thunder-storm, the lightning was conducted down the rod, and split the rock into several pieces without displacing it. M. Wiebeking, director of roads and bridges to the King of Bavaria, begun to be cleared away, and several stalls and small houses removed which intercepted a view of the edifice. A beginning has also been made to clear the three principal apartments in the baths of Titus, which has been most has discovered a method of construct- admired by strangers, and are suffiing wooden bridges, which, in point cient to impart a correct idea of the of strength and solidity, promise a celebrated grottos of Ludis and Arelduration of several centuries. They lio, imitated in the paintings of Raare not less remarkable for the ele- phael. The remains of the Temple of gance of their forin and width of the Antoninus and Faustina, and the arches. One upon this plan has been theatre of Marcellus, the portico of laid over the river Roth, five leagues Octavia, the temples of Concord and from Passau, consisting of a single Jupiter Stator, and other monuments arch two hundred feet wide. Another of ancient grandeur, are all under has been made for a large city, 286 repair. war or feet wide. These arches may be so On digging lately at Frescati, near constructed as to admit of ships of the ancient Tusculum, a quantity of merchant vessels passing arms, vases, human bones, and a brothrough them, an aperture being made ken statue, were found, probably that in the centre which can be opened of a Roman consul; and a few days and shut at pleasure. These bridges after another resembling a Roman may also be very speedily taken to matron, pieces, if it be necessary to stop the progress of an enemy; the arch may be removed in one day, the abutments in another, without cutting the smallest piece of timber. Upon this new plan the expense of bridges for a century will ensure a saving of 11,680,000 Horins. Indies, East. M. Vincenzio has lately published at Rome, Scientific Letters and Observations on Two Fasciculi of Antique Gems. He has also written a Dissertation to prove that the Colossal horses of the Quirinal have been changed in their places, and that, in fact, they were but badly placed at first. Russia. The large Hindoo Temple, seated on the road to Chilpore, fell to the M. Tauscher, the botanist, employground on Saturday, Sept. 2, 1809, ed by Count Alexci Rasumowski, was and has since remained a magnificent lately at Sarepta, on the Wolga, with heap of ruins. The spire and its sur- a rich collection of rare and unknown rounding turrets had long exhibited plants from the Steppes or desart every appearance of complete decay and danger. Only three natives lost their lives on this occasion, and two others received violent contusions. Italy. plains northward of the Caspian sea, the islands of which he visited, and there found the Indian lotus. The governor of Casau gave M. Tauscher an escort of 100 Cossacks, with one Restoration of Roman Antiquities. - piece of cannon, which enabled him Among interior objects lately disco- to disperse a troop of 600 Girgishan vered at Pompeii, is a large edifice Tartars, coflected for the purpose of adorned with columns, supposed to pillaging him. This, it is observed, have been one of the chief public is probably the first time a botanist buildings of the town. has ever travelled with cannon. The Committee of Arts, appointed Towards the end of January last, a since the French government has been dreadful gale of wind from the southestablished, have issued orders for re- east came on, when the waters of the patring, with all possible dispatch, the Ochota, (which, after passing through two elegant temples of Vesta and For- the town, discharge themselves into tona Virilis, great part of which yet the sea) rose twelve feet above their exist between the great sewer and the ordinary level, and above the tops of ancient bridge of the senate. From the houses. Between two and three the former the rubbish has already hundred of the inhabitants perished in their sleep. A transport belonging to be the shaft of a column exquisitely to the East India Company, carried ornamented with grape vine, &c. into the river by a tempest in 1803, Digging farther, they met with a prowas raised by the waves, and driven digious quantity of remains of elegant into the middle of the town. South America. columns, beautiful arches, and every other appendage to the most splendid edifices, all within a circumference of two miles. The figures are all decidedly Mexican; but it cannot be true as reported, that some of them would About the middle of June 1809, some men, digging for gold in the province of Quito, came to an extremely hard substance two feet below vie with the best productions of the surface of the earth, which proved Greece and Rome. MEMOIRS OF REMARKABLE PERSONS. Sir FRANCIS BARING, Bart. born in 1736. some His be adopted on this occasion. was created a Baronet in 1793. T HIS gentleman was His father was a merchant in the Virginia trade, which