BELCOUR, a Lieutenant-colonel of infantry, whofe exile in Siberia, during the fpace of three years, furnifhed him with many occafions of making curious obfervations on that country. His defign in publishing the Journal feems to be upright and humane; it is to inform the auguft Emprefs of Ruffia of the little regard that is paid in Siberia to the orders which he has, with fo much clemency and goodness, fent thither in favour either of thofe who are condemned to exile, or those who are conducted there as prifoners of war, or of thofe who are fent on purpose to augment the population of the country. The author gives us an account of the behaviour of the greatest part of the governors and fubaltern officers in that northern region, of the authority they affume, and which they think themselves entitled to abuse with impunity, on account of their distance from the Imperial court; he defcribes the deplorable condition of those who are fubjected to their orders, which are generally dictated by the odious principles of fordid avarice or defpotic caprice; he fhews the defects of their administration and the manner of correcting them, fo as to promote, at the fame time, the interefts of the Tovereign and the well-being of the people; he defcribes the country and the adjacent diftricts; he takes notice of the nature of the foil, and the manners of the people; and makes judicious obfervations on the religion and commerce of the Siberians. These observations will contribute to rectify the falfe notions of thefe matters and others of like importance, that have been imparted by feveral authors, and efpecially by M. de Voltaire, who (as our Journalist remarks) knows little more of the country than its roubles; and the Abbé Chappe, who took all his accounts from hearfay, while he was riding poft from place to place.

We hope for the honour of the Ruffian government, that the accounts our author gives of the military difcipline, or rather execution in Siberia, and of the manner of conducting and treating there, exiles, ftate prifoners, and even the colonifts, are exaggeratted; for they infpire horror, in the ftrongest and most extenfive fignification of that term. His accounts of Cafan and Mofcow are more favourable to the Ruffians in some respects; but in general his portrait of that people, which is well compofed both in point of colouring and expreffion, is much to their difadvantage. Our author was at Cafan when Pugatchew was in arms, and he relates feveral circumftances of the progress and operations of that rebel chief. His account of the different nations, that inhabit, or wander, in the northern parts of the Ruffian empire, and to the north-east, is curious and inftructive, notwithstanding its brevity; and the extract of a Relation of a Voyage into Siberia, which is placed at the end of this Journal, will give both pleasure and information to the reader.

LEYDEN.

LEYDEN.

II. Differtatio Philologica de Vita et Scriptis Longini, &c. i. e. A Philological Differtation concerning the Life and Writings of LONGINUS. 4to. This academical production, which bears the name of P. SCHARDAM, was compofed under the infpection, and (as may be supposed) under the directing influence of the ingenious and learned Profeffor RUHNKENIUS, one of the principal ornaments of the university of Leyden. The refearches it contains throw more light upon the character, education, taste, and philofophy of Longinus, than any thing of the kind we have yet met with; and we find here an accurate lift of the writings and fragments of that eminent man, that have hitherto been but imperfectly known.

HAGUE.

III. Plan de Reformation des Etudes Elementaries, i. e. A Plan for reforming the ordinary Method of Elementary Study, by M. BoRELLY, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and BellesLettres, and Profeffor of Eloquence, &c. at Berlin. 8vo. 1776. This excellent publication, which difcovers tafte, judgment, and an extenfive knowledge of human nature, is the refult of much experience in the important art of teaching. The ingenious author had, long formed the defign of drawing up an Elementary Course of Study, and he executed this defign on occafion of the reform which the King of Poland proposes to make in the system of public education, having appointed a commiffion for that purpose about a year ago. The plan of Mr. Borelly is nobly sketched, and is very extenfive; it is alfo more liberal, than could well be expected from a writer, who, by bis connexions in France, before he fixed his refidence at Berlin, we suppose to have been a member of that famous fociety, whofe fuppreffion has left fo many fchools of learning vacant in Romish countries.

