moist to the surface of a stucco * formed of powdered marble cemented by lime: he states that the wall or ceiling had three distinct coatings of stucco made of this material, of which the first contained coarse powder of marble, the second the finer powder, and the third the finest powder of all, and that after this the wall was polished before the colour was applied. The stuccos that remain in the ruins of the baths of Titus and Livia are of this kind, and so is the ground of the Aldobrandini picture: they are beautifully white, and almost as hard as marble, and the granular marble of different degrees of fineness may be distinguished in them. This circumstance indeed offers a test of the antiquity of ruins at Rome. In the houses that have been built in the middle and latter ages, decomposing lava has been mixed with the calcareous cement instead of granular marble, and the stuccos of these houses are gray or brown, and very coarse in their texture. Pliny says that purple, orpiment, ceruse, the natural azure, indigo, and the meline white,were injured by application to wet stucco, which is easily explained in the case of orpiment, carbonate of copper, ceruse, and indigo, from their chemical composition. Vitruvius states that in fresco painting vermilion changed if exposed to light, and he recommends the encaustic process for fixing the colour under this circumstance, namely, laying over it a coat of punic wax, and liquefying the wax so as to make a varnish for the colour. Pliny describes this process as applied in painting ships; and we know from his authority that several pictures of the great Greek masters were painted in encaustic, and that the different colours were laid on mixed with wax. I have examined several pieces of the painted stuccos found in the different ruins, and likewise the Aldobrandini picture, with a view of ascertaining if any application had been made to fix the colour; but neither by the test of alcohol, nor by heat, nor by the action of water, could I detect the presence of any wax varnish, or animal or vegetable glu ten. The pot of colours to which I have already referred, found at Pompeii, was blackened by smoke, as if it had been recently on a fire of wood. I thought that this might be owing to some process for dissolving gluten or varnish in the preparation of the colour; but I could detect no substance of this kind mixed with the colouring matter. *Lib. vii. cap. 2, 3, & 4. was Pliny states that gluten (our glue) used in painting with blacks: and this specific mention of its application would induce the belief that it was not employed with other colours, which adhered without difficulty to, and were imbibed by, a surface so polished and well prepared as the Roman stucco; and the lightness of carbonaceous matter alone probably rendered this application necessary. X. Some General Observations. It appears from the facts that have been stated, and the authorities quoted, that the Greek and Roman painters had almost all the same colours as those employed by the great Italian masters at the period of the revival of the arts in Italy. They had indeed the advantage over them in two colours, the Vestorian or Egyptian azure, and the Tyrian or marine purple. The azure, of which the excellence is proved by its duration for seventeen hundred years, may be easily and cheaply made; I find that fifteen parts by weight of carbonate of soda, twenty parts of pow dered opaque flints, and three parts of copper filings strongly heated together for two hours, gave a substance of exactly the same tint, and of nearly the same de gree of fusibility, and which, when pow. dered, produced a fine deep sky blue. The azure, the red and yellow ochres, and the blacks are the colours that seem not to have changed at all, in the ancient fresco paintings. The vermilion is darker than recently made Dutch cinnabar, and the red-lead is inferior in tint to that sold in the shops. The greens in general are dull. The principle of the composition of the Alexandrian frit is perfect; namely, that of embodying the colour in a composition resembling stone, so as to prevent the escape of elastic matter from it, or the decomposing action of the elements; this is a species of artificial lapis lazuli, the colouring matter of which is naturally in herent in a hard siliceous stone. It is probable that other coloured frits may be made, and it is worth trying whether the beautiful purple given by oxide of gold caunot be made useful in painting in a densely tinted glass. Where frits cannot be employed, metallic combinations which are insoluble in water, and which are saturated with oxygen or some acid matter, it is evident from the proof of a duration of seventeen Lib. xxxv. cap. 25. " Omne atramentum sole perficitur, librarium gummi tec. torium glutino admixto." centuries, are the best pigments. In the red ochres the oxide of iron is fully combined with oxygen, and in the yellow ochres it is combined with oxygen and carbonic acid; and these colours have not changed. The carbonates of copper which contain an oxide and an acid have changed very little. Massicot and orpiment were probably the least permanent amongst the ancient mineral colours. Of the colours, the discovery of which is owing to the improvements in modern chemistry, the patent yellow is much more durable than any ancient yellow of the same brilliancy; and chromate of lead, an insoluble compound of a metallic acid with a metallic oxide, is a much more beautiful yellow than any possessed by the ancients, and, there is every reason to believe, is quite unalterable. Scheele's green (the arsenite