438 
of his patrimony, and of the profits he 
had derived from his profeflion of advo- 
cate. The reft was confumed at Paris, 
in fruitlefs expeétation of patronage, and 
of feeing his book printed at the public 
expence. When thofe hopes failed him, 
be gradually funk to the loweft extremity 
of poverty; and I have been aflured, 
that for want of a lodging, he paffed 
whole nights on the pont neuf, during the 
éreadful fro that fignalized the begin- 
ning of the year 1789, although he had 
already. the {now of feventy winters on 
his head. 
Compaffionating his miferable fitua- 
tion, a lady of the name of Philippe, an 
intimate friend of the celebrated Manuel, 
requefted M. Necker, by letter, to repre- 
fent the old man’s indigence to the king. 
J faw the anfwer myfelf—it purported, 
That in confideration of M. le Brigant’s 
great age, knowledge, and diftrefs, his 
Majefty had been pleafed to order his 
treafurer to pay him the fum of three 
hundred livres—about twelve pounds ten 
— thillings.—Such was the bounty which 
the Grand Monarque, by the advice of 
the wiriuous Necker, a man of letters 
mfelf, beftowed upon /e plus favani 
homme de fon royaume! But if, inftead of 
ixty languages, and much ufeful erudi- 
tion, he had poffefled the handfome 
Dillon’s face, or General Bcaucharnois’s 
legs*, heavens ! what honours and re- 
wards would have been fhowered upon 
his head ! . 
It was, indeed, the particular fate of 
this good old man to be farving, while 
patronized by the moft powerful 
monarchs upon earth.—The Emprefs of 
Rata had alfo heard of his fame as a 
philologift, and having, at the time left 
alluded to, occafion to fend a courier to 
Paris, fhe charged him with a handiome 
letter for M. le Brigant, accompanied 
by 2 di€lionary in a great number of lan- 
guages+, which had been printed under 
her Imperial aufpices at the Ruifian 
capital—an ufelefs prefent to a man 
already overloaded with languages, and 
in want of bread. 
_Upon my return to Paris, about twelve 
months after, I made feveral enquiries 

% This officer obtained very rapid promotion’ 
and other favours, not on account of his merit, 
which was confiderable, but becaufe he was the 
miott graceful dancer in the courtly circle at Ver- 
failies. . 
+ I have a doubtful recolleGion of the 
number being no lefs than 112, of which a 
large proportion were fpoken in her own 
dorsinions. 
Affinity between the Punic and Erfe Languages. 
[ June, 
concerning the old Bas-Bre/on, and was 
told, in vague terms, that his poverty had 
conduéted him fucceflively to. diftraétion 
and to death. A year or two ago, how- 
ever, I perceived, by the public prints, 
that there wasa citizen le Brigant among 
the literary men who had received pecu- 
niary afliftance from the Convention; 
and was, at firft, inclined to hope that 
the information I had before received 
was falfe. Hut I afterwards recoileéted 
that there was another man of letters of 
the fame name, and have little doubt of 
his being the perfon to whom’ the 
national munificence was extended. 
Happening to mention fome of the 
foregoing particulars to a learned Irith- 
man, whom I met with upon the con- 
tinent, he related to me a faét, which, 
if real, confiderably ftrengthens M. le 
Brigant’s theory, and the opinions of 
your correfpondent.—He told me, that 
the ingenious Col. Valency, in reading 
Plautus, met with fome paffages in the 
Punic language, which feemed to bear 
a great affinity to the Erfe. and even to 
afford him an obicure perception of the 
fenfe they were intended to convey. 
His knowledge, however, of the old Irith 
being, imperfect, he fent for a ftudenr, 
whofe mother-tongve it was, read to him 
the paflages in quettion, and was pleafed 
to find, that: he tranflated them into 
Englith without hefitation; and@ that, 
when fo rendered, they exprefled a 
meaning which not only juftified his con- 
jeCture, but accorded perfeétly with the 
fenfe of the Latin part of the dialogue. 
This is a very curious faét, if true, and 
worthy the attention of Meirion, to 
whofe inveftigation I beg leave to fub- 
mit it, 
‘The only Punic words I know of in 
Plautus, occur in his Posnulus, Aét V, 
Scenes 1 and 2. 
VIAGGIATORE. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
the botanical 
SIR, $ 
A DissERTATION on 
~ and medical properties of the Cora- 
line of Corfica, has been lately publithed 
at Erlang, in Germany, by HAEMMER- 
LIN, Doétor in Medicine, of Ulm. It 
claims your attention : the writer gives a 
circumftantial detail .of the wonderful 
properties of this {pecies of varec or fea 
weed, as applied to worms of the intef- 
tines, with its manner of aéting as a dif- 
folvent and expeller of that humour 
which ferves as. aliment to thofe infeéts. 
This marine plant is a tonic, anda fti- 
: mulant ; 
