taking to elucidate the phænomena of respiration, are eminently conspicuous: but most of his experiments only support. the opinions of former physiologists. Some of his inductions, indeed, possess a claim to novelty; particularly that in which it is stated that dead animal matter, even after having been boiled, has the same property of absorbing oxygen, and throwing out carbonic acid gas, which it possessed during life. Yet this is an inference which does not apparently lead to any useful conclusion respecting the effects of air on the human body, and should (at least in the extent to which the author carries it,) be received with some degree of caution.

ART. X. Tableau de la Grande Bretagne, &c.; i. e. A Picture of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Possessions of the English in the four Quarters of the Globe. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1802. Imported by Dulau and Co. London.

T

HE same curiosity, which prompts us to explore the different countries of the Continent, excites in foreigners a wish to visit the British Isles. Frenchmen are particularly anxious to make themselves acquainted with the real state of that nation which is their most formidable rival; and those of them who have performed the tour of Great Britain and Ireland are supposed to have collected materials for a publication highly instructive and amusing. To us, their details will appear extremely superficial, and in many instances their mistakes and errors will be very glaring: but it may be proper to recollect that the Englishman in France labours under the same disadvantages as the Frenchman in England; and, though we cannot survey a picture of Great Britain by a foreigner, with the expectation of receiving much instruction, it may be some gratification to contemplate the portrait which, en passant, he may take of it. The author of these volumes, whose name is BAERT, according to the advertisement prefixed, passed two years in Great Britain and Ireland, and travelled some thousand miles through the united kingdom. He speaks with gra titude of the flattering reception and hospitality which he experienced in the houses of persons of distinction; and he reckons the three months which he spent in the family of Mr. Bingham, the clergyman of Hemel-Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, among the happiest days of his life. In collecting materials, he seems to have been assiduous; and with respect to all English names in particular, they are, generally speaking, more accurately spelt than they are commonly found in French publications of this kind.

M. BAERT commences with a concise account of our canals, mountains, forests, soil and produce, mines, and mineral waters. In this chapter, he delineates the general aspect of the country which it was his object to explore :

England is an uneven country, interspersed with beautiful groves, and covered with rich pastures, inclosed within live hedges; while a series of smiling hills and charming vallies affords variety and amusement to the traveller. It is crossed by several chains of mountains. The south coast is bordered by calcareous mountains of no great elevation, called Downs, which are naked, arid, and produce a very short grass; they spread out towards Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, and are constantly covered with a great number of sheep, producing wool of a good quality. Wales is a great mass of mountains, the most elevated of which is Snowdon, stretching itself into the Irish sea. To the north of the Trent, a long chain of mountains commences, which extend themselves between Lancashire and Yorkshire; and which, with those of Cumberland and the Cheviot Hills, communicate with the mountains of Scotland. The most elevated points of this chain are the Peak in Derbyshire, and Ingleborough in Yorkshire.

There are no real forests in England; for the spaces which retain this name, as Windsor Forest, Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, and the New Forest in Hampshire, now present to view only scattered trees with much heath: but through the whole island, sufficient woods, hedges, and trees, are diffused for the purposes of the inhabitants, since their ordinary fuel is pit-coal.

Its soil, moistened by frequent showers and continual storms, is very fertile in a great number of districts, and is managed with care in those parts which are under culture: but we continually meet with immense tracts, which, though sometimes possessing a good soil, are allowed to remain in a state of nature, and, being common to every body, no one bestows on them any care. England grows an abun dance of all kinds of grain, and supports a prodigious quantity of cattle. It produces pulse, potatoes, cabbages, and turnips, but little fruit, except that which is raised in regular gardens. Grapes do not ripen, and apple-trees succeed only in the south. Cyder is made in some counties.'

This sketch possesses as much accuracy as may be expected from a traveller passing through the country, and enough to afford the foreign reader a general idea of it.

The author takes notice of the division of England into counties, or shires; and, commencing his narrative at the Land's End, he proceeds through Cornwall (which he unfortunately spells Cornguailles), Devonshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, &c,. and gives short descriptions of the counties, principal towns, &c. in the kingdom. We shall translate the account of Middlesex, and (in part) of London:

• The

The county of Middlesex, which includes London, and which is bounded by the Thames on the south, sends only eight members to parliament, and is very small: but its vicinity to this immense city renders it very rich and populous. Its roads are lined with countryhouses, parks, and gardens, enriched with manure; and the banks of the Thames are extremely chearful and varied. Though in general flat, it has some hills towards Harrow, Hampstead, and Barnet. Towards the west, we see heaths and marshy ground, intersected by some well cultivated land. It produces much hay, pulse,

and corn.

London, the most populous, perhaps the largest of the cities of Europe, and, without doubt, the most important on account of its commerce and riches, is situated on the northern bank of the Thames, about sixty miles from its mouth. It appears to have owed its origin to a Roman colony. Ruined at different times by the Britons and the Danes, it was rebuilt by Alfred, and became the seat of government. It often experienced the ravages of the plague, which, in 1665, destroyed more than 80,coo persons; and fire having almost entirely consumed it in the following year, it was rebuilt with brick; its streets (which before were narrow, crooked, and darkened by the projection of the upper stories, for the most part consisting of wood,) were enlarged and improved; the air circulated more freely; and the epidemics, formerly so frequent, have not since appeared.

