than at present, when the spectator beholds with astonishment a -magnificent vista of 609 feet opening before him, the farther extremity of which he can with difficulty distinguish.

Of the front there can hardly be the same difference of opinion. It gives,' as Mr. Burton justly remarks, rather the idea of a palace than of a religious building'; and the woful waste of attic windows which it presents, to the exclusion of the goodly portico and pediment, can only be accounted for by the necessity of providing a balcony for the pope, where he might show himself at Easter to the up-turned gaze of wondering mortals;' though the ceremony would be much more impressive, and the benediction much better heard, if his holiness were to stand upon the noble flight of steps which lead to the vestibule, and which command a complete view of the area before them.

Mr. Burton has a great taste for relics, and often betrays, by an incredulous smile, that he is one of those travellers who have directed their steps de partibus infidelium.

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Within a large chair of bronze,' says he, in describing the interior of St. Peter's, raised a considerable height, is the identical seat which St. Peter and many of his successors used; but it is completely cased in its outer covering, which was made in 1667; and this precious relic can only be seen by mounting an internal staircase. It is reported to be of wood, with ornaments of ivory and gold. It would be the height of temerity to question the genuineness of this chair after what Bonanni has said upon the subject. The reader may, perhaps, wish to see the passage, but he must not expect me to incur the penalties of it by attempting to refute it." This is the chair of St. Peter, which he occupied as universal pastor, till he suffered death for Christ's sake. This fact has been so fully proved, that the few sectaries who deny it must be most barefaced, or a set of children, and silly children too, such as Velcinus, whom Roflensis has refuted, Sebastian of France, and some obscure Englishmen to be found in Saunders." Besides the danger of classing ourselves amongst these our unfortunate countrymen, it would be lost labour to dispute the question after the arguments which are adduced by Bonanni. In the first place, the miracles that have been wrought by it fully attest its apostolical antiquity. Secondly, Calvin doubted, because it was made of wood, so perishable a material. "But if this were a true ground for doubt," says the honest Bonanni, "the true cross and the cradle of our Saviour are made of wood, as are several statues of the Saints, and nobody doubts about them."'-p. 431.

This and other foretastes had prepared us to expect a very plentiful banquet when we came to the catacombs of St. Sebastian; a mine from which most of the bones that received, for so many ages, the reverence of the Catholic world, were originally drawn. These bones were not always adjusted, to be sure, with due regard to anatomical precision, and the excellent S. Pie, who so

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long maintained an unimpeached character amongst some of our Norman neighbours, was found at the end of the French revolution to exhibit the curious phenomenon of two left legs:-our anticipations, however, upon this point were not realized; and it is a circumstance which we do not regret. The train of thought to which the catacombs give rise in Mr. Burton, is far more profitable than a sneer or a joke. Indeed so useful and appropriate do we think the moral he derives from them, that we shall conclude our paper by giving it at full.

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'I do not wish to inquire,' says Mr. Burton, into what particular means the Catholics possess of ascertaining the name of any saint discovered here, nor whether Sebastian was or was not among the sufferers. But surely we may pardon a little superstition in others, and indulge a little veneration for that spot, which preserved the early professors of our religion, and perhaps our religion itself, from destruction; and in treading the ground which was stained by their blood, and which preserves their remains even to our own days, we may surely cherish their memory without a crime; and while we would grieve for those who would pay them religious adoration, we may perhaps feel a little compunction at the coldness of our own faith, and animate our devotion by their example.'-P. 484.

In the recommendation offered by this charitable paragraph, we most heartily concur. Of the many bad moral effects which a long residence in Catholic countries is apt to produce on an English protestant, none is more to be guarded against, than the habit of looking at all the ceremonies and externals of religion as objects, we will not say of ridicule, from that perhaps his sense of propriety may secure him, but of mere amusement-of gazing at them in supercilious dignity, as if so sensible and well-informed a person as himself could have no part or lot in such matters. Let him not deceive himself into a belief that such indifference is philosophy. None exhibit it so strongly as the narrow-minded and ignorant; and that which makes the silly laugh will often make the judicious reflect.

How far the senses may be safely trusted with forwarding the real interests of religion is a question of great difficulty. But the uncertainty has been made subservient to the best purposes, in advancing them, and the efficacy of music cannot be denied but by the most cynical puritan... The eye must doubtless be watched with greater vigilance, with vigilance in proportion to the strictness of that commandment, which is expressly directed against the abuses it may occasion; but that it may also be enlisted in a good and holy cause must be conceded by all who believe that the Almighty gave directions for the structure and decoration of his temple at Jerusalem; and by all who have experienced

experienced the influence of the dim religious light, the fretted vaults, and stately columns, and antique monuments, and gray and hoary walls of our venerable cathedrals, and who have found that, though they entered them from motives of curiosity, or from no motives at all, yet they have lingered in them to indulge a train of pure and peaceful and serious contemplation, to which the building alone in the first instance disposed them.

ART. III.-Narrative of a Voyage round the World in the Uranie and Physicienne Corvettes, commanded by Captain Freycinet, during the Years 1817, 18, 19, and 20; on a scientific Expedition undertaken by order of the French Government. In a Series of Letters to a Friend. By J. Arago. 4to. pp.

600.1822.

CAPTAIN Freycinet, who distinguished himself as a scientific

officer in Baudin's expedition, was sent out by the French government, in the year 1817, in the Uranie corvette, for the purpose chiefly, if not specially, of swinging an invariable pendulum in several parts of the southern hemisphere and the Pacific, in order, by a comparison of the results obtained in the northern and western hemispheres, to determine, with a greater degree of precision, the figure of the earth. It was intended, as is usual on such occasions, to embark a certain number of naturalists to collect subjects for the Museum; but Captain Freycinet, calling to mind, probably, the squabbles that took place between Baudin and the gentlemen of this description who accompanied him, determined to have neither butterfly-hunters nor simplers, to obstruct or delay the higher scientific operations of the voyage.

