his solicitude, and who submitted only to the guidance of such as were interested in bringing upon them the miseries of famine. Discouraged by the view of so much folly and ingratitude, the affliction which had now taken possession of his spirits, was venied in his last discourses before the Agricultural Society; and from that time it might have been ap.. prehended that he would never again be tempted to exert his knowledge and zeal for the public welfare. He had a seat however in that celebrated assembly (the Second), which, though it existed only for a few months, will leave such deep traces in the annals of France; which, at the first moment of its meeting, received almost on its knees the same constizution from which afterwards it daily tore some one of the pages; which shrunk under the fall of a throne that it had sworn to support; and, in quitting the scene, appeared wantonly to multiply the chances of anarchy, to the nation for which it had undertaken to hold the reins of government. In this situation he might perceive the wide difference between the calm reasonings which are adapted for the persuasion of the solitary philosopher, and the violent arguments which alone are capable of producing effect upon a numerous body of men. In such meetings, character can accomplish every thing, and knowledge almost no thing; decisions are enthusiastically made in the aggregate, which afterward each individual privately condemns in the moments of reflection; and when a deliberation is opened, no one can foresee to what issue it may be brought by the accumulated sophisms, and the propitious or wayward warmth, of successive speakers, and by the tumultuous agitations of party-spi rit. M. Broussonnet attempted in vain to reclaim the contending factions by proposing conciliatory views; but his mild and insinuating manners were weapons too weak to oppose the universal frenzy, After the events which put an end to the Legislative assembly, he retired to his country-seat near Montpellier; where he hoped at length to enjoy, in the cultivation of his lands, that repose to which he had been a stranger from the time of his yielding to the allurements of ambition. But the moinent had arrived when there was no longer any repose to be expected by whoever had been concerned in public affairs, or had attained to any degree of distinction. In consequence of the revolution of the 31st of May, which gave the preponderance to the most violent of the factions that struggled for power, a great number of the departments revolted: their plans however were badly concerted, and by their failure completed the triumph of the oppressors. Commissioners were now sent into every part of the country, to proceed with rigour against such as had taken an energetic part in those measures: and as Broussonnet had been deputed by his fellow-countrymen (though against his will) to the committee of insurrection at Bourdeaux, and appointed member of a convention which the insurgent departments projected to assemble, he was imprisoned in the citadel of Montpellier; and would soon have had to undergo the same fate as so many other illus rious scholars and virtuous magistrates, if he had not effected his escape in an almost miraculous manner. On this occasion he took refuge with his brother, who acted as a physician in the army of the Pyrenees; and here he for a short time concealed himself, ander the appearance Rr 2 of an inferior physician: but as he knew too well that this expedient could not give him permanent security, he eagerly sought a favour able opportunity of passing the frontiers. One day, on pretence of gathering herbs for the military hospital, he ascended the mountain in a slight dress to avoid suspicion, and accompanied only by some young physicians belonging to the army he found means to escape from their sight at the turn ing of a valley; and after climbing the ruggedest paths, which exposed him least to the risk of being seen, as expeditiously as his strength permitted, he darted forward through one of the outlets. But fresh dangers now awaited him. Even the arrival of night did not allow him to rest, for the appear ance of a French patrol would have been certain death to him; and thus he wandered among the rocks, in a freezing cold, scantily clothed, and without food, having only a Jittle snow to quench his thirst, Starting at the smallest noise, and fearing above all that some of the winding paths might lead him back towards the fatal territory which he had just left. At day break his foot struck against some object, which proved to be a corpse; perhaps that of a wretched exile, like himself, whom dread of the exe. cutioner hurried from his native country. A second night, more terrible than the first, closed in upon him before he had discovered any inhabited place; and it was not till after eight-and-forty hours spent in this manner, and when he was quite overcome with fatigue and want, that he met a poor man who directed and supported him to the nearest Spanish cottage. His sufferings were hardly inferior, in pursuing his journey to Madrid: on foot, without money, and almost without clothes, he offered himself as an assistant to several village-barbers, for no other reward than his victuals, but was refused. Fortunately, in the bosom of political associations there exists an association of a different nature, which aims at rendering service to them