the mouth of the rivers, and per haps to other circumstances, which -are not quite understood. Both of the two rivers, enclosing the great alluvial tract which has been described (the Rio del Rey and the Formoso), are stated to be of considerable size, being each of them seven or eight miles broad at the mouth; and the supposed Delta, estimated by the line of coast, is much larger than that of the Ganges: consequently, the two streams, if united, must form a river of prodigious magnitude. But neither of the rivers has ever yet been explored; nor has the interior of the country, to any distance from the coast, been accurately described by any European traveller. Hence, the question whether the two rivers are ever really united, and whether the tract in question is a complete Delta or not, still remains to be ascertained. With regard also to the course, or even the existence, of the great river to which this Delta is said to belong, and which M. Reichard supposes to come from the north-east of Africa, there is no vestige or tradition among travellers or geographical writers; the whole is purely conjectural. But the supposition, so far as relates to the alluvial origin of the tract in question and the junction of the two rivers, has great appearance of probability. On comparing Mr. Maxwell's hypothesis respecting the Niger with that of M. Reichard, which we are now considering, the latter may be said to have gained something in probability, by diminishing the distance which the Niger has to flow in order to reach the Atlantic. But its course is much more tortuous, and its length, even when thus reduced, is still a considerable difficulty, and a great incumbrance on the hypothesis. The objection arising from the Niger's being conceived to penetrate the Kong Mountains, seems to be nearly of equal weight in both cases, on the supposition that this vast chain of mountains is of the extent generally imagined. It may be mentioned as an objection to both of these hypotheses, that no traces whatever of the Mahometan doctrines or institutions are now to be found on either of the coasts where the Niger is supposed to terminate. In no part of the world has the spirit of enterprise and proselytism, which properly belongs to the Mahometan character, been more strikingly displayed, than in the extensive regions of North Africa. Its effects are every where conspicuous, not only in the religious belief of the greater part of the inhabitants, but even where Mahometism is not established, in their manners, and customs, and in the predominance of the Arabic language, which is almost every where grafted upon the native African dialects. These circumstances, however, are peculiar to North Africa; nothing similar having been remarked on the coast of Guinea, and still less on that of Congo and Angola. Mr. Maxwell also states in a letter to Mr. Park, that he had made inquiries of a great number of negroes who had come down the Congo from great distances; but that he could never hear of any Ma hometan Sans Souci. This statue was of bronze, and of the most beautiful workmanship; it was no less perfect than the Belvidere Apollo, and held that reputation in the north. It was erroneously called a Ganymede, the pose of the arms leading to this mistake, but it is a Gladiator giving thanks to the gods for a victory just obtained. The Prussians demanded, in 1814, the restoration of this statue, of two pieces by Corregio, and the pictures of St. Cloud, which had been taken from the apartment of their queen. The restitution of these objects From Miss Williams's Narrative of became the subject of a most fas the Events in France) The period was now arrived when a new storm no less horrible than unforeseen brooded over Paris. It appears that the allied powers, amidst those rapid and brilliant successes, which in the year 1814 had rendered them masters of the capital, had not overlooked the chefs-d'œuvre of art which had been wrested from their respective countries by the right of conquest. The allied sovereigns, when they visited the Gallery of the Louvre, beheld pictures and statues once their own, and saw them noted in the preface of the catalogues, sold at the door, as the fruit of French victories. The Prussians had not failed to observe that pictures which had decorated the bed-chamber of their beautiful and lamented queen were then placed in the royal apartments of the palace of St. Cloud. There was also a statue in the Museum which was known by the name of the Ganymede of tidious negociation between M. Blacas and the ministers of Austria and Prussia. It had been agreed at the peace of Paris, that nothing should be touched that was then exhibited in the Museum, and M. Blacas wished to extend this article to all the paintings in the royal palaces. The negociation failed. Paris preserved its statues and pictures, and the Prussians ther regrets at not having regained the trophies stripped from their queen's apartments. The allied armies, in 1815, again crowned the hills around Paris, and again a capitulation was asked and granted. The Provisionary Government demanded that the Museum should remain untouched. The allied generals wrote with a pencil, on the margin of this article, non accordé, (not granted). This refusal, it appears, did not arise so much from any decision taken with respect to the Museum by the Duke of Wellington, who would not prejudge the question, but be cause cause General Blucher, supported by the public opinion of his country, had, in his own mind, determined upon taking it. The article on the respect to be paid to public and private property was loosely worded. The Provisionary Government were, perhaps, not sorry to have left room for misinterpretation, since the surrender of Paris was unavoidable. The allies assert that their respect for the monuments of the arts could never be justly applied to the retaking of objects which had at first been seized by violence. General Blucher, immediately upon his entrance into Paris, sent a letter to M. Denon, the Director of the Museum, demanding not only the objects of the last year's negociation with M. Blacas, but what was also in the Museum. M. Denon answered, that it was an affair which must be negociated with his government, and that he would not give them up. M. Denon was arrested during the night by twenty men, and was threaten ed to be sent to the fortress of Graudentz in West Prussia. From this argument there was no appeal. The objects demanded were delivered. This surrender was made in due order, and the Gladiator, the two pictures of Corregio, and some valuable pieces of the old German school, were carefully packed up by the persons employed at the Museum. This would have been but a trifling loss had not the King of Prussia taken not only what belonged to Potzdam and Berlin, but also to Cologne and Aix la Chapelle, countries on this side of the Rhine, and therefore not in his possession at that period, on the pretext that these objects belonged to the cathedral, and the municipality of those towns. The public mind again became tranquil; it was asserted these acts of Prussian violence had neither the assent of the Emperor of Russia, nor of the Duke of Wellington, and