DBOX, FRANCI3-XAVIKIUOSEPH. 



DnUMMOND. CAPTAIN THOMA& 



I Ok* union of Belgium and Holland was dissolved, and two king- 

 I s*taHithtiii The crisis WM most d'^fflill, and the maintenance 

 of a food understanding very precarious; but the discretion and 

 conciliatory maniMn of the chsjgu-d'affaire* prevented a rupture. 

 King Leopold waa much gratiGed ; and Frinoe Talleyrand, who had 

 watched the prograei of the conference, pointed him out to the 

 IV. nch government ai a young diplomatist of the greatest promise. 

 From 1831 to 1842 M. Drouyn de Lhuys wai assiduously engaged in 

 office an a painstaking *ubaltcrn, and passed through that long courte 

 of training which in France U the prevailing system, and which has 

 produced to many efficient administrator*. He wai elected to the 

 Chamber of Deputies in 1842. 



Kren at that time he foresaw a great political change, and longed 

 to remove, or at leait mitigate, the evil by timely preparation and 

 amendment*. lie therefore expostulated with Guizot, who muted 

 all change, and formed a phalanx of moderate constitutional members, 

 a* a barrier between the two contending parties. He recorded hi* rote 

 in 1845 against Guizot' i policy, and was dismissed from office. He 

 then joined the opposition more openly, continued in their ranks until 

 the revolution of February 1818, and was one of those deputies who 

 signed the propositions or list of charges against the ministers, drawn 

 up by Odilou Barrot 



After the accession of the president, Louis Napoleon, H. Drouyn 

 <le Lhuys was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first 

 government formed by him. The election of a new chamber, in 1850, 

 dissolved this government, and he was sent as ambassador to England. 

 Short and interrupted in his residence was at the court of St James, 

 his conduct in the affair of the Greek Pacifico, joined to his general 

 discretion and good temper, gained him general esteem. After three 

 sucoeasive appointments to the French Foreign Office, he addressed, 

 in 1853, those public letters to the several foreign courts which 

 announced the establishment of the French empire, the style and 

 language of which were thought worthy of the occasion. In 1854 

 his credit was still enhanced by the issue of an exposition of the 

 views of France relative to the war with Ku.-sia. But in the con- 

 ferences at Vienna, in April 1855, he was considered to hold opinions 

 too favourable to Austria ; he was therefore superseded, and Count 

 Walewski appointed to his office. This laborious and upright man 

 subsequently became one of the vice-presidents of the senate. 



DHOZ, FRAXCIS-XAVIERJOSEPH, was born at Besan9on on 

 the 31st of October 1773. Having visited Paris for a few mouths in 

 1792 he witnessed the massacres of September ; after which he 

 returned to Besancon, and enlisted as a volunteer during the national 

 enrolments. His comrades, according to the fashion of tho times, 

 elected him as their captain. But after a short service of little bettor 

 than three years, he quitted the army for ever in 1796, and devoted 

 the rest of his life to study. About the same time he obtained by his 

 family influence the appointment of Professor de Belles Lettrea to a 

 public school in his native town; and in 1799 he published his ' Ksaai 

 sur I'Art Oratoire.' 



In 1 S02 his school having been suppressed, he went to Paris, where 

 be settled definitively, and became connected with Villemain, Cab.mis, 

 and all the leading literati of the time. By the advice of Cabauis, he 

 published hii ' Lin*,' a work of fiction in 1 S04, to attract attention to his 

 philosophical writings. In 1800 appeared his 'Euai sur I'Art d'etre 

 Heurcux ' which was followed by an 'Eloge de Montaigne,' in 1811, 

 for which a medal was awarded to him. From 1816 to 1820 he 

 wrote for several newspapers, inculcating his temperate views of moral 

 philosophy, but refraining from politic*. He then joined Picard in 

 writing his ' Mdmoires de Jacques Fauvel,' a tame imitation of Gil 

 1;U*; the work appeared in 1823. Tho next year he carried off the 

 Moutyon prize for his treatise : ' De U Philosophic morale, ou des 

 UflVrenti Systcme* sur U Science de la Vie.' In 1825 he was elected 

 member of the French Academy. 



He had long dc-ircd to hold a professorship, and at length in 1835 

 ho was appointed to lecture, by authority, at the Institute, on Moral 

 and Political science. In 1839 he published bis best work, ' L'Histoire 

 du Hi-gat de Louis XVL' His gentle and unambitious life came to a 

 close on the 4th of November 1850, when he died as peaceably as he 

 bad lived. Although his works are written in a very unpretending 

 style, they will be found well stored with suggestive ideas, and all 

 the principal critics of his country have mentioned them with esteem. 

 DBUltkOND, CAPTAIN THOMAS, was born at Edinburgh, in 

 October 1797, the second of three son*. Hi* father died whilst he was 

 an infant; his mother removed to Musaelburgli, where she resided 

 many ream, devoting henelf entirely to the education of her children. 

 I trummond was early entered at the High School of Edinburgh, and 

 there formed an acquaintance with Professors Playfair, Leslie, one 

 Brawater, and also with Professors Wallace and Jardine, whose pupi 

 be more especially was. In February 1813 he was appointed to a 

 cadeUhip at Woolwich. His mathematical abilities soon made him 

 eonspicuou*. and be passed with very unusual rapidity through all the 

 grades of UM academy. Much of hi* success was doubtless to be 

 attributed to tho admirable preliminary education he had received 

 but much also to a character of determined perseverance, and to the 

 vigorous and well-regulated mind he brought to bear on nil subject*. 