all, without taking part in their continual dissensions." The true friends of the sciences, at the same time that they yield to no class of men in feelings of patriotism, are also united among themselves by the same general ties that attach them to the great cause of humanity. The mere mention of M. Broussonnet's name, and a knowledge of his situation, were sufficient to procure him a kind reception, protection, and assistance of every sort, from all votaries of science, without distinction of country, religion, or political engage ments. Messieurs Cavanilles and Ortega, in particular, received him with open arms at Madrid; but no one displayed more eagerness and delicacy in serving him than sir Joseph Banks. As soon as he learnt the flight of his old friend, he im mediately took every active and precautionary measure for securing to him not only a refuge but an honourable subsistence, in case of his being still further pursued by dangers, as the turn of affairs about this time rendered possible. This kindness proved of more early uti lity to the subject of it, than M. Broussonnet himself could have anticipated; nor did the persecutions which the latter had still to undergo, proceed from the quarter that he dreaded. Spain was already the resort of numerous French emigrants who had left their country at a previous stage of the revolution, and the political principles of these made them averse to associate with one who had borne an active part in the innovations innovations which they had themselves opposed. They determined therefore to get rid of him; and in consequence of their suggestions he was first banished to Xeres, and afterwards embarked at Cadiz in an English vessel which being met by two French frigates that were cruising off St. Vincent, he was compelled to take refuge at Lisbon. But even here he did not venture to land openly, lest he should incur new persecution., M. Correa de Serra, a celebrated botanist, obtained from the duke de la Foens (a prince of the blood), president of the Academy of Sciences of this city, permission to conceal him in the house of that society; and though this was still a sort of a prison to him, how much he must have preferred it to that of Montpel lier! He slept in the library of the academy; and there he past his time in learning the Portuguese language, and in making valuable extracts from ancient manuscripts containing the narratives of the ear. liest voyages performed by that once enterprising people. The emigrants at the court of Portugal however, by means of com. munications from those of Madrid, discovered him in this concealment. He was now subjected to the in terference of the inquisition, on pretence of having been a freema son; the prince who protected him was publicly accused of jacobinism in a pamphlet; and matters proceeded so far, that Broussonnet was glad to assume the character of physician in the train of the ambassador-extraordinary from the United States to the emperor of Morocco. What severe reflections on human nature, and on the springs which actuate the machinery of nations, must have arisen in the mind of the man who thus found himself reduced to the necessity of seeking some degree of perso nal safety in Morecco, for the crime. of having thought that one of the most refined communities in Europe was competent to bestow on itself a rational constitution! Yet it was here that he again found. happiness, in finding repose, and resuming his original studies;-and. here he received intelligence of the change that took place in the political sentiments of his countrymen, and of their exertions to re-establish a regular system of government. But the excesses which he had personally witnessed among them, had made too terrible an impres sion on his imagination, to allow him to confide in these first ap.. pearances of tranquillity; and accordingly, after obtaining of the directory the erasure of his name. from the list of emigrants, he employed all the influence of his friends to procure his return to Morocco in the character of consul. Being subsequently driven from this post. by the plague, he was appointed consul at the Canary islands; and, as if he thought he could never be far enough from his country, he finally solicited the consulship at the Cape of Good Hope. A mi-. nister who was one of his relations, and who has always felt a tender interest in the concerns of the school in which they both were pupils, was obliged to ase a sort of violence, for the purpose of determining him to accept a situation in that establishment. It must be acknowledged that botany, which had again become the favourite pursuit of Broussonnet, had a considerable share in his motives for desiring to live abroad. During the whole period of his residence at Salee, Mogadore, Morocco, and Teneriff, he employed his leisure moments in studying the plants of those places; and the interesting observations. which he frequently sent home, were were well adapted to atone for his absence. But whatever importance might characterize his researches, they were still of too particular a nature. The proper post for such a man as Broussonnet, was a professor's chair; from which his genius and activity might extend the general domain of science, as much as his eloquence would diffuse a taste for it: and natural history it self, as well as merely the school of Montpellier, was indebted to the hand that brought him back