this person, who happened to be in Paris, and offered him an advantageous situation in his office; which was accepted, and in which he now continues, and associates with Rewbell on the most cordial footing. As a private man, he displays great love of regularity, moderation, fidelity in friendship, and all the virtues of the father of a family. Near Paris, he has a small villa, at which he com monly sleeps. His dry cold manner contrasts with the amenity of French address, but mellows on a little acquaintance.'- (P. 226) To Réveillere-Lepaux, justice, and the affairs of the interior, are entrusted. He is of the department of Vendée, and had property near Angers, where he had founded some literary institutions, and especially a botanic garden. The general opinion not merely of the impartial, but even of the most hostile to the extant government, agrees in dignifying him with the appellation of the virtuous man. France, it is said, did justice to the purest civism in entrusting to Réveillere-Lepaux her highest dignity; his views as a statesman, his acquirements as a scholar, and his morality as an individual, are equally acknowleged, He was a member of the States General, and an enemy, from the beginning, to all distinction of orders. At the commencement of the troubles of Vendée, he risked his life in a fruitless attempt to promote a pacific spirit. He has never belonged to any party: he loves peace: he prizes merit in every condition, and in every country; and he declares aloud, on all occasions, for that which is fair and good. His look inspires confidence, though he is short, somewhat bowed, and sallow. His hair is black, and his eyebrows are thick. I have often met him at the sittings of the National Institute, as a member of the second class, which cultivates the theory of morals. On the day of the solemn opening of the Institute, he presided in his directorial toga, in an elbow-chair, on the hustings: but he seemed to wish himself in his old place on the benches. He was hated by Robespierre, for braving the most furious demagogues of the dictatorial pack; and he abdicated his office of deputy, in order to escape being sacrificed by the Dictator. Without affecting too much care of himself, he withdrew to St. Quentin; where he had friends, one of whom I knew; and who, in every moment of emergency, had exposed himself and his family to shelter this worthy representative. good Frenchman (said he to me) would not have gladly risked his own life for a man so virtuous and so wise?"-He was a prin cipal architect of the present Constitution; and he was chosen Director by the suffrage of the whole Council of Antients, except two members. : "What The tallest and handsomest of the Directors is Barras in com pany he is lively and agreeable: in times of danger, one of the bravest defenders of the republic. On the 13th Vendemiaire (5th Oc tober) he fought at the head of the army of the Convention against the revolted Parisians, and saved the Convention. His enemies complain, (and he has many enemies among the people,) that he overstepped the necessary measure of force, and continued to shed blood after the victory was decided in favor of the Convention. Many women are said still to wear about them the bullets with which their husbands or children were then slain; and Barras, I think, seems to fear the consequences of this cherished hatred. One day, when an aide-de-camp of Buonaparte suddenly brought to the Directory the first standards gained in the campaign, (it was at the time of the suppression of Drouet's conspiracy, Barras was evidently thrown into a state of great uneasiness. During the ceremony of audience, he turned incessantly about in his chair like a man who is fearing to be attacked by surprize; while his four colleagues were calm and composed.-Barras is the Director who seems most in haste to enjoy life, and has a noted villa beautifully situated at Surêne, near Paris.'* A whole chapter is allotted to the character of Sieyes, with whom Dr. MEYER was much acquainted. He strongly asserts the judgment, the disinterestedness, and the consistency of this eminent character. The Second Volume opens with an extract from the Consti tution of the National Institute of Arts and Sciences. The organization of this establishment may supply some useful hints, but it is in many respects very exceptionable: particularly for the care taken to make it dependent on the government. The 1xth article, for instance, confers on the Executive Directory the nomination of forty-eight persons, who are to choose the remaining ninety-six. One hundred and forty-four persons resident at Paris, and as many in the departments, are to receive salaries from this institution. A provision is also made for twenty-four foreign associates; who, no doubt, will be expected to recommend French measures to the adoption of Europe. The Lyceum (says our author, p. 143) is the only Parisian scientific institution which costs nothing to the state: it is supported by the voluntary contributions of the members: it had the courage