By the sixteenth article of the Capitulation of Alexandria, it was provided that the Members of the Institute of Egypt might carry back with them all instruments of science and art which they had brought from France, but that all collections of marbles, manuscripts, and other antiquities, together with the specimens of natural history and the drawings, then in the possession of the French, should be regarded as public property, and become subject to the disposal of the generals of the allied army. [Sidenote: THE CONVENTION OF ALEXANDRIA.] The Convention was made between General MENOU and General HOPE, on the 31st of August, 1801. [Sidenote: 1801, August.] Against this sixteenth article MENOU made the strongest remonstrances, but General HOPE declined to modify it, otherwise than by agreeing to make a reference, as to the precise extent to which it should be carried into actual effect, to Lord HUTCHINSON, as Commander-in-Chief. Between MENOU and HUTCHINSON there was a long correspondence. The French General declared that the Collections, both scientific and archæological, were private, not public property. The since famous ‘Rosetta stone,’ for example, belonged, he said, to himself. Various members of the Institute claimed other precious objects; some alleged, with obvious force of argument, that the care bestowed on specimens of natural history made them the property of the collectors and preservers; others threatened to prefer the destruction or defacement of their collections, by their own hands, to the giving of them up to the English army. [Sidenote: THE NEGOTIATIONS AND SERVICES OF COLONEL TURNER.] The correspondence was followed by several personal conferences between MENOU and Colonel (afterwards General) TURNER, in order to a compromise. TURNER, who was himself a man of distinguished knowledge and accomplishments, advised Lord HUTCHINSON to insist on the transfer of the Marbles and Manuscripts, and to yield the natural history specimens, with some minor objects, to the possessors. The astute Capitan Pasha had contrived to place himself in ‘possession’ of one of the most precious of the marbles—the famous sarcophagus which Dr. CLARKE so strenuously contended to be nothing less than the tomb of ALEXANDER—by seizing the ship on board of which the French had placed it, and he gave Colonel TURNER almost as much trouble as MENOU himself had given.