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"Obfervations on the Fufibility of Stones by the Blow Pipe," and directed fome experiments for afcertaining the height of the bed of the Arve.‡

Having gone to Plombiers to use the baths of that place for the benefit of his health, he

-made obfervations on the mountains which he

faw at a distance, and caused specimens of the ftrata which he pointed out to be brought to him. He had announced that he would terminate his travels by giving his ideas relative to the primitive state of the earth. But the more he meditated upon that fubject, the more difficult he found it to form an opinion on those great revolutions which have happened to the globe. In general he was a Neptunian, that is to fay, he attributed the changes the earth has undergone to the operation of water. He alfo admitted the poffibility, that elastic fluids, in difengaging themfelves from fubterraneous cavities, might have raised mountains.

His health gradually declined; but he ftill preferved the hope of re-establishing it. The French government had named him profeffor of experimental philofophy in the central school of Paris, and he did not defpair of being able to fulfil the duties of that honourable fituation. His ftrength, however, was daily exhausted, and a general torpor fucceeded to the vigour which he had always enjoyed. His flow and embarraffed pronunciation did not correfpond to the vivacity of his mind, and formed a strange contraft with the graceful animation by which he was formerly diftinguifhed. It was a painful fpectacle to fee a great man thus fallen, at the age when meditation bears its richeft fruits, and when he would have enjoyed the glory of his labours. All the remedies which medicine, enlightened by philofophy, could afford, were reforted to for his recovery, but in vain-every endeavour was fruitless. Strength and life forfook him by flow and painful steps. Towards the end of the fixth year, his decay, he became more fenfible, and on the 3d Pluviofe, of the 7th year, in the 59th year of his age, he terminated his brilliant career, mourned by a family who loved him, by a country that honoured him, and by Europe, whofe knowledge he had extended.

REVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTES.

Interesting and Original Anecdotes of the French Revolution; to be continued in a regular feries from its commencement to the prefent period, and including its fecret biftory.

THE FALSE EMIGRANT.

IT is fometimes prudent for a man to facrifice his fortune in order to preferve his life. Reffegnier, advocate general in the parliament of Thouloufe, per

Thefe papers were inferted in the "s Fournal de Phyfique,"

ceiving that the clouds of profcription were gathering over the heads of all the members of that great body, which was not free from reproach, conceived a projet fo extraordinary, that it ftands alone in the whole hiftory of revolutionary proceedings.

He determined to go and take refuge in Paris, in a street near the Palais Royal; that quarter of the town, though one of the molt fufpicious, appearing to him one of the leaft dangerous for fufpected perfons; but at the fame time in order to turn afide fufpicion, he refolved to make it appear that he had emigrated, and was refident at London. For this purpofe, he contrived to get letters fent from England to his relations domiciliated at Paris. They were written entirely in his own hand, and contained an account of his mode of life in London, and of his connexions with other emigrants; and entered into fuch minute and circumftantial details, that they carried with them every appearance of truth and authority. Thefe letters were intercepted at Paris, where they remained in the office of the general police.

After the fall of Roberfpierre, Reffegnier folicited his erafure from the lift of emigrants; and in fupport of his request, prefented a certificate of uninterrupted refidence in France, figned by eight witneffes. Those witneffes were taken into cuftody, as guilty of attefting a falfehood ; and the whole affair was fubmitted to a jury of accufation. The original letters written from London by Reffegnier were produced, particularly one of them dated a few days prior to the September maffacres, and the other at the beginning of the month of December following. The poft-mark on the outfide, and the details they contained, bore witness to their authenticity.

On the other hand, feveral witneffes appeared, among whom were the tenant of the house, at which Reffegnier had taken refuge, and a notary public of Vincennes, to whom the fuppofed emigrant had dictated his laft will and teftament, on the very day on which his first letter was written. This will was figned by the teftator, and was defective in none of the customary for.ns of law. In order to leave no doubt of his refidence at Paris, he had repaired on the day on which his fecond letter was dated, to the houfe of the fame notary at Vincennes, and had added a codicil by which he bequeathed an annuity to an old domeftic.

