112 
L A M 
but without appointing him to any particular poft in the 
administration. He foon found, however, that his opinions 
were by no means in utiifon with thofe of the other mi¬ 
nisters, and that his plans for the restoration of profperity 
were regarded as “a good man’s dreams, too chimerical 
to be adopted.” In this critical State of things he made 
one effort for opening the king’s eyes, and drew up two 
energetic memoirs “On the Calamities of France, and the 
Means of repairing them;” hut-foch was the unfortunate 
afccndency which the queen’s party had over the mind of 
the ill-fated monarch, that he was prevented from even 
reading them, nor could he be prevailed upon to grant 
the writer one private interview. MaleSherbes, therefore, 
took his final leave of the court. 
Returning to his country abode, he confulted the pub¬ 
lic good in a mode which was Still open to him ; and in 
1790 published “ An Effay on the Means of accelerating 
the Progrefs of rural Economy in France," in which he 
offered a variety of ingenious remarks on the fubjeft, and 
propofed an eftablilhment to facilitate the national im¬ 
provement in this important point. He was particularly 
led to make his propofal at this period, from the hopes 
which he, with So many other excellent citizens, enter¬ 
tained, that the revolutionary changes, though fo awful 
and tumultuary, would finally ilfue in a free and well- 
balanced constitution. The dreadful fcenes which foon 
followed extinguished hjs hopes, and left him to mourn 
in Solitude over the miferies of his country. He 'was at 
length routed by an event, which, though in its confe- 
quences it proved fatal to him, yet gave occafion to his 
difplaying a noblenels of mind which has few parallels. 
This was the decree of the national convention for the 
trial of Louis XVI. Although he might have entertained 
Some difpleafure on account of the manner in which he 
had been baniShed from his councils, yet he was fo pene¬ 
trated with the Sentiment of the king’s goodnefs of heart 
and real concern for the welfare of his people, that he felt 
nothing but the defire of Serving him at this emergency. 
He inftnntly wrote to the president of the convention, re¬ 
questing to be permitted to a£l as one of the council of 
the illustrious culprit. Three had been already appoint¬ 
ed ; but, one of them declining the office, Louis, who wept 
at this proof of attachment from his old Servant, immedi¬ 
ately nominated MaleSherbes in his Stead. Their inter¬ 
view was extremely affecting; and the depofed monarch, 
during the Short interval before his death, Showed every 
mark of affeftion for, and confidence in, his genarous ad¬ 
vocate. MaleSherbes was the perfon who announced to 
him his cruel doom, and one of the laft who took leave 
■of him. After that cataftrophe he again withdrew to his 
retreat, but with a deeply wounded heart. He refufed to 
hear of any thing more that was atling on the bloody thea¬ 
tre of Paris ; and it was long before he recovered Serenity 
enough to refume his former Studies and occupations. As 
he was one morning working in his garden, he obferved 
four ill-looking men dire&ing their courfe to his houfe ; 
•and, hastening home, he found them to be revolutionary 
Satellites come to arreSt his daughter, Mad. Lepelletier 
Rofambo, and her huSband, once president of the parlia¬ 
ment of Paris. This fatal feparation feems to have affected 
him more than anyvther circumstance of his life; and 
his own arrelt, with that of his grand-children, Shortly af¬ 
ter, was rather a relief to his feelings. The villagers 
-crowded round to take leave of their ancient benefactor 
■with tears and benedictions; and four of the municipality 
accompanied him to Paris, that he might not be eScorted 
by Soldiers like a criminal. He was Shut up in priSbn 
■with one of his grand-children only, but upon his petition 
the whole unfortunate family was afterwards united. 
