28 MEMOIR OF 



which hare appeared since the fall of the "Western 

 Empire. He left a history of them completed, 

 and several volumes of this work have now been 

 published. 



Besides these greater works, we find that M. 

 Lacepede transmitted no fewer than twenty-three 

 memoirs to the several societies of which he was a 

 member, and to the respectable periodicals of the 

 day, principally between the years 1796 and 1808 ; 

 the last, On the Cetacea of the Japanese Seas, was in 

 the year 1818. He also published in 1799 a new 

 edition of Buffon in fifty-two volumes duodecimo, 

 and wrote the preface to the Menagerie^ in folio, in 

 1801. 



We must now add, that about this period he made 

 another change from these active literary pursuits to 

 equally active political engagements. Very soon 

 after the new government was established, he was 

 gradually replaced in all the high offices he had pre- 

 viously held. He was appointed senator in 1799, 

 president of the senate in 1801, chancellor of the 

 legion of honour in 1803, and minister of state in 

 1804. 



In the general administration of the legion ct 

 honour, M. Lacepede conducted himself with the 

 greatest talent and address, and to the satisfaction 

 of every one. He likewise exerted himself in esta- 

 blishing schools for the education of the orphans of 

 those who had belonged to the legion, and procurei 

 comfortable accommodation for as many as nearly 

 fourteen hundred of them. 



