Dumeril and Duvernay, he published, in 1802, his ‘Leçons d’Anatomie
Comparée,’ in two volumes, octavo, afterwards extended to five. These
are singularly lucid and exact, and form the most complete work on the
subject which has yet appeared.

The next important publication we have to notice, is one in which he
embodied the results of his extensive researches in a very interesting
field of inquiry, concerning the remains of extinct species of animals
which are found enveloped in solid rocks, or buried in the beds of
gravel that cover the surface of the earth. We are disposed to think his
‘Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles’ the most important of his works,
the most illustrious and imperishable monument of his fame. The quarries
in the neighbourhood of Paris abound in fossil bones; and he had great
facilities for collecting the valuable specimens which were almost daily
discovered in the ordinary working of the quarry. When he went to Italy,
he had an opportunity of seeing animal remains of the same sort procured
by the naturalists of that country from their native soil, and preserved
in their museums. His attention became now specially attracted to the
subject; and having accumulated materials from all parts of the world,
he announced the important truths at which he had arrived in the work
above-mentioned, in four quarto volumes, in the year 1812. A new
edition, enlarged to five volumes, appeared in 1817, and in 1824 it was
extended to seven volumes, illustrated by two hundred engravings. No one
who was not profoundly skilled in comparative anatomy could have entered
upon the inquiry with any prospect of success; and Cuvier not only
possessed that qualification, but was singularly constituted by nature
for the task. His powerful memory was particularly susceptible of
retaining impressions conveyed to it by the eye: he saw at a glance the
most minute variations of form, and what he saw he not only never
forgot, but he had the power of representing upon paper with the utmost
accuracy and despatch. It is very seldom that the entire skeleton of an
animal is found in a fossil state: in most instances the bones have been
separated and scattered before they were entombed, and a tusk, a jaw, or
a single joint of the back-bone is very often all that is met with, and
frequently too in a mutilated state. But an instructed mind like that of
Cuvier was able to re-construct the whole animal from the inspection of
one fragment. He had discovered by his previous researches such a
connexion between the several bones, that a particular curvature, or a
small protuberance on a jaw, or a tooth, was sufficient to indicate a
particular species of animal, and to prove that the fragment could not
have belonged to any other. The ‘Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles’
have made us acquainted with more than seventy species of animals before
unknown.

The preliminary discourse in the first volume is a masterly exposition
of the revolutions which the crust of the earth has undergone:
revolutions to which the animal creation has been equally subject. It is
written with great clearness and elegance, and is so much calculated to
interest general readers as well as men of science, that it has been
translated into most of the European languages. The English translation,
by Professor Jameson, published under the title of ‘Essay on the Theory
of the Earth,’ has gone through several editions.

In his examination of the fossil bones found near Paris, Cuvier was led
to inquire into the geological structure of the country around that
capital. He assumed M. Alexander Bronguiart as his associate, and the
result of their joint labours is contained in one of the volumes of the
work now under consideration, in an Essay on the Mineralogy of the
Environs of Paris. This essay formed a great epoch in geological
science, for it was then that the grand division of the tertiary
formations was first shown to form a distinct class. A new direction and
a fresh impulse was thus given to geological investigations; and many of
the most important general truths at which we have now arrived in this
science, have been established by discoveries to which the essay of
Cuvier and Bronguiart led the way.

In 1817 appeared the first edition of the ‘Règne Animal,’ in four octavo
volumes, one of which was written by the celebrated naturalist
Latreille. This work gives an account of the structure and history of
all existing and extinct races of animals: it has subsequently been
enlarged. Cuvier began, in conjunction with M. Valenciennes, an
extensive general work on fishes, which it was calculated would extend
to twenty volumes. Eight only have appeared; for the embarrassments
among the Parisian booksellers, in 1830, suspended the publication, and
it has thus been left incomplete; but a great mass of materials was
collected, and we may hope that they will yet be published. In addition
to these great undertakings, he had been for years collecting materials
for a stupendous work, a complete system of comparative anatomy, to be
illustrated by drawings from nature, and chiefly from objects in the
Museum at the Jardin des Plantes. Above a thousand drawings, many
executed by his own hand, are said to have been made. Looking back to
what he had already accomplished, and considering his health and age,
for he was only in his sixty-third year, it was not unreasonable in him
to hope to see the great edifice erected, of which he had laid the
foundation and collected the materials. But unfortunately for the cause
of science it was ordered otherwise, and there is something particularly
touching in the last words he uttered to his friend the Baron Pasquier,
and in sounds, too, scarcely articulate, from the malady which so
suddenly cut short his career—“_Vous le voyez, il y a loin de l’homme du
Mardi (nous nous étions rencontrés ce jour là) à l’homme du Dimanche: et
tant de choses, cependant, qui me restaient à faire! trois ouvrages
importans à mettre au jour, les matériaux préparés, tout était disposé
dans ma tête, il ne me restait plus qu’à écrire._” “You see how it is,
how different the man of Tuesday (we had met on that day) from the man
of Sunday: and so many things too that remained for me to do! three
important works to bring out, the materials prepared, all disposed in
order in my head, I had nothing left to do but to write.” In four hours
afterwards that wonderfully organized head had become a mere mass of
insensible matter.

Besides the works above enumerated, and many memoirs in the transactions
of the scientific bodies of Paris, he has given to the world, in four
octavo volumes, a History of the Progress of the Physical Sciences, from
1789 to 1827, which evince his genius and extensive erudition. The first
volume is a reprint of a report which he presented, as Perpetual
Secretary of the Institute, to Napoleon, in 1808, on the Progress of the
Physical Sciences from 1789 to 1807. In the same capacity, during
thirty-two years, he pronounced the customary Eloges upon deceased
members of the Institute. These are collected in three octavo volumes,
and bear witness to the versatility of his genius and the extent of his
attainments; for whether he is recording the merits of a mathematician,
a chemist, a botanist, a geologist, or the cultivator of any other
department of science, he shows himself equally conversant with his
subject.

He lived at the Jardin des Plantes for nearly forty years, surrounded by
the objects which engrossed so great a portion of his thoughts, and
there received every Saturday the men of science of Paris, and all
others who visited that capital from any part of the world. Professors
and pupils met in his rooms to listen with instruction and delight to
his conversation, for he was accessible to all. Although compelled to be
a very rigid economist of his time, he was so goodnatured and
considerate, that if any person who had business to transact with him
called at an unexpected hour, he never sent him away; saying, that one
who lived so far off had no right to deny himself. Every thing in his
house was so arranged as to secure economy of time: his library
consisted of several apartments, and each great subject he attended to
had a separate room allotted to it; and he usually worked in the
apartment belonging to the subject he was at the moment engaged with, so
that he might be surrounded with his materials. His ordinary custom,
when he returned from attending public business in Paris, was to go at
once to his study, passing a few minutes by the way in the room where
his family sat; which latterly consisted of Madame Cuvier and her
daughter by a former marriage. He came back when dinner was announced,
usually with a book in his hand; and returned soon after dinner to his
study, where he remained till eleven. He then came to Madame Cuvier’s
room, and had generally some of the lighter literature of the day read
aloud to him. Sometimes the book selected was of a graver cast, for it
is said that during the last year of his life he had the greater part of
Cicero read to him. His manner was courteous, kind, and encouraging:
every one who took an interest in any subject with which Cuvier was
familiar, felt assured that he might approach him without fear of
meeting with a cold or discouraging reception.

He had four children, but lost them all. The last taken from him was a
daughter, who was suddenly carried off by consumption on the eve of her
marriage. He was most tenderly attached to her, and it required all the
efforts of his powerful mind to prevent his sinking under the blow. He
found distraction by intense thought on other subjects, but not
consolation, for the wound never healed.

On Tuesday, the 8th of May, 1832, he opened his usual course at the
College of France, with a particularly eloquent introductory lecture,
full of enthusiasm in his subject, to the delight of his numerous
audience. As he left the room he was attacked with the first symptoms of
the disease which was so soon to prove fatal: it was a paralytic
seizure. He was well enough, however, to preside the next day at the
Committee of the Council of State, but that was the last duty he
performed. He died on the following Sunday, leaving behind him an
imperishable name, which will be held in honour in the most advanced
state of human learning.

[Illustration: Skeleton of the Megatherium.]

                                  RAY.

John Ray, whom Haller describes as the greatest botanist in the memory
of man, and whose writings on animals are pronounced by Cuvier to be the
foundation of all modern zoology, was born on the 29th of November,
1628, at Black Notley, near Braintree, in Essex. His father was a
blacksmith, who availed himself of the advantages of a free grammar
school at Black Notley to bestow upon his son a liberal education. John
was designed for holy orders; and was accordingly entered at Catherine
Hall, Cambridge, in his sixteenth year. He subsequently removed to
Trinity, of which college he was elected a Fellow, in the same year with
the celebrated Isaac Barrow. In 1651 he was appointed Greek Lecturer of
his college; and afterwards Mathematical Lecturer and Humanity Reader.

In the midst of his professional occupations Ray appears to have devoted
himself to that course of observation of the works of nature, which was
afterwards to constitute the business and pleasure of his life, and upon
which his enduring reputation was to be built. In 1660 he published his
‘Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium,’ which work he
states to be the result of ten years of research. He must, therefore,
have become a naturalist in the best sense of the word—he must have
observed as well as read—at the period when he was struggling for
university honours, and obtaining them in company with some of the most
eminent persons of his own day. Before the publication of his catalogue,
he had visited many parts of England and Wales, for the purpose chiefly
of collecting their native plants; and his Itineraries, which were first
published in 1760, under the title off ‘Select Remains of the learned
John Ray,’ show that he was a careful and diligent observer of every
matter that could enlarge his understanding and correct his taste. His
principal companion in his favourite studies was his friend and pupil,
Francis Willughby.

