ever bare; but, as there has been little, if The Life and Times of Daniel de Foe, with a copious account of his writings, and anecdotes of several of his contemporaries, are preparing by WALTER WILSON, esq. Osmond, a tale, by the author of "the Favourite of Nature," is printing in three volumes, 12mo. In his late admirable speech on the necessity of a reform in parliament, Lord John Russell gave the following state of public intelligence, as evidenced by the state of the bookselling trade: From the year 1785 to 1792, he observed that the average amount of our exports of British manufactures was about 13,000,000l. a-year. From 1792 to 1799 it was 17,000,000l, ; but the exports of the year 1821 are stated to amount to 40,000,000. When to this is added the still larger consumption of our manufactures at home; and, when it is considered that out of these 40,000,000l. our export of cotton goods amounted to 23,000,000!., our woollens and linens to 7,000,000l., it must be inferred, that a very large proportion of the manufactures. I will not now dwell upon inhabitants of the country subsist by those this new phenomenon in the state of the country, but for the present confine myself to a statement of the fact. With this immense increase in manufactures and commerce, the dissemination of instruction, and the improvement in knowledge, have advanced even in more than equal proportion. Indeed, this is a circumstance which must strike the most careless observer, from the vast increase of books, and the very high prices which are paid for the exercise of literary talents. From the immense distribution of works of every description throughout the country, one would infer, that, as the opportunities of information are thus increased, the education of the lower classes must be enlarged in the same proportion. Being curious to gain some information on this subject, I some time ago applied to an eminent bookseller's house in the city, (that of Messrs. Longman and Co.) from which I learned a number of interesting facts. From the firm to which I applied, I learned that their own sale amounted to five millions of volumes in the year; that they employed sixty clerks, paid a sum of 5,500l. in advertisements, and gave constant employment to not fewer than 250 printers and book binders. Another great source of information to the country is the increase of circulating libraries. In the year 1770, there were only four circulating libraries in the metropolis; there are at present one hundred, and about nine hundred more scattered throughout the country. Besides these, there are from 1,500 to 2,000 book-clubs, distributing throughout history, voyages, and every species of the kingdom large masses of information on science by which the sum of human knowledge can be increased, or the human mind improved. Here I may also remark on the increase of periodical works. Of these there are two (the Edinburgh and the Quarterly Reviews), many articles in which are written with an ability equal to some of the best original writings of forthan all the periodical works of thirty mer times, and having a greater circulation years ago put together. While so many and such fruitful sources of information are thus opened to the higher orders, the means of improving the minds of the poorer class have advanced at a pace not less rapid or less steady. First came the establishment about twenty-five years ago of the Lancasterian schools, which have distributed so widely the blessings of early instruction; and after these followed followed the no less beneficial system of national schools, which afford to the poor of every class education suitable to their state and condition in life. In addition to those means of improvement, another has been opened, not less advantageous to the poor - allude to the great facilities which at present exist, of getting the most valuable works at a rate so very cheap as to bring them within the compass of all. Some time ago an establishment was commenced by a number of individuals, with a capital of not less than 1,000,000l., for the purpose of printing standard works at a cheap rate. By that establishment the history of Hame, the works of Buffon, the Encyclopedia, and other valuable productions, were sold in small numbers at sixpence each, and by this means sources of the highest and most useful instruction were placed within the poor man's reach. I regret much to add, that this valuable establishment was very much checked in its operation, by the effect of one of those acts for the suppression of knowledge which were passed in the year 1819. I regret this the more, as one of the rules of that establishment has been, not to allow the venders of their works to sell any book on the political controversies of the day. In noticing the means which have contributed so mach to the mental improve ment of the great body of the people, ought not to omit noticing the very good effects which have resulted from the exertions of the Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Society for the Dissemisation of Christian Knowledge, and other valuable associations of similar character. Since the commencement of the Bible Society, it has applied the immense sum of 900,000l. to the laudable