BERANOEB, PIERRE JBAN DK. 



BERENOER. 



6) 



of St. Augustine, on the rest coast of Madagascar, on the S5th of j of songs, containing some of his most striking pieces. 

 The voyage, from the beginning, was a slow and unlucky 



1_ . , / !_.., . 17ft* ). IntMtti,! ' n\*A th MAAfc 



In the early part of January 1785 the 'Intrepid' madetheooast 

 of Braxil. whence Benyowaky wrote the but letter his friends ever 

 reodvrd. About a month afterwards the ship ran aground at tb 

 island of Juan Gonsalvex, and it was not before April that she was 

 got off and nude sea-worthy. Benyowaky then stood across the 

 Southern Atlantic for the African continent. He doubled the Cape 

 of Good Hope, without putting into port there, and after touching 

 and resting for a short time at Sofala, he at last (on the 7th of July 

 1786) oast anchor at Madagascar, in the Bay of AnUnpara, 10 leagues 

 to the south-west of the Bay of St. Augustine. It is then stated that 

 Lamboin, king of Northern Madagascar, whom he had known on bis 

 former visit, came to pay his reapecte, and that a body of the race, or 

 tribe, called Seclaves, under their chief or king, came also and encamped 

 near to Benyowsky ; that the count proposed to enter into the solemn 

 compact or oath of blood with the Seclaves, and that their chief declined 

 on the pretext of being much fatigued by bis journey. According to the 

 protect of the master of the American ship, it should seem that Ben- 

 yowaky met his death at the hands of the savages on the 1st of August, 

 but as the contrary is known beyond a doubt, entire discredit is thrown 

 on the ship-master's evidence. The American master certainly aban- 

 doned him, sail-d away, and fold the ship and cargo at Uibo. 



But though thus abandoned, the resources of this extraordinary man 

 did i.ot fail him. He put himself at the head of an armed force of the 

 natives, and seued the magazines and warehouses of the French, who, 

 to the annoyance of the Madagascar savages, had formed more than 

 one establishment on the island. In consequence of these and other 

 hostilities, the governor of the Isle of France sent a ship to Mada- 

 gascar with sixty French soUiers, who landed and attacked the count 

 on the morning of the 23rd of May 1786. Benyowsky awaited their 

 approach in a small redoubt he had thrown up. The blacks fled at 

 the first fire of the French, and the count having received a ball in 

 his right breast, fell behind the parapet, and expired a few minutes 

 after, in the forty-fifth year of his age. 



(tltmoirt and TrtneU of M. A. Cowl de Senyowity, written by 

 himself.) 



B'KRANGER, PIERRE JEAN DE, was born in Paris August 19, 

 1780, of humble parentage, and in his earliest years was brought up 

 by his grandfather, a tailor. He witnessed the taking of the Bastille 

 in 1789, and wss then removed to the care of an aunt, who kept an 

 inn at Peronne. Hera he first learnt to read. At fourteen he was 

 apprenticed to a printer in Peronne. Somewhat later he attended a 

 primary school founded at the same place. At sixteen he returned to 

 his father at Paris, and having attended some theatrical representations, 

 he resolved to attempt a comedy, and produced ' Lee Hermaphrodites.' 

 At eighteen he projected the writing of an epic, to be called ' Clovis ; ' 

 this he proposed as the task of the succeeding twelve yean. He also 

 produced verses on sacred subjects, some of which have been given 

 in the edition of his works edited by M. Perrotin, and published in 

 1884. These performances did not improve his fortunes ; and, reduced 

 to great distress, he thought of proceeding to Egypt, where Bonaparte 

 then was. and whose first successes bad excited extravagant visions of 

 glory and prosperity among the French population. The return how- 

 ever of some members of the expedition dissipated Be'ranger's dream, 

 and he remained in Paris. It was at this period, when suffering from 

 his disappointed hopes, and even actual indigence, that he seems to 

 have resolved to be gay if be could not be happy, and he produced hi* 

 ' Roger Bontemps,' Le Qrcnier,' < Lee Gueux, and ' Le Vieil Habit' 

 They were not immediately successful ; but in 1803 he sent some of 

 his poems to Laden Bonaparte, who promised to ameliorate his situa- 

 tion. Luci-n was suddenly called to Rome. Bdranger thought himself 

 forgotten ; when a letter came from Luden, assigning to Brfrangor his 

 income as a member of the Institute. He next obtained some employ- 

 ment as an editor, and in 1809 was appointed a clerk in the secretary's 

 department of the Academy. His songs were now becoming popular 

 in every quarter. During the ' hundred days' of Bonaparte, Boranger 

 refused the lucrative office of censor. In 1816, when he published his 

 rst collection of songs, which were popular throughout France, he 

 was informed that it would occasion his dismission from the office he 

 held in the Academy. He wavered not, and was retained ; but in 

 1&21, when the second collection was published, he was at once dis- 

 chargrd. He wrote more and more poignant satires upon the govern 

 meat ; be was prosecuted, and sentenced to three months' impriaonmen 

 an.1 a fine of 600 franca. In 1828 be published bis third collection 

 Porthisbe waiarsin 



After the revo- 

 lution he was elected in April a representative of the department of 

 the Seine in the constituent assembly, by more than 200,000 votes ; 



: ; .'-.:. 

 600 francs. 



