the treasurers or truftees of the fame are required, from time to time, to lay out fuch parts of their capital as fhall not be immediately wanted on private fecurity, or to inveft the fame in the public funds. By the fourteenth fection of the said act, they are allowed to receive donations; and fuch donations in like manner, with the contributions paid by the feveral members, fhall be applied as above directed, "And shall not be applied in any other manner." It then appears that the governors hazarding the funds of the fociety of engravers in commercial fpeculations is not legal. In protecting the property of friendly focieties, the legislature could never have an intention of converting them into trading companies. The governors are permitted to amount to forty: they jointly publish their fubfcription-plates for the benefit of the whole of the fociety; the money-fubfcribers producing the capital for this purpofe, and receiving a fhare of the benefits, become copartners. Now, as no trading company is by law allowed to confift of more than five partners, without a charter for that purpose had and obtained, the laws of the fociety of engravers again become contrary to the laws of the land. What number of money-fubfcribers there may be in this fociety, I am not informed: fuppofing them poffeffed of common intellects, there cannot be many. However helpless their ftate may be with respect to the governors, it may be fome confolation for them to know, that without expence they may at all times prefer a 'petition to the Lord Chancellor, who can redress any acts committed in the fociety contrary to the laws of the realm. The knowledge of this may, perhaps, make the governors act with proper circumfpection. The general reflection, upon a fair examination of the laws of this fociety, can only be, that they are devoid of equity, reciprocity, and equality; and contrary to the very law in that cafe made and provided for the encouragement and relief of friendly focieties. To the engravers in general they are unjuft and oppreffive. They will be found inimical to the progrefs of art, by deterring men of large property from engaging their capitals in works of great extent, where the affiftance of the engraver is required. Whether abfurdity or injuftice moft predominates in them is difficult to determine; there can be no doubt, however, that they are formed for the advantage of the governors alone. J. HOPWOOD. THREE DAYS AT POTZDAM. (Continued from page 347.) A YOUNG Hungarian nobleman, who diftinguifhed himfelf extremely in the Auftrian fervice in the Low Countries during the course of the laft war, related to me a most affecting fcene, which, in confequence of the cuftom of erecting private obelifks, took place between two of the most illuftrious and venerable generals in the Imperial fervice. One of them had erected an obelifk in a chofen spot of his grounds to the memory of a fon whom he had loft during the above-mentioned unfortunate war: on the tablets of the column were recorded the manner in which the young man had met his fate, and the gallantry with which he had fallen. Chance led a detachment of the Auftrian army, with General ***** at its head, through a town in the neighbourhood of this veteran's eftate. The two generals agreed to pass the day together, and a party of friends and military acquaintance were invited to do honour to the noble and brave gueft. After dinner, the company, both male and female, drank their coffee in the garden, and the venerable hoft took occasion to con of fifty years in Germany or England than it did in the space of a thousand years, while it was in the climate of Greece or Italy. The fine antique bufts of the Arunde lian Collection, which were placed round the outfide of the theatre at Oxford, received fo much injury while they were there, that they were withdrawn to the fchools, where they now are, with the other marbles. duct his gueft towards the facred fpot, where it was the greateft pleafure left to this refpectable father to embrace every opportunity of lofing his grief for the death of a loved fon, in fetting forth his praife, and celebrating his memory. His heart now expanded in the luxury of impreffing the youth's merit upon the mind of his illuftrious guest. He was expatiating upon his worth, and reading the infcription to General *****, tears. There are many duplicates and all the time chacing one another triplicates of bufts and statues; but, down the furrows of his venerable upon clofe obfervation, we shall cheek, when his noble vifitor, fud- perceive that this repetition is not denly embracing his old friend, the effect of a promifcuous felecburst into an agony of tears:-fate, tion: in thofe of them which are during the fame campaign, had alfo mythological, the different attrideprived him of a dearly loved fon, butes and allegories of fable give who had fallen in a like honourable rife to different reprefentations of and gallant manner. Thus did the the fame divinity, and by this obelisk become at the fame mo- means the various beautiful and ment, as it were, a double monu- characteristic defcriptions of Greek ment;-it told of both youths: and and Roman authors are illuftrated : the two veteran fathers, motionlefs in thofe among them which are alike, ftood weeping in filent an- hiftorical or biographical, the repeguish the irreparable lofs of a fon. tition of the fame perfonage proThe fcene was fuch as would not ceeds either from fome fpecific perhave difgraced the pathetic rapture fection or beauty particular to each of romance, and yet was the natu- one individually, or from their ral and interesting effufion of virtu- being the works of different artists, ous fentiment in two of the braveft and of different periods of time; and most intrepid veterans in the and in this manner a criterion is Imperial fervice.