124 A CHECKERED CAREER. 



vegetables into his country.* At an early period 

 of the Revolution he was appointed one of the ad- 

 ministrators of the Department de la Meurthe ; 

 but being deprived of this office by St Just, and 

 reduced to poverty on account of his noble birth, 

 lie employed himself in arranging and publishing 

 the materials collected in his travels. He also un- 

 dertook to superintend a new edition of Buffon's 

 " Histoire Naturelle," to which he contributed 

 thirteen volumes, and one volume of Cetacea ; and, 

 conjointly with Latreille, four volumes of Reptiles. 

 From these valuable literary labours he was taken 

 by Fourcroy, then Director-General of Public In- 

 struction, who placed him at the head of the College 

 of Vienne, in the Department of the Isere. It had 

 formerly enjoyed a high reputation, and Sonniui 

 endeavoured, by enforcing order and discipline, to 

 restore it to its former estate. But he was frustrated 

 in all his efforts, and so thwarted and annoyed, that 

 at the end of two years he relinquished the post 

 which his real talents and the confidence of Govern- 

 ment had procured him. He then returned to his 

 literary labours, which he was compelled to prose- 

 cute for a livelihood. 



* During the disastrous results of the tempest of July 13, 1788. 

 by which a large part of the agricultural districts of France was 

 laid waste, Sonnini published a valuable pamphlet, entitled, " The 

 Vow of an Agriculturist." He also produced, from time to time, 

 similar useful and practical essays. 



