1831.] 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



465 



was sometimes taken at the doors. It 

 was at length cut to pieces in the room, 

 by Mr. Beresford, the brother of Mrs. 

 Hope. For this, Dubost brought an 

 action against him, laving his damages 

 at 1,000. The jury, however, gave 

 him a verdict for 5.", as the worth of 

 the canvas and colours ; and even that 

 would not have been awarded had Mr. 

 Beresford put in a plea that he destroyed 

 the picture as a nuisance, instead of 

 putting in a general plea of " not 

 guilty." 



In 1809, Mr. Hope published The 

 Costumes of the Ancients," in two vo- 

 lumes, royal 8vo ; and that it might be 

 the more easily purchased, and thus 

 more extensively circulated, he gene- 

 rously caused it to be sold at a price by 

 which he is said to have made a sacrifice 

 to the amount of 1,000. Three years 

 afterwards, he published his " Designs 

 of Modern Costumes," in folio. These 

 works evinced a profound research into 

 the works of antiquity, and a familiarity 

 with all that is graceful and elegant. In 

 the improvement of female costume in 

 this country, they may be said to have 

 wrought wonders. 



Even in this prolific age of author- 

 ship, a work of more varied, lively, and 

 intense interest than Mr. Hope's " Anas- 

 tasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek," 

 has scarcely been known. When it first 

 appeared, it was generally ascribed to the 

 pen of Lord Byron. It has passed 

 through several editions, and is, in fact, 

 a standard book. At the time of Mr. 

 Hope's decease (which occurred at his 

 house in Duchess-street, on the 3d of 

 Februarv), he was engaged in passing 

 through the press a publication, " On 

 the Origin and Prospects of Man." He 

 has left an extensive collection of 

 drawings and engravings, illustrative of 

 buildings and scenery in Greece, Tur- 

 key, Italy, France, and Germany ; and 

 several plates of his antique sculpture, 

 vases, &c. 



COMTE DE SEGUR. 



Le Comte Louis de Segur, eldest son 

 of the Marquis de Segur, Mareschal de 

 France, was born at Paris, in 1753. His 

 high connections gave him consequence, 

 and his talent enabled him to avail him- 

 self of the fortuitous advantage. He had 

 distinguished himself in arms, in letters, 

 and in diplomacy, before the commence- 

 ment of the revolution. After serving 

 two campaigns in the revolutionary war 

 of America, he was, in 1780, appointed 

 to the high station of Minister Pleni- 

 potentiary to the Court of St. Peters- 

 burgh, between which and that of Ver- 

 sailles he had the satisfaction of accom- 

 plishing a perfect reconciliation. In the 

 year following, he concluded a treaty of 

 commerce for France, prevented the re- 



M.M. New Series.VoL. XI. No. 64. 



newal of the treaty between Russia and 

 England, and thus secured for his own 

 country all the advantages which, till 

 then, had been exclusively enjoyed by 

 England. The Comte de Segur was a 

 poet, and a man of gallantry ; qualifica- 

 tions which were thought to have had 

 their full weight, with reference to the 

 success of his negociations, in the breast 

 of the Imperial Catherine. 



The Comte accompanied the Empress 

 in her celebrated journey to the Crimea ; 

 and, the war between the Turks and 

 Russians having broken out, he became 

 her mediator. He was negociating a 

 treaty of alliance, in favour of France, 

 when the revolution in that country 

 broke out. He, in consequence, returned 

 to Paris; and, in the same year (1789), 

 he was appointed deputy from the no- 

 blesse of the capital to the etats-gencraux. 

 In 1791, he was made a mareschal de 

 camp. The ministry for foreign affairs, 

 and an embassv to Rome, were offered 

 to him. He chose the latter ; but, dif- 

 ferences arising between the Holy See 

 and the French government, he either 

 did not set out upon his mission, or the 

 Pope refused to receive him. 



In 1792, the Comte de Segur was sent, 

 by Louis XVI., as ambassador to the 

 court of Berlin, in the hope of averting 

 the threatened war. In this object he, 

 with difficulty, succeeded. When the 

 king was dethroned, he retired from 

 public affairs ; but, on the 10th of Au- 

 gust, 1792, he was arrested by the Com- 

 mittee of Public Safety. On his libera- 

 tion, he left France, and remained abroad 

 during the whole of the reign of terror. 

 His property in France, and in St. Do- 

 mingo, having been ruined, in 1793 and 

 1794, he is said to have for a long time 

 supported his father and his family by 

 the productions of his pen. 



After the fall of Robespierre, he re- 

 turned. In 1801, he was elected a mem- 

 ber of the legislative corps. He voted 

 in favour of the consulship for life to 

 Buonaparte; a measure which he pro- 

 nounced to be the most efficacious for 

 consolidating the new institutions. In 

 1803, he was called to the Council of 

 State, and elected a member of the Na- 

 tional Institute ; and, under the impe- 

 rial government, he was appointed to 

 the office of Grand Master of the Cere- 

 monies of France, and invested with the 

 cordon rouge. In 1813, he became a se- 

 nator ; and, in January, 1814, he was 

 named commissioner extraordinary from 

 the imperial government to the 1 8th 

 military division. 



On the return of the Bourbons, the 

 Comte de Segur was created a peer of 

 France; notwithstanding which, when 

 Buonaparte reassumed the government, 

 he, by imperial command, resumed his 

 legislative functions, was again Grand 



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