The guillotine foon Separated Lepelletier from his wife ; 
and the accufation of Malelherbes, with his daughter and 
grand-daughter, “ for a conspiracy againSt the liberties of 
the French people,” a mod abfurdand unfupported charge! 
was followed., as a matter of courfe, by a Sentence of death. 
la faft, the convention never pardoned his defence of the 
LAM 
king, an aft in which he gloried. The condemnation of 
thele females almoSl overcame his fortitude; his courage., 
"however, returned at the prifon, and they prepared for 
death. His daughter had already Shown the fpirit by 
which She was inspired ; for, upon taking leave of Made- 
moifelle Sombreuil, who had faved her father’s life on the 
ad of September, fhc Said to her, “You have had the hap- 
pinefs to prefer ve your father; I have the confolation of 
dying with mine." On the fatal day, Malellierbes left the 
prifon with a ferene countenance; and, happening to Hum¬ 
ble againft a Stone, he faid (with the pleafantry of fir Tho¬ 
mas More), “ a Roman would have thought this an un¬ 
lucky omen, and have walked back again.” He converfed 
calmly with his children in the cart, took a tender fare- 
wel, and received fhe Stroke, in April 1794, in the feventy- 
third year of his age. Thus died one of the inoft fpotlefs 
and exemplary characters of the time! The government 
has Since made fome reparation for the injustice done him, 
by ordering his buft to he placed among thofe of the great 
men who have reflected honour upon the country. Vie de 
Lamoignon MalcJIierbcs, Paris, 1805, 
LAMOJL'LE, a river which runs into Lake Champlain, 
twenty-eight miles north of Newhaven, in lat. 44. 37. N. 
Ion. 73. 14. W. 
LAMO'NA, or Amo'na, a branch of the river Po, 
which runs into the Adriatic five miles north of Ravenna. 
LAMO'NA, or Amo'na, a department of the kingdom 
of Italy, compofed of parts of the ci-devant Romagna. 
It contains 105,000 inhabitants, who eleft twelve deputies. 
Faenza was fixed on as the capital. 
LAMOR'RAN CREEK, a creek in the English chan¬ 
nel, on the coaft of Cornwall, at the mouth of a fmall ri¬ 
ver which joins the Fale three miles fouth of Truro. 
LAMOT'HE le VAYE'R (Francis de), a learned 
French writer, born at Paris in 1588, was descended from 
a family originally from Mons, and difiringuifiled in the 
profefiion of the law. He was bred to the Same profeffion, 
and long occupied the poll of fubltitute to the procureur- 
general in the parliament of Paris, which he inherited 
from his father. His attachment to letters, however, in¬ 
duced him to quit this occupation ; and he became one of 
the moll Studious and univerfal fcholars in his time. The 
learned works which he published opened to him the doors 
of the French Academy in 1G39; and few of his fellow- 
members equalled him in erudition, although tunny fur- 
paffed him in elegance of ftyle. When a preceptor was 
to be chofen for Louis XIV. Lamothe was thought of for 
the office ; but the queen-mother objected to him as being 
a married man. Probably, the freedom with which he 
philofophifed, and his known difpofition to fcepticifin, 
were the true reafons for his exclulion. He was, how¬ 
ever, appointed to the preceptorShip of the king’s brother, 
then duke of Anjou, and afterwards of Orleans; and he 
was likevvife made historiographer of France, and titular 
counsellor of State. In the court he lived like a philofo- 
pher, immerfed in bocks, Ample and regular in bis man¬ 
ner, and void of ambition and avarice. Guy Patin (peaks 
of him as a Stoic, who would neither praife nor be praifed, 
and who followed his own fancies and caprices without 
regard to the world. He died in 1672, in the eighty-fifth 
year of his age. Lamothe le Vayer was a writer upon a 
great variety of topics, in which he displayed more erudi¬ 
tion and judgment than talte and invention. One of his 
works was, a Treadle on the Virtue of Pagans, which was 
anfwered by the zealous and orthodox Arnauld. It is 
find, that, Lamothe’s bookfeller complaining to him that 
his book-did not fell, “I know a Secret (Said the author) 
to quicken the fale:” and he immediately procured an or¬ 
der from government for its fupprefficn, which foon dif- 
pofed of the whole edition. His works were collected in 
two volumes folio, 1662, and were afterwards printed in 
fifteen volumes nmo. 1684, and in fourteen volumes oc¬ 
tavo, 177a. In this collection are not included his Dia¬ 
logues after the Manner of the Ancients, under the name 
of Oralius Tubero, in which he gave free icope to his 
lcepticifm 3 
