1826.) 
the twelfth century by Montmorency, the 
Grand Constable of France, who married a 
daughter of Henry I. of England. From 
that time to the present, the Montmoren- 
cies have filled some of the highest stations 
under the French monarchy. The subject 
of this sketch, when a boy, served in 
America, in the regiment of Auvergne, 
_ which was commanded by his father, Vis- 
count de Laval. On his return to France, 
he obtained the reversion of a captaincy in 
the guards of the Count d’Artois. When 
states-general were convoked, he was 
ted as their deputy by the nobility of 
the Bailiwick of Montfort l’Amausy ; 
and being a young man, animated with the 
grand ideas of liberty, then prevalent, he 
was the first to deposit on the table of the 
Constituent Assembly, his titles of nobility, 
as a sacrifice to the new and fascinating 
doctrine of equality. Soon finding, how- 
ever, that liberty, as enjoyed by the French 
reyolutionists, was the sanction of murder 
and every atrocious crime, he became a 
voluntary exile, and, in Switzerland, he 
found an asylum at Coppet, the residence 
of Madame de Staél. With that celebrat- 
ed woman he formed a friendship which re- 
mained unbroken till her death. The exe- 
cution of his brother, which took place in 
1794, affected him deeply, and he endea- 
voured to find consolation in the duties of 
religion. In 1795, he returned to France, 
only to be thrown into prison, from which, 
however, he was after some time released, 
and allowed toremain unmolested for seve- 
ral years. At that period he refused to 
accept any office, led a sort of monastic 
life, and devoted himself to works of charity. 
In 1811, his friendship with Madame de 
Staél drew upon him the punishment of 
exile ; and, although he obtained his recal, 
he was always kept under the surveillance 
of the police. Onthe overthrow of Buona- 
parte, in 1814, the Viscount de Montmo- 
_ tency was the first to hasten to Nanci, to 
join Monsieur, now Charles X., whom he 
accompanied to Paris as his aid-de-camp, 
and received a distinction still more flatter- 
ing, the appointment of Chevalier d’hon- 
neur to the Duchesse d’Angouleme. In 
pursuance of this duty, he attended the 
princess to Bourdeaux, and, after seeing 
her safe to London, he joined Louis 
XVIII. at Ghent. By the battle of 
Waterloo, he was again restored to his 
- country, and called to the house of peers, 
in which assembly he has been generally 
regarded as an ultra-royalist. When, in 
1821, his party gained the ascendancy, he 
was admitted into the cabinet, as minister for 
the foreign department. In conjunction with 
.de Chateaubriand, he was sometime after 
Spatched to the congress of Verona. His 
conduct upon that occasion was universally 
admitted to be frank and honourable ; but, 
im consequence of his differing in opinion 
with M. de Viilele, respecting the expedi- 
_. tion of the French into Spain, he found it 
Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
103 
expedient to resign his ministerial office. 
Louis X VIII. was then pleased to testify 
his opinion of his services by raising him 
to a dukedom. Montmorency remained 
ever afterwards out of office; but he en- 
joyed the unbounded personal confidence 
of the royal family, by whom the extreme 
fervour of bis religious sentiments was not 
regarded as any defect of character. On 
the contrary, it was probably the cause of 
his being selected to superintend the studies 
of the young Duke de Bourdeaux. The 
Duke was recently chosen a member of the 
French Academy; but, at the reading of 
his inaugural speech, he appeared to be 
suffering under a serious illness which rapid- 
ly grew worse, and, about the middie of 
March, he was considered to be in immi- 
nent danger: he seemed shortly after to 
recover a little, but the hope proved fallaci- 
ous. He went to several churches to offer 
up his thanksgivings: at the church of 
St. Thomas Aquinas, he had scarcely knelt 
down, when, by a sudden and fatal shock, 
he fell dead on the pavement ! 
DR. MILNER. 
The Rev. John Milner, p.p., Roman 
Catholic Bishop of Castaballa, in Ireland, 
and Vicar Apostolic for the Middle Dis- 
trict of England, died at Wolverhampton, 
in the early part of May. This divine, 
distinguished equally as an antiquary, @ 
theologian, and a party writer, was educa- 
ted at St. Omer’s. When he took orders, 
he became priest to a Roman Catholic con- 
gregation at Winchester. The warmth with 
which he advocated the cause of the Chureh 
of Rome, both in writing and preaching, 
obtained for him the appointment of bishop. 
On the agitation of the Catholic question 
some years ago, the Irish priesthood nomi- 
nated him the agent for the management of 
their cause in England ; but his conduet 
in the affair of the veto, and some of his 
assumptions, so much offended the Roman- 
ists in this country, that several strong 
resolutions were passed respecting his con- 
duct. He afterwards repaired to Rome 
with other Irish prelates, to get a. declara- 
tion rescinded, by which our sovereign was 
allowed a veto in the appointment of Catho- 
lic Bishops. To those who are desirous 
of tracing the literary, theological, and 
political career of Dr. Milner, the subjoin- 
ed list of his works may prove accept- 
able :— Discourse on his Majesty’s Reco- 
very, 8yo. 1789; Discourse delivered at the 
Consecration of Dr. William Gibson, 
Bishop of Acanthos, Svo, 1751; Certain 
Considerations on Behalf of the Roman 
Catholics, S8yo. 1791. The Divine 
Right of Episcopacy 8vo. 1791 ; Historical 
and Critical Inquiry into the Existence and 
Character of St. George, Patron of En- 
gland, Svo., 1792; Ecclesiastical Demo- 
cracy detected, 8vo. 1792; Funeral Ora- 
tion delivered on Occasion of the Murder 
of Louis X VI., 8vo, 1793; A Reply to the 
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