of copper), and the insoluble muriatic combination of copper, will probably be found more unalterable than the ancient greens; and the sulphate of baryta offers a white superior to any possessed by the Greeks and Romans. I have tried the effects of light and air upon some of the colours formed by the new substance iodine. Its combination with mercury offers a good red; but it is, I think, less beautiful than vermilion, and it appears to change more by the action of light. Its compound with lead gives a beautiful yellow, little inferior to the chromate of lead; and I possess some of this colour which has been exposed to light and air without alteration for several months. In many of the figures and ornaments in the outer chambers of the baths of Titus, where only outlines or spots remain, or shades of ochre, it is probable that vegetable or animal colours, such as indigo and the different dyed clays, were used.* Pliny speaks of the celebrated Greek painters as employing only four colours. "Quatuor coloribus solis immortalia illa opera fecere: ex albis Melino, ex silaceis Attico, ex rubris Sinopide Pontica, ex nigris atramento, Apelles, Echion, Melanthius, Nicomachus, clarissimi pictores†: but as far as Apeiles * Some excellent pictures have suffered very much in modern times from the same cause; the lakes in the frescos of the Vatican have lost much of the brilliancy which they must have possessed originally. The blues in many pictures of Paul Verobese are become muddy. † Lib. xxxv. c $2. and Nicomachus are concerned, this is a mistake; and it is not unlikely that Pliny was misled by an imperfect recollection of a passage in Cicero, who describes the earlier Greek school as using only four colours, but the later Greek painters as perfect masters in all the resources of colouring. "Similis in pictura ratio est: in qua Zeuxim, et Polygnotum, et Timantem, et eorum, qui non sunt usi plus quam quatuor coloribus, formas et lineamenta laudamus: at in Aetione, Nicomacho, Protogene, Apelle, jam perfecta sunt omnia. Cicero, Brutus, seu de claris ora. toribus, c. 18. Pliny himself describes with enthusiasm the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles: and in this picture the sea was represented, which required azure. The great Greek painters, like the most illustrious artists of the Roman and Vene tian school, were probably, however, sparing in the use of the more florid tints in historical and moral painting, and produced their effects rather by the contrasts of colouring in those parts of the picture where a deep and uniform tint might be used, than by brilliant drapery. If red and yellow ochres, blacks and whites, were the colours most employed by Protogenes and Apelies, so they are likewise the colours most employed by Raphael and Titian in their best style. The St. John and the Venus, in the tribune of the Gallery at Florence, offer striking examples of pictures in which all the deeper tints are evidently produced by red and yellow ochres, and carbonaceous substances, As far as colours are concerned, these works are prepared for that immortality which they deserve; but unfortunately the oil and the canvas are vegetable materials, and liable to decomposition, and the last is less durable than even the wood on which the Greek artists painted their celebrated pictures. It is unfortunate that the materials for receiving those works which are worthy of passing down to posterity as eternal monuments of genius, taste, and industry, are not imperishable marble or stone. and that frits, or unalterable metallic combinations, have not been the only pig Copper, it is evident, from the specimens in the ruins of Pompeii, is a very perishable material, and therefore, even enamels made on copper will yield to time. Canvas, by being impreguated with bitumen, is rendered much more durable, as is evident from the duration of the linen impregnated with bitumen aud asphaltum used for infolding the Egyptian mummies, ments employed by great artists; and that their varnishes have not been sought for amongst the transparent combinations of the earths with water, or amongst the crystalline transparent compounds unalterable in the atmosphere †. Rome, January 14, 1815. National Register: FOREIGN. AMERICA: UNITED STATES. AMERICA: BRITISH. Fire in the woods.-The Abeona, arrived at Pool, from St. John's, Newfoundland, brings intelligence, that a most alarming and destructive fire had happened on the west side of Placentia Bay, and that its ravages in the woods had extended a course of fifteen leagues.-Great distress was anticipated therefrom, by the inhabitants, for want of fuel. Emigrants: condition of. St. John's Newfoundland.--July S, 1815. -The number of unfortunate and deluded Irishmen, who have been, I may say, vo The New York Gazette of July 19, gives an extract of a letter from New Or-mited upon us this year, almost exceeds Teans, dated the 20th May, mentioning a great overflow of the river Mississippi.