of the alkaline earths and ammonia by amalgamation or combination of their bases may be accomplished by a much weaker combination, fifty plates of six or four inches square being adequate to produce sensible results. The potassium which I have used in various analytical enquiries lately carried on, has been all procured by chemical means, without the application of electricity. Potash may be decomposed by different processes, some of which are described in a paper which I am now reading before the Royal Society, but the best method is that which we owe to the ingenious researches of Messrs. Gay Lussac, and Thenard, and which is the first of this kind, by mere chemical attraction, made known. When melted potash is slowly brought into contact with iron turnings or filings, heated to whiteness, hydrogen gas is evolv ed, holding potassium in solution: and if one part of the iron tube or gun-barrel in which the experiment is made, be preserved cool, the metal is deposited in this part, being precipitated from the hydrogen gas by cooling. The potash is never procured quite so pure in this way as by electricity; but it is fit for analy tical purposes, and I have obtained 'it with so little alloy, as to possess a specific gravity considerably below 8, water being 10. I have now by me a compact mass produced in an operation, which weighs nearly 100 grains." Ninety-two whales of a new species were stranded in Scapay Bay in Pomona, one of the Orkneys, a few days previous to a violent storm in December, 1806. Of this animal, never before figured by any naturalist, Dr. Traill, of Liverpool, gives the following description:-It be longs very clearly to the genus delphinus; the only hitherto described species of that genus which it at all resembles is the delphinus orca, or grampus; but it is distinguished from the latter by the shape of its snout, the shortness of its dorsal fin, the length and narrowness of its pectoral fins, the form and number of its teeth, and the colour of its belly and breast. Almost the whole body is black, smooth, and shining like oiled silk. The back and sides are jetty black; the breast and belly of a somewhat lighter colour. The general length of the fullgrown ones is about twenty feet. body is thick, the dorsal fin does not exceed two feet in length, and is rounded at the extremity. The pectoral fins are from six to eight feet in length,narrow and tapering to their extremities. The head is obtuse; the upper jaw projects several inches over the lower in a blunt process. The It has a single spiracle. The full-grown have twenty-two subconoid sharp teeth, a little hooked. Among those stranded in Scabay Bay were many young ones, which, as well as the oldest, wanted teeth. The youngest measured about five feet in length, and were still sucklings. The females had two teats, larger than those of a cow, out of which the milk flowed when they were squeezed. These animals are gregarious, and follow one as their leader. They frequently enter the bays around the Orkney coast in quest of sinali fish, which seem to be their food. When one of them takes the ground, the rest surround and endeavour to assist their stranded compaion: from this circumstance several of them are generally taken at once. They are inoffensive and rather timid, and may frequently be chased on shore by a few yawls. They are extremely fat and yichi a considerable quantity of good oil. This new species Dr. Traill proposes to denominate delphinus melus. Mr. ACTON of Ipswich, having used a still containing 9 gallons, for distilling common water, essential oils and water retigerated them with a tub which holds about 36 gallons, found it very inconvenient to change the water of the tub as often as it became hot, which it very soon did, after commencing distillation; he therefore contrived the following addition to the refrigerating part of the apparatus, which he has found to suc ceed so well, that he can now distil for any length of time without heating the water in the worn-tub above one degree, that it never requires to be changed; the heat passes of entirely into the additional condenser, and when it exceeds 150 degrees, goes off by evaporation. The additional condenser consists of a trough three feet long, twelve inches deep, and fifteen inches wide, with a pewter pipe passing through the middle of it horizontally, about two inches in diameter, at the largest end next the still and gradually tapering to about three quarters of an inch at the smallest end which communicates with the top of the worm. The great simplicity of this contrivance and its utility render a fair trial of it in other stills very advisable; the small degree of heat which went to the water in the worm-tub shews, that the additional condenser performed carly the whole of the condensation, and that therefore it is extremely probable, that a second pipe and trough added to the first, would perform the whole condensation effectually, without using any worm, and thus enable distillers to dispense with this expensive and troublesome part of the apparatus. The first volume of a new Analysis of Chronology by Dr. HALES, is expected to appear this month. The work will form three quarto volumes. Mr. J. ROLAND, fencing-master at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, intends to publish by subscription, a Treatise on the Art of Fencing, theoretically and