1799, at 18" 13′ 47′′ medium Parifian time; in OS 230 53′ 7′′. The refult of their obfervations nearly correfponded with Lalande's Tables; 5" at molt fhould be added to the central equation, and 3" be deducted from the inclination of the orbit, and 30" from the fecular motion.

MESSIER faw at Paris the comet for the laft time on the 25th of October, 1799. It was then near a ftar of the fixth magnitude, in the knee of Ophiuchus, at 6h 32 45" true Parifian time; direct afcenfion 54° 57' 50"; aberration fouth 13° 2′ 12′′. The comet could be only once compared with the star; as the heavens became fud. denly overcaft.

Citizen FORTIA, of Avignon, is printing at Paris a new edition of the Greek Text of the Treatife of Ariftarchus of Samos, with a Latin and French tranflation, to which he has added very learned notes. LALANDE has written an eulogy on his friend and countryman (they were born in the fame department) General JOUBERT, who fo glorioufly fell in Italy. BONAPARTE had the complacency to revife and correct this tribute to the memory of his brother in arms.

BURCKHARDT has read to the NATIONAL INSTITUTE a Treatife on the mean Motions of the Planets, drawn from Arabian Obfervations.

From several new and accurate obfervations, the true longitude of Naples has been determined to be 47′ 35 to 36" eaft from Paris.

A ftop has been put to the printing of LALANDE'S Hiftoire Célefte, and of his BiBiographie Aftronomique, for want of a fupply of money necessary to defray the expences. Lalande complained of this delay to his brother aftronomer, LA PLACE, now minifter of the interior, who answered, that he had no money, as the minifter of war feized it all for military purposes. To complete the Hiftoire Célefte, only 120 pages are wanting, containing obferva. tions by Dagelet. LA PLACE wishes much to have the printing of the Tables of Decimal Sinuses completed, which Borda caused to be calculated by Cerifier, and for which he gave him 1200 livres. La Place had undertaken to print them at his own expence, but Borda's heirs have not yet determined whether they will publish them on their own account, or fell them. LaLande fays that they are very incorrectly printed.

Rizzi-ZANNONI, the celebrated geographer, is going to Paris, with the intenLion of ending his days in France. He

carries with him an immenfe geographical port-folio. Rizzi-Zannoni is faid to poffefs about twelve thoufand maps and geographical draughts. The numerous maps published by him are well known to all geographers, especially his maps of Poland, America, and Naples. Of his Carta geogr. del Regno di Napoli eleven numbers have appeared. His Atlante maritimo che contiene il perimetro littorale de Regno di Napoli confifts of twenty-five fheets, and costs fifteen and a half ducati. His Atlas of Italy has not been completed, only twelve maps of it having yet been published. Of the Venetian and Paduan territory four fheets have appeared, which he had drawn for a Nobile Contarini. Of late he has been occupied with the publi cation of a new map della Lombardia colle fue Regioni aggiunti, four sheets; another map della Italia Cifalpina, four fheets, from the Maritime Alps to Buccari and Fiume; and a map of Dalmatia, in one fheet. Rizzi-Zannoni was born at Venice in 1738; went to Paris, was fent to Germany during the feven years war, returned to Paris; embarked for America, where he remained five years, and drew his map of America; then returned to Venice, whence he was invited to Naples by the Chevalier d'Acton, Neapolitan minifter of marine.

At Michaelmas next, the fecond volume of M. PALLAS's New Travels will be published at Leipzig by Godfried Martini. This fplendid and interefting work will be accompanied with fifteen large views in the Crimea, and a number of copper plates, vignettes, and large maps. At the fame time with the original German, will appear a French tranfla

tion.

M. PALLAS has likewife refolved to communicate to the botanical public his Monographies of the following genera of plants, Salfola, Aftragalus, Pedicularis, Hedyfarum, Artemifia, of whole numerous fpecies hardly one half are yet known. The firft number of this work will be publifhed at Eafter, and contains a defcription of the Aftragalus Lin. of which M. Pallas has collected a great number of fpecies from Europe, Afia, and especially from the Ruffian empire. Linnæus was acquainted with only 50 fpecies of this genus, which Pallas has increased to 116. The figures were drawn from wild, and moftly fresh, fpecimens, by the mafterly hand of M. GEISSLER, M. Pallas's fellow-traveller. Each number will contain, befides letter-prefs, eight copper-plates,

etched

etched and coloured under the inspection of the original defigner; and the whole be publifhed by next Christmas.

