1802 ] 
ing and information. This is perhaps to 
be accounted for by the eftablifhments 
which abound here of public {chools. Of 
thefe there are, in every parifh, at leat 
two, one for the education of boys, and 
another for girls: the number of {chools is 
proportioned to the fize and population of 
the parith. 
_ Thefe fchools are fupported by a private 
fociety, nothing more being requiyed from 
the parents of the children, than that they 
fhould fend them to {chool clean: tickets 
of admiffion are delivered by the clergy- 
man, under whofe immediate infpection 
the {chools are conduéted. Here are fe- 
minaries for education, under different de- 
nominations, adapted to youths of various 
ages and attainments: the “* college” is 
Open to every one, on the annual pay- 
ment of about five fhillings Englith ; it 
contains nine claffes, and each clafs is in- 
ftructed by a feparate mafter. A. young 
man, after having gone through thefe nine 
clafles, if he has merit and talents, is ad- 
mitted into the ** academy,’ where he 
purtues his fludies in mathematics, claflics, 
the belles letters, &c. &c. The aca- 
demy, which, together with the college, 
owes its eltablifhment to Calvin, is a fort 
of univerfity; it has twelve profeffors, 
avho give gratuitous leGtures to ftudents 
on the following twelve fubje&s: the 
belles Jettres, philofophy, medicine, mz- 
themati.s, law, education, Oriental Jan- 
‘guages, theology, facred hiftory, natural 
hittory, chemiftry, and political economy. 
The expences attached’ to all thefe in- 
ftitutions are defrayed by a fociety, deno- 
minated La Societe Economique,’ compoted 
of many of the old clergy, magiftrates, 
and citizens ef Geneva, who fill retain in 
their hands fome eftates and funds which 
they beld under the old government, 
although a confiderable portion of thofe 
eftates and other funds has been plundered 
from them by the Freach. This fociety 
allo {upports a fchool, where ftudents ave 
gratuitoufly inflructed in mufic and draw- 
ing. 
In the year 1798, was eftablifhed in this 
town, Une Societé pour [ Avancement des 
Arts. We are this moment returned from 
the rooms wherein the ftudents pro‘ecute 
their labours : M, Odier had the politenefs 
to introduce us, and to give us, moreover, 
the pleafure of his company. Some cafis, 
among which are a few Venuses, an Apol- 
lo, an Antinous, the Wreftlers, the Slave 
whetting his Knife, and a few anatomi- 
€al cafts, for dilplaying the mu(cles, alto- 
gether form but an infignificant collec- 
tion, We certainly viewed thefe fiatues,&c, 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 387 
with very faftidious eyes: it is unfor« 
tunate that we fhould have fo lately enjoy- 
ed the opportunity of examining thofe mad- 
ter-pieces of art which enrich the Louvre. 
On thele latter we were converfing, with 
fome degree of enthufiafm perhaps, when 
M. Odier remarked, fomewhat farcattical - 
ly, that the French might well have a 
noble colleétion of the works of art, fince 
they did not fcruple to lay all Italy under 
contribution in the formation of it. 
For my own part, I cannot join in the 
general outcry, which the feizure of thele 
valuable fpecimens, from the Italians, has 
brought upon the French: it will {carcely 
be denied, that thefe works of art are more 
eafily and more generally acceflible in their’ 
prefent, than in their former fituation, and 
that, trom the vicinity of Paris to London, 
fifty Englifh artifts will now profit by the 
ftudy of thefe chefs d @uvre, where five did 
not profit by them before. The argu- 
mentum ad hominem might be applied here 
to advantage; one might afk, if a hoftile - 
army from Great Britain fhould march 
to the gates of Paris, poflefs the Louvre, 
and tranfport its treafures to the metrope- 
lis of our own country, whether they who 
_declaim fo loudly againft the bafenefs of 
the feizure in the prefent inttance, would 
not hail the arrival of the rich freight with 
acclamation, and confider it as a fair object 
to be taken im plunder, or demanded ia 
ranfom? Does the law of nations allow 
a conquering army tobereave a vanquifhed 
people of the produce of their foil, and the 
wealth of their coffers, yet {queamithly fay, 
Thus much fhalt thou, plunder, and no 
more? How did the forefathers of thefe 
Italians acquire their tafte for the fine arts? 
By what means did they adorn the eapital 
of their empire?— By the very fame that the 
Firft Conful has done. When Marcellus, 
in the fecond Punic War, took Syracufe, 
he is faid to have ftripped all the houfes 
and the temples of their ftatues and their 
pictures ; and on an accufation, by the Sy- 
racufans, of this plunder, before the Ro- 
man ‘fenate, he gloried in acknowledging 
the fa&, and faid that his object was to en- 
courage the fine aits, and to ornament the 
metropolis by the choiceft {pecimens, 
Marceilus was the father of the fine arts in 
Rome: “ Other generals, exclaimed the Ro- 
mans, have conquered our enemies, but 
Marcellus hath conquered our ignorance ; 
we begin to fee with new eyes, and have 
a new world of beauties opening before 
us: let the Romans be polite as well as 
victorious, and let us learn to excel the na- 
tions in tafte, as well as to conquer them 
with our arms.” A love for the fine arts 
. among 
