sion. At all times perfectly master of his subject, he conveys his ideas to his readers with a clearness, an ease, and elegant simplicity, which render his works, in our opinion, models of philosophical composition.
Of the other articles in this part of the Supplement, the first is Australasia. A vague idea had long prevailed among European geographers, that an immense continent existed beyond the limits of discovery in the south, and extended even to the pole. To this imaginary continent they gave the name of Terra Australis Incognita. Though later researches have proved that there is no such continent, or at least that it can only be of a moderate size, and enclosed by impenetrable barriers of ice, yet in the three great oceans in the south of the globe, there have been discovered almost innumerable islands, which demanded, of course, some systematic arrangement. With this view, the President de Brosses proposed that the lands and islands in the Austral world should be divided into three portions, those in the Indian ocean, and in the south of Asia, to be named Australasia; those in the two Pacifics, Polynesia, from the number of islands; and those in the Atlantic, to the south of Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope, Megallanica. Under the name of Australasia, the writer of this article comprehends—1. Notasia, or new Holland—2. Van Diemen's Land—3. Papua, or New Guinea—4. New Britain, New Ireland, and neighbouring islands—5. Solomon's Islands—6. New Hebrides—7. New Caledonia—8. New Zealand, and isles to the southward—9. Kerguelen's Islands, or Islands of Desolation—10. St Paul and Amsterdam—11. Numerous reefs and islets of coral scattered over the Australasian sea.—After this enumeration, the three last particulars of which have seldom been classed by geographers under the name of Australasia, though they are so classed with evident propriety, the author proceeds to give a pretty full account of each of them, in the order in which they are named. One considerable advantage this article possesses, in consequence of its being so lately published. When the corresponding article in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia was written, it was known that Captain Flinders had ascertained Van Diemen's Land to be a large island separated from New Holland by a strait between one and two degrees in breadth that, in a subsequent voyage, he had circumnavigated New Holland and that, in a still later voyage, he had made many important discoveries. It was known that, after losing his ship, he had pet sail for England with his papers, plans, and charts of discovery, when he was most shamefully detained at the Isle of France; and that, in spite of an order for his liberation, procured in consequence of an application by the Royal Society of London to the National Institute of Paris, the governor refused to permit him to depart. When the article in the Supplement was written, it could be stated, that after a captivity of seven years, he had at length arrived in England in 1810, and published, in 1814, his discoveries in two volumes, accompanied with an atlas of charts, which may be held forth as models in maritime surveying. Captain Flinders has completed the survey in detail of the coasts of New Holland, with the exception of the west and northwest coasts, which he was prevented from exploring by the loss of his ship. It is to be hoped, that the local government of New South Wales will take an early opportunity of completing the survey in which Flinders was so unfortunately interrupted. In this article, too, are recorded the still more recent, and no less interesting, discoveries, made in the interior of this vast island by Mr Evans and Governor Macquarrie. The country, according to their accounts, was in all respects delightful, still improving as they penetrated westward, and holding out the most inviting prospects to future colonists. Little more is added, in this article, to the information which we already possessed respecting the islands of Australasia, excepting the discovery of a few islets to the south and south-west of Lord Auckland's group.
The next article in the Supplement is Austria, a new account of which was rendered indispensably necessary, by the recent events in which that empire bore so conspicuous a share. It begins with a very rapid sketch of the recent history of Austria, and to the account of the same events given in the corresponding article in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, it has to add this unexpected and wonderful circumstance, that in consequence of the downfall of Napoleon, Austria is now
