Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/261

Rh and produced various works, one of which brought him prominently before the public. This work, Marcus Sextus (Louvre), exhibited at tho Salon of 1799, excited wild enthusiasm, partly due to the subject—a victim of Sulla’s proscription returning to Rome to find his wife dead and his house in mourning—in which an allusion was found to the actual situation of the émégrés. Guérin on this occasion was publicly crowned by the president of the Institute, and before his departure for Rome (on the re-establishment of the Ecole under Suvée) a banquet was given to him by the most distinguished artists of Paris. In 1800, unable to remain in Rome on account of his health, he went to Naples, where he painted the Grave of Amyntas. In 1802 Guérin produced Phedra and Hippolytus (Louvre); in 1810, after his return to Paris, he again achieved a great success with Andromache and Pyrrhus (Louvre) ; and in the same year also exhibited Cephalus and Aurora (Collection Sommariva) and Bonaparte and the Rebels of Cairo (Versailles). The Restoration brought to Guérin fresh honours; he had received from the first consul in 1803 the cross of the legion of honour, and in 1815 Louis XVIII. named him Academician. The success of Guérin’s Hippolytus, of Andro- inache, of Pheedra, and of Clytzemnestra (Louvre) had been ensured by the skilful selection of highly melodramatic situations, treated with the strained and pompous dignity proper to the art of the first empire ; in /Mneas relating to Dido the disasters of Troy (Louvre), which appeared side by side with Clyteemnestra at the Salon of 1817, the in- fluence of the Restoration is plainly to be traced. In this work Guérin sought to captivate the public by an appeal to those sensuous charms which he had previously rejected, and by the introduction of picturesque elements of interest which, even now, distract attention from the artificial man- nerism too painfully apparent in his treatment of tragic subject. But with this work Gucrin’s public successes came to aclose. He was, indeed, commissioned to paint for the Madeleine a scene from the history of St Louis, but his health prevented him from accomplishing what he had begun, and in 1822 he accepted the post of director of the Keole de Rome, which in 1816 he had refused. On returning to Paris in 1828, Guérin, who had previously been made chevalier of the order of St Michel, was ennobled. He now attempted to complete Pyrrhus and Priam, a work which he had begun at Rome, but in vain ; his health had finally broken down, and in the hope of improvement he returned to Italy with Horace Vernet. Shortly after his arrival at Rome Baron Guérin died, on July 6, 1833, and was buried in the church of La Trinita de’ Monti by the side of Claude Lorraine. A careful analysis and criticism of his principal works will be found in Meyer’s Geschichte der Franzdsischen Malerei, but his life has not yet been made the subject of special treatment.  GUERNSEY, the second in size of the Channel Islands, is situated between 49° 25’ and 49° 31’ N. lat. and between 2° 30’ and 2° 41’ W. Jong., 30 miles W. of Normandy, and SL miles 8. of Portsmouth. The total area at low water is estimated at 15,560 aeres, or rather more than 24 square miles, and of this about 10,000 acres are under cultivation. Gradually rising from the north to the south, the island attains its maximum elevation of 349 feet above mean tide at Hant Nez, above Point Icart. According to J. A. Bird’s “Geology of the Channel Islands” in The Geological Magazine, London, 1878, it consists geologically of threc very unequal portions, one characterized by a very felspathic syenite and gneiss, another by a hornblendic “ granital,” and a third by a micaceous syenite. The felspathic portion yields magnificent crystals of felspar, surpassing those of the porphyritic granites of Cornwall or Cumber- land; and the hornblendic portion occasionally affords crystals of black hornblende in similar perfection. No Secondary or Tertiary rocks are found in position, but post- Tertiary clays containing flints are found all round the island and even on its summit, and Mr Bird is disposed to assign them to the interglacial period of submergence. The soil of Guernsey is generally a light sandy loam, and the subsoil consists for the most part of angular gravel, except in certain places occupied by a curious clay, chiefly composed of a silicate of alumina, which proves destructive to vegetable life. While the island does not grow sufficient grain for its own consumption, it has a large export of fruits and other garden produce. Parsnips were formerly one of the principal items, but they are now less extensively culti- vated, having been supplanted by potatoes and turnips. Grapes, which were exported to the amount of 50 tons in 1873, are the source of an increasing trade. Granite is largely shipped at St Sampson. For administrative purposes Guernsey is united with Alderney, Sark, Herm, and the adjacent islands in the baili- wick of Guernsey. The island proper is divided into the ten parishes of St Peter Port, St Sampson, Vale, Catel, St Saviour, St Andrew, St Martin, Forest, St Peter du Bois, and Torteval. The administration is under the supervision of a lieutenant-governor appointed by the crown; and the parliamentary assembly consists of a bailiff, twelve jurats, a procureur or attorney-general, the beneficed clergy, and twelve delegates elected by the people. Taxation is very light, and the annual revenue amounts to about £10,000. Ecclesiastically the island is a deanery of the Winchester diocese of the Church of England. The only town of any great importance is St Peter Port on the eastern coast. In 1861 it had a population of 16,388 (6968 males and 9420 females), and in 1871, 16,166 (6731 males and 9435 females). The sea frontage of the town extends for about a mile, and is protected in nearly all its length by a wall with an esplanade. On the improvement of the harbour, which was begun in the 13th century by order of King Edward I., a sum of £285,000 has been expended since 1854. Itis formed by two piers, which enclose an area of 73 acres, the southernmost of the two running out to Castle Cornet and then sending out a breakwater for about 3000 yards. The whole of the works are of the most massive description. Among the principal buildings of the town, which has been greatly improved by the formation of a new street from the harbour up to the hill, are the Government house, the court-house, Elizabeth college, the town hospital, St Stephen’s church built in 1866, the Roman Catholic church designed by Pugin, and the new vegetable market constructed at a cost of £16,000. On the higher ground above the town is a monument in memory of the Queen’s visit to the island in 1846, and on the pier there was erected in 1863 a monument to the Prince Consort by Mr Durham, a copy of the monument in the gardens of the Horticultural Society at South Kensington. St Sampson, which is the only port besides St Peter Port, is situated at the castern end of the Braye du Val, a depression which at no distant date used to form an arm of the sea at high tides, cutting the island into two unequal parts. The harbour accommodation has been improved at St Sampson contemporaneously with that of St Peter Port. To the south of the latter is the strong fort of St George’s with barracks for 5000 men, and smaller forts, batteries, and martello towers are to be found on suit- able points all round the coast. By the old Guernsey laws, all the male popnlation from sixteen to sixty are obliged to serve in the militia; but the custom of paying exemption fines has gradually become so common that the real force is very far below its nominal limit. Guernsey is both populous and wealthy, and the wealth is very evenly distributed among the people. In 1873 the assessment value of the town parish was