CHARACTERS. 



4i7 



factor to humanity as St. Vincent. 

 He was the son of a day-labourer 

 in Gascony. When about thirty 

 years of age, he was taken pri- 

 soner at sea, and carried to Tunis, 

 where he continued two years a 

 slave. Having escaped into France, 

 he entered into holy orders, and 

 devoted himself to the service of 

 the unhappy persons condemned 

 to the gal lies. The reform, which 

 he worked among them, the de- 

 cent and resigned demeanor which 

 he produced in them, and the alle- 

 viations of their suffering, which 

 his charitable exertions in their fa- 

 vour obtained for them, were sur- 

 prising. On one occasion, a poor 

 young man, having, for a single 

 act of smuggling, been condemned 

 to the gallies for three years, com- 

 plained to him in such moving 

 terms of his misfortunes, and of 

 the distress to which it would 

 reduce his wife and infant child- 

 ren, that St. Vincent substituted 

 himself in his place, and worked 

 in the gallies, during eight months, 

 chained by the leg, to the oar. 

 The fact was then discovered, and 

 he was ransomed. This circum- 

 stance was juridically proved, on 

 his canonization, and he always 

 retained, in one of his legs, a 

 soreness from the chain which he 

 had worn. He established the 

 Foundling Hospital at Paris; and 

 raised, by a single speech, which 

 he made for it, in a moment of 

 its distress, an instant subscription 

 of 40,000 French livres. In the 

 war of the Fronde, several thou- 

 sand German soldiers, who had 

 been seduced, by great promises, 

 into the army of the Fronde, were 

 placed in Paris and its neighbour- 

 hood ; and the war proving unsuc- 

 cessful to those who had engaged 



them, were abandoned by them, 

 and left to perish. St. Vincent 

 stirred up such a general spirit of 

 charity in their behalf, as enabled 

 him to provide for the immediate 

 subsistence of them all, and to 

 send them back, clothed and fed, 

 to their own country. The cala- 

 mities of the same war were terri- 

 ble in Champagne, Picardy, Lor- 

 raine, and Artois; and a year of 

 great scarcity coming on, famine 

 and pestilence ensued; numbers 

 perished for hunger, and their bo- 

 dies lay unburied. Information of 

 this scene of woe being carried to 

 St. Vincent, he raised a subscrip- 

 tion of twelve millions of French 

 money, and applied it for the re- 

 lief of the wretched objects. These, 

 and a multitude of other acts of 

 beneficence, were juridically prov- 

 ed, on his canonization, and Bcs- 

 suet, in his letter of solicitation, 

 dwells on them with great elo- 

 quence. St. Vincent was canon- 

 ised by Pope Clement XII. and 

 his feast fixed for the 19th of 

 July. 



Doctor Letden. 



This singular and singularly 

 learned man, died at Java, to which 

 island he had accompanied his 

 patron. Lord Minto, at the time 

 of its conquest. The following 

 tribute to his memory comes from 

 the pen of General Malcolm, so 

 much distinguished by his em- 

 bassy to Persia, by the several 

 treaties which he has negociated 

 with the Indian Sovereigns, and by 

 his late masterly sketch of the po- 

 litical history of India. 



To 



