dock sufficiently large for the building and repair of first-rates; in fact, he created fleets for the nation, but without creating sailors. Enjoying the favour, or, rather, the unalterable friendship of Sultan Selim, who was his firm supporter against the janissaries, he obtained from his master a carte blanche respecting all affairs regarding the marine. Indulging in the most prodigal expenditure for the building, equipment, and superfluous decoration of men-of-war, and for a thousand other purposes of ultra-oriental luxury, he not only consumed the revenues of the Admiralty, but emptied the chest of the Imperial Treasury. Woe to the minister of finance, if he had made the slightest resistance to the payment of the sums which Hussein demanded! would not have scrupled to repair at the head of four hundred armed naval officers, to the department of the minister, and to plunge a poniard into his breast. The expedition by sea and land which he commanded against the famous rebel PasvandOgloo of Widin, cost, in six months, in consequence of his prodigality and want of economy, more than a hundred millions of Turkish piasters.'

The maritime expeditions also, under his command for the recovery of Egypt, invaded by Napoleon, and for the expulsion of the French from Naples, as well as from the Ionian Islands, exhausted the Ottoman empire by extraordinary imposts, and served to swallow a great part of the treasures of the seraglio, so that, after his death, the Ottoman marine began visibly to decline, and fall into a state of languor and decay.

Our limits forbid us to proceed; but we shall take an early opportunity of laying before our readers an account of the Turkish priesthood, the Turkish land-forces-particularly the late janissaries, and the Seraglio.

(1) The Grand-Admiral is obliged, when he is at Constantinople, to appear every Friday, in state, at the Ottoman Porte, and to pay homage to the Grand Vizier. Although he has the rank of a Pacha of three tails, he acknowledges the superiority of the Sultan's absolute lieutenant. When, therefore, he approaches him, he makes a profound bow, called téménna, and advances to kiss the hem of his pelisse; but the Grand Vizier, on his part, rises, draws back his robe with haste, and salutes, in the same manner, with a bow to the ground. The admiral, Hussein Pacha, angry with the minister for foreign affairs, called Atif Efendy, because he destroyed the effect of one of his reports to the Porte, repaired to the Grand Vizier's, with the intention of poniarding the minister as soon as he presented himself to the Vizier. The Minister, apprised of the Admiral's intention, furtively quitted the Porte, under the pretext of indisposition; repeating the trick every time the admiral visited the vizier, until he had succeeded in appeasing his rage.

(2) The Turkish piaster was then worth about twenty pence.

SHORT

SHORT REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

Gaii Institutionum Commentarii quatuor e codice rescripto Bibliothecæ Capitularis Berolinensis. A Federico Bluhmio iterum collato. Edid. Jo. Feder. Goeschen. Editio altera, Berolini. Impensis Geo. And. Reimerii. 1824.

Gaii Jurisconsulti Institutionum Commentarius quartus, sive de Actionibus. Recensuit, &c. Augustus Guil. Heffter, Antecessor Bonnensis. Berolini.

1827.

T

THE golden æra of Roman jurisprudence commences with the empire and ends with the accession of Alexander Severus to the throne. During this time, as is well known, no branch of study met with more encouragement than jurisprudence.

Among those who gave to this period a lustre unequalled in any other age or country are Servius Sulpitius, Offilius, Labeo, Sabinus, Julianus, Gajus, Papinian, Paulus Ulpian, Modestinus. Those of their works which have reached us are not less remarkable for the purity of style, than for the acuteness of reasoning, and for the diffusion of those liberal and philosophical views which gave to the Roman jurisprudence an everlasting influ ence over the whole civilised world. Unhappily, however, the most important of their works are lost, and we should even have been ignorant of their existence, if the commission charged by Justinian to form a code of laws had not preserved a collection of fragments, which, even in their mutilated state, command at the present day the admiration of the learned jurisconsults of Europe.

In this collection of fragments there are 536 of Gajus, whose opinions we find also quoted four times in the fragments of other jurisconsults. He lived under the emperors M. Aurelius and Commodus, and had written a work entitled "Institutionum Commentarii," and also another "De Rebus quotidianis," the first of which was highly estimated, not only by his contemporaries, who used it as a manual in the schools of law, but also by the lawyers in the time of Justinian-so much so, that Trebonianus confesses that he composed his Institutiones chiefly after those of Gajus. Many centuries elapsed without finding the original work, the loss of which was much felt by all writers on Roman law. At length (in 1816) Niebuhr, while on his travels to Italy, succeeded in discovering this treasure in Verona. The library of the chapter in Verona possesses many important manuscripts in parchment, among which are:

1. Codex membranaceus rescriptus, olim xv. nunc xiii.; in which, under some writings of St. Hieronymus, were found the Institutiones of Gajus.

2. Folium singulare membranaceum, containing a treatise on the laws of prescription and interdicts, likewise written by Gajus.

