campaign; and the name became afterwards the foundation of his ducal title. He was afterwards successively employed on the Moselle, in the Alps, and at the siege of Lyons. Under the reign of terror, however, he was accused of weakness, and confined for some time in the Abbaye, but was acquitted before the revolutionary tribunal. In 1795, he was appointed to the army of the Alps and of Italy; but, being superseded by Buonaparte, who was to open his career on this theatre, he sunk into the command of the army of reserve. In 1797, he was employed by the Directory in organizing the body of gendarmes. Buonaparte, on coming to power, though he had in some measure superseded Kellermann, found him in some respects a most valuable coadjutor. In all his campaigns, he was employed along the Rhine in organizing the reserves and provisional regiments, and gave so much satisfaction in this capacity, that he received all the ho. nours of that ephemeral empire, being created Duke of Valmy, Marshal of the Empire, and Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. In the revolution of 1814, having adhered to the cause of the Bourbons, he was, on the 4th June, created a peer, and, on the 23d August, had the Grand Cross of St Louis conferred upon him. He was also sent to Metz as Extraordinary Commissary of the King. After retaining his faculties of mind and body to the advanced age of eighty-six, he died on the 15th September, 1820. He left the following letter, addressed to the Mayor of the commune :-"I beg that the Mayor of Valmy will buy me two feet square of earth, to bury therein my heart after my decease. My son will be charged to carry my heart, which cannot be placed but in the midst of my brave brothers in arms who fell on the glorious 20th of September, 1792, and under the safeguard of the brave."

LEFEBVRE was born in Alsace, in 1755, and was the son of a mason. In 1773, he entered into the guards, and rose to the rank of serjeant. Indignant, probably, at occupying a place so inferior to his talents, he embraced with ardour the revolutionary cause, and obtained rapid promotion. In 1793, he was employed as general, and distinguished himself in successive actions. At Charleroy, in 1794, he commanded the right of the army of reserve, and sustained several bloody attacks. He shewed no less courage, first in the pas sages of the Rhine in 1795 and 1796, and afterwards on the retreat which Jourdan was obliged to make. In 1799, he commanded the advanced guard of that general in Suabia, and covered himself with glory at Stockach, where he was seriously wounded. On his return to Paris, he was named one of the candidates for the Directory, and afterwards appointed commandant of Paris. On the arrival of Napoleon from Egypt, Lefebvre yielded to, and aided, all his views, and attained thus the entire confidence of the future emperor. In 1804, he was created Marshal of France, and successively obtained every honour which his master could bestow. In all his campaigns he accompanied him,— at Jena and at Eylau his conduct was particularly noticed. Early in 1807, he was intrusted with the siege of Dantzic, and compelled it to surrender on the 20th May. His conduct on this occasion was so highly approved, that Dantzic was fixed upon as the place from which he was to derive the title of duke, conferred upon him on the 28th May. He accompanied Buonaparte into Spain in 1808; and, during the campaign against Austria in 1809, had the command of the Bavarian troops. Attempting with them to penetrate into the Tyrol, he sustained a signal defeat; but this was always ascribed, not to any failure on the part of the general, but solely to the daring

valour of these hardy mountaineers. Afterwards, he contributed to the gaining of the decisive battle of Eckmuhl. He was employed on the whole of the Russian campaign; and, during the long series of adversity, through which the French passed after that fatal period, he was always on foot in the rear, never quitting his post. After the crisis in 1814, however, he joined in ad

vising Napoleon's abdication; but, in 1815, again embraced the standard of his old master. He was consequently comprehended in the edict of exclusion of the same year, and spent the rest of his life in a species of disgrace. He died on the 14th September, 1820. A few days before his death, he fixed on a place for his tomb beside that of Mas

sena.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS, whose name has for so many years stood in the front of British science, was the son of William Banks Hodgenkson, Esq., of Reresby Abbey, in Lincolnshire, a gentleman of considerable property. The estate had been purchased by the grandfather, with the fruit of his labours in a respectable profession. Joseph, the eldest son, thus enjoyed from his earliest years, leisure and the means of study; and these, which, in others, are only the source of idleness and dissipation, were indefatigably employed by him in extending his own and the public knowledge. After a regular course of education at Eton and Öxford, he was left at full liberty to choose his own line of pursuit. The circumstances of the times, were such as strongly to decide him towards a particular branch of science. Amid the splendour which mechanics and astronomy had derived from the discoveries of the Newtonian school, natural history in England, and even over Europe, had sunk below its natural level. The attractions, how ever, of this interesting branch of knowledge were now beginning to be

