never failed on the most trying occasions. These qualities appeared particularly meritorious when displayed by so young a man, as he was not then twenty-six. In 1771, his services were acknowledged by the title of Minister Plenipotentiary, and he continued ever after in full employment as a negotiator. In 1772, he was sent as Plenipotentiary to the Court of Berlin; and, after holding this appointment four years, was despatched, in 1777, to Petersburgh. The negotiations there, which terminated in the formation of the armed neutrality, gave scope to all his dexterity and address. In 1784, he was sent to Holland, where he eminently distinguished himself during the troubles of 1797, and was supposed to have mainly contributed to the wishedfor restoration of the power of the Stadtholder. He was decorated with honours by the King of Prussia and the Prince of Orange; and, on the 19th September 1788, was rewarded at home with the peerage, under the title of Baron Malmesbury of Malmesbury, in the county of Wilts.

The occasion on which Lord Malmesbury came most conspicuously before the eye of the public, was when he was appointed to conduct the negotiations opened by Mr Pitt with the French Directory at Lisle and Paris. His lordship was placed here in a very new and trying situation. He had to deal with persons, who were not only strangers to the rules and courtesies of diplomatic intercourse, but freed from the restraints of honour and principle, and ready to embrace every means of taking advantage of an opponent. This was strikingly exemplified in their publication of a pretended intercepted letter from his lordship, in which his views, and those of his government, were studiously represented in the most odious light. Lord Malmesbury lost no time in indignantly repelling this calumny. Both negotiations failed-a

circumstance necessarily unfavourable to the popularity of his lordship with a large proportion of the public. Those, however, of both parties, who examined the subject, were obliged to admit, that the failure had arisen from the too high ground taken either by one or the other party, and not from any blame on the part of the negotiator.

His lordship, being now advanced in years, spent the rest of his days in retirement. He edited, in 2 vols. 4to., an edition of his father's works, with a well written life prefixed. He married, in 1777, Harriet Mary, daughter of Sir George Amyard, Bart., by whom he had three sons and two daughters. His death took place in London on the 21st November, 1820, in the 75th year of his age.

In France death triumphed over two of Buonaparte's commanders, who, though they did not occupy the very foremost place, were yet eminentKELLERMANN and LEFEBVRE. The former was a complete veteran, being born at Strasbourg in 1735. In 1752, he entered the army as a common soldier; but, in the great German war, in 1758, distinguished himself so much, that, even at that era, he was raised to the rank of officer. He afterwards distinguished himself in the Polish campaign. No farther opportunity offered of displaying his military talents till 1791. He made himself conspicuous here by his attachment to republican principles, denounced the incivism of the other officers, and, at Landau, received a civic crown, for having induced the soldiers to frequent popular societies. In August 1792, he obtained the command of the army of the Moselle, where he formed a junction with Dumourier; and, having occupied the position of Valmy, maintained it with such vigour against an attack of the enemy, as to make this be considered the most brilliant action in the

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 honours 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 passages 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 Oxford, 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, however, 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,