1796.] Original Anecdotes. - Lebrun. Marivetz.. Claviere, &c. 559 In No. IV, page 305, col. ii, line 25, for 3n (min) read 3n (n-m.) ***The Effays by I. W. and fCYGNI are deferred for want of room in this No.-PALAMEDES swill please to obferve, that there is no fuperfluity in Question XII, it being intended for a cafe, in which the balloon and two obfervers are not in the fame vertical plane. When they are all in such plane, then indeed two observers are sufficient. and this cafe has been refolved elsewhere. ORIGINAL ANECDOTES AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. [This article is devoted to the reception of Biographical Anecdotes, Papers, Letters, &c.and we request the Communications of fuch of our Readers as can assist us in these objects.] ANECDOTES OF PERSONS CONNECTED WITH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [Continued from our last.] LEBRUN, ORIGINALLY known by the name of Pierre-Marie Tondu, was ad dicted in his early youth to astronomy, and remained at the Royal Obfervatory, under Caffini, until 1778. He foon after became the editor of a newspaper, celebrated for its early communication of foreign occurrences, and the diplomatic talents of its conductor. Shortly after the revolution, he was introduced by the Briffotins into the administration, and became minister for foreign affairs. In this situation, he difplayed all the resources of a fubtle and intelligent mind, and had his agents in every court of Europe; in short, he was deemed the most able man, in point of real business, in the whole council. On the triumph of the Jacobins, he was obliged to conceal himself; and has often been known to flip, towards the evening, from his lurking place, difguifed under a black wig, and, a shabby artout, in order to procure sustenance. As he was unprovided with a civic-card, he was not entitled to purchase bread. This circumstance also subjected him to the interrogatories of every centinel, and to imprisonment in every guard-house he happened pened to pass by. After living fome time in constant danger, he was at length seized, confined, and tried. He was born at Noyon, and decapitated at Paris in the 48th year of his age. Capet and his wife, and one who kept up a correspondence with the enemies of the state." CLAVIERE While Was a native of Gereva, whence he was driven into, exile, on the prevalence of the party he had opposed. yet a private man, he attained great celebrity by his knowledge of the resources and revenues of France, and was conftantly confulted by Mirabeau, who was indebted to him for much of his reputation. Being a leading member of the Jacobin Club, he was introduced to Louis XVI, and became minifter of finance. On the overthrow of the Girondists, he was arrested, and prevented his public execution by suicide. He is faid to have been the author of the affignats, a plan which has changed the face of France, and seems likely to effect a total change in the whole European systems AUBERT DUBAYET, A revolutionist in every sense of the word; for, after affifting in the troubles of his native country, he has been both officially and personally zealous to light up a new flame on the shores of the Archipelago. It is of the utmost importance for France, to induce the Sublime Porte to declare against Ruffia: the very probability of this event, has indeed been eminently serviceable to the republic, as it has hitherto confined the operations of the empress to empty threats, and ineffectual bravados. Aubert du Bayet, lately a member of the administration, has accordingly been employed by the Directory, in a diplomatic character, on a miffion to Confantinople, for the express purpose of effecting a breach between the Greek Cross and the Turkish Crefcent. This ambassador was furushed with the crown jewels, jewels, to bribe the Divan; and with engineers and tactitians, to instruct and direct its armies. The annihilation of Poland has not only destroyed the balance of power, but actually endangered the political existence of the Turks as an European nation. In addition to this, it is the interest of France that there should be. a counterpoise in that quarter to the three great partitioning powers. Is Poland, then, to be entirely blotted out from the map of free states, and lose even its name? Or shall we behold that republic which, under John Sobreski, fuftained Europe during the eruption of a horde of fanatic Muffumans, arifing, phænix-like, from its athes, more vigorous than before? CERUTTI Was a man of letters, amiable in his man ners, gentle in his deportment, and poffeffed of the happy faculty of adapting his talents to the capacines of the mul. titude. This circumstance rendered him. peculiarly proper to fuperintend a popular work, and we accordingly find him un commonly successful in a paper called La Feuille Villageoife, which he coutrived to render tout-a-tous. This publication appeared every Thursday, and had an extenfive circulation throughout all France, and more especially the southern departments. In Lyons, which abounds with manufacturers, it was much read; and the Revolution is not a little indebted for its popularity, to the labours of this enlightened citizen, who died with an unstained reputation, while in the