In December of last year was published by Breitkopf in Leipzig, J. EBER'S English German and German-English Dictionary, 5 vol. large octavo, in two diviSons. Firft divifion, complete Dictionary of the English Language for the Ufe of Germans,' 2 vol. fecond divifion, "the New and Complete Dictionary of the German and English Languages, compofed chiefly after the German Dictionaries of Mr. Adelung and of Mr. Schwan; elaborated by J. Ebers, 3 vol. 17931799." The author of this dictionary refided fome time in England; and was many years teacher of the English language in the CAROLINE COLLEGE at Brunf. wick. In the compofition of his work, he had recourfe to Johnfon's, Kenrick's, Sheridan's, and Walker's Dictionaries, Chambers's Cyclopædia, Grose's Claff. Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue; in fhort, all the heft dictionaries and grammars of both languages.

View of the General Catalogue of the New Publications of German Bookfellers at the Autumnal Fair at Leipfic.

(Communicated by our Correfpondent at Weimar.) The bookfellers-trade in Germany affumed already as early as laft century a form quite different from what it has in England and other countries, by the German booksellers reforting to fairs, which to an English book feller would be an object of averfion. But thele fairs must foon be productive of many inftitutions, which tend to render a fummary view of all the articles of trade more easy and expeditious. Hence the catalogues of new books to be brought to the fair, the exchange of books, the trade with books in complete fets, the exact catalogue of new publications with their prices, which appear twice a year, and many other conveniences which a German first begins to value when he fees himfelf obliged at Paris, London, or Rome, to run a whole day for a book which is fold by only one bookfeller. The books brought to the fair are fent about in bales; for this reafon our bookfellers cannot fell their books in boards, but only in fheets; and all the complaints brought in of late of this inconveniency, arife from ignorance of the nature of the bookfellers' trade in Germany, and from difregarding the advantages which the reading of books in fheets, and the fpreading about of various knowledge produces in fall towns and in the country; for books in boards cannot be cut but by the proprietor, and of course

every one, who does not buy them, is excluded.

The general catalogue of books to be brought to the fair, which is published by Weidmanns at Leipzig fome weeks before each fair, and to the making of which the bookfellers in the different towns of Germany contribute, by fending up to the publifher the titles of thofe works which they are to print at their own expence, is intended to give a fummary view, not only of thofe publications that are to be finished at the term of the enfuing fair, but also of thofe for which engagements are already made, but the term of whofe appearing cannot yet be fixed. But to literary productions, laft fummer feems to have been as unfavourable as to thofe of the foil.

The last general catalogue of St. Michael's Fair, already reduced to fo fmall a fize, would fhrink to a few fheets only, if all the articles omitted at the time of the Eafter-Fair, or repeated with fome inconfiderable alterations, all continuations and new editions, fmall pamphlets, and ephemeral writings, fhould be ftruck out from it.

Hufbandry and economical reports fi gure very high in it. The turnip-fugar, an invention of Mr. Achard of Berlin, very much talked of laft fummer, and encouraged by high premiums, but by a recent report of the committee named by the king of Prufia funk very much in the general opinion, has produced fix different tracts.

Several parts of mathematics, technology, and natural philosophy are rendered popular in a hundred different manners, the advantage of all which for the enlightening and improvement of the lower claffes is not to be doubted of. But important and great works, which might intereft the nation at large, are not be fought for. The remarkable and trulyclaffical Secret Hiflory of the Congress of Raftadt, in 6 vol. by Mr. Haller of Berne, is even not registered; the cautious bookseller not thinking fit to put his name under the titlepage. Some general obfervations, however, may perhaps not be improper here.

