1799.) 
larly odious to the Englifh officers, when 
he commanded the French fleet in the 
ftruggle with the American colonies. It 
was even doubted, whether quarter would 
be given him if once more made prifoner. 
He efcaped that fate,-but was deiperately 
wounded in the attack upon the Englifh 
lines at Savannah. 
He had acquired in the fchool of mif 
fortune a talte tor ftudy and popular man- 
ners, which rendered him a great favou- 
rite both in the French army and navy. 
~ He was juftand firm in command; but 
he fhewed a much greater predilection for 
thofe officers who owed their rank to their 
merit, than for thofe who owed it merely 
to their illuftrious birth. To the latter 
he never entrufted any important fervice. 
‘< Molt of thefe gentlemen,” {aid he, ‘¢ are 
more fit tv make a figure ina boudoir, than 
in the field of battle.*’ ‘Talents were 
above all what he fought after. When he 
was appointed admiral, in the year 1781, 
and had a carte blanche given him, he 
took on board his thip feveral experienced 
pilots, and matters of merchant. vefiels 
frem the different ports of France; and 
difmiffed feveral captains of the navy, whe 
were not well verfed in naval affairs. 
D’Eftaing punifhed, with equal rigour, 
abufes of authority, and breaches of dici- 
line. Pirchky-colonel of the regiment of 
Heffe-Darmftadt, and famous for his ty- 
rannical difpofition, and for his cruelty, 
was quartered with his regiment at Sz, 
Marie aux Mines, near Cadix. It was 
his cuftom, when a foldier ran the gaunt- 
let, to furround him with a circle of 
bayonets, fo that the culprit, if he made 
the leaft. falfe ftep, or fhrunk from the 
ftripes, fell upon their points. ‘D’Eftaing, 
when appointed to the command of the 
army, would not tolerate this atrocity. 
He fent for Pérehk, reprimanded him 
aloud, and exprefsly forbade him in future 
to exercife fuch horrible tyranny. 
One of the fea-officers, whofe talents 
and difpofition were the moft analogous 
to his, was La Péroufe. In the paflage 
from Cadix to Toulon, after the procla- 
mationof peace, in 1733, the Adfzve which 
he commanded, leaked in fuch a way as 
to alarm the whole crew. They re- 
proached themfelves with having put to 
fea in fo old and crazy a veflel. Péroufe, 
by his judicious orders, and the refpe@ he 
infpired, reftored order, and difpelled their 
tears. 
During this fame paflage, which lafted 
forty-eight days, the fea was agitated in 
a very uncommon manner: upon per- 
ceiving the aftonifhment and alarm of the 
Original Letters of F. Ff. Rouffeau. 
469 
fhip’s company, who faw in this phzno- 
menon, nothing more than the danger, 
and the violence of a heavy fea, Péroufe 
faid to them, ‘© Ref affured that fome 
revolution is going forward in the globe. | 
At the firft port we put in at, we fhall 
learn that an extraordinary event has taken 
place in nature.” Accordingly, on their 
arrival at Toulon, they were informed of 
the dreadful earthquake at Meffina. - 
Péroufe was one of thofe men whofe vat 
genius embraced the deltinies of all the 
inhabitants of the globe, round which he 
failed. He was a friend to the rights and 
to the liberties of mankind ; and treated 
his officers, failors, and foldiers, as if they 
had been his brethren. He perifhed in an 
expedition worthy of his talents ; but did 
not owe his appointment to thofe talents 
alone. It hasbeen faid, that the Maréf{chal 
de Caftries, under whom he was brought 
up, being jealous of his growing favour at 
court, contrived to get him fent abroad, 
on the fervice that coft him his life, 


ORIGINAL LETTERS. 
ORIGINAL LETTERS OF J. J. ROUSSEAU, 
Never before publifhed in Englifh. 
TOM. DE MALESHERBES, 
Mantmorency, Dec. 24, 1761, 
“THERE was a time, Sir, when you 
honoured me with your efteem, and 
when i did not think myfelf unworthy of 
it, That time, I am fatisfed, is pat; and 
although your patience and your kindnefs 
towards me are inexhautftible, I can no 
longer attribute them to the fame caule 
without being moft ridicnloufly blind. 
For more than fix weeks my conduét and 
my letters, have been nothing more than 
a tiffue of iniquity, folly, and imperti- 
nence. I have brought your name and 
that of Madame la Maréchale* into quef- 
tion in the moft unworthy manner poliible: 
You have faid every thing, and done every 
thing to calm my delirium ; and that ex- 
cels of indulgence, which might have 
prolonged it, is,,in faét, the very thing 
which has put an end to it. I open my 
eyes with horror, and perceive what a 
defpicable being Iam become. Become! 
No ; the man who, during fifty years, car- 
ried in his breaft the heart I feel revive in 
mine, is not capable of torgetting himfelf 
fo far, as 1 have lately done. Tt is too 
fate at my age to. afk pardon, becaufe it 
can no longer be deferved ; but, Sir) I 
take no intereft in the perfon who has thus 
ufurped and difhonoured- my name. I 


* The wife of Marihal Luxembourg, 
. , abandon 
