136 MEMOIR OF C. F. BEAUTEMPS-BEAUPRE. 



tbat elevation of gcutiment which Plutarch eo well knew how to paint. Heverses 

 of fortune, which would have overwhelmed another, were encountered by him 

 with stoic firmness. Involved at an advanced age in the failure of a banker,* 

 he lost by that c\cnt the savings of his whole life ; but he contented himself 

 with saying aU'ectionatcly to JNIadamc Beautemps-Beaupre, " This event, my 

 love, makes us youngc.T by thirty years," an expression which supposed in her 

 an elevation of sentiment equal to his own. Few marriages, indeed, have been 

 80 happy as that which he contracted, in 1S04, with Madame Fayolle, widow 

 of a commissary general of marine. Both were nearly eighty when death sepa- 

 rated them by the removal of the wife ; it was the first cloud which had dark- 

 cued their union. 



M. Fayolh;, issue of the first marriage of Madame Beautemps-Beaupre, found 

 in our colleague a second father, and, as hydrographical engineer, was for many 

 years one of his most distinguished and useful assistants. 



M. Beautemps-Beaupre had always had a weakness of the breast ; at the age 

 of eighteen some physicians had even augured an early decline. When he 

 embarked to take part in the expedition of d'Entrccasteaux, it was generally 

 thought that he would never again see France. This prognostic Avas fortu- 

 nately falsified ; but an obstinate cough attended his whole life, and in later 

 years subjected him to much annoyance. 



It will scarcely be forgotten among ourselves that, at our sessions, he was a 

 model of punctuality. He signed our record the 23d of October, 1853, but 

 thenceforward was forced to renounce his attendance. This privation, and the 

 sufi'erings which occasioned it, he bore with a resignation full of cheerfulness. 

 One of our colleagues having called to see him, and expressing the hope that a 

 strong constitution would again restore him to us, he replied with a smile, " I 

 am duly sensible of your kindness, but I shall soon be eighty-eight." Firm in 

 a Christian faith, M. Beautemps-Beaupre accepted death without a murmur. 

 " Let us not repine," said Admiral Baudin at his grave, " that, in subjecting 

 him for several months to the supreme trial of excessive sufiering, God afforded 

 him the opportunity of setting an example of resignation and unalterable 

 serenity." 



He expired March 16, 1854, surrounded by a devoted family, which numbers 

 two inheritors of his distinguished, name — M. Pierre Beautcmps-Beau])re, presi- 

 dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Grandville, and M. Charles Beautemps- 

 Beaupre, imperial procurator at Mantes, lu this Academy he succeeded M. de 

 Fleurieu, his master and friend, and has himself been succeeded by M. Daussy, 

 whu, from 1811, had been his most constant collaborator, and wl),o efficiently 

 contributed to secure to the hydrographic survey of the coasts of France 

 geodetic bases of irreproachable precision. 



* The banker, wlio was bis relative, niigbt bave been j^rosecuted for fraudulent bank- 

 ruptc}'. M. Jje.autcuips-Beaupre tluew in the tire the unly paper which could have pro- 

 cured his condemualiou, sajiug, "It is not I who will ever be instrumental in disgracing a 

 relative." 