War and bloodfhed are ftill all the order of the day, and it is with affliction that the peaceful friend of the Mufes finds here about forty military books. The Prince de Ligne,who,driven from his poffefiions in the Netherlands, refides ftill at Vienna, and enlivens the higher circles of life with his anecdotes and Imart repartees, prefents us with four works, once the fruits of his military experience; of which number are alfo the Regulations of Frederic II. for Cavalry, otherwife kept in high fecrecy, Hoyer, an officer of the artillery of the Elector of Saxony, generally esteemed for

his deep knowledge in the feience of war, goes on with unremitting affiduity in the publication of his Military Magazine, and his claffical work for the Literature and Hiftory of War-Science is continued with out interruption. Even the horrid difcovery of a Frenchman, Boreux, which fhews how the effect of artillery might be in creased in fuch a manner as would render all refiftance useless, has found a faithful tranflator. Bonaparte has given way to Suworof, whofe life and exploits have been defcribed in four German and two French new publications. The Drufes and Mameloaks have, however, given rife to feme compilations, and the French in Egypt to a fentimental novel, drawn as pretended from French papers.

we may judge fo by their title, and filly pieces in the Bibliotheque of Novels; to which may be added ten other productions of the fame kind, independent of that col lection. Even the Cartouches and Robinfons are again raifed from the dead. Scarcely a few more valuable performances, as the Novantiken, done in the manner of the ce lebrated novel-writer, the late Mr. Mu-. faiz of Weimar, by Muller, at Itzchoe; Al lun, by Matthifon; Scenes of Human Life, by the author of Maria Muller; and fome others are to be found out from under this filth. Readers of fome inftruction will certainly firft of all felect Reinhardi's Almanach of Novels, published at Göttingeng the Almanach for Ladies, for Cotta at Tubingen, in which three excellent tales of Lafontaine, Huber, and Mrs. Wolzogen, the amiable author of Agnes of Lilien, refiding at Weimar, are to be found; the Paftimes, by Mr. Becker; and fome other articles, which however do not announce their contents and value by their title (as for inftance, the Hiftory of a Voyage by a Livonian Gentleman, Mr. Mernel, now refiding at Weimar). But much matter of amufement is required to allay the fuldennels of winter, which is already of itfelffo tiresome, that the Theory of Idleness, &c. (Theorie des Müffigangs und der faulen Kunjte), which is likewife a bubble of the lait fair, will little contribute to alleviate it.

Of the fciences, cheniftry and phyfics have been most cultivated and enriched by this fair. Alex von Humboldt, whilt he puts to practice and enlarges his rare knowledge in another hemifphere, baving embarked himself for Peru and Mexico, inftructs the public by two im portant treatifes on the Subterraneous Gaies, and on the Chemical Solution of the Atmosphere. Ritter at Jena continues his experiments on Galvanism. Profeffor Reit at Halle has published the second part of his Cure of Fevers, and Hufeland, at Jena, his long expected Compendium on Pathology, and his Obfervations on Nervous Fevers. The fyftem of Brown, very ably difcuffed in the General Literary Review of Jena by a Jewish Phyfician at Han over, Mr. Stieglitz, and skilfully defended by Profeffor Rofchlaub at Wurtzburg, finds new defenders as well as adverfaries (this time three on each file). Girtanner has completed his Examination of Darwin's Syftem of Practical Medicine; and Freife has tranflated Beddoes's Experiments on the Effects of the Nitrous Acid. The inoculation of the cow-pox, too, is brought to our knowledge in feveral different ways. The refearches of Jenner, its difcoverer, en that subject have been tranflated into Latin, with notes by Caren, a physician of Vienna; and Pearfon likewife appears in a German attire. At laft, Wardenburg's Journal of a Medicinal Journey on the French Methods of Curing Distempers is foished; and Winterfeld directs our attention anew to the Cold Baths for Children. How easily foever the infatiable avidity of the public for the reading of novels may be fatisfied, it will be difficult to find a more indigeftible and loathfome food than that which has been offered this fair, to the five hundred circulating libraries exifting in Germany by feventy-five pitifully, if