  _Engraved by H. Meyer._

  RAY.

  _From an original Picture
  in the British Museum._

  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
    Knowledge.

  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
]

In December, 1660, Ray was ordained Deacon and Priest at the same time.
But the chances of preferment in the church of England, which his
admirable talents and learning, as well as the purity of his life and
the genuine warmth of his piety, would probably have won for him, were
at once destroyed by his honest and inflexible resolution not to
subscribe to the conditions required by the Act of Uniformity of 1662,
by which divines were called upon to swear that the oath entitled the
Solemn League and Covenant was not binding upon those who had taken it.
Ray was in consequence deprived of his fellowship. The affection of his
pupil, Willughby, relieved him from the embarrassment which might have
been a consequence of this misfortune. The two friends from this time
appear to have dedicated themselves almost wholly to the study of
natural history. They travelled upon the Continent for three years, from
1663 to 1666; and during the remainder of Willughby’s life, which
unfortunately was terminated in 1672, their time was principally
occupied in observations which had for their object to examine and to
register the various productions of nature, upon some method which
should obviate the difficulty of those arbitrary and fanciful
classifications which had prevailed up to their day. In the preface to
his first botanical attempt, the Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, Ray
describes the obstacles which he found in the execution of such a
work;—he had no guide to consult, and he had to form a method of
arrangement, solely by his own sagacity and patience. At that period, as
he says in his ‘Wisdom of God in the Creation,’ “different colour, or
multiplicity of leaves in the flower, and the like accidents, were
sufficient to constitute a specific difference.” From a conversation
with Ray a short time before his death, Derham has described the object
which the two friends had in their agreeable but laborious pursuits.
“These two gentlemen, finding the history of nature very imperfect, had
agreed between themselves, before their travels beyond sea, to reduce
the several tribes of things to a method; and to give accurate
descriptions of the several species, from a strict view of them.” That
Ray entered upon his task, however perplexing it might be, with the
enthusiastic energy of a man really in love with his subject, we cannot
doubt. “Willughby,” says Derham, “prosecuted his design with as great
application as if he had been to get his bread thereby.” The good sense
of Ray saw distinctly the right path in such an undertaking. There is a
passage in his ‘Wisdom of God,’ which beautifully exhibits his own
conception of the proper character of a naturalist: “Let it not suffice
us to be book-learned, to read what others have written, and to take
upon trust more falsehood than truth. But let us ourselves examine
things as we have opportunity, and converse with nature as well as
books. Let us endeavour to promote and increase this knowledge, and make
new discoveries; not so much distrusting our own parts or despairing of
our own abilities, as to think that our industry can add nothing to the
invention of our ancestors, or correct any of their mistakes. Let us not
think that the bounds of science are fixed like Hercules’ pillars, and
inscribed with a _ne plus ultra_. Let us not think we have done when we
have learnt what they have delivered to us. The treasures of nature are
inexhaustible. Here is employment enough for the vastest parts, the most
indefatigable industries, the happiest opportunities, the most prolix
and undisturbed vacancies.” It is not difficult to imagine the two
friends encouraging each other in their laborious career by sentiments
such as these; which are as worthy to be held in remembrance now that we
are reaping the full advantage of their labours, and those of their many
illustrious successors, as in the days when natural history was, for the
most part, a tissue of extravagant fables and puerile conceits.

In 1667 Ray was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society; and he executed,
about that time, a translation into Latin of his friend Bishop Wilkins’
work, on a philosophical and universal language. In 1670 he published
the first edition of his ‘Catalogue of English Plants;’ and in 1672
appeared his ‘Collection of English Proverbs;’ which he probably took up
as a relaxation from his more systematic pursuits. In this year he
suffered the irreparable loss of his friend Willughby. The history of
letters presents us with few more striking examples of the advantages to
the world, as well as to the individuals themselves, of such a cordial
union for a great object. The affection of Ray for Willughby was of the
noblest kind. He became the guardian and tutor of his children; and he
prepared his posthumous works for publication, with additions from his
own pen, for which he claimed no credit, with a diligence and accuracy
which showed that he considered the reputation of his friend as the most
sacred of all trusts. In 1673, being in his forty-fifth year, Ray
married. Willughby had left him an annuity of £60. He had three
daughters. During the remainder of his long life, which reached to his
77th year, he resided in or near his native village, living contentedly,
as a layman, upon very humble means, but indefatigably contributing to
the advancement of natural history, and directing the study of it to the
highest end,—the proof of the wisdom and goodness of the great Author of
Nature.

The most celebrated of Ray’s botanical publications is his ‘Synopsis
Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum.’ Sir James Smith, in a memoir of Ray,
in Rees’s Encyclopædia, declares that of all the systematical and
practical Floras of any country, the second edition of Ray’s Synopsis is
the most perfect. The same writer, in the Transactions of the Linnæan
Society, vol. iv., says of this Synopsis, “he examined every plant
recorded in his work, and even gathered most of them himself. He
investigated their synonyms with consummate accuracy; and if the
clearness and precision of other authors had equalled his, he would
scarcely have committed an error.” Ray’s ‘Methodus Plantarum Nova,’
first published in 1682, has been superseded by other systems; but the
accuracy of his observations, the precision of his language, and the
clearness of his general views, tended greatly to the advancement of
botanical science. His ‘Historia Plantarum,’ in three vols. folio, a
vast compilation, including all the botanical knowledge of his day, is
still in use, as a book of reference, by those who especially devote
themselves to this study.

The zoological works of Ray have had a more direct and permanent
influence upon the advancement of natural history, than his botanical.
Amongst his zoological productions, the best authorities are agreed that
we ought to include the greater part of those edited by him as the
posthumous works of his friend Willughby. They are conceived upon the
same principle as his own History of Plants, and are arranged upon a
nearly similar plan; whilst the style of each is undoubtedly the same.
In the original division of their great subject, Ray had chosen the
vegetable kingdom, and Willughby the animal; and Ray, therefore, may
have felt himself compelled to forego some of his own proper claims,
that he might raise a complete monument to the memory of his friend. The
Ornithology appeared in 1676; the History of Fishes in 1686. Ray,
however, prepared several very important zoological works, of his entire
claims to which there can be no doubt. The chief of these are, ‘Synopsis
methodica animalium quadrupedum et serpentini generis,’ 1693, which he
published during his life; ‘Synopsis methodica avium,’ and ‘Synopsis
methodica piscium,’ edited by Derham, and published in 1713; and
‘Historia insectorum,’ printed at the expense of the Royal Society, in
1710. “The peculiar character of the zoological works of Ray,” says
Cuvier, “consists in clearer and more rigorous methods than those of any
of his predecessors, and applied with more constancy and precision.” The
divisions which he has introduced into the classes of quadrupeds and
birds have been followed by the English naturalists, almost to our own
day; and one finds very evident traces of his system of birds in
Linnæus, in Brisson, in Buffon, and in all the authors who are occupied
with this class of animals. The Ornithology of Salerne is little more
than a translation from the Synopsis; and Buffon has extracted from
Willughby almost all the anatomical part of his History of Birds.
Daubenton and Hauy have translated the History of Fishes, in great part,
for their Dictionary of Ichthyology, in the ‘Encyclopédie Methodique.’

‘The Wisdom of God in the Creation’ is the work upon which the popular
fame of Ray most deservedly rests. It is a book which perhaps more than
any other in our language unites the precision of science to the warmth
of devotion. It is delightful to see the ardour with which this good man
dedicated himself to the observation of nature entering into his views
of another state of existence, when our knowledge shall be made perfect,
and the dim light with which we grope amidst the beautiful and wondrous
objects by which we are surrounded, shall brighten into complete day.
“It is not likely,” says he, “that eternal life shall be a torpid and
inactive state, or that it shall consist only in an uninterrupted and
endless act of love; the other faculties shall be employed as well as
the will, in actions suitable to, and perfective of their natures:
especially the understanding, the supreme faculty of the soul, which
chiefly differs in us from brute beasts, and makes us capable of virtue
and vice, of rewards and punishments, shall be busied and employed in
contemplating the works of God, and observing the divine art and wisdom
manifested in the structure and composition of them; and reflecting upon
their Great Architect the praise and glory due to him. Then shall we
clearly see, to our great satisfaction and admiration, the ends and uses
of those things, which here were either too subtle for us to penetrate
and discover, or too remote and unaccessible for us to come to any
distinct view of, viz. the planets and fixed stars; those illustrious
bodies, whose contents and inhabitants, whose stores and furniture we
have here so longing a desire to know, as also their mutual subserviency
to each other. Now the mind of man being not capable at once to advert
to more than one thing, a particular view and examination of such an
innumerable number of vast bodies, and the great multitude of species,
both of animate and inanimate beings, which each of them contains, will
afford matter enough to exercise and employ our minds, I do not say to
all eternity, but to many ages, should we do nothing else[10].”

Footnote 10:

  Wisdom of God in the Creation, p. 199, fifth edition.

In addition to his ‘Wisdom of God,’ Ray published three
‘Physico-Theological Discourses, concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and
Dissolution of the World.’ “This last presents to us,” to use the words
of Cuvier, “a system of geology as plausible as any of those which had
appeared at this epoch, or for a long time afterwards.” He also printed
a work expressly of a theological character, ‘A Persuasive to a Holy
Life.’

Ray died on the 17th January, 1705, at his native place of Black Notley,
whither he had retired, at Midsummer, 1679, as he himself expressed,
“for the short pittance of time he had yet to live in this world.” His
memory has been done justice to by his countrymen. A most interesting
commemoration of him was held in London, on the 29th Nov., 1828, being
the two hundredth anniversary of his birth.

