1928.) 
Although he escaped this danger, yet the 
ftemembrance of the revolutionary horrors 
obliges us to recount another. He had re- 
ceived from royal munificence, with his pen- 
sion, apartments at the Louvre, and the rich 
cabinet of curiosities which he had formed, 
occupied a part of the Galerie d’Apollon. 
When the Tuilleries was attacked (August 
10, 1792) the assassins penetrated into his 
apartments. Charles seeing himself so sud- 
denly assailed by the furious multitude, 
avowed himself, and brought to their recol- 
lection his. zrostatic ascensions, and even 
shewed them the car he used, which now 
became to him a monument of protection, 
for he owed his life solely to the singular 
impression this remembrance made on them. 
But a more powerful motive than personal 
interest animated him on this perilous oc- 
Casion, and gaye to his words an extraordi- 
nary effect, and indeed at no period of his 
life had he been so eloquent: one of his 
brothers, an ecclesiastic, pursued by the re- 
voluticnary demens, was hid in his apart- 
ments, where Charles had secretly kept him 
for above two months. After some useless 
Searches the murderers retired; thus fra- 
ternal piety, presence of mind, talents, and 
courage, obtained a double blessing ! 
. In the latter years of his life Charles was 
attacked by the stone, which, at length, 
(at the commencement of the present year), 
making rapid and despairing progress, 
obliged him to endure, with resignation, an 
operation almost without hope, and three 
days after, he was lost to science and the 
world—dying, he said, “ I die without re- 
gret, since I shall not be forgotten by my 
friends !”” 
JEAN SAMUEL ERSCH. 
- The Universities of Halle and Jena have 
lately lost a professor who was esteemed one 
of the most indefatigable that bibliography 
had to boast of in Europe—Jean Samuel 
Ersch, born in 1766, at Gross-Glogau, in 
strated, and affected to challenge the whole world ; 
et at the same time a remarkable coward. Indeed 
e was-eyer in fear, for he had been informed 
that he had been watched closely when in Eng- 
land ; we believe it was the Editor of Le Gazetier 
| Cuirassé, who gave him this hint, which, to the 
_ day of his death, continually haunted him. Thus, 
when in 1782, he wrote a “ Memoir on the Crimi- 
nal Law,” which he dared not put his name to, 
“ because,” said he, ‘‘ that will be the way to the 
Bastille.” Indeed, Brissot, who relates this anec- 
ote, characterised him thus: “ Under despotism 
i¢ was afraid of the Bastille, and since the reign 
of liberty he has always been in fear of prisons!” 
Tn 1787, he was importuned by Brissot to join the 
popular party. “No,” said he, “1 would rather 
continue my physical experiments in peace, for 
epi does not lead to the Bastille; besides, 
the French are not yet sufficiently ripe nor cou- 
_ Fageous enoughto support a revolution.” This 
_ Was the monster that a very short time after, not 
cow preached (in his halfpenny paper called 
* L'Ami du Peuple I’) but saw put in practice, 
Ly doctrine, that “ pour affranchir la France 
Saut que le sang de 300,000 tétes aristocra- 
ues ruisselent dans les rues !"—the blood of 
¢ heads of three hundred thousand aristocrats 
flow, before France can be free! 
ie Oy 
Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
437 
Silesia. He resided formerly at Jena,’ where 
he was occupied in periodical works on geo- 
graphy and statistics, and where he trans- 
lated a variety of interesting voyages and 
travels in foreign countries. In 1788 he 
published a catalogue of the anonymous 
works of Germany, serving as a supplement 
to the work of Meusel, entitled “ Learned 
Germany.” He was associate with Schutz 
and Bertuch, in conducting the “ Literary 
Gazette of Jena,” and he contributed to that 
work until the beginning of the present year. 
He likewise edited a “ Repertory of the 
Journals, and other Periodical German 
Works on Geography and History,” in 3 
vols., in which he indicated the different 
Mémoires contained in the journals. At 
Hamburgh he edited the “‘ Gazette Peli- 
tique,”’ in which he continued the Reper- 
tory of Literature that he had commenced 
at Jena. It was at Hamburgh also he pub- 
lished the work which made known, the 
name and the laborious researches of this 
German bibliographist. His “ Literary 
France,” containing the French authors 
from 1771 to 1791, with two continuations, 
which he published in 1800 and 1806, was 
very favourably received, although. some 
faults and omissions were apparent, which it 
is hoped will be remedied and improved by 
M. Quérard’s forthcoming work at Paris, as 
that is undertaken upon a grander scale. 
Ersch likewise published “‘ The New Ger- 
man Library,” without mentioning many 
other literary productions, the severe toils 
of which brought upon him a very~ serious 
illness ; but having, in 1800, been chosen 
librarian to the University of Jena, he re- 
turned to that town, and there commenced 
a course of lectures on geography and mo- 
dern history. Some years after, he was 
named chief librarian and professor of geo- 
graphy and statistics at the University of 
Halle, where he transferred the Literary Ga- 
zette, of Jena. He there continued his 
bibliographic researches with the same zeal 
and attention, and published his ‘¢ Manual 
of German Literature,’ from the middle 
of the eighteenth century to the end of 
1814, in two heavy volumes; and he con- 
tinued, after the death of Meusel, “‘ Learned 
Germany,”’ which contained an indication 
of all the works composed by each author, 
and the journals where they were either 
criticised or analyzed. He undertook, in con- 
junction with M. Gruber, a “‘ General Ency- 
clopedia of the Arts and Sciences;” an im- 
mense work, and which differed adyan- 
tageously from all other encyclopedias, in- 
asmuch as every thing in it was reduced to 
facts, and in which care was taken to join to 
every article numerous bibliographic refer- 
ences, where the reader might find more 
ample information upon all its various sub- 
jects. Unfortunately, the enterprise was 
more than Germany could support, and the 
work was discontinued, which so affected 
poor Ersch that he took it seriously to heart, 
and, falling ill, at length expired, broken-. 
