13S 
[Sept. 1, 
Memoirs of Nicholas Poussin. 
ally entrusted to him an important brancli 
of adiniiiistration. Thus provided with 
an order from the superior powers, Du¬ 
bois was enabled to escape, for a consi¬ 
derable period, from.the petty tyrants of 
the day, by chani^ing his dress, his place 
of abode, and his name; but he was at 
lengtli discovered by his connexion with 
a paper for \\ hid) he frequently wrote, 
termed La feville de Cultivateu?', and 
earned to the prison of St. Lazarus. He 
owed his preservation, while there, to a 
circumstance singular enough in every 
point of view ; one of the spies of the 
police, w hich the Committee of General 
Safety kept in this jail, and on whom they 
chietiy depended for the choice of their 
victims, had, a little before this, trans¬ 
mitted a memoir to the commissioners of 
agriculture; and, having spoken of it to 
IVi. Dubois, with a view of obtaining his 
opinion, the latter, who had perused the 
paper, mentioned it with approbation. 
On tills, the sfiy, charmed with the ap¬ 
probation of so good a judge, immediately 
acknowledged himself the author of it; 
and to tliis trilling event Dubois was in¬ 
debted for his preservation. Praise re¬ 
sembles the lyre of Orpheusiand, like it, 
can render even demons humane ! Ano¬ 
ther circumstance appears also to be 
worthy of attention: the subject of this 
memoir, during the w hole time of his im¬ 
prisonment, regularly received the emo- 
luments appertaining to him as a com¬ 
missioner of agriculture. This proved 
very consolatory in several points of 
view, as, in the first place, it en¬ 
abled him to assist both himself and 
others; and, in the next, he imagined 
that the government whicii transmitted 
him his salary, never intended to put him 
to death. It was not until after his li¬ 
beration, lie learned that his friend Gil¬ 
bert, director of the Veterinary School 
at Alfort, had brought the sum in ques¬ 
tion, regularly every month, to Madame 
Dubois, which he pretended to have re¬ 
ceived on her husband's account. Learned 
and industrious Gilbert! thou hast by thy 
•wntiugs euligi'.teued the practical part of 
agriculture ! thou iiast multiplied the be- 
iiehrs derived from artificial meadows ! 
to thee France is chiefly indebted for the 
introduction of meiinos into its flocks! 
and thouLast found thy death in the far¬ 
thest part of Spain, whetiier thou wert 
conducted solely by the desire of be¬ 
coming useful to thy country; but I 
irarkly confess to thee, that so much 
ineiit, and so many eminent services, are 
inferior, in my opinion, to this delicate 
act of courageous fiieadship ! 
The ninth of Thermidor restored M, 
Dubois to liberty, and soon after this he 
was appointed the agent of the commissi¬ 
oners of agriculture, and liead of the office 
of the Minister of the Interior. In that 
capacity, he was entrusted with several 
missions relative to manufactures and 
commerce*; and he accordingly visited 
the cities of Lyons, Nismes, Montpellier, 
Bourdeaux, &c. 
hleaawhile, all good citizens were 
turned towards the East, and the Genius 
of France, (M. Thelisis pleased to add,) 
assisted in the revolution of the 13th 
Brmnaire; to which M. Dubois contri¬ 
buted, by attending to the provisioning 
of Paris; for, before a people can be go¬ 
verned, they must first be fed. On the 
institution of prefectures^ he was nomi¬ 
nated to the magistracy of the department 
of Garde; and on parting for his new 
place of residence, the sole instructions 
w'hich he received was, “ to render the 
government beloved!" Two of his first 
acts v\ere, to restore the academy, and 
establish a society of agriculture. Soon 
after this, he was nominated director of 
the taxes in the department of Allier, on 
which occasion he published a work en¬ 
titled “An Essay on the commerce of the 
South of Franceand was preparing 
himself for still greater labours, when 
suddenly snatched from his family and his 
friends, by a premature death, at the 
age of 54, leaving little to his children, 
except the memory of his many virtues, 
a re=pected name, and a just claim to 
the munificence of government. 
M. Dubois w'as author of a work en¬ 
titled, 1. Tableau Annuel de la Thysique, 
de I’Hisioire NatureUe,(^' des Arts, 1772; 
2. A Translation of the Works of a 
Pole, called Abtt; 
3. A Translation of Wallerius, on the 
Oiiiiin of the Earth; 
4. The Analysis of certain Precious 
Stones, by M. Achard, of Berlin ; 
5. A Melo-drama, called “ Ariadne 
Abandonnee; 
And 5. An Introduction to Cerutti’s 
Journal. 
Memoirs of NICHOLAS POUSSIN, 
the celebrated Painter. 
This eulogium obtained a prize from 
the Society of Literature, &c. in the 
department of Eure : the author is Ni- 
chola Htiault. It has been observed 
tiiat the French language, instead of being 
daily enriched by the accession of new 
words and phrases, appears to have be¬ 
come actually poor, in consequence of 
the “ luxury of fine expressions," and the 
superabundance 