  _Engraved by E. Scriven._

  CAPTAIN COOK.

  _From an original Picture by Dance
  in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital._

  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
    Knowledge.

  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
]

                                 COOK.

James Cook was born October 27, 1728, at Marton, a village in the North
Riding of Yorkshire, near Stockton-upon-Tees. His parents, who were
farm-servants, of good esteem in their rank of life, apprenticed him
when not thirteen years of age to a haberdasher at the fishing town of
Staith, near Whitby. The employment proved ill suited to his taste; and
he soon quitted it, and bound himself to a ship-owner at Whitby. In
course of time he became mate of one of his master’s vessels in the coal
trade; that best of schools for practical seamanship.

In the spring of 1755 he was lying in the Thames, when war was declared
between England and France, and a hot press for seamen ensued. He
volunteered to serve on board the Eagle frigate, commanded by Captain,
afterwards Sir Hugh Palliser, and soon won the esteem of his officers by
his diligence and activity. In May, 1759, he was promoted to be master
of the Mercury, in which he was present at the celebrated siege of
Quebec. At the recommendation of Captain Palliser, he was employed to
take soundings of the river St. Lawrence, opposite to, and preparatory
to an attack on the French fortified camp; and in this hazardous service
he manifested so much sagacity and resolution, that he was afterwards
ordered to survey the river below Quebec. The accurate chart, which was
published as the result of his labours, furnishes a most satisfactory
proof of Cooke’s natural talents and steady industry; for he could have
derived little aid in such pursuits from the habits of his early life.
In the autumn he was removed into the Northumberland man-of-war,
stationed at Halifax, in Nova Scotia; and he employed his leisure during
the long winter in making up for the defects of his education, which had
been merely such as a village school could supply. He now read Euclid
for the first time, and applied himself to study those branches of
science, which promised to be most useful in his profession. Towards the
end of 1762 he returned to England, and married; but in 1763 he again
went out to make a survey of Newfoundland. In 1764, his steady friend,
Sir Hugh Palliser, being appointed Governor of Newfoundland, Cook was
made Marine Surveyor of Newfoundland and Labrador. He held this office
nearly four years, and his charts of those coasts remain in use up to
this day.

In 1767 Government determined, at the request of the Royal Society, to
send out astronomers to the South Pacific Ocean to observe the transit
of Venus across the sun’s disc. Cook’s able discharge of his duties at
Newfoundland, and the skill with which he observed an eclipse of the sun
there, pointed him out to Mr. Stephens, Secretary to the Admiralty, as a
proper person to conduct the expedition: and at that gentleman’s
recommendation, backed by Sir Hugh Palliser, he was selected for this
purpose, and raised to the rank of Lieutenant. He sailed from Plymouth,
August 23, 1768, in the Endeavour, of three hundred and seventy tons,
accompanied by Mr. Green as astronomer, and by Mr. Banks. Passing round
Cape Horn, they anchored, April 11, 1769, at Otaheite, or Tahiti, as it
is named by the latest visitors, which had been discovered by Captain
Wallis, and was now selected as a proper place to observe the transit.
As it was necessary to remain some time on the island, and highly
expedient to be on good terms with the natives, Lieutenant Cook used
much precaution to place the traffic between them and the strangers on
an equitable footing; and to prevent the wanton injuries which the sense
of superior power, and an unjust contempt, too often induce Europeans to
inflict upon the rude inhabitants of newly-discovered regions. And we
may here mention, as one of the good points of Cook’s character, that he
always showed a scrupulous regard to the rights of property, taking no
articles from the natives except on fair terms of gift or barter; and
that he had a tender regard for human life, not only avoiding to use our
deadly weapons, as discoverers have too often done, in revenge for petty
depredations, harmless insults, and contemptible attacks, but even
restraining a natural curiosity, where the indulgence of it seemed
likely to shock prejudices, or to lead to collision and bloodshed. The
inhabitants of Otaheite are a gentle race, and no serious
misunderstandings occurred between them and their visitors. The transit
was satisfactorily observed June 3; and, July 13, the Endeavour resumed
her voyage, pursuant to Cook’s instructions, which were to prosecute his
discoveries in the Southern Ocean, after the astronomical purposes of
the expedition had been fulfilled. He cruised a month among the then
unknown group of the Society Islands, and afterwards proceeded in search
of the Terra Australis, the great southern continent, so long supposed
by geographers to exist, as a necessary counterpoise to the extensive
continents of the northern hemisphere. Land was seen October 6,
displaying lofty ranges of mountains; and it was generally supposed that
the long wished for discovery was made. It proved, however, to be New
Zealand, unvisited by Europeans since Tasman first approached its
shores, in 1642. Cook spent six months in circumnavigating this country,
and ascertained that it consisted of two large islands. March 31, 1770,
he commenced his voyage home. He directed his course along the eastern
coast of New Holland, then quite unknown; laid down a chart of it
through nearly its whole extent; and took every opportunity to increase
our stock of knowledge in natural history, as well as geographical
science. For more than 1300 miles he had safely navigated this most
dangerous shore, where the sharp coral reefs rise like a wall to the
surface of the water, when, on the night of June 10, the ship suddenly
struck. She was found to be aground on a coral reef, which rose around
her to within a few feet of the surface. Though lightened immediately by
every possible means, two tides elapsed before she could be got off; and
then with so much injury to her bottom, that she could only be kept
afloat by working three pumps night and day. When the men were all but
worn out by this labour, a midshipman suggested the expedient of
_fothering_ the ship, or passing a sail charged with oakum, and other
loose materials, under her keel: which succeeded so well, that the leak
was then kept under by a single pump; and the navigators proceeded in
comparative security till the 14th, when a harbour was discovered,
afterwards named Endeavour River, suitable for making the necessary
repairs. It was then found that a large fragment of coral rock had stuck
in the ship’s bottom, so as in great measure to close the leak, which
must otherwise have admitted a body of water sufficient to set the pumps
at defiance. To this providential occurrence they owed their safety;
for, had the ship foundered, the boats could not have contained the
whole crew. Among many dangers, Cook pursued his course through that
intricate tract of reefs and islands, which he named the Labyrinth, to
the northern point of New Holland: and having now explored the whole
eastern coast, from lat. 38° to 10° 30´, he took possession of it by the
name of New South Wales. He then made sail for New Guinea, having proved
that New Guinea and New Holland are separate islands, and from thence
proceeded to Batavia, which he reached October 9. Here they obtained
refreshments and repaired the ship, which was found to be in a most
perilous state: but these advantages were dearly bought by a sojourn in
that pestilential place. Seven persons died at Batavia, and twenty-three
more during the voyage to the Cape. June 12, 1771, the Endeavour dropped
anchor in the Downs, and terminated her long and adventurous voyage.

The manner in which Lieutenant Cook had performed his task gave perfect
satisfaction, and he was promoted to the rank of Commander. The public
curiosity was strongly roused to know the particulars of his adventures;
and it was gratified by an account of the several expeditions to the
Southern Ocean, commanded by Byron, Wallis, and Cook, composed by Dr.
Hawkesworth from the original materials, and illustrated by charts and
plates, engraved at the expense of Government. Cook communicated to the
Royal Society an ‘Account of the flowing of the Tides in the South Sea,’
published in their Transactions, vol. lxii. His voyage had proved two
things: first, that neither New Zealand or New Holland were parts of the
great southern continent, supposing it to exist; secondly, that no such
continent could exist to the northward of 40° S. lat. He had not,
however, ascertained its non-existence in higher latitudes, nor did it
enter into his commission to do so. Now, however, it was resolved to
send out a second expedition, to ascertain this point, under the command
of him who had so ably conducted the former one. Two ships were fitted
out with every thing conducive to the health and comfort of the
voyagers: the Resolution, of four hundred and sixty tons, and a smaller
vessel, the Adventure, Captain Furneaux; which, however, was separated
from her consort early in the second year of the voyage. They sailed
from Plymouth, July 13, 1772. Captain Cook’s instructions were, to
circumnavigate the globe in high southern latitudes, prosecuting his
discoveries as near to the South Pole as possible, using every exertion
to fall in with the supposed continent, or any islands which might exist
in those unknown seas; and endeavouring, by all proper means, to
cultivate a friendship and alliance with the inhabitants. The expedition
left the Cape of Good Hope Nov. 22, and cruised, for near four months,
between the Cape and New Zealand, from E. long. 20° to 170°, their
extreme point to the southward being lat. 67° 15´. Having satisfied
himself that no land of great extent could exist between these
longitudes, to the northward of 60° S. lat., Cook made sail for New
Zealand, to refresh his crew, and reached it March 26, 1773. The winter
months, corresponding to our midsummer, he spent at the Society Islands;
and returning to New Zealand, he again sailed, November 26, in quest of
a southern continent, inclining his course to the east. He first fell in
with ice in lat. 62° 10´, W. long. 172°, and continued to steer S.E. to
lat. 67° 31´, W. long. 142° 54´, when, finding it impossible at that
time to get farther south, he returned northwards, as far as lat. 50°,
that he might be certain that no extensive country had been left in that
direction. January 6, 1774, he again shaped his course southward, and on
the 30th reached his extreme point of southing, lat. 71° 10´, W. long.
106° 54´. Here he was stopped by ice, which it was the general opinion
might extend to the Pole, or join some land to which it had been fixed
from the earliest time. Returning northwards, during the winter months
he traversed nearly the whole extent of the Pacific Ocean between the
tropics, visiting Easter Island, the Marquesas, the Society and Friendly
Islands, the New Hebrides, and another island, the largest yet
discovered in the Pacific, except those of New Zealand, which he called
New Caledonia. He then returned to New Zealand, and having passed three
weeks in friendly intercourse with the natives, took his departure,
November 10. Having cruised in various latitudes between 43° and 56°, a
portion of the ocean which he had not yet explored, and being in W.
long. 138° 56´, he determined to steer direct for the western entrance
of the Straits of Magellan, and thence, along Tierra del Fuego, to the
Straits of Le Maire. December 29 he passed Cape Horn, and re-entered the
Atlantic Ocean, and standing southward, discovered Sandwich Land, a
desolate coast, the extreme point of which he named the Southern Thule,
lat. 59° 13´, as the most southern land that had then been discovered.
Later navigators have found land nearer to the Pole. “I concluded,”
Captain Cook observes, “that Sandwich Land was either a group of
islands, or else a point of the continent, for I firmly believe that
there is a tract of land near the Pole, which is the source of most of
the ice which is spread over this vast southern ocean. I also think it
probable that it extends farthest to the north, opposite the Southern
Atlantic and Indian Oceans, because ice was always found by us farther
to the north in these oceans than any where else.” Having now
encompassed the globe in a high latitude, and thinking it impossible to
prosecute further researches in those tempestuous seas with a worn-out
ship, and nearly exhausted provisions, Cook made sail for the Cape; and
arrived there March 22, 1774, having sailed 20,000 leagues since he had
left it, without so much injury to the ship as springing a mast or yard.
July 30 he anchored at Spithead.