Independently of thefe proofs, which afcertained

afcertained his non-emigration in the most convincing manner, Reffegnier gave an account of the manner in which he had lived at Paris from day to day, of the name he had affumed, of the drefs he had worn, of the connexions he had formed, and of the diftrefs he had undergone. The jury declared that there were no grounds of accufation against the witneffes; and Reffegnier was crafed from the lift of emigrants.

THE PROBABLE CAUSE OF DUMOURIER'S TREACHERY.

EVERY one is agreed as to DUMOURIER'S treachery, but not as to the date of it: fome carry it as far back as the convention he entered into with the King of Pruffia, in the plains of Champaign; others think that it did not begin till the time of his defeat at Nerwinde, a defeat generally disputed, and denied even by the German public papers, which affirm, that on that day not a foot of ground was loft on either fide.

There exifts a third opinion lefs widely diffused but far more probable. It is that of two general officers who had frequent opportunities of feeing DUMOU RIER, and carefully ftudied his conduct. When the commander in chief arrived at Bruffels, there was not fufficient cafh in the military cheft to pay the troops their fubfiftence; nothing remaining but the fum allowed him as fecret fervice money. He communicated his embarraffment to Malus, and Efpagnac: "Do not be uneafy," faid the latter; "only give me half an hour, and you fhall have a fup ply." He went out, and half an hour after returned with a hundred thoufand

crowns.

Shortly after, Malus and Efpagnac were taken into cuftody. This arbitrary act, upon which he had not been confulted, added to his perfonal refentment against Pache, the minifter of war, who counteracted, he faid, all his operations, and to the attacks made upon him by the Jacobins after the fchifm took place between the mountaineers and girondifts, determined him to act the complete traitor; and to give up his army and all France to the coalefced powers, rather than to conquer for the Jacobins. From that moment he gave no more orders figned by his own hand, an adjutant general fent them in his name without adding, according to customary form, the words a true copy. One of the two general officers, by whom shefe particulars are communicated, find

ing himself in an unfavourable pofition, confulted him concerning the steps it would be advifeable for him to take. DUMOURIER Contentented himself with returning this verbal anfwer: Do whatever you think proper.

DUMOURIER was at once, foldier, general, commiffary, and above all defpot in his army. "If a general does not do every thing," he used to fay," he does nothing." This principle is in general true; and has been juftified by the fucceffes of the French armies in Italy; but then it requires generals lefs ready than DUMOURIER to capitulate with circumftances, with the foreign enemy, and with that enemy which a man fometimes carries in his own bofom.

D'ESTAING AND PEYROUSE.

AMONG the victims facrificed to Ro

berfpierre, blind jealoufy and infatiable fury, was d'Estaing, who so often commanded the French fleets and armies, and bled more than once in the fervice of his country. Bold, active, and enterprizing, his name was equally famous in the two Indies, and in two fucceffive wars.

D'Estaing was born of poor parents in a village of the department of Aveyron, that bears his name. According to fome, he was at an early age bound apprentice to a lockfinith, which others with a greater appearance of probability fay that he was bred to the fea. The father lived entirely unknown to the court, and had no means of exiftence but the produce of a few acres of land, which correfponded ill with the grandeur of a fortified castle, whose architecture befpoke the high fortunes of its former inhabitants. It appears that this, man, as careless as the greater part of the' ci-devant country gentlemen, did not know whether he was defcended or not of the great family of the d'Estaings. He was contented to vegetate in poverty, and his fon was the victim of his apathy, till in one of the cellars of the Château, a strong box was difcovered full of old parchments, which had fuffered no injury from time, and which, by afcertaining the origin of the young failor, procured him his promotion to a rank worthy of his birth. Colomb, the phyfician, was prefent at the opening of the box, and it is on this authority that this anecdore is given.

