berg, and the dutchies of Weimar, Coburg, Meinungen, Hildburghausen, &c. to be surveyed by engineers. It probably possesses fewer materials of the former circle of Franconia : but it is possible that the grand duke of Würtzburg may have furnished information, to extend the topographical knowledge of those countries. Of Swabia and Upper Austria, the geographical bureau at Paris has a beautiful manuscript map. Bavaria has been surveyed for some time; and the map of the Tyrol is already engraved and sold at Paris. In respect to Austria alone, the materials are perhaps rather scanty, as the French have remained there too short a time to undertake extensive measurements. It is concluded, that this large and complete map will be given to the publick, from the circumstance that Suabia has already been engraved at Paris.

FRANCE.

Dr. Louis Valentin, member of the Academy and Medical Society of Marseilles, has publicly called upon the French nation to bestow on Dr. Edward Jenner a reward worthy of the services which he has rendered to mankind. "It is ten years," says he, "since Dr. Jenner ascertained that vaccine innoculation is a preservative against the small-pox. It is upwards of thirty since he commenced his researches into the nature of the cow-pox. It is nine since he made publick that invaluable discovery; and it is seven since his practice was introduced into France. It is now spread over almost every part of the globe. Several millions have experienced its beneficial effects, and every day is marked with new and uniform success. What a debt of gratitude do we owe to the author of this new method! All nations pour forth their benedictions upon him. Every country, every city, would fain offer him a civick crown, and each individual express his gratitude. What mortal was ever more useful to society? No kind of reward, no dignity, can be an adequate compensation for such a service. The noble and generous manner in which Jenner communicated his knowledge, his solicitude to ascer→ tain the results of his experiments, are beyond all praise. Engaged in accomplishing a great revolution in this impor~ tant part of medicine, and in promoting the welfare of his fellow-creatures, by a practice as simple as it was extraordinary, he thought nothing, so that he could but ultimately succeed, either of time, trouble, or the expense incurred by a very extensive correspondence. The French physicians were not

the last to proclaim him the benefactor of mankind; and in this they are joined by the publick opinion. The central committee of vaccination, established at Paris, under the auspices of government, observes in the report published by it in 1803: The committee will not conclude this sketch of its proceedings, without paying a just tribute of gratitude to Dr. Jenner, the illustrious author of this discovery, who will henceforth be numbered among those men who have done the most honour to science, and the greatest service to humanity.' The reward conferred on Jenner, by the English parliament, in 1802, though accompanied with the most gratifying expressions, is very inadequate to the incalculable advantages which will result from his discovery. If the English nation, during the reign of queen Anne, loaded the duke of Marlborough with honours; if, to reward his military achievements, they presented him with princely domains, built for him the magnificent palace of Blenheim, and erected on a hill in his park, a splendid monument, whose base, covered with inscriptions, attests his martial exploits, and whose summit is crowned with a statue of that general, there is nothing astonishing in all this. But what excites much greater surprise is, that the same nation has, since 1802, done nothing more for Jenner, except that in 1805, the lord mayor, and common council of London, bestowed on him a testimony of the publick gratitude, by presenting him with the freedom of the city, in a gold box, enriched with diamonds and emblems allusive to science, for the salutary discovery of the vaccine innoculation, owing to his indefatigable researches.' Jenner has become the man of all nations. Like Hippocrates, he belongs to every country. His name will live to the most remote posterity. It is the present generation which owes him. a great remuneration. May it be worthy of one of the fairest epochs of the world! May the French nation, which is capable of appreciating great things, not delay it too long! Indu ced by these considerations, I would suggest to all the societies in the French empire for promoting the advancement of the healing art, the following propositions :-1. To open, with the consent and under the patronage of government, a subscription for Dr. Jenner. 2. The committee of the central vaccine society, and the medical societies of the metropolis, should be exclusively empowered to determine the nature of the recompense to be decreed to that great man. 3. These

societies might depute some of their members, to present a plan to that effect; and to obtain permission of the minister of the interior, to invite the medical societies of the departments to contribute to the present, by voluntary subscriptions. 4. Every learned society, and every individual who cultivates the healing art, should likewise be at liberty to contribute. 5. At the period fixed for closing the subscription, the committee formed by the societies of Paris, should appoint deputies to go to England, when circumstances, and the government, shall permit, to present our homage and our gratitude to Dr. Jenner. 6. The same committee should likewise determine the time and place for erecting a statue in honour of him. 7. It is to be presumed, that the medial societies will not fail to place the bust of Jenner beside that of Hippocrates.”

From the London Monthly Magazine.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE.

Report on the Progress of the French Language and Literature, from the Epoch of the French Revolution, (1789) to the Year 1808, made by a Commission of the Institute of France, by order of the Emperor Napoleon.