— The damage done is said to be incalculable; entire settlements are said to be many feet under water at Palmyra, Concordie, and a part of point Coupee. Many sugar and cotton plantations were entirely ruined. belief and the manner they are brought here commands pity, and excites abhorrence. They are frequently brought out without water sufficient for half the voyage, with damaged provisions, and not a sufficiency of even them-the consequence is, that generally they help themselves to whatever liquids may be found on board. There British Trade with South America. A is now in the harbour a vessel, in which it Philadelphia paper in an article relative to is said, upwards of sixty tierces of porter the state of South America, makes the have been used, and many barrels of pork following observations on the intercourse eat, and several beds cut to pieces, which between Great Britain and the Spanish them to get at it-the consequence of such were over the porter, in order to enable Colonies :-" The commerce that England has been, and is now, enjoying with treatment is, that the wretches land here those countries, is of far greater impor-in a state very unfit to be employed-that tance than has been generally known. many have died in a few days after their The peculiar situation of Europe and the arrival-that our hospital has been crowdUnited States, has given to England for ed with them-that now there are numsome time past, an entire monopoly of thisbers prowling about the streets, without a valuable trade. The amount of British fabrics that have been shipped from London cad Jamaica, through the Isthmus of Darien, to every part of the Pacific Ocean, and the consumption of British merchan dize at Buenos Ayres, New Grenada, Venezuela, the Bay of Campeachy, and Mexico, may be computed at least to be twenty millions of dollars, per annum; the returns of these exports, with considerable augmentation of profit, are made generally in specie and bullion, and other valuable commodities." place to shelter them at night, but they lie either on the wharfs, or they have not a morsel to eat, or wherewith to procure it, but such as the humanity of the public, especially of the lower order of the people, supplies them with. On Friday last about forty of them arrived in a small sloop from Youghall (the first vessel ever from thence), of forty tons burden, not, you would suppose, worthy of being trusted across the Channel, and yet, it is but justice to say, she brought her passengers in better health than any vessel which arrived this season, and had fewer in number, according to her tonnage, than any of them." This distress has been aggravated by an opinion of the Justices, that whoever employs a labourer is bound to take care of him, if he falls sick. To employ these people, therefore, for a single day, is to become liable to the chance of their really falling sick, and to the much greater probability of their assuming the guise of sickness under protection where they may be well taken care of. It has been found necessary to moderate this opinion. The state of the town is unhealthy in consequence of these crowds. AUSTRIA. Austrian Property to be recovered. Vienna, July 29.-The Director Schreiber, of the Imperial Cabinet of Natural History, Professor Rosa, of the picture gallery in the Belvidere, and the Emperor's private Librarian, Juny, have been summoned to Paris, there to prosecute the claims for various articles which belonged to their several departments, and which have not yet been restored. BELGIUM. Battle of Waterloo. The account given by Ney of the battle of Waterloo, is considered in the British Army to be correct. Napoleon, it is asserted, shewed more pertinacity than on any former occasion. Three messengers were dispatched to him on the hill where he had planted his observatory, before he would believe that Bulow's corps was bearing down upon the flank and rear of his forces, and until it was actually engaged with his troops, he had not abandoned the persuasion that it was the division under his Generals Grouchy and Vandamme. Another mistake is said to have contribnted to his destruction on that day. Contrary to all his former maxims, and to the known rules of tactics, he ordered the whole weight of his cavalry to press upon the British before any of their columns were broken or disordered, trusting that the troops under the Duke of Wellington were raw and undisciplined, and were consequently incapable of sustaining this ponderous charge. He was disappointed, and in this stage of the action his ruin was complete. It was agreed by all persons versed in military science, that such an attempt, if not successful, must be fatal. Buonaparte says, never was a battle so severely contested as that of Waterloo. His troops knew and felt that they never had more to gain or more to lose, than at that time never had they fought harder; and they were only overcome by the superiority of British discipline, and British intrepidity. He was astonished at the firmness with which his charges were received and repulsed by our troops. He spoke highly of our cavalry, and acknowledged that if the Earl of Uxbridge had not been wounded he would have been the Earl's prisoner in two minutes and he feels no hesitation in saying, that the Duke of Wellington was a better General than himself. In his voyage to Elba, when it was remarked that : 6 the Duke was the best General of the age he answered, We have never met yet. FRANCE. His Majesty Louis XVIIIth's second entry into Paris. The following, if true, presents a picture of disorganization in the Magistracy of the French Metropolis, that is unusually disgraceful. We cannot, however, persuade ourselves that it is altogether accurate.