3. Folia membranacea duo, quæ tamen inter se cohærent, containing a fragment of an old jurisconsult on the "Right of the Crown."

The fragments contained in Nos. 2, 3, were discovered first by Maffei, and mentioned in his Verona Illustrata, Parte terza, Verona, 1732, 8vo. cap. 7. p. 464, but did not obtain great attention.

In the year 1816, however, Niebuhr, when passing through Verona, examined different manuscripts, and discovered that MS. No. 1 was a rescript, and by using a chemical process he brought to light the hidden

treasure;

treasure; he copied a portion in haste, and sent it to Professor Savigny at Berlin.

This celebrated jurisconsult made known the important discovery to the literary world by his excellent review on historical jurisprudence; and the government of Prussia, in order to have a copy of the whole, sent two learned men, Professors Beckker and Goeschen to Verona; these gentlemen were afterwards joined by Professor Hollweg, who, animated by a love of science, proceeded to Verona at his own expense.

It is unnecessary to describe their mode of proceeding in copying and re-establishing this treasure of antiquity, the genuineness of which is fully proved, not only by a comparison with the Institutiones of Justinian, with the Breviarius of Alaric, but also principally by the fragments quoted in the digests and in the Mosaicarum et Romanarum Legum Collatio, in which the identity of the original text and of the quoted fragments is completely established.

Two other manuscripts of the same work were discovered (at Vienna and Vercelli), the collation and examination of which enabled the editors of the works prefixed at the head of this article to restore the text of Gajus so much, as to render it useful both to the historian and the jurist. They enriched it by learned notes and commentaries, to which we refer those of our readers who are interested for a branch of knowledge, which is not less essential to the man of classical acquirements, than the acquaintance with the history of Rome, of which, indeed, the most important part consists in its legislature.

C. Odofr. Muelleri de Phidia Vita et Operibus cum Tabula are expressa, qua signa adumbrantur quæ fuerunt in Portico Hecatompedi fastigio. Goettingæ. 1827.

THE works of this ingenious and most accomplished German scholar deserve to be more known in this country. They are of the highest importance to the history and mythology of Greece. His archæological researches, particularly those referring to the history of the fine arts among the Greeks, display extensive erudition and acute observation. The Germans have done much in these departments; the works of Meyer, Hirt, Boettiger, Thiersch, Welcker, and Schorn ought to be in the hands of every Greek scholar. The work before us contains three dissertations, which were read to the Royal Society of Sciences at Goettingen. The first is a biographical sketch of Phidias, and establishes beyond doubt that Phidias began to embellish Athens with his works of sculpture, in Olymp. 82 or 83, when Pericles was

Tά; that he finished in the third year of Olymp. 85, the statue (Xguosλspávrivov) of Minerva for the Parthenon; that the Elians, when the name of Phidias had become known all over Greece for the splendid works he had executed at Athens, induced him to come to Elis, and that he made there the statue of the Olympian Jupiter, between Olymp. 85, a. 3, and 86, a. 3.; and, finally, that after his return to Athens, Phidias was thrown into prison by the enemies of Pericles, on a charge of peculation and impiety, and that he died in prison, in the first year of Olymp. 87, in which year the last work of Pericles the Propylees had been finished. The second shows the state of the fine arts before Phidias, and to what height they were carried by his genius. The third gives a new explanation of the statues on the western front of the Parthenon at Athens, which, we hope, Colonel Leake, Cockerell, and other competent men of our country, will take the trouble to examine. The word yiygarra, in the Schol. ad Æl. Aristid., applied to statuary, seems a stumbling-block to us; there might have been a painting in the Acropolis, perhaps in the waxon, to which

the

the words of the scholiast could refer; but the explanation of our author luckily does not depend on this passage.

Deycks, F. de Megaricorum Doctrina, ejusque apud Platonem atque Aristotelem Vestigiis. Bonnæ. 1827.

AN interesting and valuable treatise on the Megaric School of Philosophy. It is divided into two parts: 1. Megaricorum historia. 2. Megaricorum doctrina. Another private lecturer, at Bonn, Dr. Brandis, has published, in the Rhenish Museum, an excellent treatise on Socratic Philosophy. The history of Greek philosophy has been considerably enriched by the diligence and acuteness of these scholars.

Sammlung Architectonischer Entwürfe, von Schinkel; enthaltend theils Werke welche ausgeführt, theils Gegenstände deren Ausfuhrung beabsichtigt wurde. Berlin. Gr. Quer. folio, Erstes-Sechstes heft.

SCHINKEL is the great architect of Berlin. The style of this master is purely classical, yet his designs are not so much copies of the antique, as a tasteful adaptation of its forms and details, so as to impart a considerable degree of piquant originality to his compositions, which are admirable examples of grandeur and richness of decoration combined with simplicity,of unity of character joined to variety. The principal divisions are boldly marked and well contrasted, and there is at the same time a repose and soberness that serve as a relief to the embellishments, and heighten their effect.

