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Literary Intelligence.

great masters in the different schools of painting, and engraved in a style of superior effect and beauty.

The following curious particulars relative to the recovery of the "Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, from the Restoration of Charles II. by Sir G. Mackenzie, of Roshaught, Knt." may interest our literary readers. It was known in 1722 that they existed, indeed it was then expected that they would be published; but as they did not then appear before the public, it was supposed that they had been suffered to perish, or had been intentionally destroyed. Family reasons gave rise to the latter supposition. The second Earl of Bute, who supported the Government of the House of Hanover, and had married the sister of John, Duke of Argyle, the celebrated leader of the Whig party in Scotland, enjoyed, in 1722, the estates of Sir G. Mackenzie, the Author of these "Memoirs," and probably possessed his papers. It was not unnatural that he should be suspected at that juncture of suppressing such a manuscript, more especially as his family, by conforming to the Revolution, and accepting a title from Anne, had rendered themselves peculiarly obnoxious to the adherents of the House of Stuart. Whatever might have been the plausibility of these conjectures, they have been, in part at least, proved to be false, by the recovery of the manuscript of these Memoirs. The recovery thus took place :- In the year 1817, a large mass of papers was sold to a shopkeeper in Edinburgh. From these his curiosity induced him to select a manuscript volume, which appeared to him to be something of an historical nature; and by another equal piece of good fortune, he communicated this volume to Dr. M'Crie, the well-known author of the Lives of Knox and Melville. On examining this volume, Dr. M'Crie discovered that it was the composition of Sir G. Mackenzie, and that it must be a portion of that history of his own times which had been so long a desideratum in Scottish Literature. Of this the intrinsic evidence was obvious and complete; and the manuscript, though written by one of the ordinary transcribers of that age, was decisively identified by numerous corrections and additions in the well-known hand-writing of Sir G. Mackenzie himself. The Memoirs have, of course, been sent to the press in Edinburgh; and the Public are much indebted to the zeal and assiduity of Mr. Thomson for their discovery.

THE FINE ARTS.

Sir T. Lawrence has recently completed a whole-length portrait of his late Majesty, George the Third. The commission was given by the Corporation of Liverpool, whose room it is intended to decorate.

[Jan.

His Majesty is arrayed in the dress and robes of a Knight of the Garter, and stands in a firm and dignified manner, with his head turned towards the shoulder, resembling the action of the Marquis of Londonderry in the last Exhibition. The back ground consists of the walls of a palace, and a distant view of Windsor Castle.

His present Majesty, before his departure for Brighton, honoured Mr. Chantery, R. A. by sitting to him, for the purpose of allowing that distinguished sculptor to give the finishing touches to the Royal bust. This piece of sculp ture is the finest resemblance of his Ma jesty that has been executed in marble. The head is directed upwards, and possesses an elevated and commanding air. The neck is justly admired for its elegance and truth. The subordinate parts, as the hair, and Roman toga, which is thrown upon the shoulders, are disposed with equal taste and propriety.

MAGNETISM.The Prussian State Gazette calls the attention of its readers to a

highly-important discovery, which Dr. Seebeck has communicated to the Academy of Science at Berlin, in three different sittings, the last on the 26th of October, "on the magnetic properties inherent in all metals and many earths (and not in iron alone, as was hitherto supposed), according This discovery, it is stated, opens, in this to the difference of the degrees of heat." part of Natural Philosophy, an entirely new field, which may lead to interesting results the observations made by the Inspector of with respect to hot springs, connected with Mines, M. Von Trebra, and others, relative to the progressive increase of warmth According to M. Von Trebra's observations, in mines, in proportion to their depths. the heat at the depth of 150 feet below the surface of the earth is one degree, at 300 feet deep two degrees, at 600 feet four degrees, &c.

LE CERCLE DES ARTS.

A new Society for the encouragement of the fine arts has been established in Paris under the name of Le Cercle des Arts. The Prospectus of this Society is published, and . the following are among the advantages it To dispose usefully of the picpresents: tures and other objects of art which may be sent to the Society. To execute, at the expence of the Society, pictures, engravings, in the special committees and councils of &c. the subjects of which are to be decided the Cercle. To distribute honorary rewards to those artists, &c. who during the year have exhibited the most useful objects of art and public utility. The Cercle des Arts includes among its members some of the most distinguished artists and amateurs in France.

-AN

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.