Though the knowledge of foreign countries and nations has received fome enlargements particularly by Gafpari's Annals of Geography and Statistics, which will afford us a comprehenfive view of what may accrue every year to those fciences, yet has the Michael Fair been lefs fertile than ever in entertaining Relations of Travels. The Collec tions of Travels published by Vols at Berlin, and Hofmann at Hamburg, contains, in fome new volumes, the best publications of this kind made in foreign coun tries; to which may be added La Rochefoucauld's important Voyage to North America, of which the laft volume had been publifhed from the original manu fcript laft fair; and Karamfin's Travels through Germany, translated from the Ruffian. The Journal of a Voyage through the Eastern and Southern Parts of Switze land, by Frederica Brun, a German lady of high talents, daughter of the ever re'nowned Dr. Munter at Copenhagen, married to the firft merchant of that capital, gives occafion to many forrowful comparifons. The feeling author was allowed by her happy fituation to speak freely, and has no occafion to fhrink from a compa

rifon with the celebrated Letters of Mifs Williams, how different foever the principles may be with which both these travels were undertaken.

The Autumnal-Fair has its own peculiar line of productions, which confift in an infinite number of almanacks, pocket-books, and memorandums for the fubfequent year, which justly may be ftiled the Lilliputian-library of Germany, every fcience and art having affigned to them their peculiar pocket - almanacks. This line contains this time 54 articles; for all our knowledge is now reduced into the form of pocket-books. There is an almanack for gamesters, for married people, and galanterie, which are to be continued, and a new one for wine-drinkers is added. In fuch inventions, Mr. Oemigke, a bookseller at Berlin, particularly excels, who knows how to inclofe the philofopher's ftone for both fexes in two almanacks, the one of which is deftined for men, and calJed the Art to be Happy with Women; the other for the fair fex, the Art to be Happy with Men. The adepts in both arts are according to the title, Gothe, Lafontaine, Rouffeau, and Wieland, and the whole is of confequence a poor, paltry compilation from thofe authors.

There is almost every feafon in the year a new general topic amongst the literati of Germany, with much inkfhed on both fides of the question. Laft Eafter Fair, the famous Kan tean philofopher, Profeffor Fichte at Jena, had raifed a general intereft, by his Appeal to the Public, for the charge brought against him for atheistical tenets. Scarcely are we got out of the bustle raifed concerning this very ridiculous imputation of Atheilm (on which, however, a confidera. ble number of treatifes and pamphlets, even a Quint effence of Fichte's Appeal, is ftill mentioned in the last catalogue); but we are threatened with a new attack by the Jews, who offer to intrude into the Chrif tian church. Friedländer's Letter of fome Fathers of Jews' Families, and Teller's Reply, tept already forth laft winter, which now are followed, as inbattle-array, by a crowd of Confiderations and Advices, against which even the vigilant De Luc railed his voice in vain. But the principal ftorm seems to be gathering ftill for the next fair. The Jews of Berlin will and must be Chriftians indeed.Whilft a con

fiderable part of the public cannot yet perfuade themselves that the eighteenth century will expire only at the close of the year 1800, in behalf of which Mr. Kotzebue has justly brought on the stage a theatrical entertainment, called The New Century; and whilft another part fights with the arms of fatire or reafoning against thofe fceptics; we fee in this fair already all kinds of preparations to close it actually with parentations and pious reflections. Mr. Jebnisch, a clergyman of Berlin, whofe pen is always prepared to lay hold on the most fashionable topics, prefents us with the first part of the Spirit and Character of the Eighteenth Century, another with a SatyricoSentimental Apoftrophe of the Eighteenth Century, which he calls himself a fatire; Mr. Dedekind collects the Signs of the Time at the End of the Eighteenth Century; and the venerable Abbot Dr. Teller at Berlin published for the ufe of the clergymen a Treatife taken from his Magazine for Preachers: Signs of the Time, applied to the Public Teachers of Religion at the Expiration of the Century.

The most remarkable production, which promifes full entertainment to a numerous part of the public, is Mercier's Nouveau Paris, which has appeared in 6 volumes, printed for Voeweg in Brunswick, together with a tranflation by Citizen Cramer at Paris, and for which the defire of the readers has already been raised by proofs exhibited in French and German monthly magazines. It is full of revolutionary anec dotes and whimfical remarks, with many a jeft cracked on the Parisian badauts, and many a fevere reproof on their fickleness.