The subjects relative to education which are briefly treated in this little work, are comprehended in fifty-two articles, of which we fhall give a more particular account, (if time and place permit) in our Appendix.

GERMANY and the NORTH.

LEIPSI ̊C.

IV. A new volume of Profeffor Meiner's Philofophical Mifcellanies, has been lately publifhed (Vermifchte Philofophifche Schrifften) which contains Five Differtations on the following interesting fubjects :-Consciousness :-The Portrait of Epicurus, and the Contradictions of his Theology.-The Apathy of the Stoics,The Sources of Confolation, which the Ancients had to remove the Terrors of Death, and the Opinions of the ancient Philofophers concerning the State of the Soul after Death.

V. Phy

V. Phyficalifche, Chymifche Abhandlungen, &c, i. e. Differtations, relative to Natural Philofophy and Chemistry. By M. F. Chriftopher Erxleben, Profeffor at Gottingen. The first of the

Differtations contained in this collection treats of Fixed Air and the Acidum Pingue, the fecond of the Purple Mineral, the third of the Allum of Gravenhort, and the fourth contains remarks on the rapid congelation of water, that had been separated from all contact with the air of the atmosphere. The last Diflertation comprehends a variety of objects, and confifts of obfervations on a lettuce plant, loaded with prolific flowers of different forms, on the Emberiza Navalis and an Emberiza Calandra, which was obferved near Gottingen, and on a very convenient machine for impregnating water with fixed air.

VI. Petri Caroli Guilielmi L. B. ab Hohental, Liber de Politica, adfperfis animadverfionibus de Caufarum Politia et Juftitia differentiis, i. e. A Treatife on Political Science, with Obfervations concerning the diftinctive Characters of Police and Jurifprudence. By Baron Hohental. This is an useful and judicious work, and deserves to be read by those who have at heart the internal profperity of a nation.

VIENNA.

VII. The Work entitled The Hiftory of the Fine Arts, as they were cultivated in ancient Times, which was compofed, feveral years ago, by the late Abbé Winkelman, though it contained evident proofs of the learning, tafte, and genius of that celebrated virtuofo, was nevertheless chargeable with many defects, and even with feveral errors. This was owing to the rapidity and precipitation with which it was compofed. When the ingenious author had more leifure and was in easier circum. ftances, he fat down coolly and reviewed his work, corrected faults, fupplied defects, lopped off fuperfluities, and made many changes of the greatest confequence. The hand of an affaffin put an end to his life, when he was ready to publish this new edition of his work, and the science of antiquity and the fine arts could not have sustained a more fenfible lofs, by the decease of any other of their votaries. The new edition of this incompa rable work is at length published, with all its improvements, in a large quarto volume at Vienna, under the following title, Johann. WINKELMAN Gefchichte der kunft des Althorthums, &c. i. e. An Hiftory of the Arts of Antiquity, by, &c. Dedicated to the Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg. The term Hifery in this title is taken, as we fee by the work, in an extenfive fignification; for under it, we have a theoretical and practical fyftem of art, as well as an account of its improvement and progrefs, The plan of the work, in its prefent form, is as follows: In the first part we find a feries of chapters, in which the author treats

of

of the origin of the arts, and the caufes of the different aspects they bore in different nations; of the ftate of the arts among the Egyptians, Phenicians, Perfians, Hetrurians, and their neighbours, and finally among the Greeks and Romans. The fecond part exhibits difcuffions of a more difficult nature, fuch as those relative to the influence of times and circumftances upon the ftate and progrefs of the arts. His obfervations here have little fure ground to build upon before the time of Phidias; but from that period to the time of Alexander, and from therice to the extirpation of liberty in Greece, he has a noble field, and expatiates in it with all the judgment of a critic, and all the taste of an accomplished connoiffeur. The chronological hiftory of the arts of Greece, fubdued and subjected to the Roman empire, is a curious piece, and terminates the work, whofe publication we we to the care and zeal of the Academy of the Arts at Vienna.