purpose of disseminating the knowledge of the Scriptures. From the Religious Tract Society not fewer than five millions of tracts are distributed annually, and the Society for Christian Knowledge distributes one million. These facts will show the rapid strides which have been made by the public in the improvement of general knowledge. I will now come to the state of political knowledge in the country. This has been greatly augmented by the extraordinary increase in the circulation of newspapers. Some time ago I moved for a return of the number and circulation of the several newspapers printed in London and in the country. That return has not been made in the manner in which I had intended; but from the account I was enabled to procure, it appears, that there were not less than 23,600,000 newspapers sold in the country in the last year. Of these the daily London papers sold above 11,000,000, the country papers above 7,000,000, and the weekly papers above 2,000,000. From another source I have been enabled to pro - 79 ........ 1790. 60 27 27 1821. 135 56 14... 16 7 ... 8 11 32 6 0...... making in the whole the increase in the has published a statement, that an Some of the finest pictures in every respect, as well in design as in execution, have been produced by Mr. MARTIN, and are now to be viewed in Piccadilly. We might as well attempt to describe the sublimities of Shakespeare and Milton in a paragraph as to convey any adequate idea of the soaring genius of Mr. Martin. His pictures are poems of the highest order, in an unexceptionable style of painting. Nor are they like those of any previous master or school, but are Fall of Babylon, his Destruction of as original as they are superior. His Herculaneum, Sadak in search of the sion of Adam and Eve, will always be Waters of Oblivion, and the Expulamong the first pictures of the British school, and of all schools. In an adjoining room of the Egyptian Gallery, Mr. DAY, a connoisseur, whose fine taste is shown by its results, exhibits some originals of the Italian masters, by which we are brought into contact, almost for the first time, with the genius of Titian, Raphael, and some other gods of their art. These specimens transcend all others which have been exhibited in England, where mere manufactured pictures are usually found; and they convey to the mind of the English observer his first impressions of the actual superiority superiority of this race of painters, when viewed through the medium of their real master-pieces. The Exhibition of the Works of President WEST is still open, but is now so augmented, as to amount to 140 pieces, the productions of this great artist. Mr. West's chief excellence lay in the historical and poetical departments of art, but his diversified pieces are most creditable to his talents. The original pictures of the Sea-Fight at La Hogue, of the Death of Wolfe and Nelson, and the Rescue of a wounded French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North-American Savage, have lately been introduced. The eighteenth Exhibition of Paintings in Water-colours has been as attractive as usual. Among this respectable body of artists, Barrett seems to be pre-eminent: his View from Richmond-hill is beautiful; his Afternoon and Evening have likewise great merit; and the View of Bisham Abbey is well drawn, and finely coloured. Copley Fielding has, as usual, been diligent: his flat scenery is excellently managed; the View of Romney-marsh is a masterpiece. Cox, too, is respectable. Wild and Cattermole have some_good_architectural drawings, and Miss Byrne has some elegant groups of flowers and fruit. Robson has also displayed considerable talent in numerous productions; and Prout has enabled us to make the tour of Europe with unmixed pleasure. There are also some exquisite pieces by Varley. Altogether this is a most delightful exhibition. The artists of Ireland have been incorporated into a Society, like the Royal Academy. A council of fourteen have been chosen, and ten associates are to be elected next year from Irish exhibitors. Mr. Heath's engraving from West's grand picture of Christ's healing the Sick, purchased by the British Institution in 1811 for 3000 guineas, is finished. Mr. H. had 1,800 guineas for his task, which has occupied him no less than eleven years. The British Institution has exhibited this season some choice productions from the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch schools. In the first was Carlo Dolce's St. Matthew and St. John; also a design for the Crucifixion, by Michael Angelo; a beautiful picture of the Virgin and Child, St. John, and St. Elizabeth, by Perino del 2 Vago; a Virgin and Child, by Procaccino; and a Virgin and Child, St. John, Elizabeth, and Catharine, by Andrea del Sarto. The King contributed twenty-two pictures. The best productions of the Spanish school were two representations of St. Francis, by Murillo. The works of Gaspar Poussin were very fine. The pieces by Cuyp were not of the first order. A brisk Gale, by Backhuysen, was an excellent piece; and the Two Misers of Quintin Matsys commanded admiration. Rembrandt's Belshazzar, the Five Senses and the Four Seasons of Teniers, and the Three Children of Charles I. by Vandyke, with