-But to return to formed, by which the hiftory of the our marble hearts and heads. Al- art and its progrefs is developed. though most of the fineft antique ftatues are principally difpofed in the infide of the palace, nevertheless there are too many chef d'autres,, ftill expofed to the injury of the weather, difperfed about the park and gardens. This is to be lamented, as the temperature of the air in northern climates is by no means favourable to the prefervation of ftone or marble: befide the humidity which prevails in the atmofphere, there is a confiderable quantity of faline particles in the air, which, in a very fhort time, works upon the hardeft marble. Thus a ftatue becomes more honey-combed (to use the artift-term) in the fpace We fhall leave all thefe obfervations to be purfued by thofe killed in the recondita litera of antiquarians, and by thofe gifted with the talent of research, who might find abundant scope for exercifing their learning among the marbles of Potzdam. Frederick the Second was the first person in Pruffia, as Charles the Firft was the firft in England, whofe tafte lęd him to collect antiques. The French began the like purfuit nearly about the fame time, incited by the example of the Cardinal of Mazarine, whofe cabinet of antiques was extenfive, and curiously collected. Precincts of Sans Souci. THE precincts of the garden commence at the Obelisk, and abound with fruit trees of all kinds, and especially with figs and grapes, the growth of Turkey, Hungary, Spain, Italy, and Greece, culti vated with extreme care in trames, efpalliers, confervatories, and hothouses. A profufion of ftatues, highly finished, is difperfed over the grounds. A variety of grottos, temples, fountains, and works of different kinds, extremely costly, are feattered over the gardens. Among the modern ftatues, it is worth obferving that there is a Coloffean ftatue of Neptune, ten feet high, of Carrarian marble. The block out of which it was formed was fo very large, that no mafter of a fhip would venture to take it on board, left it should injure his veffel. A fculptor was in confequence fent from Potzdam to Leghorn, in order to half-hew the ftatue, fo as to reduce the volume of marble to a tranfportable fize. This operation reminds me of that performed by order of Catherine the Second, mentioned by the ingenious Mr. Coxe, in confequence of which a ftupendous piece of granite was transported from a morafs three miles diftant from Peterburgh, in order to form a pedestal for the equeftrian Colof fean ftatue of Peter the Great. That block of granite, after being reduced in fize for the purpofe of tranfportation, was forty-two feet long at the bafe, thirty-fis at the top, twenty-one thick, and feventeen high. On the right hand of the great marble bafin rifes the hill, on which is fituated the palace of Sans Souci. This hill, or rather little mountain, was firft cleared of its its wild growth, and difpofed for cultivation, in the year 1744; when the King, on his triumphant return, from the fecond Silefian war, laid the foundation of this feat of retirement, and of the blended beauties of nature and art and nature, it must be contetled, receives no difparagement from the aid of art in the Electorate of Brandenburgh, which is in moft parts a Hat fandy foil, far difierent from the luxuriant vegetation and picturesque fcenery of the two contiguous territories of Saxony and Silefia. The mountain is cut into fix ter races, each of them ten feet wide; and a broad flight of steps lead up the middle of it to the palace of Sans Souci, which stands on the fummit, and commands a fine profpect of the town and country of Potzdam. The fix terraces contain vines of all kinds and countries, under upwards of eight hundred light frames, and are lined with a profufion of peach and apricot trees; more than one hundred and eighty recefles, formed in the fide of the mountain, are crowded with fruit trees of all forts in full perfection; and each terrace is bordered at the extremity with plantations of young nurtery plants. In fummer thefe terraces are farther filled with upwards of eight hundred orange-trees of very large growth, and extreme beauty; fo that from the bafe of the mountain up to its fummit, where the palace ftands, a continued amphitheatre of the richest and most beautiful vegetation of fruits, flowers, and foliage, feathers its fide in all the luxury of the most profufe cultivation. The effect of this hanging orange-grove and fruit-garden is very pleafing, particularly to thofe who are fond of the brilliant difplay of that fuppletory kind of luxuriance, which human art and induftry add to the charms of nature, and which is highly favoured here by the elevation of the mountain forming, a fcreen at the back of the plantations, which wards off completely the north wind; while the meridian fun glows with uninterrupted ardor on the front. The extenfive platform or terrace at the fummit of the hil, on which the palace ftands, is bounded at each end by a thick grove of firs, cedars, pines, birch, accacias, and a variety of other trees of foreign and home growth. Before each of these groves is placed a group of marble ftatues and bufts; and behind them are ranged in a femicircle fix bufts of the modern Italian fchool. The group on the right hand confifts of. Flora attended by a Genius*. At each end of the palace are bowers, before each of which are four antique bufts of the Polignac collection, and fix fine vafes of Dreiden