For this be wss attain prosecuted, and wss condemned to nine months 

 imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 francs. Confined more strictly in 

 the prison of La Fores, the undaunted poet continued bis attacks on 

 the faulu and follies of the government, and these remarkable lyrics 

 aided not a little In accelerating the fall of the Bourbons. 



In 1830 the revolution of July would have act-d favourably fo 



- --, compulsory labour has become insupportable. 



Berangrr wa* convinced that France was not fitted at this time for 

 republican government, and he supported the establishment of 

 limited monarchy. In IMS be published his fifth and last collection 



but in May ho sent in his resignation. It was unanimously refused, 

 bat a week afterwards he renewed it, and it wai accepted. 



Boranger continues to write, but does not publish. He is known to 

 have a large collection of songs, and be employs himself also with a 

 'Biographie dec Contomporains.' 



The songs of Beranger have deservedly attained a high reputation, 

 not only in France but throughout Europe. One charm is their 

 complete nationality. The delicate wit, the subtle satire, the indig- 

 nant denunciation, the vivid and correct pictures, the frequent comi- 

 cality of situation are all truly and exclusively French ; and so arc 

 le faults that are sprinkled rather too frequently through them. His 

 ominand of language is marvellous, and in the most difficult rhythms 

 words always seem to drop naturally into their places ; but this is 

 ndentood to be attained by him only with great Irfbour. 

 The whole career of Beranger is very remarkable. He had become 

 real power in the state under the first Napoleon. Although he felt 

 lat there was no hope for the national freedom of his country while 

 lat despotism endured, he bad a sincere admiration of the emperor's 

 enius. Consequently there were no personal attacks in his early 

 songs ; and when a little gentle raillery upon externals was ventured 

 as in 'Le Hoi d'Tvetot' and ' Le Senateur ' it was laughed at and 

 pplauded even at court. Ik'ranger U considered by his countrymen 

 * a religious poet : this is not the impression which an Englishman 

 would receive. But he certainly does not shock by impiety, however 

 10 may offend by levity and want of reverence. The songs for which 

 was prosecuted were not attacks on religion, but on its false 

 assumption. Fined and imprisoned under the Bourbons, he still 

 remained the conqueror. Beranger bos little resemblance to pur own 

 ong-writers. He has none of the deep passionate love depicted by 

 Jurus. He never contemplates the happiness of 



" Loving and being loved by one ; " 

 but 



Takes, forsakes, retakes Llwtte " 



n a fashion that jars on English feelings of delicacy. The passion IIP 

 describes indeed is rather that which has become appropriated in 

 English to the French word " amour." His contrast to our patriot i<- 

 singer, Dibdin, is also striking Dibdin holds out few incentives to 

 .he sailors he addressed beyond a sense of duty, prize-money, a pi 

 of domestic happiness with their Nancy, and Greenwich Hospital. 

 Such encouragements find no place with Beranger. The glory of 

 Prance is the most prominent inducement to fight and to die. To our 

 other lyrical poet, Moore, he has somewhat more resemblance. 



(Xovrdlc Biographie UnirerttUe.) 



BERCHTOLD, LEOPOLD, COUNT, a native of Germany, born in 

 1758, is celebrated for his philanthropic exertions, having spent 

 thirteen years in travelling throughout Europe, and four years in Asia 

 and Africa, with a view of mitigating human sufferings, to which 

 object indeed the whole of his life was devoted. In 1797 he published 

 at Vienna directions for the cure and prevention of the plague, having 

 travelled two years throughout Asiatic and European Turkey for the 

 purpose of investigating its symptoms and determining its character. 

 The Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon ordered these directions to 

 be translated into Arabic, French, and Portuguese. Count Berchtold 

 attempted to effect reforms in the state of European police, and wrote 

 some pamphlets on the subject, which were printed and distribut d 

 by him gratuitously in different countries. Some of his plans he laid 

 before the French National Assembly, and he submitted to that body 

 observations on the necessity of making swimming and diving a branch 

 of national education. Possessed of an ample fortune, he offered 

 prizes for essays on various subjects connected with his philanthropic 

 plans : among other*, one of a thousand florins for the best treatise on 

 Benevolent Institutions ; and not content with this, he was also the 

 founder of several such establishments. He was also active in making 

 known the advantages of vaccination. During a famine in Germany 

 in 1805-06, he procured for the poor supplies of food from district* in 

 which famine did not prevail ; and in the course of the revolutionary 

 war he converted the palace of Buchlowitz, on his estate in Moravia, 

 into an hospital for the sick and wounded. At this place he died, 

 July 2ti, 1809, of a contagious nervous fever. 



The results of the experience and observations of Count Berchtold, 

 as a traveller, will be found in the following work, which was dedi- 

 cated to Arthur Young, and published in London in 2 vols. 12mo : 

 ' An Kssay to direct and extend the Inquiries of patriotic Travellers ; 

 witli further Observations on the means of preserving the Life, Health, 

 and Property of the inexperienced in their Journeys by Sea and Land ; 

 also a series of Questions interesting to Society and Humanity, neces- 

 sary to be proposed for solution to men of all ranks and employments, 

 and of all nations and governments, composing the most serious points 

 relative to the objects of all Trawls.' 



liKUENQEIt, one of the most learned divines of the llth century, 

 was a native of Tours. He was made treasurer of the church of 

 St. Martin in that city, and afterwards became archdeacon of Angers. 

 Derenger, I.anfranc, and Anselm, were the restorers of logic and meta- 

 physical studies in Europe, with the assistance of Aristotle's works, 