The length of London from Tyburn Turnpike, the most western of its barriers (or turnpikes), to Mile-End, the most eastern, is about six miles. Its breadth, at the centre, is scarcely a mile, but double towards its two extremities, viz. towards the Tower and Westminster, on account of the bending of the river; it is even three miles broad, if we take in Southwark, that great suburb on the other side of the bridges. The city is continually enlarging towards the west, and uninterrupted strings of houses join it to the villages, which are only one or two miles from the turnpikes.

London is divided into two cities, viz. London, commonly called the city, sending four members to parliament, and Westminster, which, as well as Southwark, sends two. Of the gates which for merly separated these two cities, one only remains, Temple-Bar, which it is in contemplation to demolish. Its preservation to the present day has been owing to an antient ceremony. The citizens shut it when the herald at arms comes to announce the accession of a new king to the throne, and they do not open it till he has prenounced the sovereign's name.

The streets in the city, except those which lead to St. Paul's and the Exchange, are very narrow, with a mean foot-pavement: but Westminster is distinguished by broad streets, which are well lighted, and have handsome foot pavements. It has also a great number of beautiful squares, the centers of which are, for the most part, covered with turf, planted with trees, adorned with some bad statues, and surrounded with iron railing. The houses, as in general

*What business has the perhaps in this place? Was there ever a doubt entertained of the fact?

throughout all England, are of brick, two stories high, very lightly constructed, and arranged with the greatest uniformity: consisting of a narrow passage fronting the door, a room towards the street, another backwards looking into the court, and sometimes a closet, which constitutes a little wing. The kitchens are under ground. The houses are more or less large, according to the different quarters in which they are built; and there is little variety but in their dimen. sions. The stables and coach-houses are put together in numbers, in places called Mews, and are concealed among the masses of buildings. There are some houses, moreover, which might be denomi nated hotels (in the French acceptation of the word, and not in the English, but the number is very limited; perhaps, there cannot be reckoned more than thirty.

The modern streets of London, and of the other cities of England, are on a construction peculiar to this kingdom. The sides are raised on solid arches, at the height of ten or twelve feet; and the interval, which forms the middle of the street, is filled up with rubbish, but contains the common-sewers which carry away the filth, and the wooden pipes by which the water is conducted into every house. The arches support the foot-pavement, which is from four er five feet broad, while the cavities serve as repositories for coals, which are shot into them through apertures made in the pavement, covered with an iron grating. In the best streets, the pavement is separated from the under-ground story by a little court or area of the same width, which is defended by handsome iron railing. The foot-ways are paved with large flat stones, and the middle of the streets with granite-blocks brought from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. For some time past, the greater part of the houses have been built on speculation. The land-owners give up the ground for thirty or forty years to an architect, who builds on it; and after this term the ground, with the houses on it, returns to the proprietor. An act of parliament, in 1774, arranged the different edifices in London into seven classes, viz. churches, manufactories, magazines, houses, &c. and regulated the thickness of the different walls.'

It is unnecessary to specify to the English reader the mistakes in this account. We could not anticipate a more exact one from a foreigner hastily surveying the British metropolis; and he may be excused in apprehending that an act of parliament, the purport of which was only to fix the thickness of the partywall, regulated the thickness of all the walls of the London houses.

Short notices are taken of the churches, (among which St. Paul's occupies the chief attention, and its architecture is scrutinized,) and other public edifices, after which the writer returns to general observations.

*This description certainly applies to great numbers of houses in and about London, but they should be stated as forming only one class.

The

The equality and uniformity of the houses, (says he), which anrounce comfort generally diffused; the cleanliness and decency of the people who crowd the foot-pavements; the great number and beauty of the horses and equipages; the immense quantity and variety of shops, with the articles tastefully arranged; the languid and melancholy air of the inhabitants; the thick vapour rising from the coal fires, which blackens and seems to throw a gloom over every thing; are the circumstances which most attract the stranger on his arrival in London. There every individual appears exclusively occupied with his own affairs, and they rarely meet together except at clubs, at publi places, at dinners, or at formal parties. They scarcely ever assemble in private societies. The rich never consider themselves there as at home; it is in the country that they have their establishments: and it is only there that they are expected to live according to their rank. In this immense city, which engulphs such vast wealth, a grand dinner, or a rout given by a foreign minister, are events so remarkable that they are mentioned in all the public papers.'

The nobility, gentry, and opulent citizens of London, who are luxurious in the extreme, who pass their lives in almost one continued round of the most splendid conviviality, and who spend more in sumptuous dinners and entertainments than the citizens of any other town in Europe, will not be able to recognize themselves in this portrait. M. BAERT must have şeen very little of London society; for had he been admitted to the tables even of our rich merchants and bankers, such an impression as the above could never have been stamped on his mind. So frequent are dinners on every occasion in the British metropolis, that some persons have been led to remark, in opposition to M. BAERT's statement, that the public business of London seems to be carried on by dinners.

This traveller visits Windsor, Oxford, Blenheim *, Stowe, Norwich, Yarmouth, Cambridge. Birmingham, ColebrookDale, Nottingham, Derby, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, York, &c. finishing with Cumberland, the lakes of which are thus delineated:

Its mountains are sufficiently naked and gloomy, though varied in their form, and separated from each other by charming vallies: but those to the west are filled with beautiful lakes, presenting scenes at once the most lovely and the most animated. The lake of Ulswater, which in shape and size much resembles that of Windermere, and the

* Here he remarks on the heavy style of the architecture of the mansion, and thus translates into French the witty epitaph made on Vanburgh, "Lie heavy on him, Earth; for he

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Laid many a heavy load on thee,"

O terre ! pèse bien sur lui; car il a bien fesé sur toi,”

aspects