Miscellanies. 373 



regular account of his observations in that country. After an abode 

 of two years, his nephew,* the celebrated Jeffrey, editor of the Ed- 

 inburgh Review, induced him to publish a collection of his letters, 

 and this gave rise to his Travels in England, two editions of which, 

 are ample evidence of its success, and served to place the author, 

 almost without his knowledge, in the career of literature. Tn 1816, 

 he returned to the continent, and left Paris on a journey to Switzer- 

 land and Italy. He remained for some time among us, and bestowed 

 a particular notice on our Canton in his Travels in Switzerland, the 

 success of which is also demonstrated by two editions : he afterwards 

 published his account of Italy. In 1820, on his return to Paris, he 

 wrote for the Edinburgh Review, and for the Journal des Debats, 

 several articles on political economy, which indicated an original and 

 independent mind. He had there the misfortune to lose his wife, a 

 lady of rare merit, a circumstance which severed his attachments to 

 the United States. He then decided upon retiring to Geneva, which 

 he stated to be a country the most worthy of liberty, and the hap- 

 piest that he had seen. He here married one of our countrywomen, 

 and became a citizen of our Canton. A short time aftet" he was, by 

 numerous suffrages, called to the representative council, and in 1823, 

 he was appointed Mayor of the Commune of Versoix : his efforts in 

 favor of primary education in this commune, not less than his nu- 

 merous benefactions, justly claimed fur him the gratitude of the in- 

 habitants, and have had a happy influence in ameliorating the condi- 

 tion of the schools of the Canton. He was engaged in a work upon 

 the penitentiary system, when a sudden death removed him from a 

 family which adored him, and from his newly adopted fellow citizens, 

 whose esteem and affection he had thoroughly secured. Under a 

 taciturn and morose exterior, he bore a serene mind, and a warm 

 heart. He always disdained the mere show of sentiment as a sub- 

 stitute for sense and intelligence. Naturally inclined to look upon 

 the dark rather than the bright side of things, and an enemy of all 

 enthusiasm, he rectified, by his enlightened love of justice and hu- 

 manity, the austerity which such a temperament might otherwise have 

 produced. Having been his own instructor, he acquired the habit 

 of judging for himself, without being controlled by the opinion of 

 others ; but the moderation of his sentiments softened the authorita- 

 tive influence of this independence. His opinions could not always 



* By marriage. 