experimentally explained, upon principles entirely new; chiefly designed for those who have acquired only a superficial knowledge of the use of the sword. Dr. ROBERT RENNIE, of Kilsyth, will soon publish the additional parts of his work on the subject of Peat Moss, as a manure and as a soil. MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF THE FINE ARTS. The Use of all New Prints, and Communications of Articles of Intelligence, are requested under COVER to the Cure of the Publisher. Twelve Fiews of Canterbury Cathedral, drawn the spot, etched and aquatinted by Charles Wild. Published by the Autbar, Taylor, Molteno, and others. HESE views are selected with much Tagment, and relented with much fidelity; the aqua-tint has more force and breadth than is usual in that style of enaving the descriptive part is written ith ensiderable elegance; and the whole creditable to the talents of Mr. Wild, Loth as an antiquary and an artist. MONTHLY MAG. No. 182. "The Columbiad," a Poem, by Joel Barlow, embellished with Engravings, by British Engravers, from designs by Robert Smirke, Esq. R. A. Printed and published at Philadelphia, 1807, for Conrad and Co. This is one of the finest specimens of the typographical art ever published, og either side of the Atlantic. The engravings (eleven in number,) are in the line manner, by Anker Smith, Bromley, Parker, Goulding, Schiavonetti, Cromek, Neagle, Heath, and Raimbach, who, with the A u paintos Abraham offering Isaac on amount, from An. Carracci, is happily varied; the foreground forcible, and the distance clear and tender; the figures are too small, and not sufficiently prominent to meet criti painter (Smirke,) appear to have been equally animated with the desire of shewing our transatlantic brethren the excellence of British art. If any were singled out from such a collection of beauties, perhaps the portrait of the author, and Hesper, appearing to Columbus in prison, by Anker Smith,and the Inquisition, by Schiavonetti, for engraving, andCruelty presiding over the prison-ship, by Neagle, for sublimity of composition, though equally" well engraved, might be selected as the best; they certainly rank among the finest book-prints of the present day.. The In-doubt please the ladies, to whom it is par quisition by Schiavonetti, must again be mentioned as one of the most exquisite specimens of the graphic art, that has ever appeared. The Holy Bible, with Engravings by British Artists, from celebrated Pictures of varicus Schools. By the Res. John Hewlett, second part. This second number of graphic illustrations of sacred history, is continued with the same ability as the preceding, and is creditable to the proprietor, the editor, and the engravers. There are five prints, and a beautiful map, in the present number, as follows: very Abraham and the three Angels; by Worthington, from Ludovico Caracci. Jacob wrestling with an Angel, by J. Taylor, from Salvator Rosa. The return of the Prodigal Son, by Heath, from Guercino. Abraham offering Isaac, by Worthing ton, from Annibale Caracci. King Ahasuerus and Esther, by Tomlin son, from Coypel. The pictures, from which these engra vings are taken, are from the best specimen of the painters: the first is a beautiful composition, and the story well told; the angels are truly angelic, and the whole every way worthy of Ludovico. The engraving is excellent. The second is truly expressive of the style of Salvator Rosa; and Taylor's engraving of this print deserves the highest praise. Heath's engraving after Guercino is clear and impressive, and the nude parts well managed. Coypel's picture of Ahasuerus and Esther is too theatrical, too much like the actors of Racine; Esther is fainting too systematically: yet the mechanical part is well handled, and the perspective good. The engraving by Tomlinson is delicate, lucid, and well finished. Worthington's landscape, containing The art of Painting Transparencies, by Edward To the admirers of transparent prints and drawings, this will prove an acquisition; as it contains sufficient instructions for this innocent amusement, and will no ticularly addressed, and afford them much amusement. The Little Mountaineer, painted by A. W. Devis, Esq. Engraved by E. Scriven, Historical engraver to her R. H. the Princess of Wales. Published by Clay and Scriven. The subject of this interesting little picture, is a fine healthy chubby girl, of about five years of age, pulling a lamb by the ear, that is entangled in a thicket. Every part of the child is well-drawn, and beautifully finished, and the union of the laver and stipple is uncommonly happy, and gives additional beauty to the print. To Mr. Devis, much praise is due for the interest he has given to a portrait (the daughter of Sir James Cockburn), and for the correct costume with which he has decked his "Little Mountaineer," so unlike the theatrical balobtrude themselves, with every gaudy colet-dancing misses and masters that daily thrown over the right arm is judicious, and lour, on the tired eye; the demi-tint that is prevents a spottiness of lights. The engraving of the face, neck, and left foot, is in the most delicate style of stippling, as is every other part of the flesh; while the drapery, hair, water, and foliage is most forcibly touched with the graver. On the whole it is one of the most beautiful prints of infantine simplicity, that bas for a long