D'Estaing having once broken his parole, and once exchanged himself on his own authority, while in India, during the war that began in 1756, was particu

larly

larly odious to the English officers, when he commanded the French fleet in the ftruggle with the American colonies. It was even doubted, whether quarter would be given him if once more made prifoner. He escaped that fate, but was desperately wounded in the attack upon the English lines at Savannah.

He had acquired in the school of miffortune a taste for ftudy and popular manners, which rendered him a great favourite both in the French army and navy. He was just and firm in command; but he fhewed a much greater predilection for those officers who owed their rank to their, merit, than for those who owed it merely to their illuftrious birth. To the latter he never entrusted any important fervice. "Most of these gentlemen," faid he, "are more fit to make a figure in a boudoir, than in the field of battle." Talents were above all what he fought after. When he was appointed admiral, in the year 1781, and had a carte blanche given him, he took on board his fhip feveral experienced pilots, and masters of merchant veffels from the different ports of France; and disinissed several captains of the navy, who were not well verfed in naval affairs.

D'Estaing punished, with equal rigour, abuses of authority, and breaches of dicipline. Pirchk, colonel of the regiment of Heffe-Darmstadt, and famous for his ty`rannical difpofition, and for his cruelty, was quartered with his regiment at St. Marie aux Mines, near Cadix. It was his cuftom, when a foldier ran the gaunt let, to furround him with a circle of bayonets, fo that the culprit, if he made the leaft falfe ftep, or fhrunk from the ftripes, fell upon their points. D'Estaing, when appointed to the command of the army, would not tolerate this atrocity. He fent for Pirchk, reprimanded him aloud, and exprefsly forbade him in future to exercife fuch horrible tyranny.

fhip's company, who faw in this phænomenon, nothing more than the danger, and the violence of a heavy fea, Pérouse faid to them, "Reft affured that fome revolution is going forward in the globe.. At the first port we put in, at, we shall learn that an extraordinary event has taken place in nature." Accordingly, on their arrival at Toulon, they were informed of the dreadful earthquake at Meffina.

One of the fea-officers, whofe talents and difpofition were the moft analogous to his, was La Péroufe. In the paffage from Cadix to Toulon, after the procla mation of peace, in 1783, the Active which he commanded, leaked in fuch a way as to alarm the whole crew. They reproached themselves with having put to fea in fo old and crazy a veffel. Péroule, by his judicious orders, and the respect he inspired, reftored order, and dispelled their

tears.

During this fame paffage, which lafted forty-eight days, the fea was agitated in

a very uncommon manner: upon perceiving the astonishment and alarm of the

Péroule was one of thofe men whose vast genius embraced the deftinies of all the inhabitants of the globe, round which he failed. He was a friend to the rights and to the liberties of mankind; and treated his officers, failors, and foldiers, as if they had been his brethren. He perished in an expedition worthy of his talents; but did not owe his appointment to those talents alone. It has been faid, that the Maréfchal de Caftries, under whom he was brought up, being jealous of his growing favour at court, contrived to get him fent abroad, on the fervice that coft him his life.

ORIGINAL LETTERS. ORIGINAL LETTERS OF J. J. ROUSSEAU,

Never before published in English.

TO M. DE MALESHERBES.

Montmorency, Dec. 23, 1761. THERE was a time, Sir, when you honoured me with your esteem, and when I did not think myfelf unworthy of it. That time, I am fatisfied, is past; and although your patience and your kindness towards me are inexhaustible, I can no longer attribute them to the fame cause without being moft ridiculously blind. For more than fix weeks my conduct and my letters, have been nothing more than a tiffue of iniquity, folly, and impertinence. I have brought your name and that of Madame la Maréchale* into queftion in the most unworthy manner poffible, You have faid every thing, and done every thing to calm my delirium; and that excels of indulgence, which might have prolonged it, is, in fact, the very thing which has put an end to it. I open my eyes with horror, and perceive what 2 defpicable being I am become. Become! no; the man who, during fifty years, carried in his breaft the heart I feel revive in

mine, is not capable of forgetting himself fo far, as 1 have lately done. It is too late at my age to afk pardon, because it can no longer be deferved; but, Sir, I take no intereft in the perfon who has thus ufurped and dishonoured my name.

