succession of large lofty rooms, richly ornamented. The gallery (esteemed the finest in Europe,) is seventy-two yards long, and fourteen broad, having Seventeen windows towards the gardens; from which there is a most delightful prospect. On the ceilings are painted the battles of the reign of Louis XIV. which are very highly finished. The finest front is next the gardens, on which side there is a fine portico, supported by marble pillars, and floored with the same, an hundred yards in length; and the gardens are not to be paralleled,-as all the beautiful models that Italy or the world could produce were consulted, to make them complete. The water-works, especially, are inimitable; here marble and copper statues spout up water in different forms, which falls into marble basons of exquisite workmanship. It being the fête of St. Louis, the grand water-works played: the dragon or serpent has ninety jets, and costs 4000 francs every time it plays. The water is conveyed to this place from Marly. There were about 10,000 persons present, surrounding the great canal, which is 1600 yards long, and 64 broad. The gallery is entirely composed of marble, pictures, glass, and gildings. Several pictures and ceilings arc by Paul Veronese, and the pictures in the gallery by Le Brun. The great marble staircase surpasses any thing of the kind that antiquity can boast of: the fresco paintings are by Le Brun. First you enter the Hall of Plenty, painted by Houasse; thence to the Cabinet of Antiquities, painted by the same. The Hall of Venus has some beautiful paintings, and an ancient statue of Cincinnatus. The Hall of the Billiard Table is likewise adorned with exquisite paintings. The Hall of Mars: the family of Darius at Alexander's feet, is one of Le Brun's best pieces. The Hall of Mercury is painted by Champagne; and some pictures by Raphael, Titian, and others. The Hall of Apollo: the Four Seasons by La Fosse, and several by Guido. The Halls of War and Peace are at both ends of the gallery: the former has some fine paintings by Le Brun, representing the actions of Louis XIV. The queen's apartment is adorned with pictures of great value, chiefly by Coypel and Vignon. Saw the little door through which she escaped at the time of the Revolution. The king's bed-chamber is ornamented with a great deal of magnificence and good order. The chapel belonging to the palace is an exceedingly fine piece of architecture, built of free-stone, in the Corinthian order. Nothing can be more beautiful or richer than the inward embellishments of this chapel. The great altar is of the finest marlile; and the roof is elegantly painted. The theatre is one of the most magnificent in Europe: when it was lighted with wax, the glass, the lustres, the fine paintings, and the gilding, (of which there was a profusion,) produced a marvellous effect. At extraordinary fêtes, the theatre was changed into a ball-room.-From one of the jet d'eauz the water rises seventy-eight feet.Great Trianon is situated at the extre mity of an arm of the canal. This oriental building is as respectable as magnificent: it is composed of only one ground-floor, (Rez de Chaussée,) divided into two pavilions, re-united by a peristyle, supported by tweuty-two columns of the Ionic order; eight of these columns are green marble of Campon, and the fourteen others of the red marble of Languedoc. It is now unfurnished; as is also the Palace of Versailles.-Little Trianon consists of a pavilion on the ground-floor, and two stories: it was the favourite residence of Marie-Antoinette, whose bed-room furniture still remains, which is very elegant, consisting of white silk trimmed with silver; the ceiling is covered with silvered white satin drapery, and the curtains are embroidered with silver. The gardens are distinguished as the French and English garden; they contain a little mill, a farm, temple d'amour, salle des coursiers: the queen's boudoir was in appearance a little farm-house.—In the town of Versailles you breathe a light and pure air; but there is no water. They are obliged to bring water from the Seine, by means of the celebrated machine at Marly.-M. H. went up from Tivoli Gardens by a balloon in the evening. It was a grand night. (To be concluded in our next.) For the Monthly Magazine. ACCOUNT of a recent ERUPTION of a VOLCANO in ICELAND, Treikewig, Iceland; July 16, 1923. E had extremely mild weather through the whole winter, which was followed by a rather cold and dry spring spring; but this uncommonly mild 1emperature announced to us, as on many former occasions, (especially in the year 1783,) an eruption of one of our most dangerous volcanoes. This time it was the crater Kötlugjan, which is situated in the district of Myrdals Jökel. It had been quiet for sixty-eight years, viz. since the year 1755; at that time it caused the greatest desolation in the country, since, according to Dr. Stephansen's work, ("Iceland in the Eighteenth Century,") in the following bad year, through the revolutions of Kotlugjan, the population of the country was diminished by 9744 souls. and the rest of the country has hitherto escaped. The cold and dry spring, and the present