height of his glory. On the demise of Cerutti, the Feuille Villagecife was configned to the care of Grouvelle and Guinquené, both of them men of talents. As this paper is now before me, I shall exhibit an idea of the manner in which it was carried on, under their management, from No. 34, Thursday, 23d May, 1793: SPECIMEN OF A COUNTER-REVOLUTION. "A HINT TO REPUBLICANS. "11th January, 1382. "The inhabitants of Paris rose on the ft of March, 1382, in consequence of the taxes; this was the third revolt during the reign of Charles VI on the same subject. "Charles, who had careful'y diffembled his defire of vengeance, arrived, on the 10th of January, 1382, at St. Denis, where he offered up thanks to God, on account of his victory over the Flemings, at Rosbecq; 25,000 of whom had been left on the field of battle. "The Provost of the merchants, and some others of the chief burgesses, were imprudent enough to repair thither to faute the victorious king, and to request him to enter bis capital. The monarch accepted the invitation, and on the next day, marching in at the head of his troops, he overturned the barriers, cut down the gates, took poffeffion of the princital parts of the city, and inftantly feized and imprisoned 300 of the most respectable inhabitants. "A goldsmith and a draper were both hanged; Nicholas Fiamel, another infargent, was beheaded; and John Desmarais, a respectable magistrate, thared the fame fate. On this, feveral of those who were confined, killed themselves, to avoid a public execution; and most of those who neglected to do so. either were privately put to death in the prisons, or thrown into the river during the nights. "This tragedy being ended, the people were assembled in the court before the palace, and the king having feated himself on his throne, the Chancellor repri. manded them in a set speech, for their frequent revolts and rebellions. On this, knowing the bloody disposition of the court, they were afraid of being mafiacred by the foldiery; but the dukes of Berry and Burgundy, falling at the monarch's feet, his majesty granted to such of the prisoners as were still alive, a free pardon. They were accordingly restored to liberty, but they were stripped of nearly all their fortune. "Charles VI did not stop here; he increased the imposts according to his own caprice; and robbed the rich merchants, one time under pretext that they had. excited the revolt, and at another, that they had not opposed it. But these taxes and confiscations enriched neither the state nor the king, for the courtiers, the officers of the army, &c. (the financiers) seized upon the whole. "Citizens of the French Republic! ye who have written, acted, and spoken against royalty, and in behalf of liberty; ye who have acquired ecclesiastical and national property, or any thing appertaining to the emigrants; ye who have poffefsed any authority, or exercised any functions during the present Revolution; ye who may even chance to have a few aflignats in your pockets, learn from this authentic historical document, what will be your lot, 1796.] Original Anecdotes.---Lavoisier...Wallot...Laharpe. lot if you should ever cease to employ your ability and talents in support of the infant Republic!" This newspaper was published at Paris, and cost only nine livres a year. Had Cerutti lived until the monarchy of Maximilian I, he would have been then profecuted on account of his talents and his virtues. It was lucky for him perhaps, that he died before he witnessed the excesses that disgraced-not the revolution-but the authors of those atrocities. The massacres of the priests and nobles, in September; the civic baptifms, or drownings in the Loire; and the excess of punishment inflicted on the wretched infurgents of Lyons, by means of cannister and grape-shot, attach only to the perpetrators. All kings do not refemble our Henry VIII; nor do all Republicans emulate the vices of Collot D'Herbois and M. Robespierre! Lavoifier was a farmer-general, and a member of the Academy of Sciences: the former circumstance proved fatal to him, he having been executed under pretence of taking a larger rate of interest than that allowed by the law, with an intention, as it was said, of affifting the enemies of his country. His friends, on the other hand, affert, that he fell a martyr to the avarice and envy of his opponents. He was executed on the 19th Floreal (8th May), 1794. WALLOT. Also a man of science, and one of the last victims of the Robespierrean tyranny, was MONTHLY MAG. No. VII. 561 a native of the Palatinate, but he had fettled in France, where he cultivated aftronomy for fome years. In 1768, he accompanied Cassini to America, in order to observe the longitudes of different stations, and try the marine time. pieces. He was beheaded on the 27th of July, 1794; had his execution been but delayed a few hours longer, he would have been inevitably faved, as the guillotine severed the head from the body of his persecutor, Maximilian Robespierre, on the succeeding day! LAHARPE. The little territory extending from the lakes of Yverdon and Morat, to that of Geneva, and known by the name of the Pays de Vaud, is governed by the aristocratical canton of Berne, with a degree of oppreffive insolence