it was currently believed that they had condemned these measures. Two months had now passed when the Gallery of the Louvre was menaced from another quarter. The King of the Belgic Provinces, now united to Holland, had published a Constitution in the modern style, that is, on free and liberal principles. It was understood that it had met with a general acceptance, for who would refuse the blessings of liberty? The acceptance, however, was not so cordial as had been generally believed. There was a numerous and respectable class of the inhabitants of those provinces who were not eager to adopt strange doctrines, or suffer them to be adopted by those under their influence. The Catholic clergy, in that country, had displayed some energy twenty years since, when, threatened with liberal principles, they roused the faithful into insurrection against such innovations by their then lawful sovereign. The Emperor Joseph the Second, who will be ranked in the class of philosophic princes, was studious to introduce what he deemed free and liberal principles among his Belgian subjects. But the clergy saw in toleration the destruction of religion, and in liberal principles the subversion of the privileges of the church. They They resisted, with force of arms, those dangerous tenets, and framed for themselves a government exempt from such political heresies. A clergy who had thus put themselves into rebellion, for their good old cause, against a Catholic prince, might well hesitate in accepting the present of liberty which was now offered them by their new Protestant sovereign, the King of Holland. Like the cautious High Priest of Troy, who proclaimed his "fear of the Greeks, and those who were the bearers of gifts;" so they considered it as a duty to put themselves on their guard against this Protestant protection of the Catholic Church, and narrowly inspect whether mischief might not lurk beneath a Constitution, which was at least suspicious since it bore the name of liberal. This was a knotty affair; it was an easier enterprize for the allies to overthrow the tyrant of the world, and deliver Europe from its bondage, than for a Protestant Prince to render himself popular to a Belgian Catholic clergy. The English government was highly interested in supporting the authority of his new Belgian Majesty. It was, in fact, a kind of common concern. The churches of those provinces had been stript of their principal ornaments, and it was believed that the restoration of the pictures from their bondage in the Museum of Paris, would be an homage rendered to the faithful and the church, and would, perhaps, soften the opposition of its ministers to the acceptance of liberty. at that time to have corresponding sentiments with the government and to approve the removal of the paintings in sympathy with the Belgic churches. These two causes led the English minister at Paris to give in a note in their favour to the Congress of the four powers who now govern the world, and who were here assembled. The arrival of M. Canova at Paris, at this period, led the English minister to take the same interest for his Holiness the Pope. He represented that the peace of Tolentino could not be the foun dation of any right, since the French, after taking the objects in question, had themselves broken the treaty, and that it was therefore just that the more powerful sovereigns should support the cause of the weaker, which was evidently the case with the Pope. Lord Castlereagh furthermore represented the advantages which the arts would obtain by being cultivated at Rome, and that this idea had been so strongly impressed on the French artists themselves, that MM. Quatremer de Quincy, Denon, David, Giraudet, and forty other artists, had signed a petition, before their removal, to the Directory, not to displace those objects. Those to whom the English minister's observations were known, seemed to consider them as made rather in compliance with a feeling of national jealousy than of strict justice; and, as actions are seldom placed to the account of the principal agents, the ardour of the English cabinet was attributed to the Under Secretary, Mr. Hamilton, a gentleman known The public in England seemed in the literary world by his Tra vels in Greece and Egypt, and highly interested in the progress of the arts. But however doubtful might have been the right of the French after the treaty of Tolentino had been broken, this reasoning could not be applied to the anterior treaty made with the Prince of Parma, which was the first treaty in which there was any article respecting paintings. In answer to the note of Lord Castlereagh, a note was given in by M. de Nesselrode on the part of the Emperor Alexander. In this note, the justice or the injustice of the measure was less insisted on than its expediency. It represented the painful situation in which it placed Louis XVIII. with regard to the public; and that if the allies forbore retaking, the last year, what they deemed their property in the Museum, from their respect for the king, this motive ought to operate with double force at the present period. It was for a short time believed that the Russian note had produced some effect; but whether the Emperor Alexander relaxed in the energy of his representations, or because the Russian troops had withdrawn from the capital, this hope proved delusive. Further observations were made to the French government by Lord Castlereagh, and some irritation excited at first by the silence which attended them; but still more by a severe note from M. Talleyrand. The dismission of a popular minister at this period had not, it was said, contributed to increase the cordiality of the Duke of Wellington with the Tuileries. The war of diplomacy now ceased; sentence was passed upon the Gallery; a decree of retaliation had gone forth, and the attack on the Museum began. The King gave orders to the Directors of the Museum to authenticate whatever violence might be offered. The Museum was shut up. It was opened on the requisition of an English colonel, who demanded, with authority, the surrender of the objects which had belonged to the Belgic provinces. English troops placed on guard at the Louvre. The king ordered the gates to be opened, but that on no pretence any assistance should be given to the invaders. were A kind of Custom-house was established at the gate to examine what should be taken. Sentinels were posted along the Gallery of the Museum at every twenty steps, but this did not entirely prevent fraud. The Belgic amateurs, aided by the English soldiery, exercised in allience their energies. The turn of the Austrians came next, who, though always slow in their operations, never swerve from their purpose. They had appeared to have limited their pretensions to the Horses of Corinth; but, encouraged by the large and liberal example of the Belgians in taking, they decided on removing the pictures which had come from Parma, such as the St. Jerom of Corregio, those from Milan and Modena, and the Titians from Venice. It was now that the losses of the Muscum were swelled into magnitude. The report that a strong guard of foreign troops were posted at night at the Louvre was now re peated |