The New Theatre and Museum are indisputably his two finest works; and for purity of style, yet decided originality, will not suffer by a comparison with any modern edifices. The first, which is entirely insulated, has four fronts, somewhat varied in design, but still preserving throughout that unity of character so essential in every work of art, and so conducive to grandeur of effect. The principal façade has in its centre an exceedingly noble hexastyle portico of the Grecian Ionic order, fluted, the ascent to which is by a lofty and magnificent flight of steps, the height of the basement. This certainly imparts an air of great majesty and dignity to the edifice, yet is not altogether adapted to a northern climate: in order, therefore, to obviate this objection, the architect has ingeniously contrived a covered carriageway beneath the portico. The pediment has an alto-relievo representing Niobe and her children: within the portico itself are antæ, corresponding with the columns in front; and between these, and also on each side the portico, and on the other sides of the buildings, are two series of lesser antæ, the intercolumns of which form windows. Above the portico, but not immediately over it, rises a superstructure consisting likewise of antæ, and crowned by a second pediment filled with sculpture, and surmounted by a colossal figure of Apollo in a car drawn by two-winged griffins. There are likewise statues on the pediment of the portico, and on the pedestals at the extremities of the steps. The details are throughout exceedingly chaste and beautiful, the general outline bold and striking, the various features well proportioned to, and contrasted with each other; and harmony of character pervades the whole. The effect of the temple-like superstructure, with its roof extending in one unbroken line, in the centre of the building, is exceedingly classical and chaste. Indeed the whole structure is conceived in so grand a gusto,-so much in the spirit of antiquity, without betraying anything that can be deemed mere imitation, that it has more the air of some fabric designed by an artist for some classical historical landscape composition, than the creation of a modern architect. And here it may not be altogether irrelevant to ask how it happens that on can

vass, in theatrical decorations, or in mere designs, we often witness such purity and elegance of taste, while in actual buildings we have generally to regret the absence of these qualities? Is it because architects disdain to study picturesque combinations, whether of form or light and shade; or because in what may be considered mere fancy designs, they give a scope to their taste? Whatever be the reason, we believe it must be acknowledged that the finest specimens of architectural taste will be found buried in portfolios. M. Schinkel at least must be admitted to have been exceedingly fortunate, for he has not only been employed on works of great magnitude, but, as it should seem, has been permitted to follow the impulses of his own genius, unfettered by those restraints which so often mar and cripple excellent designs. There have not, however, been wanting critics who have affected to censure the theatre of Berlin. It has been ob jected that there are too many windows, all the intercolumns between the antæ being glazed; and it is related as a current anecdote, that strangers ask what could possibly induce his majesty to build such a vast greenhouse in such a situation. But a joke is not valid criticism; for the most masterly productions of art may be turned into ridicule by a jest or a sneer, The Museum, which is situated between two branches of the Spree, opposite the royal palace, with the arsenal and new palace bridge on one side, and the cathedral and new Frederick's bridge on the other, will, when completed-which it is expected to be in the course of the present year-be one of the most splendid repositories for works of art, that any city can boast.

The plan of the edifice is a parallelogram, measuring two hundred and seventy-six feet by one hundred and seventy. The principal elevation, namely, that towards the palace, consists of a single colonnade of eighteen Ionic pillars, and two antæ, forming a continued portico twenty-one feet in width.* This is placed upon a solid terrace, or substructure, about twelve feet high, in the centre of which is a flight of steps occupying the width of seven intercolumns; and within the portico, the five middle intercolumns are open, so as to admit a view into the vestibule and staircase, which are separated from the portico itself merely by a dwarf screen, one-fourth the height of the columns, producing thereby a beautiful intricacy and picturesque variety, without at all disturbing the general simplicity of the design. On each side of this inner colonnade, the upper part of the wall of the portico will be decorated with a very large fresco painting, beneath which will be bas-reliefs. The effect of these paintings, as seen between the columns, will produce a very rich and gay effect. Passing through the vestibule we enter a large rotunda, sixty-seven feet in diameter, having a colonnade of twenty Corinthian pillars supporting a gallery communicating with the upper floor. This truly noble and elegant hall is lighted, after the manner of the Pantheon, by a large aperture in the centre of its vaulted dome, which window is twenty-three feet in diameter, and glazed with glass of such extraordinary thickness as to be able to support the weight of a person standing upon it on the outside. Antique statues will be placed here, both between the columns and in niches in the gallery above. Immediately communicating with the rotunda, is a gallery, occupying nearly the whole of the back-front of the museum, two hundred and four feet long by thirty wide; the ceiling of which is supported by twenty columns.

* Above the columns in front is the following inscription, in gold :- Fredericus Gulihelmus III. Antiquitatis omnigenæ et artium liberalium Museum constituit, MD,CCC,XXVII,' The word omnigena was not used by the pure latin writers before the time of Apuleius.