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the public attention towards him; and when Bonaparte was about to depart for Egypt, he employed M. Say to collect all the works which the nature of that expedition was likely to render necessary to him. This contact with the future head of the state procured his nomination to be a member of the Tribunate, on the first formation of that body. He did not at all distinguish himself in this assembly, and he has since accounted for the silence which he then maintained by the consciousness of his total want of power to oppose effectually the developement of a political system which he condemned. He did not on that account give up the idea of serving the public interests, but had recourse to another channel than the tribune. "Enouncing my ideas," he says, "in the shape of general formulæ, I gave currency to truths which might be useful to all times and in all countries." It was then that he began the composition of his "Treatise on Political Economy, or a Plain Exposition of the Formation, the Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth," the first edition of which appeared in 1802, and signalized his entrance into the career of political economy, on his labors in which his reputation has been entirely founded. Having refused to sanction by his vote the creation of the empire, he was excluded from the Tribunate, but appointed shortly after to be receiver of the droits réunis (assessed taxes) for the department of the Allier, a place which he very soon resigned, from a scruple of conscience, "being unwilling," he says, to assist in impoverishing his country.' He then established a manufactory, in which it appears he was not successful. But he was not induced by this failure to resume the career of public employments, and his subsequent life was entirely devoted to science. His "Treatise on Political Economy" is the most important of his works, and that which has contributed to make his name known throughout Europe. At the time when it first appeared, very few persons in France or in any other part of the Continent cultivated economical knowledge. Although Adam Smith's work had been translated, it was little read or comprehended, and the labors of his predecessor Quesnay, and the first economists, were almost entirely forgotten. There were even strong prejudices against the study among the leading men of France, headed by Bonaparte himself, whose policy it was to proscribe all intellectual labors not immediately connected with mathematical science, as mere reveries, and their cultivators as idéologues, a term in his vocabulary synonymous with dreamer. M. Say's work produced an entire change in public opinion. merits are thus briefly and forcibly characterized by one of the most distinguished of our own economists. "The Traité d'Economie Politique' of M. Say would deserve to be respectfully mentioned in a sketch of the progress of political economy, were it for nothing else than the effect that his well digested and luminous exposition of the principles of Dr. Smith has had in accelerating the progress of the science on the Continent. But in addition to the great and unquestionable merit that it possesses, from its clear

and logical arrangement, and the felicity of many of its illustrations, it is enriched with several accurate, original, and profound discussions.'* Of these, the explanation of the real nature and causes of gluts is decidedly the most important and valuable.” ↑

Besides five editions of the original, enlarged and improved in each, it has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. The following are the titles of M. Say's other works:-1. "Olbie, un Essai sur les Moyens de réformer les Mœurs d'une Nation," 1800. 2." De l'Angleterre et les Anglais," 1815. 3. "Catéchisme d'Économie Politique," 1815, 5th edition, 1826. Volume, contenant quelques Aperçus des Hommes et de la Société," 1817. 5. "Lettres à Malthus sur différens sujects d'Économie Politique." 6. "Cours complet d'Économie Politique pratique," 6 vols. 1829, &c.; besides a variety of articles in the "Décade Philosophique,' "Revue Encyclopédique," &c. He also contributed notes to a republication of Storch's "Course of Political Economy" at Paris, and to a translation of Ricardo's "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation." He died in the middle of November last, aged 67.

We cannot close this notice more appropriately than by quoting some sentences from a tribute to his memory which appeared in the Examiner newspaper; coming from the pèn of one who had the best means of knowing and appreciating his character, we value the testimony accordingly.