that has more than once excited insurrection. It is there, that a haughty Bailli exercises a plenitude of authority not always delegated to the viceroys of Kings; and that a fenate, formerly praised by J. J. Rousseau for its " wisdom," not unfrequently brandishes the iron rod of unrelenting despotifm. It was in this subsidary state, that General Laharpe happened to be born, in 1754; and it was here he retired, after having acted for fome years as an officer in the army of the States-General, in one of those regiments whose services, in imitation of the German despots, are fold by Berne for money, to any country whose inhabitants may be deemed unfit to defend themselves. Agriculture, philosophy, a good wife, and a numerous family, were at once the enjoyments and the recompence of a spotless life, and he might have lived happily on his little patrimony until now, had not the French revolution occurred, and led him to believe that individual enjoyment was difhonorable, unless connected with public liberty. In short, that great event taught him and his countrymen, as it has taught. all Europe to think, and it was impoffible to exercise that faculty, without recollecting that they were the subjects of men, who arrogated no higher title than that of citizens. On the flight of Louis XVI, the Bernois indulged themselves in a childish joy; on his capture, and also on the 14th of July succeeding, the inhabitants of the Pays de Vaud retaliated with a fête, and celebrated the latter event by means of a fraternal banquet, at which the cap of 4 C Liberty, liberty, the ancient symbol of Swiss freedom, was displayed. The people of Berne, forgetful of the cause for which their ancestors, under William Tell, had fought and conquered, and only alive to fufpicion, the constant companion of injustice, marched 5000 men into the little territory under their dominion, and glutted that vengeance, by means of fiscal rapacity, which the fword could not attain. Laharpe, among others, escaping from the pursuit of the soldiery, was condemned in his absence, unheard: the sentence was decapitation. Thus proscribed, not by his native country, but by foreign rulers, he fled into France, and resuming his original profeffion, diftinguished himself, in 1791, by the defence of the Château de Radernack, which being afterwards ordered fimply to evacuate, on account of the approach of a superior force, he contrived to carry away the cannon in the face of the enemy, and to accomplish a masterly retreat, without the lofs of a single man. Being next invested with the command of Bitche, he contrived to inspire the garrifon with a heroic resolution, and actually preserved that important fortress to the republic. He afterwards affifted at the recapture of Toulon, and was raised on that occasion to the rank of general of brigade. In 1795, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops destined for Corfica, but was prevented by unforeseen circumstances from repairing thither. In confequence of one of those sudden changes, so incidental to all revolutions, and more especially to that of France; he was first suspended, and afterwards dismissed the service. The crimes alleged against him were, that he was a" Jacobin," and had been heard to fing "ça-ira!!!" Accusations like these, of course came to nothing, and he was accordingly restored, and raised to the rank of a general of division. On this he repaired to the army of Italy, and shared in its laurels; and it is not a little remarkable, that at the brilliant action at Lodi, he took a regiment of Swiss prifoners, among whom were several of the very Bernois who had proscribed him, but he never uttered a reproach against them; on the contrary, he treated them as if they had been allies, and addressed them by the endearing title of " countrymen." After a most brilliant and successful mancœuvre, by means of which he achieved the passage of the Po, he was killed by his own troops, who mistook his escort of dragoons, for a body of Austrian marauders. COUNT DE PRECY, OR PERCY. This unfortunate nobleman, by taking part with the privileged orders, loft both his property and his life. The first was forfeited by emigration; the second ensued in consequence of the vengeance of his countrymen. Having left France, and repaired to Hamburgh, the count de Percy remained there with many of the ancienne nobleffe, until what they deemed the "call of honour," brought them into the field of action. This "call" is said to have proceeded from the mouth of an English fecretary at war, and, alas! it proved fatal to a number of gallant men, who in his own unfeeling, but emphatic language, "were killed off!" Yes! it was at Quiberon, that the Sombreuils, the de Percys, and the heads of fome of the most ancient families of France, found their graves! Amidst the neglect of their allies, and the tears. even of their enemies, their dead bodies were at length allowed to take poffeffion of that mother earth, which, when living, they had fighed after in a foreign country, and in the last moments of their existence had moistened with their blood and their tears! Where is the generous breast, whatever may be the political principles that dwell within, which does not mourn their untimely