to vote a civic crown to Lavoisier, while he was languishing in a dungeon; and to refuse to Robespierre, while in power, the honor of association. Many pages are devoted to the Aerostatic Institution, which is exclusively employed in the improvement of balloons, under the excellent Conté. The battle of Fleurus was won by the superior intelligence obtained by means of a balloon. The process of filling them is now far from costly: it is here described at sufficient length. An aerial telegraph has lately been applied to the gondolas of the balloons, by means of which the voyagers can talk with each other in the echoless space. The telegraphs consist of hollow cylinders of plaited paper, resembling those pocket lanterns which squeeze into a mere hoop, The reader may compare these traits of the French Directors with an account given from a preceding work, in our 22d vol. p. 320, et seq. 1. M m 4 and and are in like manner dilated or contracted in different num bers, at the pleasure of the signal-maker. Concerning the pottery, glass, and porcelaine manufactures of Paris, the following details are given: : (P. 239.) Olivier, who received from the Lyceum a patriotic crown, has an earthen ware manufactory in the suburb St. Antoine, founded sixty years ago by his father, but greatly improved and enlarged by himself. All kinds of pottery are here made, from the coarsest to the finest. Of the latter, the glazing is exquisite and smooth, and the colours are bright but the forms have not that grace and lightness which distinguish Wedgwood's English pottery. Olivier has well imitated the vases called Etruscan, both in material and colour. He also prepares a material resembling basalt in colour, weight, solidity, and sound; of which he makes caryatids, &c. for chimney-pieces, that have the merit of fine contours. This manufactory cannot now be kept in complete activity, for want of hands.— Olivier also prepares vermilion, and calx of lead. O'Relly, a Scotchman, established here some years ago a glass house, which rivals the brightest specimens of English glass. It has the same translucency, polish, and smoothness. He engraves, with the wheel, whole historic subjects on vases, cups, &c. with all the perfection of an engraver on copper; he executes equally well the naked form, the folds of drapery, and even the expression of countenance. There are infinite taste and grace in his arabesque borders, and a perfect imitation of the antique in those figures of fauns, nymphs, and dancers, which he borrows from the Herculaneum discoveries, and traces on his ewers. It requires a whole week to execute one of these ewers, which are of high price, from ten to twelve louis d'ors each, but which rival the finest gem-engraving. The undertaker of this beautiful manufacture has constructed a conical furnace of vast size for the fusion of his materials: it is nearly sixty feet in diameter, and three hundred feet high: but he was in great want of workmen. Dibl, a German, has a porcelaine manufactory on the boulevard of the Temple: which rivals, or rather surpasses, that of Seve. His forms proclaim his taste; and his painting is exquisite. His warehouses are splendidly stocked, and manifested no symptoms of deficient demand, nor want of workmen. Dibl shewed to me, very confidentially, all his workshops, from the potter's wheel to the painter's and the gilder's laboratory. This manufactory was formerly a privileged one but it has greatly thriven since the exclusive privileges of that of Seve, which was conducted on the King's account, have been annihilated. • The tannery of Seguin is become very celebrated by a new discovery, publicly noticed at the Lyceum, relative to the preparation of leather. I am indebted to my friend Schmeisser for the following account of the process: Seguin departs from the received practice, both in the preparation of the raw hides, and in the composition of the material for tanning, Probably O'Reilly, an Irifhman it is not a Scotch name. * ས In washing the skins, he does not throw them pell-mell into the water, but spreads them perpendicularly and separately, so that they may absorb the water on both sides. To separate the hair, it is usual to fling the hide into a vat of lime-water in which it is frequently stirred. Seguin has found that the addition of sulphuric acid to the water once used in this process revives and increases its effect: he infuses from 7555 to 6 part of sulphuric acid. In tanning, Seguin has abandoned the usual method of steeping his leather in pits. He immerges them merely in water impregnated with tan; and after having repeated this immersion, he adds a new liquor, of the eleventh or twelfth degree of the aræometer, as is employed for the liquefaction of salts. The operation of this new tan is very speedy. The hides are first steeped in a weak infusion, which acts only on the surface; and afterward in a stronger infusion. The process commonly lasts fourteen or sixteen days, but can be completed in six or eight. The leather is dried in the usual way. The discovery of Seguin is, that tanner's bark contains a peculiar element, soluble in water, which has a stronger elective attraction for leather; and which, when united with it, becomes insoluble in water. Glue, precipitated from water by this element, also becomes insoluble in water. Not only oak-bark, but many other vegetables, contain tan; which may easily be ascertained by their power of precipitating glue.' Dr. MEYER employs a long section in discussing the weights and measures of the French. There can be no doubt that it would be an universal convenience to employ all over the world one uniform system of weights, measures, dates, and coins; and the most wisely constructed measure has the strongest claim to general adoption. Is the French measure such ?