He was received in England with high applause, posted, and made a
Captain of Greenwich Hospital. On this occasion he published his own
Journal, illustrated by maps and engravings; and the composition,
unpretending, but clear and manly, does honour to one whose education
had been so rude. Being elected Fellow of the Royal Society, he
contributed two papers to their Transactions, published in vol. lxvi.,
one relating to the tides in the South Seas, the other containing an
account of the methods which he had taken to preserve the health of his
ship’s crew. The ravages of scurvy are now so much checked, that few
know from experience how dreadfully earlier navigators suffered from
that disease. It is one of Cook’s peculiar merits, that he attended to
the health of his seamen with such eminent success, that during this
long and painful voyage, not one man died of scurvy. Four only died, out
of a hundred and twelve persons on board the Resolution, and of these
but one was carried off by disease. That this was, in a great degree,
the merit of the Captain, is proved by the Adventure having suffered
much more, though fitted out exactly in the same way. Sailors usually
dislike changes in their mode of life; and it required judgment and
perseverance to induce them to adopt a healthy regimen. Cook, however,
succeeded in reconciling them to his innovations; of the utility of
which they were perfectly convinced, long before the end of the voyage.
The means which he used will be found fully detailed in his paper, which
was honoured by the Society with the gold medal: those on which he
chiefly relied were a large supply of antiscorbutic stores, as malt,
sour krout, and portable broth; the enforcement of a vegetable diet,
whenever vegetables could be procured; and great care not to expose the
crew unnecessarily to the weather, and to keep their persons, their
clothes, and their berths, clean, dry, and well aired. Cook was justly
proud of his success in this respect, and he closed the account of his
second voyage with words which show the humanity and modesty of his
temper. “Whatever may be the public judgment about other matters, it is
with real satisfaction, and without claiming any other merit but that of
attention to my duty, that I can conclude this account with an
observation, which facts enable me to make, that our having discovered
the possibility of preserving health among a numerous ship’s company for
such a length of time, in such varieties of climate, and amid such
continued hardships and fatigues, will make this voyage remarkable, in
the opinion of every benevolent person, when the disputes about the
southern continent shall have ceased to engage the attention and to
divide the judgment of philosophers.”

Another geographical question, of still greater interest, engaged the
attention of the nation at this time; the practicability of a north-east
passage to China and the Indies. During Cook’s absence, one expedition
had been sent out, under Captain Phipps; it was now determined to send
out a second, reversing the usual order, and trying to find a passage
from the Pacific into the Atlantic Ocean. Cook volunteered to quit his
well-earned repose, and take the direction of this enterprise; and the
offer was gladly accepted. He was directed to proceed, by the Cape of
Good Hope, to New Zealand, thence through the chain of islands scattered
along the tropics, which he had already visited. This done, he was to
proceed northward, with all dispatch, to the latitude of 65°, and to
direct his attention to the discovery of a passage into the Atlantic;
and by the extension of an existing Act of Parliament, the ship’s
company, if successful, were entitled to a reward of £20,000. With a
most praiseworthy benevolence, the ships were charged with cattle,
sheep, and other useful animals, to be left, and naturalized, if
possible, in New Zealand, Otaheite, and other islands. The Resolution
and Discovery were fitted out for the voyage, with every attention to
the health and comfort of their crews. They sailed from Plymouth July
12, 1776, and touching at New Zealand, reached the Friendly Islands so
late in the spring of 1777, that Captain Cook thought it impossible to
visit the Polar Seas to any purpose that year. He therefore spent the
whole summer in this part of the ocean, where fresh provisions were
abundant; and his men were relieved from the hardships and sicknesses
commonly incident to a long voyage, while, at the same time, the ship’s
stores were economized. He remained therefore near three months among
the Friendly Islands, using all means of adding to the geographical
knowledge of this intricate archipelago, and acquiring information
relative to the natural history of the country, and the manners of the
inhabitants, with whom an uninterrupted friendship was maintained. July
17, Cook pursued his course to the Society Islands. Both here and at the
Friendly Islands, especially at Otaheite, he left a number of European
animals; and the prudence, as well as benevolence, of this conduct, is
evinced by the valuable supplies which whalers and other navigators of
the southern seas have since drawn from them. Early in December he took
a final leave of these regions; and, January 18, 1778, came in sight of
an unknown group, to which he gave the name of Sandwich Islands. March
7, the west coast of North America was seen; and after spending a month
in executing necessary repairs in Nootka Sound, the voyagers advanced to
the Aleutian Islands, and up Behring’s Strait. Here Cook ascertained the
continents of Asia and America to be only thirteen leagues apart; and
laid down the position of the most westerly point of America, just
without the Arctic Circle, which he named Cape Prince of Wales. August
18 he reached lat. 70° 44´, W. long. about 162°, his extreme point, and
continued to traverse those frozen regions till August 29, when, the ice
being daily increasing, it was time to seek a more genial climate. But
before proceeding to the south, he employed some time in examining the
coasts of Asia and America, and found reason to admire the correctness
of Behring, the discoverer of the strait which bears that name. He
passed the winter at the Sandwich Islands, intending to return northward
early enough to reach Kamtschatka by the middle of May in the ensuing
year.

During this second visit was discovered the island of Owhyhee, the
largest and most important of the group, at which the strangers were
received with unusual generosity and confidence. Near ten weeks were
spent in sailing round it, without any serious disagreement arising with
the natives; and Cook ceased to regret that he had as yet failed in
meeting with a northern passage home. It is remarkable that his Journal
concludes with the following words: “To this disappointment we owed our
having it in our power to revisit the Sandwich Islands, and to enrich
our voyage with a discovery, which though the last, seemed in many
respects to be the most important that had hitherto been made by
Europeans, throughout the extent of the Pacific Ocean.”

This island, which he had rejoiced so much to see, was the spot where
our great navigator’s life was prematurely closed. We have the testimony
of an eye-witness to his own belief, that no premeditated and
treacherous assault had been planned; but that the fatal affray was one
of those accidents which human foresight cannot always prevent. The
natives of these, as of all the South Sea Islands, were much addicted to
stealing the new and tempting articles presented to their view; a fault
for which Captain Cook, with the benevolence usually displayed in his
dealings with them, has offered a charitable and sensible apology. But
on the night of February 13, one of the ship’s boats was stolen. To
recover this was a matter of importance; and Cook went on shore, guarded
only by a small number of marines, hoping by amicable means to gain
possession of the person of the king of the district, which he had
always found the most effectual method of regaining stolen articles. The
king consented to go on board the Resolution; but a crowd collected, and
indications of alarm and hostility gradually increased, until blows were
made at Captain Cook, and he was obliged to fire in self-defence. A
shower of stones was then discharged at the marines, who returned it
with a volley, and this drew on the fire of the boats’ crews. Cook
turned round to stop the firing, and order the boats to come close in to
shore; but a rush had been made on the marines as soon as their muskets
were discharged, and they were driven into the water, where four were
killed, the rest escaping to the boats. Cook was the last person left on
shore; and he was making for the pinnace, when an Indian came behind him
and struck him with a club. He sunk on one knee, and as he rose was
stabbed by another Indian in the neck. He fell into shallow water within
five or six yards of one of the boats; but there all was confusion, and
no united effort was made to save him. He struggled vigorously, but was
overcome by numbers; and at last was struck down, not to rise again. His
body, with the other slain, was abandoned to the natives, and though
every exertion was subsequently made, nothing more than the bones, and
not all of them, were recovered. These were committed to the deep with
military honours; honoured more highly by the unfeigned sorrow of those
who sailed under his command.