heat of July, have been unfavourable to the crops: to this may be added, that the Greenland ice, which is said to have shut up the North-west Coast, has laid a long time before the coast of Nordland, and is said to have blocked up the coasts of Hunevands Syssel. A scarcity of provisions begins to be felt in several parts of Nordland. For the Monthly Magazine. On the present occasion, a loud No considerations can possibly de detonation and rumbling noise, in the bowels of the glacier in Myrdals Jökel, and frequent lightning, on the 22d of June, announced the eruption; which, however, did not take place till the 26th, when a great quantity of ashes and pumice-stone was thrown into West Myrdal, lying at the foot of the mountain. Pillars of smoke and vapour concealed the mountain, and darkened the air, which was lighted only by incessant lightnings, accompanied by thunder and earthquakes. At length the whole mass of ice which covered the mountain was burst asunder, and thrown over the fields and sandy plains below. A quantity of these masses of ice was carried with a dreadful torrent of water into the sea; and, at the same time, the ground was covered with a mixture of pumice-stone and ashes, by which three of the best farms were laid waste, and numbers of cattle killed. All the inhabitants fled, with the rest of the cattle, from the three farms, to parts less exposed. mand more serious attention than the preservation of the British navy, and timber in general, from dryrot; and perhaps no process has excited more attempts, than to shorten and cheapen the tannage of leather by oak-bark, or to discover substitutes for oak-bark for that purpose. An alarming naval dry-rot excited my first notice to this subject. During a residence at Portsmouth for above thirty years, I never heard of the dry-rot; but, within the last twenty years, the complaint has been general. I soon traced the origin of dry-rot to the abolition of the use of winter-hewn oak in our dock-yards, and from the great scarcity and dearness of oak-bark for tanners, since 1792; prior to which time the Navy Board allowed seven and a quarter per cent. as equivalent to the bark. My first object was to seek substitutes for oak-bark, and I found that tops and lops of oak fully answered the purpose of tanning, by simple decoction; but the colour was rather too dark to be marketable, and the colour alone was sufficient to raise a clamour and combination against the article at Leadenhall; this arose from my having used the decoction while warm, but, on using it cold, the colour was much improved. No lives were lost; but the whole country is covered with water and ashes; and even merchant-vessels, at the distance of 100 miles from the coast, were also covered with ashes. The road through Myrdal, and to the south of the glacier,-which is the high I next tried oak-bark, &c. in various road from all that part of the island ways, till I found the means of tanning called Skaptefield's Syssel,-was ren- crop-hides or solc-leather in four dered impassable; and it has caused months, or one quarter of the usual much trouble to clear a new and much time, with much greater weight than longer one, to the north of the glacier. the common standard; viz. if a raw Hitherto, there have been only three hide of eighty pounds produces forty great eruptions of ashes, pumice-stone, pounds of leather to a common tan&c.; and since that time the volcano ner, he is satisfied; but, under my has been quiet. Constant north-west new process, such hides will weigh, winds fortunately carried the ashes on an average, forty-eight or fifty exclusively over Myrdel and the sca; pounds when tanned, which is oneMONTHLY MAG, No. 388. 2 S fourth fourth more weight, accomplished in a much shorter time; consequently these profits must be immense, because capitals are returnable thrice a-year, instead of once a-year, or year and a half. No manufacture in England, or any other part of Europe, appears to have defied improvement so much as leather; because tanners are wealthy and careless. One circumstance I must notice, however; which is, that it formerly required several years to tan thick sole-leather; and, if the time has been reduced to eighteen months instead of three years, surely it may be also possible to tan leather in a few months: but during a few months the hides will require more labour than they have generally received in years under the present practice,-which is both blind and foolish. After devoting several years to the most active but irksome perseverance, attended with ruinous expenses, I have at length resolved to publish a "Treatise upon the Art of Tanning Crop Hides, or the Right Use of Oak-bark," &c. and, when my hand, which now celebrates the dawn of tanning, shall have mouldered into dust, I have no doubt but my principles will be universally practised, with many improvements; and will not prove an unworthy legacy to posterity, as the advantages will extend over Europe, because leather has become a necessary article of life. However, I always hoped to find substitutes for oak-bark, notwithstanding my extraordinary success with it; because the salvation of the