he began with a very inconsiderable capital: but his rigid honesty and dexterity in business having recommended him to great mercantile houses, they adopted It is well known that the system of his interest, and by liberal loans ena- this country, with regard to all its fobled him to extend the circle of his reign possessions, has ever been that commerce: from this assistance the of exclusive monopoly, accordingly, house of Baring soon rose to conside- when the whole body of English merration in a city where wealth and ta- chants demanded some participation lents for business are estimated at in the East Indian traffic, Sir Francis their proper value. With parental came forward as the advocate of the fondness Mr. Baring watched over the education of his son, in order to ren- heavy expense and their actual public der him a complete man of business, services composed a debt, to the distill he was sent to a reputable school charge of which an eternal monopoly under a Mr. Colman, the author of of the East India trade would scarcely several mathematical treatises. It was be sufficient! It is needless to add, here he acquired the talent for which that the charter was again renewed; he was most dintinguished; for in calculations made upon the spot, admitting of previous study, he was certainly considered as unequalled. Company. He insisted that their and the relief of the body of English merchants, from what their petition called "oppressive monopoly," left, like other evils, to the gradual effect of time, or the shock of some revolution. In 1796, upon Sir John Jervis being rewarded with a peerage, and vacating Chipping Wycombe, Sir Francis Baring was elected for that bis seat for Upon the death of his father he was considered as a most worthy succesFor; and the richest houses, and the most wealthy heiresses at the east end of the town, considered him as a desirable partner. He, at length, martied the daughter of Mr. Boston, an borough, and at the last general elecopulent merchant. Mr. Baring, from tion in 1802, he was again returned a proprietor, having become a direc. for the same place. tor of the East India Company, in the Sir Francis was esteemed as not less Jear 1784 canvassed the Cornish bo- amiable in domestic than in public rough of Grampound, and took his life. Although of a grave cast of seat in the House of Commons. The mind, he was not without a relish for nation was then just beginning to re- social enjoyments, and was, till within cover from the effects of the Ameri- a few years past, seldom absent from can revolution, and Mr. Baring had the parti and entertainments of his the honour of being consulted by the friends. The routes of his lady were premier with respect to the means to reckoned among some of the most brilliant in town; but he rather pre- tion of Minorca, the famous attack on ferred the more tranquil enjoyment of Gibraltar, and other remarkable ope a domestic circle, to those gay but rations. Having attained the rank of promiscuous assemblies. His table Captain, he went out in 1788 as sewas such as became his wealth, and cond in command of the squadron his solid hospitality was perfectly sent to the river Plate. suitable to the opulent character of an English merchant. His conversation, like his address, was simple; his great characteristics being method and dexterity in business, a sound judgment, and an upright heart. He remained on this station until the peace of 1802, when he found himself reduced to beggary by some ill-judged speculations of his brother, and he was under the necessity of returning to Spain to claim the rank of Brigadier, which had been unjustly One of Sir Francis's daughters was married to Mr.Wall, an eminent mer-with-held from him. The Governchaut; and one of his brothers was ment having appointed him head of member for Exeter. He was of the the missions to the interior of Mexico, middle size, and very thin, and was or in other words to the country of some time under a difficulty in El Dorado, established by the Jesuits, point of hearing. He seldom spoke he passed two years in visiting that in parliament but on commercial subjects, and was for several years in habits of intimacy with the late Marquis of Lansdowne. He died at his seat at Leigh, in Kent, on the 11th inst. in the 74th year of his age, being physically ex hausted; but his mind remained unsubdued to the last breath. His bed was surrounded by nine out of ten, the number of his sons and daughters, most interesting tract of the Spanish possessions. During this journey he had the misfortune to be deprived of his wife and one of his daughters, by whom he was accompanied. On his return to Buenos Ayres, he found that war was declared, and the town in the greatest consternation on account of the appearance of an English privateer in the River Plate. He had hardly taken the necessary steps, all of whom he assisted to establish by fitting out some armed vessels, to in splendid independence. Three of secure the town fiom insult, and