1824,] 
FRANCE. 
The Biographie Nouvelle des Contem- 
porains, by Messrs. ARNAULT, Jay, 
Jouy, Norwiens, &c. is continued to 
the fifteenth volume, or letter PAN. 
The fourteenth and fifteenth have just 
been delivered in London; and the 
fourteenth contains a noble and. ho- 
nourable trophy to the greatest man of 
any age, whose lustie becomes more 
conspicuous as contrasted with the 
dingy lighis which, since his tragical 
end, have becn presented to the world. 
Having treated of this great man ina 
former volume, under the word Bona- 
PARTE, the editors have resumed his 
eventful story at the year 1804, and, 
in an article of 240 closely-printed 
pages, have developed many circum- 
stances new to Europe. What they 
have written is the more creditable to 
them, because the press of France is 
So notoriously enslaved. The treachery 
of Clarke at Paris, and of Grouchy at 
Waterloo, are made manifest ; and, in 
speaking of the last scenes of his ca- 
reer, the editors remark, that “‘ the 
error which conducted Napoleon on- 
board the Bellerophon was, without 
coutradiction, the highest and clearest 
manifestation of the generosity of a 
great character......'The elevation of 
apoleon, the rapidity of his fall, and 
the duration of his sufferings, over- 
whelm the imagination as much as his 
credulity in British generosity asto- 
nished his contemporaries.” As true 
Britons, we weep that we cannot blot 
this passage from the book; and we 
fament that our children’s children 
may yet have to atone to the irritated 
feelings of mankind! The Carthagi- 
hians thought themselves secure when 
they rolied Regulus to death in a cask 
spiked with nails; but the act confer- 
red such energy on the soldiers of 
Scipio, that the triumph of the /ow in 
Carthage was soon changed into inter- 
minable lamentation. But history 
and example, alas! are unavailing 
against the ‘pride of power, and the 
vulgar passions of the deluded igno- 
rant. As a work, filled in other re- 
spects with valuable and origiual 
information, on every subject which 
can interest the age, this Biographie 
merits the respect and attention of the 
European world. 
M. FRanc@ur appears in the Revue 
Eneyclopedique, and in Ferussae’s Jour- 
nal, as the palliator of the superstitious 
Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
69 
philosophy of gratuitous and nominal 
causation. We are sorry that the 
errors of the fifteenth century have 
found so accommodating a critic, and 
wish that he would read beyond the 
title-page and table of contents of 
works upon which he reports, before 
he commits his good sense on the side 
of legitimacy in philosophy. Let him 
leave all kinds’ of legitimacy to the 
uitras, and exercise his own acute 
powers in the cause only of that 
science which is founded on reason 
and nature, not on faith, prescription, 
and authority. He telis us that “ the 
Four Dialogues” merit to be read for 
their spirit, but evades the question of 
their truth or falshood. 
- In France there is a want of more 
frequent enumerations. The Annuary, 
proceeding on old data, estimates the 
population of Lyons at 100,041, while 
those better acquainted with the sub- 
ject prove that it stands at not less 
than 150,000. 
In the classification of insects, 
Linneus drew the characters from the 
wings, but was unable to trace dis- 
tinctive marks for the families and 
genera. M. DumeriL, of the French 
National Institute, has discovered 
very natural characters in the jaws, 
and in the number of articulations of 
the tarsi of the feet. 
ITALY. 
M. Monte, the Italian poet, is pre- 
paring a new edition of Dante, with 
notes and illustrations. 
The population of the kingdom of 
Naples, which in December 31, 1821, 
consisted of 5,256,000 individuals, 
amounted in December 31, 1822, to 
5,822,889; of which 2,595,872 were 
males, and 2,727,017 females. 
SWITZERLAND. 
MM. Zumstein and VincenrT have 
determined, by means of the barome- 
ter, that the elevation of the southern 
summit of Mount Rosa, which they had 
gained for the first time, was 13,920 
Paris or 14,83564 English feet above 
the level of the sea, they ascertained, 
by a trigonometrical measurement 
thence made, that the elevation of the 
highest summit of the mountain was 
1680 Paris feet above it, or 15,600 
(16,6264 English) above the level of 
the sea. ‘Thus Mount Rosa is in 
reality the highest in Europe; the 
height of Mont Blanc being only 
14,793 Paris, or 15,7084 English, feet. 
SPIRIT 