— The latter part of the article is a correct picture of Parisian manners, and is apparently drawn from the life. No order had been given relative to the royal procession. The infamous Bondi, prefect of police, probably hoping that some disorder would take place in which his party might attack the King's life, had made no preparation to preserve regularity, or even safety. The new Commander of the national guard, and the Governor of Paris, being but just appointed, could do nothing. The gens d'armerie, without a head, did not appear: some 12 or 14,000 national guards had gone separately to meet the King: the others were on duty at the military stations. Not a soul was there to prevent the interruption of carts and coaches, until the citizens formed a body organised by themselves, and enforced rules fit for the occasion. Not a single accident happened, and the evident want of preparation, the disorder caused by eagerness and transport, and the free vent given to what may be termed the clamor and riot of satisfaction by the absence of official arrangement, gave a charm and effect to the sight not to be described. The road from Saint Denis to Paris was crammed the Boulevard from the Rue Saint Denis, to the Rue de la Paix, and the avenues from the Rue de la Paix to the Thuilleries were crammed to a considerable height in the air,-for cornices, windows, balconies, and roofs, all groaned under a living and waving weight, from which issued shouts, handkerchiefs, pointing arms, and eager heads. How is the procession to pass, was every one's question? National guards, officers mingling with privates, having no tie but loyalty, formed into small bands, and without arms, opened by degrees, one space and then another. Then advanced the King's houshold, as we call it, amounting to about 5 or 6000 men who had followed his Majesty. The King was in a coach with his ministers. the most interesting part of the procession But, was formed by a regiment of officers-men, domestic arrangements, and the indiscriwho, in these bad times, retained too much❘minate pillage of articles of value by some of the old French sense of military honour, of the foreign troops in the houses of the which united bravery with gentlemanly inhabitants upon whom they are quarfeeling, to break their oaths. They had tered: yet this produces no real agitation rejoined the King at Ghent, and had in Paris, for this simple reason, that the formed themselves into a regiment in his Parisians have not strength enough left to service. They retained individually the sustain a state of agitation; and partly be uniforms of their respective ranks, as gene- cause they remember so well the conduct rals, colonels, majors, captains, &c. but of their own troops, for so many years, in each carrying the musket and bearing his foreign countries. The Louvre has been knapsack as a private soldier. This corps stripped of several pictures by the Pruswas upwards of a thousand strong, and was siaus, and the beautiful garden of the Luxreceived with great plaudits. emburg, has been completely destroyed by them; yet not a murmur is publicly heard from the Government, or people of Paris. In the evening the King attempted to come down into the garden of the Thuilleries: he came alone,-the people flocked about him, kissing his hands, his coat,throwing themselves at his feet; the great est enthusiasm displayed itself. He found it useless to attempt to walk, so he went up again, and remained for half an hour in the balcony. When the people could cry Vive le Roi no longer, they began dancing in a moment there were formed in the garden of the Thuilleries as many country dances as the extraordinary concourse of people as sembled, would permit. The sets of dan- Prefecture of the Department of the Seine. that in consequence of new arrangements, "The inhabitants of Paris are informed, Lieutenant-General, commanding the Aus his Highness Prince Maurice Lichtenstein, trian troops at Paris, has issued orders that from this day, the officers and soldiers of the garrison of Paris, under his command, shall not require any subsistence of the persons upon whom they are quartered. The officers are to subsist themselves at their own cost.-The soldiers will receive rations from magazines established for that purpose. The inhabitants, therefore, will henceforward have to furnish the Austrian troops with nothing but lodging, and what belongs to it. (Signed) CHABROL. Counsellor of State, Prefect of the Seine. Paris, July 27, 1815. The city of Paris pays daily for the subsistence of Austrian officers 3000 fr. and for that of Prussian officers 5000 fr. By means of this arrangement, the families with whom they lodge are not bound to maintain them. this mass all the provisions furnished by the citizens at their own homes, and by keepers of lodging houses, we shall have some idea of the daily charges of the capital, for the single article of subsistence for the allied troops. We cannot form any estimate of the number of foreign troops assembled at Paris; but it is certain that 200,000 pounds of bread, more than 100,000 pounds of meat, Paris, July 23" At length the terrible and 10,000 litres of brandy, are delivered to day of wrath and retribution for the cala-them daily for their rations. If we add to mities inflicted upon Europe has overtaken the French. The capital of the great nation' is at this moment a sad picture of humiliation and distress. Its palaces occu pied by foreign Princes and Generals, ostentatiously surrounded by the military pomp of their respective nations: its pleasure gardens and public squares covered with their tents, baggage, and artillery. The expence of subsisting the allied troops quartered in the city of Paris, and its vicinity, amounts, I have been told, to 600,000 francs a day. But what is most complained of is the total subversion of all | The inhabitants of the 11th Municipality of Paris, one of the smallest and least opulent of the capital, has furnished for a time more or less long, quarters and sustenance for 28,000 Prussians, and they still continue to receive others every day. This is coming with a vengeance to close quarters, |