time past made its appearance. Vinus and Lana. Drawn by Huet Villiers, engraved in Mezastinto, by Charles Turner: published by Ackermann. The engraving of this pair of prints is extremely good, but mezzotinto is not the proper style for translating a soft and elegantly coloured drawing, for which it is Loo forcible and abrupt. Mr. Turner's engravings, from the academician of his own name, or the paintings of toppner or Shee, accords better, because they are in a more congenial style. The subjects of these prints are happily conceived, and the faces are beautiful; yet their allegorical character would have been better pre served, served, had the moon in the one, and the star in the other, been more distinct, and the faces less made out. The drawings, from which these engravings are made, were exhibited at the last year's exhibition, in Brook-street, and met with much and deserved applause. Lady Heathcote, drawn by R Cosway, R. A. Engraved by Agar: published by Ackermann. An elegant companion to Mrs. Duff, and equally well drawn and engraved: the bosom, however, is too meretricious, and more exposed than any modest English woman would like hers to be in public; her ladyship's beauty requires no such false baits to attraction. The figure is light, airy, and fancifully imagined, and the engraver has kept pace with the tried abilities of Mr. Cosway, in this line of art. Mr. Clarke. Drawn and engraved by Adam Buck, of Frith-street. they describe; and are chatty, pleasant Ciceronis; good-humouredly pointing out the beauties of each, equally divested of the dogmatizing critic, and the dull catalogue writer of mere names and titles. Mr. Wild, the celebrated archæological draftsman, and author of the description of Canterbury cathedral, is pursuing his researches into English antiquities, with indefatigable industry, and will shortly publish a similar work on the beautiful and elaborate cathedral of York. On Monday, the 23d ult. the lectures at the Royal Academy commenced with the inauguration lecture of Anthony Carlisle, esq. the new professor of anatomy; who, with a zeal and promptitude that can not be too much commended, commenced a course of lectures on anatomy within two months after his election to the pro fessor's chair. Mr. Carlisle began with an eulogium and biographical account of John Sheldon, esq. and gave a slight his much lamented predecessor, the late but spirited sketch of his professional life from the commencement of his studies under the celebrated Hunter, to the time of his death; and delicately alluded to the melancholy mental eclipse, that occasionally deprived the academy of his regular assistance, and finally England of one of its greatest ornaments. unfortunate malady (said Professor Carlisle) from whose encroaching inroads none of us are free. Mr. Carlisle is a man of a cultivated mind, and who ap Catalogue raisenné of the Pictures belonging to the pears to have made the philosophy of Most Honorable ibe Marquis of Stafford, in the the fine arts his peculiar study, and is Gallery of Cleveland-case, comprising a List of therefore, well qualified for the acade the Pictures, with illustrative Anecucts, &.mical honour, with which he has so justG. by J. Britten, F.S.A. A portrait of this celebrated character, to whom the nation is under such great and lasting obligations, for the last inter esting exposure of corrupt practices, which hase at once degraded and ruined the country, cannot fail to find numerous purchasers at the present moment. It is finely drawn by Mr. Buck from the life, and is a specimen of British beauty, which could not perimps be exceeded in any part of the world. It is proper to guard the pubbe against a pretended portrait of Mrs. Clarke, published by Holland. An Hstorical Account of Cham bouse, in Wiltshurt, the Seat of Paul Cobb Methuen, e with a Catalogue of his celebrated Collection of Pictures, c. by the same author, and pulixbed by Longman and Co. The comprehensive titles of the above two useful intle works, render an analysis gnnecessary. They are executed with fidelity and taste, the anecdotes are characteristic, and the biographical memoirs concise and well written. The former work is embellished with a correct plan, And a beautifully engraved frontispiece, by Band, from a correct perspective view the Marquis's new gallery, by J. C. Smith, and the latter with a plan and view of Carlisin house, engraved by J. C. Smith, from a drawing by the author. They form entertaining pocket compani ens to the two noble collections of pictures An ly been invested. His eulogium on the Greeks and their Style of Sculpture was as justly delineated as it was true. He apologized to the Professor of Painting if he should appear to make inroads on his province, and by a poetical simile, added, that if he was prevented from occas sionally skirting his lines of demarkation, he should searcely know how to accom modate the science of anatomy to the studies of the artist. After expatiating to the students on the antiquity, utility, and other qualities of the science of anatomy, he proceeded to a general expla nation of the component parts of man, as divided into head, trunk, and extrem ties, with their greater subdivisions, and by a method as novel as it is likely to be useful, he described geometrical dia gratus on the body of the model, (the celebrated Gregion, who is reckoned to spproach |