There might ftill be made fome other reflections, with refpect to fome popular writers, who, notwithstanding their fertility, are justly, efteemed, as M. Hufeland at Jena, Busch at Hamburg, and Funke at Deffau, of whom the former is come forward with eight, the other two with seven new performances,or new editions of former publications, or concerning fome new-fashioned book fellers-addreffes;as for instance, British Compter of Commiffions at Hamburg, a name which may perhaps be applied with equal juftness to that whole town; Library of the Compendious Bibliotheque at Berlin; Magazine of Literature at Leipzig, &c. But fuch reflections will occur of themselves to the attention of every reader.

ANECDOTES

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

G

EORGE WASHINGTON, one of those few men who have been great without being criminal, was born on the 11th of February, 1732, in the Parish of Wafbington, Virginia. He was defcended from an ancient family in Chefhire, of which a branch had been established in Virginia about the middle of the laft century. We are not acquainted with any remarkable circumftances of his education or his early youth; and we fhould not indeed expect any marks of that diforderly prematurenefs of talent, which is fo often fallacious, in a character whofe diftinguishing praife was to be perfectly regular and natural. His claffical inftruction was probably small, fuch as the private tutor of a Virginian country gentleman could at that period have imparted; and if his opportunities of information had been more favourable, the time was too fhort to profit by them. Before he was twenty he was appointed a major in the colonial militia, and he had very early occafion to display thofe political and military talents, of which the exertions on a greater theatre have fince made his name fo famous throughout the world.

The plenipotentiaries who framed the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, by leaving the boundaries of the British and French territories in North America unfixed †, had fown the feeds of a new war, at the moment when they concluded a peace.-The Imits of Canada and Louifiana, negligently defcribed in vague language by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle, because the greater part of these vaft countries was then an impenetrable wilderness, furnished a motive, or a pretext, for one of the most successful but one of the most bloody and wasteful wars in which Great Britain had ever been engaged.

In the difputes which arofe between the French and English officers on this Several accounts of the life of Wafhington have ftated, that he ferved as a midfhipman on board a British frigate. This is a mistake. His elder brother, who died young, ferved in that capacity in Vernon's expedition against Carthagena; whence the family feat was called Mount Vernon. Washington himfelf never left the United States, except in one fhort voyage to a West India ifland, when he was very young.,

+ Œuvres pofthumes de Frederic II. tom ii. p. 47.-Mémoires de Ducios, vol. ii, &c. MONTHLY MAG, NO. 56.

fubject, Major Washington was employed by the governor of Virginia, in a negotiation with the French governor of Fort du Quefne (now Pitsburgh); who threatened the English frontiers with a body of French and their Indian allies. He fucceeded in averting the invafion; but hoftilities be coming inevitable, he was in the next year appointed lieutenant colonel of a regiment raised by the colony for its own defence; to the command of which he foon after fucceeded. The expedition of Braddock followed in the year 1755; of which the fatal iffue is too well known to require being defcribed by us. Colonel Wahington ferved in that expedition only as a volunteer; but fuch was the general confidence in his talents, that he may be faid to have conducted the retreat. Several British officers are ftill alive who remember the calmnefs and intrepidity which he fhewed in that difficult fituation, and the voluntary obedience which was fo cheerfully paid by the whole army to his fuperior mind. After having acted a diftinguished part in a fubfequent and more fuccessful expedition to the Ohio, he was obliged by ill health, in the year 1758, to resign his military fituation. The fixteen years which followed of the life of Washington, supply few materials for the biographer. Having married Mrs. Cuftis, a Virginian lady of amiable character and respectable connections, he fettled at his beautiful feat of Mount Vernon, of which we have had fo many defcriptions; where, with the exception of fuch attendance as was required by his duties as a magistrate and a

member of the affembly, his time was occupied by his domeftic enjoyments, and the cultivation of his eftate, in a manner well fuited to the tranquillity of his pure and unambitious mind. At the end of this period he was called by the voice of his country from this ftate of calm and fecure though unoftentatious happiness.

The events of that deplorable conteft which rent afunder the British empire, are yet perhaps too recent for free and im Great Britain and America had long been partial difcuffion. The connexion between which is not inconfiftent with mutual harfuffered to remain in that uncertain ftare mony as long as each party reposes confidence in each other. The fupreme authority of the mother country was respected without being definitely acknowledged in

See the duc de Liancourt's Travels, and thofe of Weld, Briffot, Chastellux, &c.

Y