prohis sons carry on the commercial tect an East India ship of immense house, and the other two are returned value, the object of the privateer, from India with fortunes. To his five when the expedition from the Cape of daughters, married, he gave liberal Good Hope appeared at the mouth of dowries. He is supposed to have left the River Plate. freeholds to the amount of half a "The Viceroy was guilty of a great million, and to have been the hoider of more than two millions of omnium. DON SANTIAGO DE LINIERS. error in politics, that of sending back to the Cape of Good Hope the English prisoners, who had been for a long time at large at Buenos Ayres, and who had therefore an opportunity HE Chevalier Liniers is the de- of observing the weakness of the Tender ble family and places and the inadequacy of the pre was born at Niort, in Poitou. At parations for defending it, and in twelve years he was received into the general the whole colony. CommoOrder of Malta, and became page to dore Sir Home Popham having, the Grand Master. He returned to through these persons, become acFrance when he was fifteen, and was quainted with the feeble state of appointed an officer in the Royal Buenos Ayres, (it being the practice Piedmont Regiment of Cavalry. In to send in time of war all the troops 1774, he went to Spain, and, having to Monte Video, notwithstanding the entered into the navy in the following incessant representations of M. De year, was employed in the unfortunate Liniers, that Buenos Ayres was more expedition, under the command of exposed to a coup de main, than Monte Count O'Reilly, against Algiers. He Video) was incited by the prospect of continued to serve in the Spanish great advantage, which the attack of navy for several years, in the course a place so rich as Buenos Ayres held of which he was present at the reduc- out to a Commander who was no less a good speculator than officer, to reason to suspect his weakness from urge the fitting out of an expedition the fact of his caution. The Viceroy against that colony. col The rashness of was satisfied with sending some badlythe project might have been forgotten armed militia to the coast, and sufferin its success, if, after the taking of ed General Beresford to land without Buenos Ayres, the British Command- opposition, within' four leagues of ers had followed the example of the Buenos Ayres, on a marshy coast, immortal Du Guay Trouin, at Rio which the English troops had great Janeiro, by accepting a ransom for difficulty in passing through. The the place and returning. But success intoxicates, and vanity and want of judgment cost England much on this occasion. Leda, of 44 guns, was the only vessel that covered the disembarkation. It will be obvious that if M. De Liniers could have placed his flotilla, on account of the shoal water between the frigate and the shore, he might have destroyed, with grape-shot from his gun-boats, the troops who were in the mud to the very middle. But every thing fled before the English. The first who retreated was the Vicerov himself, throwing on the superior officer the task of making the best capitulation he could. "The English expedition arrived in the River Plate. An officer, who descried it from a light vessel, brought the intelligence to the Viceroy, the Marquis of Sobremonte, who was thrown into the utmost confusion by the news. He ordered M. De Liniers to repair to Ensenada, who observed that he could contribute more to the defence of the town by opposing the landing with his small naval force, than by removing to such a distance. He declared at the same time, that he parade, from Barraccas to Buenos was ready to obey these orders, and Ayres, M. De Liniers returned from required that all the officers of the Ensenada, and perceived from a height coast of Ensenada should be put un- two feeble discharges of musquetry, der his cominand. The Marquis So- after which the fire immediately bremonte returned an insulting an- ceased. He concluded that the town swer, and ordered him to set out in- had surrendered; he immediately restantly, which M. De Liniers did turned and took up his residence at a under a firm persuasion that all would country-house within six leagues of be lost. He reached Ensenada, but Do orders to obey him had been transmitted there. As it, however, ordinarily happens in times of danger, that the governed have sometimes more instinct than the governors have judgment, every one put himself under the orders of M. De Liniers. "At the time that the English marched, as if they were going to a Buenos Ayres. A countryman, whom he sent to procure him information, brought him back word that the town had capitulated, and that the English General had taken possession of it. "The first idea of M. De Liniers was to set out immediately, notwithstanding the dreadful weather, to cross the Parama at 50 or 60 leagues from "Liniers immediately made preparations for defending the post with Buenos Ayres, and to proceed to two gun-boats, a merchant vessel, two Monte