whol ly to their service. During the short period that he was professor at Montpellier, he succeeded, by the assistance of M. Chaptal's protection, in rendering the pupil garden of the school there an object of admiration to botanists, by the order which he introduced into it, and the number of plants that he collected. His lessons attracted a great concourse of students; he had resumed his original labours on the animal kingdom; and he hoped to retrieve the loss of those fifteen years which a single error in his conduct had nearly rendered useless to science and to his fame, when his ca. reer in both was cut short in the prime of life. His last illness was one of those which always surprise us, however common they may be it was perhaps brought on by grief for the loss of his wife, and the sufferings of his daughter (whom he tenderly loved) in childbed; and a fall which he had received in the Py. renees, doubtless contributed to its production. He one night sustained a slight stroke of apoplexy: but under the care of his brother and M. Dumas his colleague, he soon recovered the use of his limbs and his senses; and even his memory, which had formerly been so prodigious, A single point of the latter failed him he was never af terward able to pronounce or write correctly substantives and proper names, either in French or Latin; though he retained a perfect command over the rest of both these languages. Epithets and adjectives presented themselves to his mind in abundance; and he contrived to multiply them in his discourse, in such a striking manner as to make himself understood If, for instance, he wished to speak of any particular person, he described his appearance, his qualities, and his occupation; or if of a plant, he described its form and its colours. He recognised the name when point. ed out to him in a book, but it never occurred to him spontaneously. His case suggests a curious questions concerning the nature of memory: Whether this incomprehensible faculty is divided into diffeferent and independent departments, in which ideas are distributed according to grammatical classes, instead of being connected by the sensations from which the ideas. themselves flow? His health continued to amend daily, till the 21st of July 1807, when a coup de soleil reduced him to an incurable state, and ultimately put an end to his life after six days passed in the agitations of a convulsive lethargy. On opening his head, it was found that there had been a large ulcer on the surface of the left side of the brain, but which had healed to the extent of two-thirds: this probably was the cause of his first attack, and would have healed entirely if a fresh accident had not occured to prevent it. An affection not uncommon in war. mer climates, proceeding from exposing the head to the too powerful heat of the sun. FOREIGN ITALY. FOREIGN LITERATURE. A very simple contrivance has been invented by M. Fabroni, for transforming any good common balance into an hydrostatic balance. It is a moveable column, which being placed in a vessel proper for the purpose, beneath any balance whatever, provided it be exact, renders it capable of giving specific gravities, without the necessity of recurring to the extraordinary and expensive methods with which the machines now called hydrostatic balances are attended. M. Gonzatti has discovered a liquid which instantaneously extinguishes fire. The following experiments were publicly made with it at Venice. Some resin and oil were set fire to, and scarcely had a few drops of this liquid been poured on the flame, when it immediately disappeared, leaving behind not the least trace of fire. Billets of wood, besmeared with pitch and resin, and afterwards dipped in this liquid, resisted the action of the hottest fire, to which they were exposed for several hours. The inventor affirms, that a few applications of this composition to wood-work would preserve it from all danger of fire. He has not thought fit to publish the manner in which this composition is prepared; but it is probable that a solution of alum, pot-ash, and vitriol, is one of the ingredients. By a decree of the government of Lucca, a school of sculpture is to be established at Carrara, to which will be granted revenues for founding prizes, and for assisting young sculptors. The celebrated sculptor Canova has erected a funeral monument to his friend and fellow citizen, Gio vanni Volpato, an eminent engraver. It consists of a beautiful marble tablet, sculptured in demirelievo, and representing the por trait of the artist; before him, Friendship, seated, mourns the loss which she has sustained. The bust is placed on a cippus, or the shaft of a column, supported by a simple pedestal, and adorned with a garland. Friendship, personified under the form of a young and beautiful female, is in a pensive and sorrowful attitude. She is raising to her eyes a corner of her garment to dry her tears. The drapery is well contrived; withstanding its fullness, and the quantity of folds, it shows the contours of the figure. The portrait of Volpato is a striking resemblance; and the whole composition combines grace with simplicity. It is to be placed in the vestibule of the church of the Apostles. not By an imperial decree, the museum of sculpture, of Turin, is to be restored. M. Spalla has been appointed director, and sculptor to the emperor, with a pension of 6000 francs. |