 To this it was probably due that be never became exclusively a 

 mathematician, but advanced equally in all the various branches of 



study, being at that time, as he continued through life, dUtiiiguithed 

 'or general knowledge and for aptitude to seize on information of 

 every kind. His friend and master, Professor Barlow, notices a cir- 

 cumstance which will illustrate his character : " While a cadet in a 

 unior academy (at Woolwich), not being satisfied with a rather difficult 

 demonstration in the conic sections, he supplied one himself on an 

 ;utirely original principle, which at the time was published in 

 Leyboume's ' Mathematical Repository,' and was subsequently taken 

 a replace that given in Dr. Mutton's 'Course of Mathematics,' to 

 which he bad objected. This apparently trifling event gave an 

 ncreaaed stimulus to his exertions, and may perhaps be considered 

 ;he foundation stone of his future scientific fame. After leaving the 

 academy he still continued his intercourse with his mathematical 

 masters, with whom he formed a friendship which only terminated in 

 :iis much lamented death." 



During his preliminary and practical instruction in the special 

 duties of the Engineering Department, his talent for mechanical 

 combinations became conspicuous, and a pontoon which be invented 

 was particularly admired as suitable to its immediate purpose, and 

 remarkably easy of transport, while according to his contemporary and 

 friend, Captain Daw&ou, to whose information this notice is largely 

 indebted, each section into which it was cut for facility of transport, 

 a* well as to prevent it from sinking if injured in any one part, was 

 said by the dockyard-men to whom he showed it, to be easier to row 

 than any boat except a gig. This early period of bis career was also 

 largely devoted to the acquisition of military knowledge, partly from 

 the associations around him, and partly from the circumstances of 

 the time*. Jomini and Boiumard were bis favourite authors, and 

 often has the morning b'ght surprised him in deep discussion ou the 

 details of Waterloo and the strategy of the recent campaigns. At 

 Chatham, the practical and varied applications of scientific knowledge 

 brought by Colonel (now General) Pasley to the aid of military 

 science, offered the highest attractions to a mind like Drummoud's. 

 Before he joined at Chatham he had served a short time at Plymouth, 

 and after his Chatham course was completed he was stationed at 

 Edinburgh. The duties there offered nothing to engage his attention, 

 relating merely to the charge and repairs of public works ; but he 

 was happy in being again thrown among bis family and friends, and 

 more in the opportunity again afforded him of .pursuing the higher 

 studies in which he delighted, at the college and classes, and among 

 the scientific society of his native city. He found the duties how- 

 ever so trivial, and the prospects of the service so disheartening, that 

 for some time he meditated leaving the army for the bar, and hod 

 actually entered his name at Lincoln's Inn with this view. But in the 

 autumn of 1819 he fortunately became acquainted with Colonel 

 Colby, when that officer was passing through Edinburgh ou hi* return 

 from the trigonometrical operations in the Scottish Highland*. The 

 opportunity which these duties afforded him of combining scientific 

 pursuits with the military service induced him to abandon his intention 

 of forsaking the corps, and in the course of the following year an 

 offer from Colonel Colby to take part in tho trigonometrical survey 

 was gladly accepted. He had now the advantage of a residence during 

 each winter in London, and, with a definite object in viow, again 

 devoted himself, and more closely than ever, to the study of the 

 higher branches of mathematics. 



During this period he also devoted considerable attention to 

 the study of chemistry, and attended the lectures of professor* 

 Brando and Faraday. The society of his friend Dr. Prout, it is 

 believed, first led his mind to this science, and, with his usual felicity 

 of application, he toon made his new knowledge available to the 

 duties ho was employed on. The incandescence of Ume having been 

 spoken of in one of the lectures, the idea struck him that it could be 

 employed to advantage as a substitute for argaud lamps in the 

 reflector* used on the survey for rendering visible distant stations; 

 because*, in addition to greater intensity, it afforded the advantage of 

 concentrating the light as nearly as possible into tho focal point of 

 the parabolic mirror, by which the whole light would be available for 

 reflecting in a pencil of parallel rays, whereas of the argand lamp only 

 the small portion of rays near the focus wai so reflected. Ou this 

 subject hi* first chemical experiments were formed. Captain Dawson 

 recollects Drummond mentioning tho idea when returning from the 

 lecture, and that on the way he purchased a blowpipe, charcoal, &c. 

 That evening he set to work, and resolved that he would thenceforth 

 devote to his now pursuit the hour or two before his evening studies 

 began, remarking "how much Dr. Prout hod done during the intervals 

 of uctivo professional occupations." 



At this period (1824) a committee of tho House of Commons recom- 

 mended that the survey of Ireland should be begun, and that Colonel 

 Colby should moke arrangements for carrying it on. The objects of 

 this survey required a work very different from the survey in England. 

 Except himself and a small number of officers, everything was to be 

 formed by Colonel Colby for tho work. Instruments of improved 

 construction were required. Among others, a means of rendering 

 visible distant stations wa* desirable. The recent experience of the 

 Western Inland* had shown the probability that in a climate so misty 

 as Ireland the difficulty of distant observations would bo greatly 

 increased, an ' '"Iby at once saw the important results w)ii<-h 



might follow such an improvement of the lamp a* that which 



