\ 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
tHE 


MARCH, 

tor [ Vou. I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS, 
’ g . 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
"THE following reflections on the in- 
tention of the French to tran{port 
from Italy a number of the moft valu- 
able monuments of the arts, may per- 
haps deferve the notice of your readers. 
The fubjeét has excited a confiderable 
fhare of attention in every part of Eu- 
rope, and not a little among the friends 
of the arts in Britain *. 
The arts and fciences form a fort of 
literary commonwealth, in which the in- 
terefis of ALL COUNTRIES are connect- 
ed together, by the tie of mutual depen - 
ence and fraternity. In Europe, par- 
ticularly, the diffufien of fcience has 
been attended with fuch happy confe- 
quences in the progrefs of philanthropy, 
and the improvement of MAN, that 
the gradations of barbarifm and refine- 
ment aré not greater among its feveral 
Mations, than is the difference percep- 
tible between the re{pective provinces of 
one vaft empire. Literature and the 
arts are the common property of all; 
nor fhould any one nation in particular 
ufurp an arrogant monopoly of them. 
It 1s neceffary for the perfection of 
arts and fcience, that the means of in- 
ftruction fhould be as much as _ poilible 
concentrated into one focus, that is, that 
the inftruments of feience, the models of 
the beautiful and fublime, the objeés, in 
fine, which exhibit leffons for the pupil, 
thould not be deranged, difmembered, 
and diffipated, but preferved complete, 
perfect, and in order. 
When the refources of imitation and 
inftruction are mutilated or incomplete, 
the interefts of learning in general muft 
fuftain more or lefs detriment. 
* Two excellent Letters, oppofing this in- 
tention of the French republic, were publifh- 
ed inthe Morning Chronicle, by Mr. Fuax- 
MAN. ‘ ; 
MonTHiy Mac. No, XV. 

/ 
Iraty having been, fo to fpeak, the 
native foil of the greater part of the an= 
cient monuments, is pointed out by nature 
to bea kind of general mufeum and uni-_ 
verfity for the arts. Jt is an undoubted 
truth, that this country was never wholly 
over{pread by Vandalifm, buteven through 
the barbarous ages, fome or other of its 
provinces ftill produced a fucceffion of 
monuments which are worthy the efteem 
of a more enlightened period. 
The religious conneétion, alfo, which 
fubfifted between Italy and other coun- 
tries, rendered her a feminary’ of arts, 
and arbiter of tafte tothe reft of Europe. 
And, above all, the indefatigable care and 
zeal of the Popes, fince the revival of 
letters (who were not only learned men 
themfelves, but the general patrons of li- 
terature, while the other European fo- 
vereigns were mere warriors) has been 
fuccefsfully employed in tracing out and 
reftoring what ten centuries of igno- 
rance had neglected or buried. Every 
day, the prudent care of the Roman go- 
vernment is ftill raifing up from its ruins 
fome auguft monument or other of an- 
cient Rome: and to fuch a pitch has 
this laudable emulation been carried un- 
der the prefent Pontifl, that it is believ- 
ed, on good grownds, that more treafures 
of antiquity have been difcovered during 
the laft twenty years, than was done. 
during the two preceding centuries. 
How injurious, therefore, is the at- 
tempt of the French government to dif- 
courage the fpirited, the magnanimous 
efforts of the Popes, to intercept the 
fource of literary difcovery, and block up 
a mine which bids fair, otherwife, to be- 
come fo produétive! Such, however, 
muft be the unavoidable confequence of 
a fpohation. It is rather to be withed, 
that the fucceffors of the reigning Pope, 
and indeed the fovereigns of all countries 
in which ancient colonies were planted, 
may be equally induftrious, equally fue- 
Zz celsful, 