*The wife of Marthal Luxembourg.

I

abandon

abandon him to your just indignation; but he is dead, never to revive. Deign to reftore your efteem to him who now writes to you. He cannot do without it, and will never deferve to lofe it. As a guarantee for this he has, not his reafon, but his fituation, which will in future exempt him from violent paffion.

Although neither ought, nor with, Sir, to trouble you farther about Duchefne's bufinefs; and although I defire ftill lefs to justify myself in regard to him, I cannot avoid faying, that if it were true that he had propofed to fend me the clean fheets only, volume by volume, all my alarms, and the noife I have made about them, would then be not only the acts of a madman, but of a knave.

I must also confefs to you, Sir, that I dare not write to Madame la Maréchale. Not knowing to what degree the may be irritated, I know not how to go about making my peace.

with

TO M. DE MALESHERBES.

Motiers, October 26, 1762. PERMIT, Sir, a man so often honoured but who never afked favours; your any of you that were not just and honourable, to folicit one more. Latt winter I wrote you four fucceffive letters concerning the difpofition, and ftate of my mind, the tranquillity of which, I hoped, would not again be disturbed. I defire exceed ingly to have a copy of those four letters, and I think that the fentiments that dictated them deferves this complaifance on your part. I therefore take the liberty of afking for a copy; or if you prefer fending me the originals, I will only request fufficient time to tranfcribe them, and will, if your defire it, return them in a few days. I fhall be the more fenfible of this favour, because it will prove to me that my misfortunes have not diminished your kindness and efteem, and that you do not judge of a man by his destiny.

Accept, Sir, the affurance of my profound respect.

My addrefs is at Motiers-Travers, Comté de Neufchâtel, par Pontcartier. The poftage of letters which are not franked muft be paid as far as Pontcartier.

TO M. DE MALESHERBES.

Paris, November 11. I fhould be much mortified, Sir, were I deprived of the pleafure you promised me, of occupying myself in a manner which might prove agreeable to you, by

* A bookfeller at Paris.

preparing plants to complete your " Hortus Siccus." Being unable to live without the affittance of my labour, I never thought (notwithstanding the pleasure it would give me) of offering you my time without retribution. I will even confefs, that I fhould have been very happy to intermix with the tiresome and fedentary labour of copying, an occupation more to my taste, and more conducive to my healththat of collecting plants for the number of cabinets of natural hiftory, which are forming at Paris; and in which, according to me, the third kingdom, though totally unattended to, is not lefs neceffary than the other two. The making of feveral of thefe collections together would have been more lucrative to me, and would better have defrayed the expence, which diftant excurfions, and admiffion into curious gardens, fometimes require. But the French have, in general, fuch false ideas of botany, and so little taste for the ftudy of nature, that it is vain to hope that this charming part of it will ever tempt them to make collections of this kind. This is therefore a refource that I must not look to. As to you, Sir, who join to knowledge of every kind, a perpetual defire to increase it, I truft you will not deprive me of the pleafure of contributing to your amufements. Send me a memorandum of what you defire, I will collect all I am able; and will receive payment, without reluctance, for whatever I may furnish. With respect to the fmall fpecimen I have already fent you, it is quite a different affair: it confifted of plants that belonged to you. Those I fubftituted in place of fuch as were spoiled were not collected for you: I had only the trouble of taking them out of my own collection; and as I did not offer to bear any part of the expence you were put to by my botanizing, when in your company, it feems to me, Sir, that you ought not to offer payment for what we picked up together, nor for my amuf ing myself, by putting them in fome fort of order, before I fent them away.

Notwithstanding the good accounts you give me of your prefent ftate of health, I am affured that it is not yet perfectly re-established; and unfortunately the enfuing feafon is not favourable for pedeftrian exercife, which I think as beneficial to you as to myself. Winter, as you know, Sir, offers to the botanist plants of a peculiar kind: namely, mosses and lichens. There must be in your parks very curious things of that kind; and I earnestly ex* J. J. Rouffeau fupported himself by copying mufic.

hort

hort you, when you have time, to examine thofe fpecies upon the fpot, and in the proper fealon.