end, and lament that fuch gallant foldiers should have rushed on their deftruction, and brought down vengeance on their own heads, by the desperate infatuation of choofing rather to confider themselves nobles, than as men? 3ool you DOTTEVILLE. To dissolve the monoply of knowledge, and rescue the ancients from the exclufive poffeffion of the schoolmen, is a task, or rather a duty, which has been fulfilling ever fince the invention of printing: its entire completion was, however, referved for the present day. The French republic, in particular, holds out rewards, for fuch men of talents as may be inclined to give modern translations of the claffics, and Dotteville has lately received three thousand livres, by way of recompence for his version of Tacitus and Salluft, which have indeed appeared long since in a French dress, but being put on during the time of the monarchy, it was apprehended, that it did not always fit the original authors for whom it was intended. [To be continued.] LETTERS 1796.] Original Letters between Doctors Birch and Robertson. 563 THOUGH I have not the good fortune to be known to you perfonally, I am so happy as to be no stranger to your writings, to which I have been indebted for much usefull instruction. And as I have heard from my friends Sir David Dalrymple and Mr. Davidson, that your disposition to oblige was equal to your knowledge, I now prefume to write to you and to afk your affistance without any apology. I have been engaged for some time in writing the history of Scotland from the death of James V to the acceffion of James VI to the throne of England. My chief object is to adorn (as far as I am capable of adorning) the history of a period, which on account of the greatness of the events, and their close connection with the transactions in England, deserves to be better known. But as elegance of Composition, even where a Writer can attain that, is but a trivial merit without historical truth and accuracy, and as the prejudices and rage of factions, both religious and political, have rendered almost every fact, in the period which I have chofen, a matter of doubt or of controversy, I have therefore taken all the pains in my power to examine the evidence on both fides with exactness. You know how copious the Materia Historica in this period is. Besides all the common Historians and printed collections of papers, I have confulted several Manuscripts which are to be found in this country. I am perfuaded that there are still many manuscripts worth my feeing to be met with in England, and for that reason I propose to pass some time in London this Winter. I am impatient however to know what discoveries of this kind I may expect, and what are the treafures before me, and with regard to this I beg leave to confult you. ther the Depeches de Fenelon be ftill preserved or not. I fee that Carte has made a great use of them in a very bufy period from 1563 to 1576. I know the strength of Carte's prejudices so well that I dare say many things may be found there that he could not fee, or would not publish. May I beg the favour of you to let me know whether Fenelon's papers be yet extant and accessible, and to give me some general idea of what Dr. Forbes's Collections contain with regard to Scotland, and whether the papers they consist of are different from those published by Haynes, Anderson, &c. I am far from defiring that you should enter into any detail, that would be troublefome to you, but fome short hint of the nature of these Collections would be extremely fatisfying to my curiofity, and I shall esteem it a great obligation laid upon me. I have brought my work almost to a conclufion. If you would be so good as to suggest any thing that you thought useful for me to know, or to examine into I shall receive your directions with great respect and gratitude. I am with fincere esteem Gladsmuir 19 Sept. 1757. To DR. BIRCH. Dear Sir, If I had not confidered a letter of mere compliment as an impertinent interruption to one who is so busy as you commonly are, I would long before this, have made my acknowledgments to you for the civilities which you was fo good as to thew me while I was in London. I had not only a proof of your obliging disposition but I reaped the good effects of it. The papers to which I got access by your means, especially those from Lord Royston have rendered my work more perfect than it could have otherwise been. My History is now ready for publication, and I have defired Mr. Millar to fend you a large paper copy of it in my name, which I was afraid for some time that Dr. I beg you may accept as a testimony of Forbe's Collections had been loft upon my regard and of my gratitude. He will his death, but I am glad to find by your likewise tranfmit to you another copy Memoirs that they are in the possession of which I must intreat you to present to Mr. Yorke. I fee likewife that the De- my Lord. Royston, with such acknowpeches de Beaumont are in the hands of the ledgments of his favours towards me, as lame Gentleman. But I have no oppor- are proper for me to make. I have tunity of consulting your Memoirs at printed a short appendix of original papresent, and I cannot remember whe- pers. You will observe that there are 4 C2 feveral |