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seventy-one, feared yet beloved by all in connexion withbim.

He left three sons : Victor, the eldest, succeeded tothe honours and possessions of the house. This man wasa strange mixture of good intention and evil doing; —a general philanthropist, and yet the persecutor andenemy of his own family; against various members ofwhich he obtained, at different times, fifty-seven lettresde cachet, nearly a score of which were levelled againsthis eldest son. He had more vanity than pride, and hishaughtiness was unaccompanied by a Epirit of justice,yet joined to a perfect conviction that he was alwaysin the right. Implacable towards others, indulgent withregard to himself: hence spring the contradictionsobservable in his character ; we find displayed a mixtureof sternness and softness, rancour and good humour.Had he been as severe with himself as others, his wholecharacter had been rigid, but he would have been morejust and virtuous: as it was, we find him plastic to theinfluence of his own passions or vanity, and becomegentle and even playful under their influence: what-ever jarred with these found him despotic and unfor-giving. Thus he grew into a domestic tyrant, and whilehe ran after popularity in his own person, he disdainedand crushed the talents of his son. His literary repu-tation did not begin till he had passed mid-life; it wasfounded on “ L’Ami des Hommes,” a work in fivevolumes, which, in the midst of great diffuseness andconfusion, is yet remarkable for the knowledge it dis-plays in agriculture and statistics, and for many clear andliberal views. His “ Theorie de l’lmpot,” published in1760, caused him, through his attack on the financiersof the day, to be imprisoned in the fortress of Vin-cennes. He wrote many other works on the same speciesof subjects. It is a curious circumstance that, while headopted in his publications a bad, inflated, and obscurestyle, his private letters are witty, gay, and flowing.He had, of course, served in his youth ; but disappoint-ment with regard to promotion, combined with his desireo 3