M. Arago, the author of the present volume, was Draftsman to the Expedition,'-a gay, lively, hare-brained, sighing, sentimental Frenchman, who dances and plays the flute, rattles his castanets, and exhibits all kinds of jugglers' tricks for the amusement and wonder of the savages. To this we have no objection; it is consistent enough in one who professes nothing more than to paint men and manners with the double aid of his pen and his pallet. As to winds and weather, longitude and latitude, and matters of this kind, I leave them,' he says, 'to be stated by Captain Freycinet in his own way.' In this he has done wisely; for the single instance in which he ventures upon a latitude and longitude' throughout the whole voyage, is that of Rio de Janeiro, which he has very gravely placed in the wrong hemisphere, and called east longitude! His book indeed is so frivolous, so full of ridiculous blunders even in his own way,' that, in our opinion,

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neither

neither his own reputation nor that of the expedition would have suffered, had his one hundred and sixty-four letters been buried in the bosom of the 'friend' to whom they are supposed to have been written. It is, in truth, quite sickening to find such a perpetual whining after home-such sighing after 'la belle France,' in one about to undertake A Voyage round the World!'-He no sooner catches a glimpse of the coast, as he proceeds along the Mediterranean, than he exclaims- There it is still!—there is my native land!-there it is that you dwell-my family, my friends-all are there! Gracious heaven! Oh! 'tis so moving

we can read no more.'

All this, however, may be exquisite to a Parisian sentimentalist; but in England we look for somewhat sterner stuff' than the frothy effusions of a traveller's own feelings. Even as a draftsman we cannot consider M. Arago entitled to any great praise on the score of fidelity; his portraits, thrown into theatrical attitudes, are caricatures; the males looking like murderers, and the females like Magdalens. A book so totally destitute of every species of information, which we naturally look for from one officially employed in a scientific expedition, would, in any other circumstance, be unworthy of notice; but as a record of the general state of literature in France, (for by the French critics, we perceive, M. Arago is called 'un homme de lettres,') we think it right to give it a place in our journal, were it only to put our readers in possession of the kind of gossip with which M. Arago has contrived to fill so many hundred pages, and the style in which he has communicated it to the world.

the

At Gibraltar, General Don received the party with a smile,' which, though but a faint' one, M. Arago deems so unusual a thing on an Englishman's countenance, that he conjectures it may have been the first for these ten years that played upon lips of the governor.' Another discovery he made on this rock was, that when the Jews mean to cheat any one they assume the dress of the unhappy dupe. Thus they will throw a mantle over their shoulders when they are negociating with a Spaniard; if they have to do with an Englishman, they put on a tight dress; and assume a turban if they have selected a Turk for their victim.' This is deep on the part of the Jews, and must needs be successful, as it took a Frenchman two whole days to find it out.

The Uranie (for the Physicienne mentioned in the title-page is a non-entity, at least she is mentioned no where else) touches at Teneriffe; and M. Arago is sadly grieved that in the course of a whole week he is not able to find the road to the celebrated peak; yet there is but one, and the distance not above twenty-four miles. He consoles himself, however, by reflecting that Humboldt has

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been there, and, consequently, that there is nothing more to be said about it! Some of the party wrote to the governor to assist them in discovering this coy road; but the governor returned no answer, and the French consul, with an arch smile, told them they would receive none, as the governor could not write;'—but his secretary?'- He cannot write either.'-' O worthy representatives of a nation!' exclaims M. Arago.

As a specimen of a conversation held between two persons, ignorant of each other's language, we give the following between M. Arago, and a Spanish sentry, whom he found eating a ball of dough.'

"What are you eating, comrade?"-" Bread." [I strive in vain to persuade myself that he is not deceiving me.] Is it good?" "Is "Excellent; taste it." [I endeavour to swallow it at the risk of choking myself.] "What is your pay?"-" This bread."-" And how much in money?"-" Nothing."-" Have you then no money?"-" For ten reals I would walk round the island."-" Will you accept this halfpiastre to drink my health ?"-" It is too much; people would think I had stolen it."-" Take it."-" I'faith, Sir, I am afraid lest you should not repeat your generous offer: ten thousand thanks.'--p. 22.

A " voyage round the world,' and particularly by a painter, would be nothing without a storm;-M. Arago was told, however, that the one which he has so highly coloured in the following paragraph was only a squall. No matter-it proved to him that the combined elements are incapable of appalling French seamen.'

'Whether touching the clouds, or at the bottom of the abyss, they are constantly the same; and they care as little for the thunderbolt as for the sunken rock. But the uproar increases; the cloud hovers over the vessel; wave dashes against wave; lightnings rend the cloud; from its murky sides burst torrents of wind and hail. The ship is carried away. The rapidity of its motions prevents any attempt to counteract them; and the profoundest darkness would render such an attempt useless. The roaring of the waves; the pealing of the thunder; the howling of the cordage; the crackling of the tackle, drown the voice: none is heard save that of the tempest.'--p. 25, 26.

At Rio de Janeiro, a Portugueze, more courteous than the governor of Teneriffe, condescended to show him the way,' (for our draftsman appears to be a most helpless creature,) and pointed out to him the remarkable persons.'

"That is a countryman of yours," said he to me when we came to the Place of Rocio." He seems to be very poor.""Ah, Sir, that is because he is a Frenchman."- "But I have seen Frenchmen who are very rich."- "This is a Member of the Institute; and a man will not make his fortune by science at Rio." There is another Parisian," added he, pointing to a young dandy who was driving a very handsome

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chaise;