Your refolutions, Sir, being fuch as you mention, I certainly am not the man to difapprove them: an agreeable leifure fo obtained is highly honourable. To perform great duties in elevated fituations; fuch is the task impofed upon men of your profeffion, and endowed with

your talents; but when an individual, after offering to his country the tribute of his zeal, finds it no ufe, he may certainly then be permitted to live for himfelf, and to content himfelt with being happy.

[Thefe letters, fo characteristic of the mind of their celebrated author, will be occafionally continued.]

Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters.

HE laws of Spain juftify killing in is better that a man should defend his own life, than to leave his death to be avenged by his relatives" mayor mientras que vive que fe defenda, que dexar que lo venge depoys fu morte." The laws of Japan, a country which feems to be as far diftant from others in its opinions, as in its fituation, allow no indulgence for felf defence, The only difference they make between that and the most atrocious murder is, that if the aggressor be killed, the survivor fhall be allowed to be his own execu

tioner.

A cafe, upon this point, occurred in Scotland, about 50 years ago, which does no great honour to the judges of that country. A Mr. Cumming was tried in the court of justiciary for the murder of a foldier. The jury found a fpecial verdict, which stated,-That the prifoner and two friends met fome foldiers in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and cafually asked them what it was o'clock: that one of the foldiers having returned an impertinent anfwer, Mr. Cumming faid, "is that an answer to give to a gentleman?" that, thereupon the foldiers drew their bayonets, and the gentlemen their fwords, and a fcuffle enfued: in which Mr. Cumming, in defending himself, killed one of the foldiers. The court, upon this verdict, adjudged Mr. Cumming to be hanged! which was put in execution!-This decifion, however, had fome good effect in Scotland. A trial foon after occurred of Mr. Carnegy of Finhaven, for killing the Earl of Strathmore. Carnegy and the Earl had been at the funeral of a relation. In returning from dinner, where the company had drank pretty freely, Mr. Lyell, one of the party, ufed much infulting language to Mr. Carnegy, and at laft pufhed him into a dirty ditch :-On getting up, Mr. Carnegy drew his fword, and made ♣ push at Mr. Lyell, when he ran behind

Lord Strathmore, who received the thrust

das (the father of the fecretary of state), who was Mr. Carnegy's counsel, strongly preffed it upon the jury, not to return a fpecial verdict, as had been there the cuf tom, and which, in the cafe of Cumming's, had been fo fhamefully abused but at once to declare the prifoner guilty or not guilty. His eloquent and judicious reafoning had the effect, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.

i

Mr. Locke, in his " Efay on Civil Government," (book 11. ch. xviii.) puts a fingular cafe with regard to justifiable homicide:

"A man, with his sword in his hand, demands my purfe in the highway, when perhaps I have not twelvepence in my pocket: this man I may lawfully kill. To another I refufes to reftore me when I am got up again, deliver 100l. only whilft I alight, which he but he draws his fword to defend the poffeffion of it by force, if I endeavour to retake it. The mischief this man does me is a hundred, or poffibly a thoufand times worse than the other perhaps intended me (whom I killed before he really did me any), yet I may lawfully kill the one, and cannot fo much as hurt the other."

Among the many accounts of the difference in the price of provifions in old times, and at prefent, none is more remarkable, and certainly none more authentic, than the following:-but in this, as well as all other details on that fubject, the proper confideration is to be made of the comparative value of money in those times and now.

In the year 1314, a parliament was held on purpose to fix the price of provisions, which was fo enormous that the people could not fupport themfelves. The following were the prices fixed by the legiflature. A ftall or corn-fed ox il. 4s.; a grafs fed, ditto, 16s.; a stalled, or cornfed cow, 12s.; a grafs fed cow, 10s. ; fat sheep, with the wool on, is. 8d.;

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