Captain Clerke, of the Discovery, succeeded to the command of the
expedition, and returned in the ensuing summer to the Polar Seas; but he
was unable to advance so far as in the former year. The chief object of
the voyage therefore failed. The ships returned along the coast of
Kamtschatka to Japan and China, and reached England in October, 1780.
Captain Clerke died of consumption in his second visit to the Polar
Seas, and Lieutenant King succeeded to the Discovery, whose name is
honourably associated with that of his great commander, in consequence
of his having continued the account of the voyage, from the period at
which Cook’s Journal ends. He has borne testimony to Cook’s virtues in
the following terms:—

“The constitution of his body was robust, inured to labour, and capable
of undergoing the severest hardships. His stomach bore without
difficulty the coarsest and most ungrateful food. Great was the
indifference with which he submitted to every kind of self-denial. The
qualities of his mind were of the same hardy, vigorous kind with those
of his body. His understanding was strong and perspicacious. His
judgment, in whatever related to the services he was engaged in, quick
and sure. His designs were bold and manly; and both in the conception,
and in the mode of execution, bore evident marks of a great original
genius. His courage was cool and determined, and accompanied with an
admirable presence of mind in the moment of danger. His temper might,
perhaps, have been justly blamed as subject to hastiness and passion,
had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most benevolent and
humane. Such were the outlines of Captain Cook’s character; but its most
distinguishing feature was that unremitting perseverance in the pursuit
of his object, which was not only superior to the opposition of dangers,
and the pressure of hardships, but even exempt from the want of ordinary
relaxation. During the long and tedious voyages in which he was engaged,
his eagerness and activity were never in the least abated. No incidental
temptation could detain him for a moment: even those intervals of
recreation which sometimes unavoidably occurred, and were looked for by
us with a longing, that persons who have experienced the fatigues of
service will readily excuse, were submitted to by him with a certain
impatience, whenever they could not be employed in making a farther
provision for the more effectual prosecution of his designs.”

The life of Captain Cook is, in effect, the history of his voyages, and
will best be found in the accounts of those works. But the memoir by Dr.
Kippis, the whole of which is printed in the Biographia Britannica, is
more adapted for general use. Samwell’s Narrative of the Death of
Captain Cook contains the fullest account of that lamentable event.

  _Engraved by W. T. Fry._

  TURGOT.

  _From an original Picture in the
  Gallery of the Louvre._

  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the diffusion of Useful
    Knowledge

  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
]

                                TURGOT.

Anne Robert James Turgot was born at Paris May 10, 1727. He was
descended from one of the oldest and most noble families of Normandy.

Turgot’s childhood was passed under the superintendence of an
injudicious mother, whose affection for her son seems to have been much
lessened in consequence of his shy and awkward manners before strangers.
His father, on the contrary, was a man of sense and humanity. He was
Provost of the Corporation of Merchants, an office which he long filled
with deserved popularity. He lived till 1750, and by his example as well
as by his precepts exerted no small influence over the character of his
son. If Turgot’s reserved and silent manners are to be attributed to the
one parent, the uprightness, benevolence, and boldness of his conduct
may perhaps in an equal degree be ascribed to the other. At an early age
he was sent to the school of Louis le Grand, where he had little
opportunity of making progress; for the master though a kind-hearted
man, was not in other respects peculiarly qualified for his station. He
afterwards went to the school of Plessis. Here he was more fortunate in
meeting with two professors of superior abilities, Guérin and Sigorgne;
the latter honourably distinguished as being the first member of the
universities of France, who introduced the Newtonian philosophy into the
schools. Under their tuition, assisted by his own unremitting assiduity,
Turgot advanced rapidly, and the pupil soon acquired the respect and
friendship of his teachers.

It was the custom in France, during the period of Turgot’s boyhood, that
parents should decide upon the profession to which their children should
be educated, even from the cradle; little voice in this most important
question being allowed to those who were most deeply interested in it.
Turgot was the youngest of three sons; of whom the eldest was destined
to the magistracy, the second to the army, the third, the subject of
this memoir, was set apart for the church. The premature determination
of his parents seemed amply justified as his character was gradually
developed. Great simplicity of manner, pensiveness of mind, extreme
diffidence and reserve, a distaste to dissipation of any kind, habits of
intense application, and an ardent love of knowledge, were his prominent
qualities, and well suited to the ecclesiastical life. Nevertheless he
had hardly reached the age of reflection, and become capable of
appreciating the objects of ambition, which, from the political
consideration in which his family was held, he might reasonably aspire
to, before he resolved to sacrifice all to an unfettered conscience; and
to follow that path in which he thought he could be most useful to his
fellow-citizens and mankind. Deeply impressed however with a sense of
what was due to the feelings of his parents, he waited till a favourable
opportunity should occur to disclose his secret determination; and was
in the mean time, at the age of twenty-one, admitted to the
establishment of the Sorbonne, as a student of theology. Here he
remained two years; prosecuting his studies with vigour, but without
confining them to a profession which he had resolved not to follow.
Nothing seemed too vast to discourage him, or too trifling to escape his
notice. Mathematics and natural philosophy, metaphysics, logic, morals,
legislation and law; history, belles lettres, poetry, Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, together with most of the modern languages, entered into the
comprehensive catalogue of his pursuits. So great an activity of mind,
joined to a memory so retentive that he could repeat two hundred lines
of verse after hearing them read twice, and sometimes only once, stored
his mind with an extent and variety of knowledge unusual at his, or
indeed at any age. After taking his degree, and being elected Prior of
the establishment, he could no longer conceal his intention of
relinquishing the profession of the church. His friends and associates,
amongst others the Abbés Bon, Morellet, and de Brienne, remonstrated
with him in vain on his determination. “Follow the advice,” he replied,
“which you offer, since you are able to do so: for my own part, it is
impossible for me to wear a mask all my life.”

He had determined to pursue his fortune in the civil service of the
state; and his father’s death obviated the difficulties which might have
embarrassed him in carrying his resolution into effect. He obtained the
office of Procureur du Roi as a first step in his new career, and soon
after that of Master of Requests. In this situation he had to make
several reports, and to deliver them _vivâ voce_ before the King. Aware
of his extreme diffidence, he resolved to counteract it by writing out
and revising his speech with great attention. He did so; nothing was
omitted, and yet the subject was summed up with such severe conciseness
as greatly to fatigue the patience of his hearers. Some of them,
complimenting him on his performance, at the same time criticised its
length. “The next time,” they added, “try to abridge what you have to
say.” Turgot, who knew that it was impossible to have abridged more,
learnt by this remark that he had abridged too much; and on the next
occasion, profiting by his singularly acquired knowledge, he developed
his facts at length, repeated his arguments, and recapitulated all that
he had urged; and in doing so, fixed without fatiguing the attention of
his audience. When he had finished, the same friends, as he expected,
congratulated him warmly on having corrected his former defect, saying,
“This time you have told us a great deal and you have been very brief.”

In 1761 he was made Intendant of Limoges; and on his appointment
Voltaire wrote to him, saying, “I have lately learnt from one of your
colleagues that an Intendant can do nothing but mischief: you, I trust,
will prove that he can do much good.” These anticipations were fully
realized. The inhabitants of his province, over-burthened at all times
by the oppressive imposts of the Taille, the Corvée, and the Militia
service, were then suffering under the added pressure of three
successive years of scarcity. The _Taille_ was in the nature of a
land-tax: which fell upon the landlords in those parts of the country
which were cultivated by farmers; but principally upon the labourers
themselves, wherever the _Métayer_ system was in force, as in Limousin.
A more equal distribution of this tax, and an improved method of
collection, relieved the peasant from the great injustice of the burden.
The _Corvée_ was an obligation to furnish labour in kind, twice every
year, for the construction and repair of public roads; for which the
peasantry received no remuneration. Turgot proposed that this task
should for the future be executed by hired labourers, whose wages were
to be paid by a rate levied upon the districts adjacent to the road. The
evils of the Militia service were obviated in a similar way; and the
people who had received their new Intendant with suspicion, as only a
new specimen of their former oppressors, now looked upon him as a
benefactor and a friend. Nevertheless his popularity could not overcome
all prejudices; and when he endeavoured to mitigate the evils occasioned
by the late scarcity, by introducing a free traffic in grain, both the
magistrates and the peasantry did all in their power to counteract his
wise and benevolent exertions. In spite of his new regulations,
supported by a clear explanation of the grounds upon which they rested,
the land-owners and corn-merchants could not transport their grain to
those places where the price was highest, the want therefore most
urgent, and the supply most beneficial, without exposing their persons
to insults, and their property to the pillage of the people, as well as
to the local taxes imposed by the magistrates. Turgot lost no time in
addressing a circular to the proper officers, in which he urged them, by
the pleas both of reason and authority, to put in force the laws, and
check the popular irritation. He showed that the difference of weather
often produces an abundant harvest in some districts, and a deficient
one in others; and that the only effectual way of relieving the
necessary distress in the latter, is to permit the free transport of the
surplus produce of the former: that if one town were to arrogate the
right of prohibiting the transit or export of grain, other towns would
justly pretend to the same privilege; and that what might be felt as a
benefit to the inhabitants of one spot in a year of external scarcity,
would be deprecated by the same persons as a curse in a year of internal
famine. The clearness and conciliatory tone with which the principle of
the freedom of trade was laid down, produced the desired effect; and the
writer had the satisfaction of seeing the wants of the people supplied,
without recurring to the demoralizing expedient of indiscriminate
charity.