NUREMBERG.

VIII. Neue Bibliothek, &c. i. e. A New Library or Repofitory of fearce and curious Books, together with Fragments and Letters of Jome learned Men of ancient Times, which are now published for the first time. By Mr. HUMMEL. 8vo. 1776. We have in this collection, by analyfis or extract, the fubftance of fixtythree scarce books, many of them curious and remarkable, as alfo the copy of a newly-difcovered manufcript of the treatise of Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum, which will be very interefting to the collaters of various readings.

FRIBURG in Brifgaw.

IX. We must mention here a publication, which, indeed, belongs to the year 1775, but is of too much confequence to the lovers of Italian hiftory and literature to be paffed over in filence on that account. It is the true, genuine, and original Hiftory of Italy, by Francefco Guicciardini, (Della floria di, &c.) in XX, Books. 4to. 4 Volumes. The world was not informed of the caftrations, mutilations, and interpolations, that degraded the edition of this celebrated work which was published in the year 1561, (although that edition was printed at Florence under the infpection of Angelo, the author's nephew) before Apoftolo Zeno published his notes on the work entitled the Librarian of Italian Eloquence. It appears from thefe notes, that the Chevalier Ant. Marmi, on comparing the original manufcript of Guicciardini's hiftory, which is in the library of the Medicis, with his printed copy, found that the latter had been confiderably mutilated. The circumftances and political views of the government of Florence, at the time that this first edition appeared, prevented the editors from publishing it exactly as the author had compofed it: it is certain that Concini, fecretary to the Grand Duke, curtailed it greatly, and rendered it

in many places fo different from the original text, that the true and genuine hiftory may be faid to appear now for the first time. The bookfeller who has undertaken the present edition declares, that he has printed it after the manufcript, reviewed and corrected by the author, which is to be feen in the library of Magliabecchi at Florence. He has also enriched this edition with the life of the author, his portrait, a catalogue of the different editions of this hiftory, fummaries, indexes, and inftructive notes.

PAR I S.

X. An anonymous author has published the first and preliminary volume of a large work entitled, Accord de la Phils fophie avec la Religion, prouve par une Suite de Difcours hiftoriques et critiques, relatifs á treize Epoques, &c. i. e. The Union and Agreement of Philofophy and Religion, proved by a Series of bifto rical and critical Difcourfes, relative to thirteen Epochas, marked in the Course of Ages. Volume Ift. 12mo. The author delineates, in this volume, the plan of his work, which is vaft and comprehenfive, taking in the ideas and opinions of men in all periods of the world, the progreffive motion of truth, the birth of error, and fhewing by hiftorical facts, thoroughly examined and ascertained, the harmony that has always fubfifted between philofophy and religion. The reader will fee in the execution of this plan, the patriarchal religion, pure in its fource, but corrupted in its ftreams by the various theological fyftems of paganifm-the primitive religion unfolded under the Mofaic difpenfation;-the follies of Grecian and Roman paganism, which the different philofophical fects were incapable of reforming; the light, that was diffufed by the Mofaic difpenfation and its happy effects, in preparing mankind for a more perfect revelation; the fublime character of the Founder of Chriftianity, and the marvellous establishment of that divine religion, together with the fects and herefies that divided the church, when fupported by the imperial throne of the Cæfars;-the rife and progrefs of Mahometanifm ;-the establishment of the Weftern Empire by Charlemagne, and the state of Christianity from his reign to the downfall of the Eaftern Empire, together with the effects relative to that religion, that were produced by the fall of that empire and the propagation of letters in the weft in confequence thereof;-the ftate of the fixteenth century, and the rife and progrefs of the reformation introduced by Luther and Calvin; (the great stumbling-block of Romish theologifts;) the moral and intellectual ftate of mankind;-the state of Christianity from the middle of the feventeenth century to the middle of the prefent, and the fingular revolution in the human mind, that has taken place in our times; together with