Ostade's Chemist, were ornaments of the gallery. Mr. WARD, too, has had an Exhibition. Among his finest productions were a bull, a cow, a calf, sheep, and goats, excellently grouped, amidst appropriate scenery. A Horse springing from the Attack of a Wild Boar; various Studies, exccuted with great accuracy and force; a copy from Titian's Bath of Diana; and an Arabian, a small study,-were all masterly. In Some Roman discoveries have recently been made at Castor, near Peterborough, by Mr. ARTIS, of Milton. The scene of his labours is an isosceles triangle, two sides being about two miles long, the third about a mile and a half, and the church-yard of Castor the vertex. In the churchyard and adjoining hill he has satisfactorily traced fifty-six rooms in a villa, which appears to have covered between 5 and 600 feet square. Mill-field, at the south-east angle of the triangle, is another villa, about 300 feet long by 230 feet wide, containing twenty-two rooms; and at the south-west angle is a third villa, about 300 feet square, with thirty-seven rooms. In the portions of the intermediate space which have been explored, tesselated pavements, founda tions of small houses, and a variety of miscellaneous curiosities have been brought to light. Between the base of the line and the river, probably the suburbs of a city, several skeletons have been dug up. Mr. A. purposes publishing by subscription, in numbers, a series of plates illustrative of his discoveries, consisting of plans and sections of the buildings and hypocausts, tesselated pavements, pottery, paintings in fresco, sculptured stones, coins, &c. Political Political Facetia, and other Pieces, by the author of "the Political House that Jack built,” collected by himself into a handsome volume, with 120 cuts, and a preface, will appear in a few days, and the author's portrait will be prefixed. A very interesting experiment has been made of steam vessels on canals, in the Union Canal at Edinburgh, with a large boat, twenty-eight feet long, constructed with an internal movement. The boat had twenty-six persons on board; and, although drawing fifteen inches of water, she was propelled by only four men at the rate of between four and five miles an hour, while the agitation of the water was confined entirely to the centre of the canal. The School for Mothers, or the Politics of a Village, a novel, is printing in three volumes. Information has been received that the enterprising pedestrian, Captain COCHRANE, had reached the Altai mountains, on the frontier of China. Further accounts from this extraordinary traveller have since arrived, dated from the mouth of the Kolyma, and from Okotsk, in June 1821. He had proceeded to the neighbourhood of the north-east cape of Asia, which he places balf a degree more to the northward. “No land (he says,) is considered to exist to the northward of it. The east side of the Noss is composed of bold and perpendicular bluffs, while the west side exhibits gradual declivities; the whole most sterile, but presenting an awfully magnificent appearance." From the Kolyma to Okotsk, he had, he says, a “dangerous, difficult, and fatiguing journey of three thousand versts," a great part of which he performed, on foot, in seventy days. After such an adventurous expedition from Petersburgh to the north-eastern extremity of Siberia, we regret to find that the shores of Kamschatka are likely to be the boundary of his arduous and perilous enterprise. After gratefully noticing the generosity and consideration which he every where experienced at the hands of the Russian government and of individuals, he adds, "that government has an expedition in Behring's Straits, whose object is to trace the continent of America to the northward and eastward." It consisted of two ship corvettes, which left Spithead in 1819. In July 1820 they reached Behring's Strait, and were supposed to have passed it in that year; they returned, however, in the winter to some of the Russian settlements on the coast of America; and, as now appears from Capt. Cochrane's statement, were again in that neighbourhood in June 1821. An Abridgment of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, in a series of letters from a Father to his Daughter, is printing. The Political Life of George the Fourth is announced. Capt. N. R. PALMER, of the sloop James Monroe, lately arrived at Stonington, from South Shetland. Capt. P. proceeded from the Shetland Isles to the southern continent, and coasted it to the eastward, as far as 44. W. long. At some places he could coast along shore; at other parts he could not approach nearer the shore than from one to five or six leagues, owing to the In 61. 41. S. lat. 45. 