£799: | 
fpeétable families in Ireland; but, except his 
own children, he had no relative of the fame 
name in that kingdom. His father, a fuf- 
fering loyalift, abandoned England in the time 
of the civil wars, and married into a wealthy 
family in Ireland. Left an orphan at a ten- 
der age, the fubject of this article never en- 
joyed the full benefit of this alliance; through 
the carelefinefs of a guardian, and the corrup- 
tion of a judge, he was deprived of a confi+ 
derable property in right of his mother; part 
of which (the place of his nativity), lying in 
the county of Dublin, is now let at above 
X5ool..a year. Mr. Walker has left 4 widow 
and three children, one daughter (Jane), and_ 
two fons ( Joleph Cooper and Samuel), 
DEATHS ABROAD. 
At Paris, the celebrated Beaumarchais, of 
whom a particular memoir fhall be inferted 
hereafter ; Lalande writing to Von Zach, ob- 
ferves on this event: ‘* I have loft a friend, 
whom I have loved for forty years, the 
celebrated Beaumarchais. He had indeed 
been dreadfully decried’; but I often defended 
him: nor am I the only honeft man who 
took his part. Gudin, an eftimable philo- 
fopher, whofe efteem and veneration for him 
knew no bounds, was his familiar friend and 
conftant companion ; and in his funeral ora- 
tion on Beaumarchais, in the Journal de 
France, defcribes him a man of great genius, 
and of an exalted character. Beaumarchigis 
died on the fame fpot, and inthe fame pofture 
in which the preceding evening he had in 
good health and fpirits laid himfelf down to 
fleep.—-How happy, placid, and enviabie a 
death !"” 
November the 14th, 2798, Francois Cal- 
fet, the celebrated French Aftronomer. He 
was grand-nephew of the great René Def- 
€artes, and im his youth applied himfelf to 
poetry. Hearing accidentally the panegyric 
wpon Defcartes, delivered in the French aca- 
demy by Thomas, he was affected by it, as 
by an electrical fhock, and from that moment 
devoted himfelf exclufively to ‘the ftudy of 
mathematics. In the year 1781, he under- 
took the edition of the famous logarithmical 
and trigonometrical tables, reducing thereby 
the large, incorrect, Englifh and French 
Quarto edition of Gardiner’s tables, with 
more correctnefs, to a {mall octavo volume. 
They appeared in 1783, and an edition of 
6000 copies was fold off before the year 1791. 
Firmin Didot, the celebrated letter-founder, ' 
printer and bookfeller, undertook therefore ‘a 
new edition of thefe tables, and publithed the 
famous fféreotype edition, which appeared in 
the year 1795. inthis manner of printing, 
the compofed moveable types are foldered to 
a leaden plane, and thus compofe one folid 
body, which is exprefled by the Greek deno- 
mination, compofed of cepeos, corporeal, im- 
moveable, and turG@+, type. ‘Thus fuch a 
form is rendered as folid as an engraved plate ; 
and as many impreffions may be taken from it 
as are wanted. Gedd, a goldf{mith of Edin- 
Montury Mac. wo. ‘21, 
Account of Reinhold Forfter. 
829 
burgh, is faid to have furnifhed the firft idea 
of this invention. Callet laid before the Aca- 
demy of Sciences at Belogna a tteatife, in 
which he proved that the whole fcience of 
‘logarithms could be-comprifed in a very few 
tables, each of so lines, and that all poffible 
kinds of logarithmic tables could be made 
metely by addition and fubtraction. During 
the revolution Callet, as well. as many more 
eminent J/iterati, was reduced to the greateft 
diftreis. Mauduit, profeffor of mathematics in 
the collége de France, propofed to refign in his 
favour} but Callet refufed to accept of ‘this 
honourable offer, and afterwards was fupported 
by government. A fhort time before his death 
he publithed the following excellent work : 
Supplement a ta Trigonometrie Sphérigue et a la 
Navigation de Bexout, 0% Recherches fur [es meil- 
levers manidres de déterminer les longitudes ala mer, 
foit. par des méthodes de calcul, foit par des con- 
fruttions graphiques, foit avec le fecours d'un 
infrument 3 a Paris, chez Firmin Didot, 1798 
Prony and Borda, being nominated to examine 
it, gave a mot favourable account of it to the 
National inftitute. 
[ Account of ihe late Dr. Reinhold Forfter, 
who, together with bis fon George, accompanied 
Captain Cook in his fecond Voyage round the 
World ; by thé celebrated Kurt Sprengel, 
Profeffor of Medicine at Halle. ] 
Botanical Garden, in the Vicinity of Halle, 
December 17, 1798. 
On the gth inftant, in the evening, a little 
before feven o’clock, our Forffer paid the debt 
of nature. I\faw him die. The'ties which 
united his fpirit, thirfting after immortality, 
to its terreftrial abode, were diffolved flowly, 
but under no terrific fymptoms. Door 
Meckel had fufpeéted offifications of the 
aorta extending far down into the abdomen, 
which, together with a misfhapen expanfion 
or that artery in the place where it iffues 
from the heart, were really difcovered after 
Fofter’s death. Hence thofe fymptoms of 
afthma, convulfions in the cheft, chillnefs of 
hands ard feet, and ill digeftion, which he 
had experienced for feveral years back, and 
which were continually increafing. He 
would frequently converfe with me on the 
caufe of tliofe fymptoms, and pofitively, yet 
compofedly, infift, that they were the pre- 
curfors of his fpeedy diffolution. His natural 
vehemence decreafed as he grew weaker. 
One night, fitting up with him in company 
with his excellent daughter, I happened to 
remark, not without emotion, the gentlenefs 
and calm benignity wherewith he received 
every littie office. ‘* Have I not,” faid he, 
prefling my hand, ¢¢ very good daughters and 
good friends ?” 
Longing with ardour for a better life, and 
looking back with gladnefs on his former 
voyage in the Pacific Ocean, he feemed 
already the inmate of a future world. The 
moft frigid man could not quit his bed with- 
gut being moved. No veitige of his contti- 

5 O tutional 
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