His Majesty being in his Council of State,* a deputation

from the class of Literature and Belles-Lettres of the Institute, composed of M. M. Chenier, President; de Volney, Vice-president; Suard, Perpetual Secretary; and M. M. Morellet, Boufflers, Bernardin de St. Pierre, Andrieux, Arnault, Villars, Cailhava, Domergue, Lacretelle, Laujon, Raynouard, and Picard, was presented by the Minister of the Home Department, and admitted to the bar of the Council. M. Chenier spoke as follows:

SIRE,

The further we proceed in the labour which your Majesty has ordered us to submit to you, the more we feel the diffi culty which it imposes upon us. How can we appreciate so many writers, while living, not by strict theories, by demonstrated facts, by evident calculations, but by considerations deemed arbitrary; by wit, taste, talent, imagination, the art of writing? How strike out a road through so many dangerous shoals, amongst so many various opinions, sometimes contra

Sitting of Saturday, the 27th of February.

ry, always contested with warmth, amidst so many passions which it was so difficult to assuage, and which it is so easy to rouse! How satisfy, at the same time, those of whom we have to speak; and those who have formed an opinion on literature, after having studied it, and even those who without any study, fancy themselves nevertheless to be competent judges? These reflections appear discouraging; but your Majesty gives us confidence, and your goodness shall be our guide. To dispense praise with pleasure, to exercise censure with reserve, to proclaim the talents remaining amongst us, to applaud nascent dispositions; such is, no doubt, the duty which we have to perform; and in your Majesty's orders we presume, with respectful confidence, to perceive a proof of the lively interest with which you have always honoured literature, a pledge of your constant protection, and a token of your new benefactions.

Without being able at present to name all the writers, whom we shall quote in our work, we are, however, Sire, about to mention a considerable number of them; and we will endeavour particularly to state the progress and divisions of the department which we shall have to present to your Majesty. In this extensive work, embracing the whole circle of the art of writing, at the head of each branch we draw a rapid sketch of its progress in France, until the epoch at which our observations commence, to serve as so many luminous points to enlighten our route. The art of conveying ideas by words, that of connecting ideas with each other, and by them sensations, and by these all the ideas which flow from them, first engage our attention. Such is the progress of nature; we must speak and think, before we write. It is the province of French literature, in particular, to take a retrospect of the philosophical sciences, founded at least in France, by the school of Port Royal; a source equally inexhaustible and pure, from which all sound learning, and all classical literature, are derived. The same sciences, in the course of the last century, were greatly indebted to the labours of Condillac, whom the French Academy was proud to count amongst its members. He was himself the founder of a school of philosophy, and has left able disciples, and honourable successors. M. Domergue, M. Sicard, successfully cultivate universal and particular grammar. We shall have to remark a work on our language, one of the best productions of Marmontel.

M. Degerando, a man of sagacity and methodical mind, has inquired into the connexions of signs, with the art of thinking. The comprehensive genius of M. de Tracy, has collected the three sciences linked together, in one body, as they are M. Cabanis, as interesting as he is perspicuous and profound, by comparing the physical and the moral man, has submitted medicine to the analysis of the understanding. M. Garat, appointed to lecture on this analysis, in the normal schools, has, by his brilliant imagination, rendered reason itself luminous; a kind of service for which, in questions yet abstract, reason can be indebted to talents of a superior order only.

The science of the duties of man, morality, without producing so many works, has not however been barren. We have found in the lectures which Marmontel bequeathed to his children, the precepts of Cicero blended with evangelical wisdom. We ought particularly to distinguish an important work of Saint Lambert, who formerly enriched our literature by an elegant, harmonious, and philosophical poem. Arrived at the last period of his life, he did not abandon the banners under which he enlisted in his youth. Invariable in his prin ciples, shunning extremes even in good, he neither affected excessive piety, nor stoical austerity. Without detaching morality from the social, necessary, demonstrable principle of a superintending and protecting God, he founds it altogether on the relations which unite man to man, on our wants, on our passions, on the innumerable multitude of individual interests, constantly at variance with each other, but compelled by na. ture to commingle, and forming by their union, the general interest of society.

We consider, in their turn, those who have applied the art of writing, to matters of policy and legislation: not the crowd of subordinate wits, who by periodical papers, or pam. phlets, less transitory, flattered the passions of the multitude, while the multitude possessed power; but a small number of men, more or less, distinguished for their talents, and equally laudable for their intentions. An able dialectician, M. Sieyes, in works where the strength of thought produces strength of style, has treated important questions of general policy. A writer, celebrated in more than one kind of composition, now the Prince Arch-treasurer of the empire; like him, M. Roederer, M. Dupont de Nemours, M. Barbé-Marbois; after