Soon after the success of this experiment, the Minister of Finance
consulted the Intendants of the kingdom upon the laws relating to the
commerce of grain. Turgot wrote seven letters in answer, in which he
developed at length his views on the subject of free trade; and not long
after he composed an essay on the Formation of Wealth, which, as his
celebrated biographer Condorcet observes, may be considered as the germ
of Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

These unremitting exertions, joined to views so just and at that time so
original, attracted the attention of the public; and on the death of
Louis XV. Turgot was called to the first offices of the state, as the
only man who seemed likely to restore the failing credit of the nation,
do justice to the people, and prevent those political troubles which did
in fact ensue, and ended in confiscation and bloodshed. He undertook the
difficult task with cheerfulness, but not without some misgivings. The
aristocracy and the court could not long remain favourable to a minister
who would not cater to their luxuries; the clergy naturally viewed with
suspicion one who was devoted to the most rigid economy; public opinion
was not sufficiently advanced to appreciate the measures of a statesman
whose genius far surpassed the knowledge of his day; and even if it had
been more enlightened, it had not the means of expressing itself
powerfully and almost simultaneously as in England. Turgot therefore had
no support to rely on but that of the King; but while the monarch
remained firm, there was still a hope that the statesman might
accomplish his objects. After filling the post of Minister of Marine for
one month, he was raised to the office of Minister of Finance, August
24, 1774. Nothing could be more encouraging to him than his first
audience of the King; it was more like the confidential intercourse of
two friends considering in truth and sincerity the best means of
promoting the happiness of their common country, than a cold and formal
state conference. Turgot, with the permission of his sovereign,
recapitulated what had occurred at this meeting, in a letter which is
above all praise. In it he enforced the absolute necessity of the most
rigid economy, in order to prevent a national bankruptcy, any increase
of taxes, or any new loans. “No bankruptcy, either avowed, or disguised
under compulsory reductions. No increase of taxes. The reason your
Majesty will find in the situation of your people, and still more in
your own heart. No new loans; for every loan, by diminishing the free
revenue, necessarily leads at last to a bankruptcy or an increase of
taxes.” The means by which he proposed to bring about these ends were
the most rigid retrenchments. “But,” he adds, “it is asked, in what is
the retrenchment to be made? and every department will maintain that as
far as relates to itself there is scarcely a single expense which is not
indispensable. The reasons alleged may be very good; but as there can be
none for performing impossibilities, all these reasons must give way to
the irresistible necessity of economy. Your Majesty knows that one of
the greatest obstacles to economy is the multitude of solicitations to
which you are perpetually exposed. Your benevolence, Sir, must be the
shield against your bounty. Consider whence the money distributed
amongst your courtiers is drawn; and contrast the misery of those from
whom it is sometimes necessary to wrest it by the most rigorous
measures, with the situation of those who have the best title to your
liberality.” Such a course was sure to raise up enemies on every side.
He anticipates the calumnies which will be heaped upon him; he points
them out to the King, and then reminds him, “It is upon the faith of
your Majesty’s promises that I take upon myself a burthen which is
perhaps heavier than I can bear; it is to yourself personally, to the
honest, the just, and the good man, rather than to the King, that I
devote myself.”

From this letter it might be supposed by those who are not acquainted
with all Turgot’s principles, that his first step would be to stop the
payment to every useless pensioner upon the state, and abrogate every
local tax which had been unjustly levied by individuals in times of
anarchy and oppression. But he respected the right of property; and the
more so, because he understood its full extent. Every unjust impost was
indeed taken off, and every monopoly destroyed; but not without first
giving to the possessors an indemnification equal to their loss: and two
years’ arrears of pensions, which had been stopped for three years
previous to his entering upon office, were punctually discharged without
loss of time where the amount was small, and the creditor therefore in
all probability not in affluent circumstances; whilst the payment of the
remaining ones was accelerated as much as possible. It was not therefore
by injustice that he endeavoured to relieve the people, but by enabling
them more easily to bear their burdens. The faithful discharge of all
claims upon the state, restored the credit of the country; the
destruction of monopolies, and of restrictions upon commerce and
manufactures, increased the wealth of the people, and thus rendered
comparatively light an amount of taxation which was before most
burdensome. Thus, his first regulations established a free trade in corn
throughout the kingdom, and took away the exclusive privileges of
bakers, the obligation to grind corn at particular mills, and several
market dues upon corn when sold. A similar edict permitted the free
circulation of wine; and brandy, cider, and perry were meant to have
been subsequently included in this law. The manufacturers of France were
also freed from the absurd and vexatious regulations which prescribed
the size of different stuffs, and the method of making and dying them,
under severe penalties and even corporal punishments; and ingenuity was
allowed to exert itself according to the taste and demand of the public.
Glass, powder, saltpetre, nitre, oil of poppies, and many other
articles, were either freed on the one hand from the exclusive
privileges in their manufacture, which enhanced their price and
interfered with their quality; or on the other, from restrictions upon
their free transport through the kingdom, which prevented the
manufacturer from obtaining the best price for his goods.

These changes were brought about in little more than a year and a half,
during which his labours were interrupted by attacks of illness, and by
two events which could not be averted or foreseen. The first of these
was a contagious disorder which broke out among the cattle of Guienne,
and spread far and wide, until the salutary measures taken by Turgot
arrested the evil: the other was more serious, and required all the
decision and courage of the minister for its suppression. The season had
been unfavourable; and in times of scarcity the people had been
accustomed to vent their fury against the corn-merchants, whom the
government often weakly abandoned. A repetition of these scenes was
approaching. A few riots in the provincial towns were soon quelled, but
a heavier storm impended over the capital. A band of lawless insurgents,
after plundering the corn-markets upon the Seine and Oise, entered
Paris, rifled many bakers’ shops, and endeavoured to excite the people
to outrage and violence. The powers of government seemed paralysed. The
superintendents of the police were frightened and inactive; and the
parliament published a proclamation, promising that the King should be
petitioned for a reduction in the price of bread. Turgot lost no time in
sending troops to the disturbed district, who soon dispersed the
pillagers; the superintendents of the police were immediately dismissed
from office; and government proclamations were posted over those of the
parliament during the very night in which the latter were issued,
prohibiting the assembling of the people on pain of death. These
energetic and salutary measures soon restored tranquillity and
confidence; the property of the merchants was respected; and the price
of provisions found the lowest level which the nature of the case would
admit of. A month after, the King in passing through a district in which
these riots had prevailed, was cheered by subjects who blessed his
government. “It is Turgot and I alone who love the people,” was the
expression which fell from his lips; and the sentence was repeated and
confirmed by a nation’s voice. In spite, however, of Turgot’s
indefatigable and honest exertions in the cause of his country, his
dismission from office was soon demanded. The privileged orders insisted
upon remaining exempt from the payment of the taxes; the court parasites
upheld the necessity of sinecures and pensions; all who lived upon the
resources of the country without serving it, united in denouncing a
minister who was the friend of the people and of justice; nor had the
clergy any sympathy with one who laid down the most comprehensive
principles of toleration. The King had the culpable weakness of yielding
to this dishonest clamour. He sacrificed his minister, and not many
years after died himself upon the scaffold; that scaffold which was
destined to reek with the blood of his family, his friends, and his
subjects.

Turgot had been in office only twenty months, but during that time he
had prepared the way for a new era of extensive happiness and prosperity
for his fellow-countrymen. A friend reproached him one day with being
too precipitate. “How can you say so,” he replied, “you who know so well
the pressing wants of the people, and are aware that none of my family
survive the gout beyond the age of fifty.” His prediction was but too
nearly fulfilled; he died of this hereditary disease a few years
afterwards, March 20, 1781, in the fifty-fourth year of his age.

During the interval between his retiring from office, and his death,
Turgot devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits. His works
are contained in nine volumes octavo, 1808–11; they are composed
principally of state papers connected with his administration, of some
articles written for the Encyclopédie, and a few translations from
classical and modern literature.

Turgot was a great and a good man; endowed with depth and originality of
thought, he discovered and acted upon sound principles of political
economy, before the science had been even dignified with a name; and
whilst his predecessors in office were ever seeking for temporary
expedients to increase the revenue of the state by the oppression of the
people, he first endeavoured to unite the interests of both. Mild and
conciliating in his manners, just and benevolent in all his view’s, he
was the firm and uncompromising opponent of every species of injustice.
He was ambitious, but his ambition was of the highest order. He despised
the tinsel grandeur of office, the smiles of courtiers, or even the
applause of the multitude; but he courted the means of doing good to
mankind, and his reward has been the esteem of discerning friends and
the applause of a later and a more enlightened age.

A disquisition on the life and opinions of Turgot, by Dupont de Nemours,
is prefixed to the edition of his works which we have already mentioned.
His life, written by Condorcet, is one of the best specimens of
biography in any language. Lacretelle’s ‘Histoire du dix-huitième
Siècle’ contains a short sketch of his ministry, well deserving
attention: and several interesting details of his character are to be
found in the Memoirs of the Abbé Morellet.

  _Engraved by W. Holl._

  PETER THE GREAT.

  _From a Print by Smith after a Picture by Kneller._

  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
    Knowledge.

  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
]

                            PETER THE GREAT.

At the close of the sixteenth century, the dominions of Russia, or
Muscovy, as it was then more generally called, were far thrown back from
the more civilized nations of southern Europe, by the intervention of
Lithuania, Livonia, and other provinces now incorporated in the Russian
empire, but then belonging either to Sweden or Poland. The Czar of
Muscovy therefore possessed no political weight in the affairs of
Europe; and little intercourse existed between the Court of Moscow and
the more polished potentates whom it affected to despise as barbarians,
even for some time after the accession of the reigning dynasty, the
house of Romanof, in 1613, and the establishment of a more regular
government than had previously been known. We only read occasionally of
embassies being sent to Moscow, in general for the purpose of arranging
commercial relations. From this state of insignificance, Peter, the
first Emperor of Russia, raised his country, by introducing into it the
arts of peace, by establishing a well organized and disciplined army in
the place of a lawless body of tumultuous mutineers, by creating a navy,
where scarce a merchant vessel existed before, and, as the natural
result of these changes, by important conquests on both the Asiatic and
European frontiers of his hereditary dominions. For these services his
countrymen bestowed on him, yet living, the title of Great: and it is
well deserved, whether we look to the magnitude of those services, the
difficulty of carrying into effect his benevolent designs, which
included nothing less than the remodelling a whole people, or the grasp
of mind, and the iron energy of will, which was necessary to conceive
such projects, and to overcome the difficulties which beset them. It
will not vitiate his claim to the epithet, that his manners were coarse
and boisterous, his amusements often ludicrous and revolting to a
polished taste: if that claim be questionable, it is because he who
aspired to be the reformer of others, was unable to control the violence
of his own passions.