porcelain. At the end of thefe bowers are cabinets formed of an uncommonly light and delicate trellis-work, against which are placed groups of fleeping children, well executed. In the clotet, on the left hand, is one of the most beautiful and remark able antique ftatues that has been preferved entire to thefe days: it is Antinous in the attitude of plung. ing himself into the Nile. Pope Clement the Eleventh made a prefent of this ftatue to the Princefs Eugene of Savoy. It afterwards came into the poffeffion of Prince Jofeph of Wenzelde Lichtenstein, of whom the King of Pruffia bought it. The Palace of Sans Souci. THIS Palace, denominated little, in contraditiinction to a very large one, which fiands about a mile dittant, within the precincts of the park, was built after the King's own idea, on a plan drawn under his eye by Barou Knobeitdorff. The edifice is of white fione; and the architecture fimple, and in a fine style, forming only a ground tory. The grand front towards the garden is embellished with thirty-fix caryatides, extreine is diftinguifhed by a femicircular projection covered with a perforated cupola. In the point of each angle of the projection is a fine antique ftatue of the Polignac Collection; the one of them a young Bacchus ; the other a Roman Conful, with a bull a pensant at his neck. The top of the architrave is ornamented with vales and groups of children, in ftone, well executed. A femichicular perittyle, confifting of eighty-four Cormthian fluted pillars, in two rows, forms a colonnade terminating at the gable ends. of the palace; the architrave of which bears vales and groups of children in the fame ftyle of the garden front. Oval Marble Saloon. THIS faloon, of an oblong form, which conftitutes the grand entrance, is entirely of Siletian marble, and is fituated in the femicircular projection in the centre of the building. Six beautiful alabafter fluted Corinthian pillars, each formed of a fingle block, fupport the principal cornice. The ceiling of the dome is richly ornamented with gilt relievos, by Merk; and in an aperture in the centre is placed a plate of rock crystal, of the uncommon dimenfions of feven feet at one extremity, and four feet at the other. The pavement is inlaid with various marbles in wreaths of flowers, grapes, and foliage. In niches near the door on the right hand are two very fine white marbie ftatues, by C. Adam, of Venus Urania, accompanied by many appropriate emblems; and of Apollo, holding in his had the works of Lucretius, in which are legible the two following verfes, addreied to Venus Urania. "Te fociam ftudeo fcribundis verfibus effe conor.* ly well executed (two between Quos ego de rerum Natura pangere each window), fupporting the corThe centre of the building nice. In this pot are buried all the King's favourite dogs, as well as his charger. The name of each animal is engraved on a stone. Thy aid celeftial queen of beauty bring, While Nature's laws in vent'rous verfe I fing." CHIMNEY-PIECE of green marble, vafes of Berlin porcelain. Thefe vafes are very fine; but the difference betwen the earth of the Berlin and the Drefden porcelain is always perceivable by the lightnefs and fineness of texture of the latter, which will always enfure it the preference, although the Berlin is certainly of a whiteness nearer approaching that of Sevre. The King's Bedchamber. FITTED up with gilt carving after the defign of Hoppenhaupt, junior. The bed in an alcove, furrounded with a brafs railing. Fire-fkreen worked by the Duchefs Dowager of Brunswick, a fifter of the King's. Over the chimney is a fmall antique buft of Marcus Aurelius; the head of white marble, and the ornaments of mottled agate. Marcus Aurelius and Trajan were the two models which Frederick the Second ufed to affirm---that every Sovereign ought to have conftantly before their eyes. "Verteux Marc. Aurele, l'exemple des humains, mon hero, mon modelle, &c." fays the King in his epiftle to the Marshal Keith. The Library, called alfo the Cedar Clojet. IT receives this latter appellation from its being wainscotted with cedar, and the floor laid with a parquet of the fame wood. In this apartment the King thought mott, and needed, of course, lefs exterior ornament: it is therefore plainly fitted up; but much tafte and refinement is perceivable even in that plainnefs. The ornaments are of gilt bronze, very fimple. The chimney is of Breccia d'Aleppo. The books are contained in four glazed cafes; over which are four fine antique bufts of the Polignac Collection. These bufis are :—Homer-A Philofopher, anonymous Socrates-Apollo. Oppofite to the recefs where the King used to fit and write, or read, and immediately before his eyes, is placed, in the trellis cabinet facing the window, an antique statue of an Areopagite holding a pair of scales, On each fide of the palace, on a very confiderably lower fite, are fituated two fine buildings, forming detached and advanced wings, couched as it were under cover of part of the hill; infomuch that the roof of them is very little, if at all, higher than the level of the plat form on which the palace itfelf is fituated. They are of correfpondent fize and architecture: we fhall begin by visiting the one on the right hand, which is the moft interefting, as it conftitutes the picture gallery. [To be concluded in our next.] EMMA CUMBERLAND: A NARRATIVE FOUNDED ON FACTS. [Concluded from page 358.] THE idea of having a new system adopted cheered the drooping fpirits of poor Emma, and completely deceived her with regard to her complaint; a circumitance which was attended with the moft defirable confequences, as the no longer feemed to antedate her fate. |