felt. The new and scientific form given to it by the creative mind of Linnæus, the exertions made by his disciples in every quarter of the globe, the splendour thrown around it by the eloquence of Buffon, gave to natural history, a pre-eminence in the eye of the public over every other pursuit. The young student, emerging at this moment into intellectual existence, could not resist a science recommended by so many attractions; he devoted himself to the study of it, and particularly to botany. In its pursuit he braved hardships, which few of those who have support and fortune to earn, are willing to encounter. He pursued it over mountain, waste, forest, and thicket. His zeal gave rise on one occasion to a ludicrous accident. An alarm of robbery being given, and the officers of justice being in full pursuit, they found our young botanist buried in a mass of rank vegetation, as if for the express purpose of concealment. They concluded it not doubtful that this must be the culprit, and dragged him before the nearest justice of peace. On examining the spoils, however,

they were found to consist, not of money, plate, or jewels, but of various species of plants and wild flowers. On the rank and character of the supposed thief being explained, every apology was, of course, tendered.

Mr Banks succeeded to his father at the age of eighteen, and went to reside at his native seat. Being fond of the amusement of fishing, he was accustomed to pursue it on the broad surface of Whittlesea-mere, situated in the neighbourhood. This light circumstance led to an important connex. ion, for he here met the late Lord Sandwich in eager pursuit of the same amusement. Afterwards, when engaged in London, they were accustomed to pursue it, sometimes for whole nights, in fishing on the Thames. Lord Sandwich becoming subsequently first Lord of the Admiralty, the intercourse thus formed proved highly beneficial, by securing his cordial co-operation in every project formed for the advancement of science.

Mr Banks's zeal now led him to prosecute knowledge beyond the li mits of Europe. In 1763, he under took a voyage beyond the Atlantic, and surveyed the dreary shores of Newfoundland and Labrador. But a bolder and grander scene of discovery now opened. Under the impulse of that zeal for discovery which animated his late Majesty, an expedition was fitted out to perform, under Lieu. tenant Cook, the circumnavigation of the globe. This was then a very different undertaking from what, chiefly by Cook's exertions, it has since been rendered. The navigators before him had scarcely stripped it of any of its terrors. The very idea still presented to the mind nothing but unknown and dangerous seas, coasts beset by savages, the mortal and almost inevitable ravages of one of the most frightful diseases. That one, who possessed

so fully the means of reclining at home in the lap of ease and luxury, should have braved such a voyage, is perhaps one of the most signal examples of devotion to science, that has ever been given.

Although the expedition, by the skill and enterprize of Cook, was safely steered through the usual perils which beset such an enterprize, the enthusiastic enterprize of Mr Banks, involved him in others that were not foreseen. In sailing along the fright ful and inhospitable coast of Terra del Fuego, he was tempted by the view of a mountain covered with a rich variety of plants. A party being formed, he and Dr Solander set out, but found the route more tedious and difficult than they had expected. They reached the mountain, however, and were amply gratified; but, on their return, though it was midsummer day in this dreary climate, a storm of snow came on, accompanied with a cold so excessive, as gave rise to the most serious danger of perishing. Dr Solander's experi ence enabled him to warn them, that their only hope was to keep awake and moving, and that, if they yielded to the propensity to sleep, which inevitably arises in such circumstances, their fate was certain. Dr Solander was the first to verify his own warning, being overcome with sleep to such a degree, that Mr Banks's utmost exertions were necessary to make him proceed, and thus save his life. During the residence at Otaheite, Mr Banks's figure and manners made him a favourite with the principal people in the island, particularly the ladies. He omitted no opportunity of advancing knowledge, and made important discoveries, even in seas and coasts that had before been repeatedly traversed.

Mr Banks, not satisfied with this adventurous voyage, undertook soon after another to Iceland, which, by the