Anniversary of \8'i9. Address of the President. 383 



of a league, has formed a dike and barred up the waters which form 

 the lake of Aidat ; — a spot celebrated by Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop 

 of Clermont in the fifth century, as the seat of his own beautiful 

 residence, under the name of Avitacus. It is curious to remark that 

 Sidonius does not overlook the resemblance between his own moun- 

 tain and Vesuvius : 



" jEmula Baiano toUuntur culmina cono, 

 Parque cothurnato vertice fulget apex." 



Tn this most appropriate abode M. de Montlosier was, in his old 

 age, visited at different times by several distinguished English geolo- 

 gists, some of whom are now present ; and invariably delighted them 

 ■with his unfading interest in the geology of his own region, his hospi- 

 table reception, and I may add, his lofty and vigorous presence, ac- 

 cording well with his frank and chivalrous demeanour. His ardour 

 of character had shown itself in early age : " From my first youth," 

 thus his Essay opens, " I occupied myself with the natural history of 

 my province, in spite of repulse and ridicule."' The same spirit in- 

 volved him in other struggles to the end of his life ; and, indeed, we 

 may almost say, beyond it. He took a prominent part in the political 

 controversies of his day; and few Avorks on such subjects, which 

 appeared in France in modern times, produced a greater fermenta- 

 tion than his "Memoire a consulter" on the subject of the Jesuits. 

 In this work he maintained that the position of the Jesuits in France 

 was dangerous and illegal ; and he must be considered as the ori- 

 ginator of that movement in consequence of which their body was, a 

 few years later, suppressed by the government. The expression of 

 his opinions respecting the conduct and influence of the clergy of his 

 country was condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities, and was 

 deemed by them of a nature to exclude him from that recognition of 

 his being a son of the Catholic churcii, which is implied by the per- 

 formance of the funeral rite according to its ordinances. This, how- 

 ever, did not prevent the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the 

 military stationed at Clermont from shoM'ing tlie regard which his 

 intercourse with them had inspired, by attending his sepulture in 

 great numbers. He M'as buried in a spot previously selected by 

 himself, in the crater of the extinct volcano in which his abode was, 

 in the middle of the scenes which he had iVom his earliest years 

 loved and studied, and taught others to feel a deep interest in. He 

 died at the age of 83, on his way to Paris in order to take his seat 

 in the Chamber of Peers, of which he was a member *. 



* Besides his "Essay on the Extinct Volcanoes of Auvergne," M. 

 de Montlosier was the author of the following works : " Memoire a con- 

 sulter sur un Systeme Religicux et Politique tendant a lenverser la Re- 

 ligion, la Societe et Ic Trone " (182G). " Denonciation aux Cours Roy- 

 ales relativement au Systeme Religieux ct Politique signalc dans le Me- 

 moire a consulter," (1826). " Mcmoires de M. le Comte de Montlosier 

 sur la Revolution Fran9aise, le Consulat, rEni[)ire, et les princii)aux 

 Evcncments qui ont suivis 1755-1830." Of this work two volumes have 

 appeared, which bring the narrative down to the author's quitting the 

 National Assembly in 1790. 