shipping of this empire appeared always paramount to every other object. The British navy was formerly built with native oak, hewn in the winter, and proverbially styled "old England's wooden walls." America is now building a navy on the principles we have abandoned; and America abounds with excellent timber, while Britain is exhausted. To check the dry-rot, coal tar has been generally applied in the navy, by means of forcing-pumps; and to such excess, in many instances, has it been injected into ships'-bottoms, as to have started the bolts and tree-nails, and driven the planks nearly an inch asunder from the timbers. Nor is this the least of the misfortunes which are discovered to attend this wonderful operation; for Admiral Rowley is reported to have ascribed the sickness and mortality now prevalent on the West-India station entirely to the noxious effluvia exhaled in tropical climates from that mineral extract. The poisonous effects of coal-tar ate notorious, and it has even become questionable whether gas-works ought not, for the sake of public health and safety, to be removed from the metropolis, as appears from the printed evidence given before the Parliamentary Committee. At page 56, a possible case is put, of an incendiary drawing off the manhole plate of a gasometer, to let the gas escape, and cause explosion: Could any man get into the house, to stop the mischief so brewing?—No: de struction was inevitable. The man could not live in that house after the man-hole was off?-No, not for a minute. Note. This case supposes the gasometer-house to have little or no ventilation; which much resembles the lower gandecks of ships, without ventilation, during the night, when the ports are all closed. In corroboration of these reports, the Esk, of fifty guns, has lately arrived from the West Indies with fifty invalids, several of whom died on their passage home; and she was placed under quarantine at Portsmouth. I cannot dwell on such melancholy events and prospects; but leave them to abler hands and heads, by expressing my sincere hope, that the Navy Board will recal all ships from tropical climates that have undergone the mortal experiment with coal-tar. I turn from this gloomy view, with unspeakable satisfaction, to announce that I have succeeded, beyond all my original hopes, in discovering mate substitutes for oak-bark; and, in consequence, sent the following letter to the Admiralty Board, which I insert as briefly expressing the nature of my discovery: London; Sept. 1, 1825. MY LORDS,-I beg leave to acquaint your lordships, that I have discovered that pyro-ligneons acid is the best native substitute for oak-bark; and, if oak cop pices be cut at bark harvests, and not in winter (when useless to tanners,) to sapply distilleries, I have no doubt the neces sary demands may be duly auswered, without hewing naval oaks in summer. in order to prevent the recurrence of dryrot in his Majesty's navy. Permit me to assure your lordships, I am not actuated by any motives except the preservation of the navy for my king -1 and country, and that I have no interest manufactures would be received in whatever in any distillery. JOHN BURridge. The manufacture of pyro-ligneous acid has been recently introduced into this country. It is distilled from oaktops, lops, coppices, &c. (after being barked as usual for tanners,) which are put into iron retorts, similar to gas-works, and heated underneath with coals; by which simple means the acid is extracted and condensed, through various pipes, into reservoirs or cisterns; whilst the wood itself is reduced into charcoal, which is sold at 2s. or 2s. 3d. per bushel, and defrays the expense of the operation. The acid is a most powerful antiseptic, generally used for vinegar, and sometimes medicinally; but I find it possesses strong tanning properties, much better for crop-hides than dressing leather. Abundance of more wholesome substitutes may be found for vinegar, in malt, &c. Oak-faggots, &c. were formerly exclusively used by bakers, &c. who have found a cheaper substitute in coke from gas-works; consequently no public inconvenience can arise from this improvement, as it would have done had the distilleries of ligneous acid been introduced before gas-lights. руго press, I therefore conclude by stating, that JOHN BURRidge. exchange. I trust that such of your readers as may be able to answer the enquiries of your correspondent R. will immediately do so; and they will oblige, Aug. 22, 1823. A. B. P.S.-Your correspondent R. may find some information respecting the Bahamas, in Harriott's "Struggles through Life." To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. of SIR, Namusing, but far-fetched, piece of biography, entitled "Memoirs Benvenuto Cellini, a Florentine artist," &c. has lately appeared; but is falsely announced as being now first translated into English by Thomas Roscoe. This is as gross an untruth as if some translator were to announce the Adventures of the renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha, now first translated from the Spanish of Cervantes. I beg to inform that portion of the public who are unacquainted with the fact, that a translation of the eccentric Benvenuto was published by Thomas Nugent, LL.D. in two octavo volumes, in 1771, and dedicated by him to Sir Joshua Reynolds. This fact, although hidden for sinister purposes, is well known to the proprietors of the present edition, who have prefixed the same engraving of Cellini, by Collier, from Vasari's painting, which was appended to Dr. Nugent's edition. The name of Roscoe is a bright unfading star in the intellectual hemisphere, and should not be impoverished in its importance by such trickery of a bookseller for purposes of Mammon. Sulton-at-Hone, Kent. ENORT. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, SIR, TOTWITHSTANDING the innu I WAS gratified to find that one of N merable interesting and impor your correspondents has, last Number, endeavoured to draw public attention to that neglected part of his Majesty's dominions, the Bahama Islands. As the soil and climate of those islands are well adapted for the cultivation of those articles which your correspondent has enumerated, and perhaps of some others, I entertain no doubt but that, if the produce of those articles was properly attended to, a profitable commerce might be maintained between England and the Bahamas; since they would undoubtedly receive a preference in the British market over the same articles the product of foreign countries, because our tant facts which your Magazine has been the means of developing to the world, I think I may venture to say, that, take the whole collectively, they fall short in interest and importance, in comparison with the interest and importance of the conclusions to be drawn from the following Statement, which commences with the year subsequent to the termination of the war against France, Spain, and Holland; and the recognition of the United States of America. The notations a to g refer to certain important eras or events, during the period 1784 to the present time. Statement Statement of the Value of Merchandize Imported into, and Exported from, Great Britain. from and to all Parts of the World, distinguishing the proportion Imported from fix East Indies and China, and the proportion Exported of Colonial and Foreign Predazi from the proportion of British Produce and Manufactures in each Year, during the last Forty Years. 1784 1787 1788 1789 (a) 1793 1794 1795 1796 (b) 1797 1798 1799 (c) 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1808 1809 1810 2996,652 15,272,877 3,846,434 11,255,057 15,101,491 2,703,941 16,279,419 | 5,055,358 11,081,811 16.117,169 5,156,687 15,786,072 4,475,493 11,830,373 16,505,866 529,791 3,430,868 17,804,015|| 4,815,889 | 12,053,900 16,869,789 3,453,897 18,027,170 | 4,747,518 | 12,724,720 17,472,238 3,562,545 17,821,102|| 5,561,048 15,779,506 19,340,542 1,529,447 3,149,871 19,130,887 5,199,037 | 14,921,084 20,120,171 989,24 3,698,714 19,669,783|| 5,921,976 | 16,810,019 22,731,995 3,061,212 2,701,51719,659,358 6,130,349 18,336,851 24,467,200 4,807,842 419,968 3,499,024 19,256,718 | 5,784,417 | 13,892,269|| 19,676,686| 4,458,475 22,288,894| 8,386,043 | 16,725,403 25,111,446 2,822,552 5,760,810 22,736,889 8,509,126 | 16,338,213 24,847,359 2,110,450 3,372,689 23,187,320 8,923,848 19,102,220 28,026,068 4,839,748 3,942,384 21,013,957 9,412,610 16,903,103 26,315,7135,301,756 19,672,503 30,290,029 2,452,159 24,084,213 33,640,357 6,802,925 24,304,284 38,120,120 7,549,514 25,719,980 37,786,856 4,987,656 27,012,108 41,411,966|10,012,018 7,626,930 27,857,890 10,647,476 4,284,805 26,837,432 9,556,144 4,942,276 30,570,606 13,815,838 5,424,442 32,799,200 12,008,635 5,794,907 31,409,998 |14,437,952 6,348,887 27,995,856 9,325,257 22,252,102 31,578,495 3,582,659 5,214,621 29,207,782 10,515,574 | 23,934,292 34,451,367||5,243,585| 6,072,160 30,545,611 | 9,950,508 | 25,003,308 34,954,845 4,609,4 3,746,771 28,840,860 9,124,479 | 27,403,653 36,527,184 7,676,524 1807 3,401,509 28,807,839 9,395,283 | 25,190,762 34,566,571 5,758,752 5,848,649 29,633,165 7,863,207 26,692,288 34,554,267 4,921,102 3,563,025 55,769,585 15,194,334 | 55,107,439 50,286,900 16,517,515 4,708,413 41,130,555 10,945.310 34,940,550 45,869,859 4,759,304 4,106,251 28,631,322 8,279,698 24,109,951 32 409,671 3,778,559 5,602,320 28,597,163 11,998,179 31,243,362 43,243,17 214,656,010 30,000,000 15,000,000 | 52,000,000 47,000,000 17,000,000 32,620,770 19,157,811 | 53,200,580 52,358,598 19,757,628 31,822,053 15,708,434 41,712,002 57,420,450,25,598,05 26,374,920 13,441,665 34,774,520 48,216,185 21,841,965 29,916,320 10,269,271 39,235,397 49,504,66819,588,31 7,337,690 |35,819,798 10,835,800 | 41,963,527 52,798,327 16,979,529 7,537,56329,654,900 9,879,236 52,923,575 42,802,811|13,147,91|| 7,562,618 $1,517,891 10,525,026 37,818,056 48,345,062 16,825,171 29,724,174 10,602,090 40,194,893 50,797,98221,075,808 |29,401,807 | 9,211,928 | 45,558,490 52,770,418 23,368,611 (d) 1811 1812 (e) 1813 1814 (ƒ) 1815 1816 1817 (g) 1818 (4) 1819 1820 1821 - (a) Feb. 12, 1793, war declared against France. (b) Dec. 30, 1796, failure of the negociations for peace announced; and in 1797 a valueless paper currency substituted for an intrinsically valua ble one. (c) March 27, 1802, definitive treaty of |