192 
Count Peter Riel de Beurnonville. 
being- called to a military life. He em¬ 
barked in the squadron, of M. SufFraSn, 
served in India as a private, and afterwards 
became a serjeant. In that country he mar¬ 
ried a lady with a larg-e fortune. He was 
subsequently major of militia m the isle 
of Bourbon, but was deprived of his com¬ 
mission by the governor without any real 
grounds. He returned to France, and com¬ 
plained bitterly of his treatment; the go¬ 
vernment, to indemnify him, gave him the 
cross of St. Louis. During the first years 
of the revolution, he was a lieutenant-ge¬ 
neral, and was under General Dumourier, 
who was much attached to him, and called 
him his Ajax. In November following he 
obtained the command of an army, des¬ 
tined against Treves and Coblentz. He 
fought several actions against the Austri ans, 
particularly at Pellegan and Grewenwacker. 
In the report which is made of this last af¬ 
fair, General Beurnonville, after describing 
the combat as having lasted for three hours, 
said, the enemy had lost a number of men, 
while the French were quit for the little 
linger ot a grenadier. On the 4th of Fe¬ 
bruary, 1793, he w r as appointed minister of 
war, but he wrote almost immediately to 
the convention, requesting his dismission ; 
for, (said he in his letter,) “ It is better for 
me to serve my country by my sword, 
than by my pen.” The demand caused 
some debates •, in the end, how ever, he w r as 
permitted to leave Paris as soon as he had 
cleared up his accounts. He was ag-ain 
appointed to the office on the 4th of March, 
and he then accepted it. After this second 
nomination the jacobin society having de¬ 
termined to get rid of the ministers, and of 
some of the most obnoxious of the represen¬ 
tatives, sent emissaries to the office of the 
war minister, to assassinate General Beur¬ 
nonville, who had no other means of es¬ 
caping than by scaling the walls of his 
own garden. At this period Cambaceres 
introduced the law- for erecting an extra¬ 
ordinary criminal tribunal. Dumourier 
now wrote to the minister of w T ar, and en¬ 
deavoured to induce him to join in the pro¬ 
jects he had fonned with the Austrians. 
Beurnonville communicated the letters to 
the committee for general defence, and 
they sent the war minister on a mission to 
the French army, to arrest General Du- 
mourier. Instead of accomplishing the ob- 
[Sept. In¬ 
ject of his mission, the war minister, with 
his four coadjutors, was arrested by Du¬ 
mourier, and they w-ere conducted before 
the Austrian commander, Prince of Coburg. 
When the carriage was on the road to 
Tour nay, he attempted to escape from the 
hussars who escorted them, and one of 
them w-as slightly wounded. General 
Clairfuit received the prisoners with cold 
politeness, and Colonel Mack intimated to 
them that they must be detained as hos¬ 
tages for the queen and her son. After a 
severe illness Beuimonville was transferred 
to the fortress of Olmutz, where he re¬ 
mained until the 3d of November, 1765 ; 
at that epoch the commissaires were taken 
to Basil to be exchanged for the daughter 
of Louis XVI. On his return to France lie 
was named commander of the army of the 
Sambre and Meuse, and he carried on with 
success many operations on the Rhine. 
After the 4th of September, 1797, he was 
appointed to command the army in Holland. 
The moderate party intended him for a 
place in the directory, but could not carry 
his election. In November he was dis¬ 
missed from the command of the Batavian 
army, aud in 1798, was appointed inspector 
general. After the revolution of the 18th 
ofBrumaire, (9th of November,) 1799, he 
obtained the embassy to Berlin, and vvas 
afterwards sent on a similar mission to 
Madrid. About that time he married Ma¬ 
demoiselle Durfort. In 1805, he w r as 
named a senator, having previously re¬ 
ceived the title of count, aud been decorat¬ 
ed with the grand cross of the legion of 
honour. On the 1st of April, 1814, the 
general voted for the creation of a provi¬ 
sory government, and the exclusion of 
Bonaparte from the throne of France ; and 
on the night of the 5th he contributed 
greatly to procure the rejection of a re¬ 
gency, and the establishment of the legiti¬ 
mate government. On the 4th of June the 
king made him a peer of France. On the 
return of Bonaparte he was proscribed by 
one of the legendaries, and he repaired to 
Ghent, and after the restoration of the 
king, was again placed on the list of peers, 
and admitted to the privy council. In No¬ 
vember, 1819, the Marshal Beurnonville 
was elected one of the secretaries of the 
chamber. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS, &c. 
We are requested by a Correspondent to notice the sophistical apology made for the 
Plagiarisms of Lord Byron, by quoting the example of Shakespeare's extracts of speeches 
from Plutarch. “ The cases are not parallel. In historical characters personal iden¬ 
tity was to be preserved, but the plagiarisms of Lord Byron are on. general topics, in 
which his lordship has had credit for inventions and. descriptions palpably not his 
own. He did right, no doubt , to consult original descriptions, but wrong in not ac¬ 
knowledging them. Plagiarism consists in stealing another man's ideas and wonts 
without acknowledgment, and of this literary offence, his lordship, with all Lis 
acknowledged merit, appears to have been guilty ,’’ 