The Czar Alexis, Peter’s father, was actuated by somewhat of the spirit
which so distinguished the son. He endeavoured to introduce the European
discipline into his armies; he had it much at heart to turn the
attention of the Russians to maritime pursuits; and he added the fine
provinces of Plescow and Smolensko to his paternal dominions. At the
death of Alexis, in 1677, Peter was but five years old. His eldest
brother Theodore succeeded to the throne. Theodore died after a reign of
five years, and named Peter his successor. We pass in silence over the
intrigues and insurrections which troubled the young Czar’s minority. It
was not until the close of the year 1689, in the eighteenth year of his
age, that he finally shook off the trammels of an ambitious sister, and
assumed in reality, as well as in name, the direction of the state. How
he had been qualified for this task by education does not clearly
appear; but even setting aside the stories which attribute to his sister
the detestable design of leading him into all sorts of excess, and
especially drunkenness, with the hope of ruining both his constitution
and intellect, it is probable that no pains whatever had been taken to
form his intellect or manners for the station which he was to occupy.
One of the few anecdotes told of his early life is, that being struck by
the appearance of a boat on the river Yausa, which runs through Moscow,
which he noticed to be of different construction from the flat-bottomed
vessels commonly in use, he was led to inquire into the method of
navigating it. It had been built for the Czar Alexis by a Dutchman, who
was still in Moscow. He was immediately sent for; he rigged and repaired
the boat; and under his guidance the young prince learnt how to sail
her, and soon grew passionately fond of his new amusement. He had five
small vessels built at Plescow, on the lake Peipus; and not satisfied
with this fresh-water navigation, hired a ship at Archangel, in which he
made a voyage to the coast of Lapland. In these expeditions his love of
sailing was nourished into a passion which lasted through life. He
prided himself upon his practical skill as a seaman; and both at this
time and afterwards exposed himself and his friends to no small hazard
by his rashness in following this favourite pursuit.

The first serious object of Peter’s attention was to reform the army. In
this he was materially assisted by a Swiss gentleman named Lefort; at
whose suggestion he raised a company of fifty men, who were clothed and
disciplined in the European manner; the Russian army at that time being
little better than a tribe of Tartars. As soon as the little corps was
formed, Peter caused himself to be enrolled in it as a private soldier.
It is a remarkable trait in the character of the man, that he thought no
condescension degrading, which forwarded any of his ends. In the army he
entered himself in the lowest rank, and performed successively the
duties of every other: in the navy he went still further, for he
insisted on performing the menial duties of the lowest cabin-boy, rising
step by step, till he was qualified to rate as an able seaman. Nor was
this done merely for the sake of singularity; he had resolved that every
officer of the sea or land service should enter in the lowest rank of
his profession, that he might obtain a practical knowledge of every task
or manœuvre which it was his duty to see properly executed: and he felt
that his nobility might scarcely be brought to submit to what in their
eyes would be a degradation, except by the personal example of the Czar
himself. By the help of Lefort and some veteran officers, several of
whom, and those the objects of his especial confidence, were Scotchmen,
he was enabled in a short time to command the services of a large body
of disciplined troops, composed, one corps principally of foreigners,
another of natives. Meanwhile he had not been negligent of the other arm
of war; for a number of Dutch and Venetian workmen were employed in
building gun-boats and small ships of war at Voronitz, on the river Don,
intended to secure the command of the sea of Asof, and to assist in
capturing the strong town of Asof, then held by the Turks. The
possession of this place was of great importance, from its situation at
the mouth of the Don, commanding access to the Mediterranean seas. His
first military attempts were accordingly directed against it, and he
succeeded in taking it in 1696.

In the spring of the ensuing year, the empire being tranquil, and the
young Czar’s authority apparently established on a safe footing, he
determined to travel into foreign countries, to view with his own eyes,
and become personally and practically familiar with the arts and
institutions of refined nations. There was a grotesqueness in his manner
of executing this design, which has tended, more probably than even its
real merit, to make it one of the common places of history. Every child
knows how the Czar of Muscovy worked in the dock-yard of Saardam in
Holland, as a common carpenter. In most men this would have been
affectation; and perhaps there was some tinge of that weakness in the
earnestness with which Peter handled the axe, obeyed the officers of the
dock-yard, and, in all points of outward manners and appearance, put
himself on a level with the shipwrights who were earning their daily
bread. Most men too would have thought it unnecessary, that a prince,
intent upon creating a navy, should learn the mere mechanical art of
putting a ship together; and that his time would have been better
employed in studying the sciences connected with navigation, and the
discipline and details of the naval service as established in the best
schools. It seems, however, to have been the turn of Peter’s mind always
to begin at the beginning; a sound maxim, though here perhaps pushed
beyond reasonable bounds. We have said, that he scrupulously went
through the lowest services in the army and navy: probably he thought it
as necessary that one who aimed at creating and directing a navy should
not be ignorant of the practical art of ship-building, as that a general
should be capable of performing himself the movements which he directs
the private to execute. And his abode and occupations in Holland formed
only part of an extensive plan. On quitting Russia he sent sixty young
Russians to Venice and Leghorn to learn ship-building and navigation,
and especially the construction and management of the large galleys
moved by oars, which were so much used by the Venetian republic. Others
he sent into Holland, with similar instructions; others into Germany, to
study the art of war, and make themselves well acquainted with the
discipline and tactics of the German troops. So that while his personal
labour at Saardam may have been stimulated in part by affectation of
singularity, in part perhaps by a love of bodily exertion common in men
of his busy and ardent temper, it would be unjust not to give him credit
for higher motives; such as the desire to become thoroughly acquainted
with the art of ship-building, which he thought so important, and to set
a good example of diligence to those whom he had sent out on a similar
voyage of education.

Peter remained nine months in Holland, the greatest part of which he
spent in the dock-yard of Saardam. He displayed unwearied zeal in
seeking out and endeavouring to comprehend every thing of interest in
science and art, especially in visiting manufactories. In January, 1698,
he sailed for London in an English man-of-war, sent out expressly to
bring him over. His chief object was to perfect himself in the higher
branches of ship-building. With this view he occupied Mr. Evelyn’s
house, adjoining the dock-yard of Deptford; and there remain in that
gentleman’s journal some curious notices of the manners of the Czar and
his household, which were of the least refined description. During his
stay he showed the same earnestness in inquiring into all things
connected with the maritime and commercial greatness of the country, as
before in Holland; and he took away near five hundred persons in his
suite, consisting of naval captains, pilots, gunners, surgeons, and
workmen in various trades, especially those connected with the naval
service. In England, without assuming his rank, he ceased to wear the
attire and adopt the habits of a common workman; and he had frequent
intercourse with William III., who is said to have conceived a strong
liking for him, notwithstanding the uncouthness of his manners. Kneller
painted a portrait of him for the King, said to be a good likeness, from
which our print is engraved.

He left London in April, 1698, and proceeded to Vienna, principally to
inspect the Austrian troops, then esteemed among the best in Europe. He
had intended to visit Italy; but his return was hastened by the tidings
of a dangerous insurrection having broken out, which, though suppressed,
seemed to render a longer absence from the seat of government
inexpedient. The insurgents were chiefly composed of the Russian
soldiery, abetted by a large party who thought every thing Russian good,
and hated and dreaded the Czar’s innovating temper. Of those who had
taken up arms, many were slain in battle; the rest, with many persons of
more rank and consequence, suspected of being implicated in the revolt,
were retained in prison until the Czar himself should decide their fate.
Numerous stories of his extravagant cruelties on this occasion have been
told, which may safely be passed over as unworthy of credit. It is
certain, however, that considerable severity was shown. Many citizens
who had not borne arms were condemned to death as instigators of the
rebellion, and their frozen bodies exposed on the gibbets, or thrown by
the way-side, remained throughout the winter, a fearful spectacle to
passers by. In some accounts it is stated that two thousand of the
soldiery were put to death: but the absurd falsehoods told of Peter’s
conduct on this occasion afford opportunity for a doubt, which we gladly
entertain, whether justice was suffered to lead to such wholesale
butchery. This insurrection led to the complete remodelling of the
Russian army, on the same plan which had already been partially adopted.

During the year 1699 the Czar was chiefly occupied by civil reforms.
According to his own account, as published in his journal, he regulated
the press, caused translations to be published of various treatises on
military and mechanical science, and history; he founded a school for
the navy; others for the study of the Latin, German, and other
languages; he encouraged his subjects to cultivate foreign trade, which
before they had absolutely been forbidden to do under pain of death; he
altered the Russian calendar, in which the year began on September 1, to
agree in that point with the practice of other nations; he broke through
the Oriental custom of not suffering women to mix in general society;
and he paid sedulous attention to the improvement of his navy on the
river Don. We have the testimony of Mr. Deane, an English ship-builder,
that the Czar had turned his manual labours to good account, who states
in a letter to England, that “the Czar has set up a ship of sixty guns,
where he is both foreman and master builder; and, not to flatter him,
I’ll assure your Lordship, it will be the best ship among them, and it
is all from his own draught: how he framed her together, and how he made
the moulds, and in so short a time as he did, is really wonderful.”

He introduced an improved breed of sheep from Saxony and Silesia;
despatched engineers to survey the different provinces of his extensive
empire; sent persons skilled in metallurgy to the various districts in
which mines were to be found; established manufactories of arms, tools,
stuffs; and encouraged foreigners skilled in the useful arts to settle
in Russia, and enrich it by the produce of their industry.

