NOTICE SUR M. VILLEMAIN

P. v.I. 5. Planche (Joseph) [1762 — 1853]; has left a Greek dictionaiy which enjoyed considérable réputation when first published, although it bas now long been superseded.

I. 10. LucE DE Lancival (Jean Charles JuUien) [1764 — 1810]. His most celebrated work is a poem entitled Achille à Scyros.

1. 13. concours général... Ûvo. annual compétition between ail the Paris collèges for prizes on literary and scientific subjects.

1. 16. FoNTAXES (Louis Marcellin de) [1757 — 1821], président of the Corps Législatif {\%oj,),gx^nà. masterof the university(i8o8 — 1815). After having been one of the most obsequious flatterers of Napoléon, he allied himself to the cause of the Bourbons, and was created a peer of France by Louis XVIIL His works, both in prose and ha poetry, are remarkal3le for the extrême polish of the style, but they are déficient in vigour. The best of his poems entitled Le Jour des Morts is an imitation of Gray's Elegy written in a coiintry chiirchyard ; his Eloge de Washington, pronounced in 1800 at a military ceremony in the Hôtel des Livalides, attracted the notice of Bonaparte, then first consul. "M. de Fontanes prononça en un langage étudié, mais superbe, Téloge funèbre du héros de l'Amérique " (Thiers).

1. 16. Montaigne (Michel de) [1533 — 1592], the celebrated author of the " Essais."

V Académie Française. The French Academy was founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635; it consists of forty members.

1. 29. Fabre (Marie Joseph Victorin) [1785 — 1831], a second-rate littérateur (Eloge de Boileaii, 1805; Eloge de F. Corneille, 1808; Tableau Littéraire du XVIII' siècle, 1810, etc.).

Droz (François Xavier Joseph) [1773 — 1850], "écrivain estimable," says M. Bouillet. His best work is a history of the reign of Louis XVI. (3 vols. 8°, 1839 — 1842), in which he shews that the French Révolution might hâve been prevented, or guided into the channel of xnoderate liberalism.

J.\Y (Antoine) [1770 — 1854], a joumalist on the libéral side. The boldness of his attacha against the Bourbons in la Minerve (1818) sent him to prison. He wrote a history of Cardinal Richelieu (181 5, 2 vols. 8").

1. 33. SuARD(JeanBaptiste Antoine) [1734 — 1810], knownespecially as the translator of Robertson's historical works ; a large number of news-

paper articles, biographical notices, and éloges composed by him, hâve been reprinted in a collected form under the title Mélanges de littérature (5 vols. 8°, 1803 — 5).

1.'34. Narbonne (Louis de) [1755 — 1813], minister of war under Louis XVI. (December, 1791 — March.ijgî). aide-de-camp of Napoléon, and ambassador at Vienna; took part in the congress of Prague, and in the négociations at Torgau. See M. Villemain's interesting notice of him in the Souvenirs contemporains (T histoire et de littérature. Séries i.

Constant de RebecqÛe (Henri-Benjamin) [1767 — 1830], distinguished as a politician and a writer, was on intimate terms with Madame de Staël and ail the leaders of the libéral side. Has left a great number of political brochures and other works. {De La Religion, 1824—31, 5 vols. 8°; dit Polythéisme Romain, 1833, 2 vols. 8*"). The most celebrated of his compositions is a novel entitled Adolphe, 1816, 8°, "Sèche analyse du cœur humain dans une situation donnée" (Haag). See an excellent article on him in La Fraiice Protestante, vol. III. ; also Sainte- Beuve's Cciuseries du Lundi and Portraits conteinporains.

P. vi. 1. 23. La Sorbonne, originally a collège founded in Paris by Robert de Sorbon [1201 — 1274], now the building where the professors of the Ydcài, facultés give their lectures.

1.24. M. GuizoT (François-Pierre-Guillaume) [1787 — 1874], had been appointed lecturer pn modem histor)' in 181 2.

1. 39. Louis XVIIL (Louis Stanisles Xavier, comte de Provence) [1775 — 1824], brother of Louis XVL and of Cliarles X.

1. 42. Decazes (Elle, duke) [17S0 — 1860], m.inister of the interior during the reign of Louis XVIIL (1818 — 1820), ambassador in England (1820—21), peer of France; a libéral and accomplished statesman.

P. vii. 1. 3. Roger (François) [1776 — 1842] has written afew amusing comédies.

1. 5. Dacier (Bon Joseph) [1742 — 1833], distinguished as a scholar and an archœologist. Published a translation of jLlian and of Xenophon's Cyi-opœdia.

doyen, senior membgr.

1. 8. Mai (Angelo) [17S2 — 1854], cardinal (1838), librarian at the Vatican, and known throughout Europe for his palœographic studies and classical publications.

1. 16. ViLLÈLE (Jean Baptiste Séraphin Joseph, count de) [1773 — 1854], one of the cleverest but most unpopular ministers during the Restoration. Was président of the council from 1S22 till 1828, vvhen the libérais having obtained a majority in the élections, the cabinet was compelled to resign,

1. 19. Lacretelle (Jean Charles Dominique) [1766 — 1855] has left several historical works of considérable ment. "Il racontait," says M. Vinet, " avec une élégance animée l'histoire du dix-huitième siècle, celle du seizième, et les annales de la révolution à peine endormie dans les bras d'un grand capitaine."

1. 20. Chateaubriand (François Auguste, viscount) [1768 — 1848], the greatest French prose-writer of the présent century. His Atala (1801), Le Génie du Christianisme (1802), Les Martyrs (1809), Mémoires d' outre-tombe (1849 — 5°)) ^re fuU of beauties of the highest order.

NOTES. %i

Charles X. (Charles Philippe, count d'Artois) [1757 — 1836], King of France in 1824, dethroned in 1830, was the fourth sou of the Dauphin Louis, son of Louis XV.

1.24. CousiN'(Victor)[i792 — 1867], equallycelehrated asametaphysician and as a writer, was tlie founder of the French eclectic school of philosophy. The list of liis numerous works includes contributions to history {La jeunesse de Madame de Longurcdlle, Aladame de Sablé, Madame de Chevretise, etc.)i gênerai literature {Dît Frai, du Beau, du Bien, etc.), and classicallore {Abelardi opéra, çXc.), besides éditions of Plato and Descartes, lectures on metaphysical science, ete.

1. 25. Le Globe was a libéral newspaper founded in 1874 by Messrs Dubois, Duvergier de Hauranne, and other distinguished members of the opposition. From being a doctrinaire periodical, it soon drifted into Saint-Simonism under the influence of IVI. Pierre Leroux.

1. 28. ÉVREUX (in L. Ebroiciv^ Âledidanum Auletiorum), aticiently the capital of the AuL-rci-Eburovices. The department of which it is the cliief town takes its name from the river Eure.

1. 30. l'Adresse des 221. In conséquence of the àppointment of an ultra-royalist ministiy under the presidency of Prince Polignac (Xov. 1829), the 221 members of the opposition in the chamber of deputies voted an address to the king (March 16, 1830) strongly condemning the course adopted by the govemment.

1. 37. , Louis Philippe, king of the Freneh (1773 — 1S50), son of Philippe-^^a///4 duke d'Orléans.