Video; but on reflection, he light field pieces, three hundred mili- decided on applying for permission to tia, and a fort in decay. A landing enter the town, for the purpose of obwas attempted, but the English per- taining information of the enemy's strength, and seeing with his own' eyes the resources which circumstances might offer, and the advantage them. He dispatched, in consequence, ceiving the resolution of the troops, re-embarked and proceeded along the Coast. M. De Liniers sent a messen gero the Viceroy to apprize him, it might be possible to derive from that from the number of vessels of which the convoy was composed, he a faithful messenger to General Bereswas of opinion that they could not have more than two thousand men on board: observing at the same time that a commander, who after making a demonstration of attacking, with drew without trying his strength, gave ford, to inform him, that not having the honour to be attacked in the post committed to his care, he was not included in the capitulation, but that, with his permission, he would enter the town, for the purpose of seeing his' children, and settling his affairs. Monte Video, which was corroborated This was very politely granted to him, by the appearance of some English with an assurance that he might enter vessels in addition to those that blockand quit the town whenever he aded the port;-all these circumpleased. stances gave rise to a Council of War, "M. De Liniers, in consequence at which the Governor of Monte of this permission, entered the town, Video read the Viceroy's dispatches, where he found the inhabitants in and laid before it the reasons which consternation, and burning with shame induced him to believe that the town at having been conquered by a hand- he commanded would be attacked, ful of troops. They were particularly the defence of which he considered enraged at the conduct of the Viceroy. to be his chief duty; and declared Several plans were proposed to M. De Liniers for rescuing the town from the power of the English. Some of these were ridiculous; others too dangerous, He endeavoured to shew them the consequence of such an attempt. He that he not only did not conceive himself authorised to take the command of the intended expedition, but that on no account could he agree to separate his force. Upon this M. De Liniers observed to the Council, that represented to them that having vo- if Buenos Ayres remained in possesluntarily surrendered, and the ma- sion of the English, Monte Video gistrates gistrates having taken the bath of must fall sooner or later; that he allegiance, the insurgents would ex- would again offer to attack Buenos pose the town to be sacked if their Ayres with 500 men; that in case he plan did not succeed, and that even failed in the attempt, the consequence success could not justify the violation would be the speedier fall of Monte of a solemn treaty; that they should Video; but that if he succeeded both expect their deliverance from Monte towns would be saved. The Council Video, whither he would go to make of War were of M. De Liniers preparations for it. opinion. Having obtained all the information he desired, M. De Liniers secretly left Buenos Ayres. His departure was soon known, and the agents of the are known throughout all Europe by Government did every thing in their the Spanish and English official gapower to arrest him; but he eluded their vigilance, and arrived, after a very extraordinary journey, at the colony of Saint Sacrement, from whence he wrote to the Governor of zettes. Monte Video, acquainting him of his the inhabitants. He took advantage arrival, of his plans against Buenos of it to inspire them with confidence Ayres, and requesting to know if he in their own strength, by devoting could supply him with 500 chosen themselves to obedience and constant men. He was not long behind his practice in the use of arms, which letter, and found an expedition pre- would become formidable in their pared on the plan he had formed. He hands if their docility and perseapplied to the Governor, under verance did not relax. whose orders he was, for the com- "The enthusiasm with which Don mand of the advanced guard. The Santiago inspired the people of Buepreparations were carried on with nos Ayres, was such that the artisan great activity for some days; the left his manufactory, the merchant Viceroy having written to the Gover- his counting-house, and the lawyer nor of Monte Video that he had gone his cabinet, to learn to handle a musto Cordova to collect troops and at- ket, or manœuvre a gun, and to inarch tack Buenos Ayres, and requesting to the sound of fife and drom. Pikes him to send him arms and a few com- and bayonets were manufactured, panies of troops of the line; and on muskets were repaired, trenches were the other hand intelligence having dug, stakes were driven to form been received from Buenos Ayres that pallisades and entrenchments, and the Commodore intended to bombard the inhabitants were daily exercised 2 |