-In our xviith vol. p. 555, N. S. we inserted the decree relative to their system, and therefore it will not be necessary to transcribe the statement of it by Dr. M. Their fundamental unit, the metre, (a very inconvenient name, because otherwise appropriated!) is ordained to be equal to the ten-millionth part of the arc of the terrestrial meridian, comprehended between the north pole and the equator. This is probably a mutable quantity, and therefore wholly unfit for a basis. Every additional discovery concerning the interior structure of the earth tends to shew that it perpetually increases in porosity; that it expands in all directions; and that by a process, of which crystallization is perhaps a fpecies, all the continents are slowly radiating upwards; so that the diameter and the circumference of the globe are growing not stabile quantities. An arc of its circumference cannot, therefore, be the basis of a perpetual measure; and if this arc, as Dr. MEYER seems to suspect, has not been satisfactorily ascertained, it is on that account again necessary to hesitate about the new length and breadth of the French system. system. Another objection occurs at p. 255, that the reckoning by decimals prevents a precise expression of those very usual fractions,,; on which account, duodecimal divisions of time, of the degrees of a circle, &c. have every where been adopted. It is not a question whether, by adding to the Arabic cyphers two more figures, we might not introduce a more convenient system of fractional arithmetic? All these questions should evidently be discussed in a congress of depu ties from the several universities and academics of Europe. It increases the difficulty of intercourse, if one nation makes changes without consulting the convenience and the wisdom of the rest. very The agriculture of France (says Dr. MEYER, p. 266) is now in the most flourishing state. How much has been published in Germany about the poverty of the country, the declension of husbandry, and the desolation of houses and gardens! Has not the project of famishing France been entertained? I expected, in fact, from the absence of so many hands, a neglected and depopulated country, especially on the frontier: but I found quite the contrary. Never was land in finer cultivation: nowhere an acre in a barren state: tillage practised wherever practicable: a waveing sea of ears overflowing the hills on every side, as far as the eye could reach: kitchen-gardens carefully managed: the hedges and ditches tight and sharp the dwellings of the peasantry in good repair, and commonly new. If there be a country equally rich in the prodigality of nature and the diligence of man, it is this. It has never been unusual in France to see the plough guided by the grey-haired, nor to observe the women and children occupied in field-labor; on these classes more than ever devolves the husbandry, now that so many sons, brothers, &c. are in the armies of the republic. The most numerous and most useful of all orders of men in France, the labourers, were never in better circumstances than now; they are free; they are at ease; and they are satisfied. Is it, then, a vain hope to regard this class of men as the support of the preseat constitution, and to expect through them a revival of the highest prosperity in France? Never will this class again fall under the yoke of feudal oppression; and by degrees it will learn to sacrifice some part of its profits and its superfluities, in the form of taxes, to support the country; of which the finances are certainly very narrow. How many reasons has the French husbandman to rejoice in his condition! The fruits of his labor all belong to himself. He is no longer vexed with taxes and parish-services. The day-labourer is become a farmer! and the farmer a yeoman. Since the abolition of the feudal system, the claims of the lord of the manor and of the clergyman are withdrawn: his industry brings him in a net profit : money accumulates in his coffer; and he subsists in comfort :-but the voice of this peaceful happiness is stifled by the outcries of that large portion of the people, which has the power and the ready means of proclaining aloud both its real and its imaginary sufferings. Let us always recollect, however, that the number of these Frenchmen who are |