27. W. ice. long. they discovered a fine harbour, lying about a mile within the entrance of Washington Strait. He found not the least appearance of vegetation on the land, excepting the winter moss. Neither did he discover any animals, only a few sea-leopards, beautifully spotted. Of birds there were penguins, Port Egmont or sea-hens, white pigeons, and gulls. Capt. Palmer could discern mountains covered with snow, in the interior, as he sailed along the coast. Mr. WILSON, teacher of dancing, and author of several works on dancing, has in the press, the Danciad, or Dancer's Monitor, being a descriptive sketch in verse of the different styles and methods of dancing quadrilles, waltzes, country-dances, reels, &c. In the present month will be published, A new System of Arithmetic, on a plan entirely original, by J. WALKER; also a Key or Exposition of the New System, A translation of Legendre's Elements of Geometry is in the press, and will be published in a few weeks. It will be edited by Dr. Brewster, under the sanction of M. Le Chevalier Legendre, who has communicated several important additions. The diagrams are engraven on wood, so as to accompany the propositions, a great superiority over the original work, where they are given in copper-plates at the end of the book. About the middle of last year, a sailor iron-works, near Birmingham, and put together at Rotherhithe. She is 106 feet long, and 17 broad; and is propelled by a 30-horse engine, with Oldham's revolving oars, the most perfect piece of mechanism that has ever been adopted in steam-boats. Mr. HOGG has in the press, a new edition, with considerable improvements, of his "Concise and Practical Treatise on the Growth and Culture of the Carnation, Pink,__Auricula, Polyanthus, Ranunculus, Tulip, and other Flowers." sailor, on the island of New Providence, being much fatigued with walking, sat down on the sea-shore on what he conceived to be a large stone. After resting and sleeping some time, he attempted to get up, but found his breeches stuck fast to his seat. After joining one of his shipmates, he observed so strong a smell as to ask him where he had been; and, the other telling him the circumstance, he advised him to go back, and bring away this stone: but he demurred, and said it was more than he could carry. "So much the better," replied his companion; who honestly told him he suspected it to be a large lump of ambergrease, which was a very valuable article, and that he might make his fortune by it. He crossed the island with a horse, and brought it away. It was first shown to a Jew, who did not offer him a tenth part of its value. It soon became known, and the captain of a merchantman being at the port, bought it, and brought it to England, and we believe the house of Ellice, Inglis, and Co. had the selling of it. It came into the custody of a Mr. D. an eminent druggist, and was sent over to the Continent a few months ago, when it yielded, at 868. per oz. 2,300Z. We observe fewer works in the press at present than have been known for some years. The chief London publishers seem wisely to have determined to diminish their present stocks rather than enlarge them further by new and hazardous speculations. It can no longer be concealed, that the accumulation of books, with no better recommendation than fine paper and printing, has injured substantial literature, while it has vitiated and abused the public taste. We are convinced that the maximum of advantage in the publication of books consists in the moderation of their prices. Latterly, many books have been published at prices for which they could be copied by scriveners at half,-thereby superseding the benefit of printing. Sylva Britannica, or Portraits of Forest Trees in different parts of the Kingdom, remarkable for their size, beauty, or antiquity, to be drawn and etched by J. G. STRUTT, will speedily be published. There is a probability of the Surrey Institution, (whose funds have been gradually exhausting,) being continued, and re-established upon a better plan, by which its permanency may be obtained, and its present advantages retained, and even enlarged. Its having a valuable library of circulation among its members is not the least important feature of the establishment; this feature it is intended to enlarge, by the addition of the most important novels of the day, in order that it may furnish amusement as well as instruction to a numerous class of readers. This Institution has certainly done much towards creating a taste in the public mind for literary and scientific pursuits, and also in diffusing a knowledge of the useful arts. The lectures have been generally well attended; and many important facts in the arts and sciences have by these means been made familiar. The utility of such institutions may still, doubtless, be considerably increased. We beg leave respectfully to caution those gentlemen who are reorganizing this literary museum, to take care to do it on the most liberal basis, so as to embrace every shade and variety of opinion. To this end, perhaps nothing more contributes than a careful choice of the efficient officers of the establishment. The Elements of Chess, with diagrams, are printing, by Mr. LEWIS. Several experiments have recently been made at Woolwich, on a new plan for affording speedy and effectual. aid in case of shipwreck. It differs from Capt. Manby's plan, inasmuch as the line of communication can be made by means of a rocket instead of a mortar. The iron steam-boat mentioned in our last was built at the Horseley A discovery of fossil remains was recently made at Atwick, near Hornsea; the portion of a tusk, about thirty-eight inches in length, twenty inches in circumference at the lower end, and weighing 4 stone 2lbs. was dug |