We cannot trace the progress of that protracted contest between Sweden
and Russia, in which the short-lived greatness of Sweden was broken: we
can only state the causes of the war, and the important results to which
it led. Peter’s principal motive for engaging in it was his leading wish
to make Russia a maritime and commercial nation. To this end it was
necessary that she should be possessed of ports, of which however she
had none but Archangel and Asof, both most inconveniently situated, as
well in respect of the Russian empire itself, as of the chief commercial
nations of Europe. On the waters of the Baltic Russia did not possess a
foot of coast. Both sides of the Baltic, both sides of the Gulf of
Finland, the country between the head of that gulf and the lake Ladoga,
including both sides of the river Neva, and the western side of lake
Ladoga itself, and the northern end of lake Peipus, belonged to Sweden.
In the year 1700, Charles XII. being but eighteen years of age, Denmark,
Poland, and Russia, which had all of them suffered from the ambition of
Sweden, formed a league to repair their losses, presuming on the
weakness usually inherent in a minority. The object of Russia was the
restoration of the provinces of Ingria, Carelia, and Wiborg, the country
round the head of the Gulf of Finland, which formerly had belonged to
her; that of Poland, was the recovery of Livonia and Esthonia, the
greater part of which had been ceded by her to Charles XI. of Sweden.
Denmark was to obtain Holstein and Sleswick. But Denmark and Poland very
soon withdrew, and left Russia to encounter Sweden single-handed. To
this she was entirely unequal; her army, the bulk of it undisciplined,
and even the disciplined part unpractised in the field, was no match for
the veteran troops of Sweden, the terror of Germany. In the battle of
Narva, a town on the river which runs out of the Peipus lake, fought
November 30, 1700, nine thousand Swedes defeated signally near forty
thousand Russians, strongly intrenched and with a numerous artillery.
Had Charles prosecuted his success with vigour, he might probably have
delayed for many years the rise of Russia; but whether from contempt or
mistake he devoted his whole attention to the war in Poland, and left
the Czar at liberty to recruit and discipline his army, and improve the
resources of his kingdom. In these labours he was most diligent. His
troops, practised in frequent skirmishes with the Swedes quartered in
Ingria and Livonia, rapidly improved, and on the celebrated field of
Pultowa broke for ever the power of Charles XII. This decisive action
did not take place until July 8, 1709. The interval was occupied by a
series of small, but important additions to the Russian territory. In
1701–2, great part of Livonia and Ingria were subdued, including the
banks of the Neva, where, on May 27, 1703, the city of St. Petersburg
was founded. It was not till 1710 that the conquest of Courland, with
the remainder of Livonia, including the important harbours of Riga and
Revel, gave to Russia that free navigation of the Baltic sea which Peter
had longed for as the greatest benefit which he could confer upon his
country.

After the battle of Pultowa Charles fled to Turkey, where he continued
for some years, shut out from his own dominions, and intent chiefly on
spiriting the Porte to make war on Russia. In this he succeeded; but
hostilities were terminated almost at their beginning, by the battle of
the Pruth, fought July 20, 1711, in which the Russian army, not
mustering more than forty thousand men, and surrounded by five times
that number of Turks, owed its preservation to Catharine, first the
mistress, at this time the wife, and finally the acknowledged partner
and successor of Peter in the throne of Russia. By her coolness and
prudence, while the Czar, exhausted by fatigue, anxiety, and
self-reproach, was labouring under nervous convulsions, to which he was
liable throughout life, a treaty was concluded with the Vizier in
command of the Turkish army, by which the Russians preserved indeed
life, liberty, and honour, but were obliged to resign Asof, to give up
the forts and burn the vessels built to command the sea bearing that
name, and to consent to other stipulations, which must have been very
bitter to the hitherto successful conqueror. Returning to the seat of
government, his foreign policy for the next few years was directed to
breaking down the power of Sweden, and securing his new metropolis by
prosecuting his conquests on the northern side of the Gulf of Finland.
Here he was entirely successful; and the whole of Finland itself, and of
the gulf, fell into his hands. These provinces were secured to Russia by
the peace of Nieustadt, in 1721. Upon this occasion, the senate or state
assembly of Russia requested him to assume the title of Emperor of all
the Russias, with the adjuncts of Great, and Father of his Country.

Of the private history and character of Peter, we have hitherto said
nothing. He was passionately fond of ardent spirits, and not only drank
very largely himself, but took a pleasure in compelling others to do the
same, until the royal banqueting-room became a scene of the most
revolting debauchery and intoxication. But towards the close of life,
his habits, when alone, were temperate even to abstemiousness. In his
domestic relations he was far from happy. At the age of seventeen he
married a Russian lady, named Eudoxia Lapouchin, whom he divorced in
less than three years. According to some accounts, this separation was
caused by her infidelities; according to others, by her obstinate
hostility to all his projects of improvement: a hostility inculcated and
encouraged by the priesthood, in whose eyes all change was an
abomination, and the worst of changes those made professedly in
imitation of the barbarous nations inhabiting the rest of Europe. By her
the Czar had one son, Alexis, heir to the throne; who, under the
guardianship of his weak and bigoted mother, grew up in the practice of
all low debauchery, and with the same deference to the priesthood, and
dislike to change, which had cost herself the society of her husband.
The degeneracy of this, his eldest, and long his only son, was a serious
affliction to Peter; the more so, if he reflected justly, because he
could not hold himself guiltless of it, in having intrusted the
education of his legitimate successor to one, of whose incapacity for
the charge he had ample proof. It appears from authentic documents that
even so early as the battle of the Pruth, Peter had contemplated the
necessity of excluding his son from the throne. In the close of the year
1716, he addressed a serious expostulation to Alexis, in which, after
reviewing the errors of his past life, he declared his fixed intention
of cutting off the prince from the succession, unless he should so far
amend as to afford a reasonable hope of his reigning for the good of his
people. He required him either to work a thorough reformation in his
life and manners, or to retire to a monastery; and allowed him six
months to deliberate upon this alternative. At the end of the time
Alexis quitted Russia, under pretence of going to his father at
Copenhagen; but instead of doing so he fled to Vienna. He was induced,
however, to return by promises of forgiveness, mixed with threats in the
event of his continued disobedience, and arrived at Moscow, February 13,
1718. On the following day the clergy, the chief officers of state, and
the chief nobility were convened, and Alexis, being brought before them
as a prisoner, acknowledged himself unworthy of the succession, which he
resigned, entreating only that his life might be spared. A declaration
was then read on the part of the Czar, reciting the various
delinquencies of which his son had been guilty, and ending with the
solemn exclusion of him from the throne, and the nomination of Peter,
his own infant son by Catharine, as the future emperor. To this solemn
act of renunciation Alexis set his hand. Thus far there is nothing to
blame in the parent’s conduct, unless it be considered that in the
promise of forgiveness, a reservation of his son’s hereditary right was
implied. His subsequent conduct was severe, if not faithless. Not
content with what had been done, Peter determined to extract from Alexis
a full confession of the plans which he had entertained, and of the
names of his advisers. For near five months the wretched young man was
harassed by constant interrogatories, in his replies to which
considerable prevarication took place. It was on the ground of this
prevarication that, in July, 1718, the Czar determined to bring his son
to trial. By the laws of Russia a father had power of life or death over
his child, and the Czar absolute power over the lives of his subjects.
Waving these rights, however, if such oppressive privileges deserve the
name, he submitted the question to an assembly of the chief personages
of the realm; and the document which he addressed to them on this
occasion bears strong evidence to the honesty of his purpose, unfeeling
as that purpose must appear. On July 5, that assembly unanimously
pronounced Alexis worthy of death, and on the next day but one Alexis
died. The manner of his death will never probably be entirely cleared
up. Rumour of course attributed it to violence; but there are many
circumstances which render this improbable. One argument against it is
to be found in the character of Peter himself, who would hardly have
hesitated to act this tragedy in the face of the world, had he thought
it necessary to act it at all. Why he should have incurred the guilt of
an action scarce one degree removed from midnight murder, when the
object might have been effected by legal means, and the odium was
already incurred, it is not easy to say. He courted publicity for his
conduct, and submitted himself to the judgment of Europe, by causing the
whole trial to be translated into several languages, and printed. His
own statement intimates that he had not intended to enforce the
sentence; and proceeds to say that on July 6, Alexis, after having heard
the judgment read, was seized by fits resembling apoplexy, and died the
following day; having seen his father and received his forgiveness,
together with the last rites of the Greek religion. This is the less
improbable, because intemperance had injured the prince’s constitution,
and a tendency to fits was hereditary in the family.

If our sketch of the latter years of Peter’s life appear meagre and
unsatisfactory, it is to be recollected that the history of that life is
the history of a great empire, which it would be vain to condense within
our limits, were they greater than they are. Results are all that we are
competent to deal with. From the peace of Nieustadt, the exertions of
Peter, still unremitting, were directed more to consolidate and improve
the internal condition of the empire, by watching over the changes which
he had already made, than to effect farther conquests, or new
revolutions in policy or manners. He died February 8, 1725, leaving no
surviving male issue. Sometime before, he had caused the Empress
Catharine to be solemnly crowned and associated with him on the throne,
and to her he left the charge of fostering those schemes of civilization
which he had originated.

Of the numerous works which treat wholly or in part of the history of
Peter the Great, that of Voltaire, not the most trustworthy, is probably
the most widely known. Fuller information will be found in the ‘Journal
de Pierre le Grand, ecrit par lui-même;’ in the memoirs published under
the name of Nestesuranoi, and the Anecdotes of M. Stæhlin. For English
works, we may refer to Tooke’s History of Russia, and the ‘Life of
Peter,’ in the Family Library.

                            END OF VOL. II.

            Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Duke-Street, Lambeth.

                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

 1. Changed “Ecole” and “Ecoles” to “École” and “Écoles” on p. 92.
 2. Changed “Eloge” to “Éloge” on p. 88.
 3. Changed “Veritá” to “Verità” on p. 139.
 4. Silently corrected typographical errors.
 5. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
 7. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript
      character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
      curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.