The annexed representation is a copy of an engraving of an antient Cross found in sinking the Cold Bath at Sir John Oldcastle's, near Islington, co Norfolk. It was presented by Mr. Mickleton to Lord Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, and was formerly in his Museum at Wimple, co. Cambridge.

the Egyptian style, with the small but highly important edge that marks their curve in speaking, which might appear on the eve of taking place, from the masterly delineation of the mouth. This fine head was crowned by an asp diadem, with the usual folds or lappets falling down on the chest, as appears in all the figures of Isis, with the Nubian features represented on the Sycamore Sarcophagi which inclose the mummies. She has also the collar (the Rabid of the initiation), which is most delicately sculptured. Indeed, the impressions which the contemplation of this figure excite, are those of wonder and astonishment, that a form of such beauty could have been the workmanship of an Egyptian artist. It has excellencies that will not fade by a comparison with any Grecian or Roman form that adorns the Museum, and the Egyptian goddess possesses the charm of attracting and riveting the imagination, and filling up a beau ideal of character equally with any of the chef-d'œuvres of the collection, and which arises from the extraordinary indivi

LA CROYS:HOV duality which its expressive contour, and RVNG: HM AN

The inscription, in Anglo-Norman capitals, is, Anure seyent tuzi ceus ke la croys aourunt. Amen."-It has been thus explained by Mr. Humphrey Wanley, his Lordship's librarian: "Honorati sunt omnes illi qui istam vel hanc crucem adorant. Amen."

STATUE OF ISIS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Among the beautiful specimens of Egyptian sculpture, which at once annihilates every argument of Winkelman's, and other learned Antiquaries, who would condemn its principles as meagre, hard, and unfaithful to nature, may be cited the most exquisite fragment of a female statue, probably of Isis, now lying in the vestibule of the British Museum. This figure is perfect from the waist, and measures about five feet. It is formed of one block of white marble, and is executed with a softness and symmetrical beauty that vies with any statues of antiquity.

The face appears to be the goddess Isis, and while it presents the Nubian cast of features, it is so delicately formed, that it breathes a most peculiar and winning softness of expression. The cheeks are high and prominent, but finely rounded and full; the eyes so sharply sculptured, that they sem finished but yesterday. The mouth is all but breathing; the lips having the marked breadth of expression, so perfectly GENT. MAG. January, 1822.

inviting smile, peculiarly associates with it; as is also the case with the celebrated Memnon's head, and all the higher class of Egyptian sculpture. Those, therefore, who contemplate these features and form, will acquire far higher notions of the excellence of Egyptian art than hitherto has been ascribed to it.

The classic writers of Greece and of Rome have always declared Egypt to be the fountain and source of knowledge. These countries have borrowed their rules of art, and transported their obelisks to adorn their colonnades and forums; and Rome and the world entire, unto our own æra, have done full justice to the vast conceptions, the colossal and gigantic proportions of their temples, their statues and their obelisks, and above all, to the indestructible material they selected with such boldness and hardihood for their extraordinary labours, which defies all competition of modern skill, being of the basalts and oriental granite, hard and impenetrable to the edge of all modern tools. To these genuine principles of grandeur and sublimity, developed in their vastness and eternal duration, this pleasing and delicately formed Statue, as well as many of the busts and precious relicks collected for the last ten years from this antient land, now lay claim also to the majestic and the beautiful. They differ indeed in many striking essentials from the celebrated Statues of Greece and of Rome, but they combine in themselves such excellencies, as to render a disquisition into their first principles of

com

1822.] Arts and Sciences.-Capt. Manby on extinguishing Fires.

trouled, if water could have been obtained in time. In towns not so provided, villages, the detached residences of gentlemen, and other buildings in the country, the want of water at hand, or other means of extinction, makes their total destruction, in case of fire, almost inevitable.

From observations which I have made in witnessing fires, and froin information of those persons constantly employed on such occasious, I am assured that a small quantity of water well directed, and early applied, will accomplish what, probably, no quantity would effect at a later period. This has excited my attempts to provide some prompt and efficient means by which the anxious and often important interval of delay would be obviated, and the fire opposed on the first alarm; thereby not allowing the flames to increase in fury (which so often occurs) that the efforts of the fireman are exerted rather with the hope of preventing the extension of the calamity to other buildings, than to save that, in which it first broke out.

To attain this object I propose a Fire Cart of light construction, requiring but one person to convey it to the spot, and apply a fluid, in the most efficacious manner, from portable vessels or engines, on a principle very long known, the artificial fountain in pneumatics. The engines are to be kept always charged, and one, when slung across the body of a watchman or servant, is easily carried to any part of the building, however difficult of access. The management required is simple; for, on opening the stopcock, the pressure of condensed air instantly propels a stream that can be directed with the most exact precision on the part in combustion,-a circumstance extremely import ant, when the incipient fire is not within the

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reach of effort by the hand, and when the air, heated by the flames, prevents approach, to cast water upon it by common means.

Every fire, even the greatest, must arise from small beginnings, and when discovered in its infant and commencing state, is easily to be kept down and prevented from becoming destructive, if means of early application were at hand. We often hear of the alarm of fire given by watchmen long before the arrival of engines on the spot, and if they were provided with a Fire Cart, the alarm of the watch and the application of the means of extinction would be simultaneous.

The cart contains six engines, each charged with the impregnated solution of an ingredient best adapted to extinguish fire. When the first engine has expended its store of antiphlogistic fluid, a supply of others in succession may keep up a constant discharge, until regular engines and plenty

of assistance arrive, should the fire not be entirely subdued by these first efforts.

When a small quantity of simple water is cast on materials in a state of violent combustion, it evaporates into steam from the heat, and the materials thus extinguished readily ignite again; the addition of incom

bustible