"M. Say was one of the most accomplished minds of his age and country. Though he had given his chief attention to one particular aspect of human affairs, all their aspects were interesting to him, not one was excluded from his survey. His private life was a model of the domestic virtues. From the time when, with Chamfort and Ginguené, he founded the "Décade Philosophique," the first work which attempted to revive literary and scientific pursuits during the storms of the French Revolution, — alike when courted by Napoleon and when persecuted by him (he was expelled from the Tribunat for presuming to have an independent opinion); unchanged equally during the sixteen years of the Bourbons and the two of Louis-Philippe, he passed unsullied through all the trials and temptations which have left a stain on every man of feeble virtue among his conspicuous contemporaries. He kept aloof from public life, but was the friend and trusted adviser of some of its brightest ornaments; and few have contributed more, though in a private station, to keep alive in the hearts and in the contemplation of men a lofty standard of public virtue."

*Preface to Ricardo's "Principles of Political Economy."

+ M'Culloch's "Discourse on the Rise, Progress, &c. of Political Economy."

[From "The Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1833.”]

BARON DE ZACH.

DIED September 1, at Paris, of the cholera, aged 79, François Xavier, Baron de Zach, an eminent astronomer, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.

He was born at Pesth, in Hungary, and his taste for astronomy was decided at the early age of fifteen, by the interest which he took in the observation of the comet of 1769, and by the transit of Venus over the disc of the sun in the same year, a memorable event which served to make more than one important convert to the science. After travelling through different countries of Europe, and residing for several years in England, where he acquired for our manners and institutions an attachment which continued throughout his life, he settled at Gotha in 1786, in the family of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, who charged him with the construction of the Observatory at Seeberg, over which he continued to preside for a considerable period. He published at Gotha, in 1792, Tables of the Sun, with a Catalogue of 381 Stars, and subsequently many other important astronomical Tables, particularly those on Aberration and Nutation. He became in 1800 the editor of the "Monatliche Correspondentz," a German periodical work on astronomy and geography, which was republished in French under the title of "Correspondence Astronomique, &c." upon his removal to the South of France in 1813, and subsequently to Genoa in company with the Duchesse de Saxe-Gotha. This was a most valuable Journal, containing records of the progress of astronomy in every country in Europe, and contributing more than any other publication to the great impulse which has been given for many years to the cultivation of astronomical science in Germany. In 1814 he published his very interesting work on the "Attraction of Mountains." For many of the later years of his life he suffered severely from the stone, and he had established himself at Paris, for the purpose of being constantly under the care of Dr. Civiale, and experiencing relief by the operation of lithotrity, when he died from a sudden attack of cholera.

The Baron de Zach was a most zealous friend to astronomy, and throughout his long life contributed to its progress by his numerous publications, and by maintaining a most extensive and laborious correspondence with the principal astronomers in Europe. He was a man of warm and ardent affections, rapid and sometimes hasty in his conclusions, of the most lively and agreeable manners, and of the most indefatigable industry and there are few persons of the present day whose loss will be more sensibly felt by the friends of astronomical science in every country in Europe.

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[From "The Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1833."]

BARNABA ORIANI.

DIED November, 1832, at Milan, in his 80th year, Barnaba Oriani, Director of the Observatory of the Brera in that city, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.

He was a native of Garegnano, near Milan, and had resided for fifty-five years in the Observatory, having been the assistant of Lagrange, whom he succeeded as principal. He was the chief conductor of the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Italy; and of the great trigonometrical survey of Lombardy, which was performed between the years 1786 and 1790. In reward for his services on the great map of the kingdom of Italy, Napoleon made him a Senator, and Knight of the Iron Crown. Throughout his long life, he devoted himself to the cultivation of physical and practical astronomy. He was the first person who calculated the orbit of the planet Ceres after its discovery by Piazzi at Palermo. He published theories of the planets Uranus and Mercury, with Tables of their motions. He labored with singular skill and perseverance in the improvement of the Lunar Tables both by theory and observation. He was the author of an admirable treatise on spheroidical trigonometry and the Astronomical Ephemeris of Milan was published for many years under his directions, by Carlini. "Upon the whole," as was remarked by the Duke of Sussex' in his last Anniversary Address to the Royal Society, "if the union of practical with theoretical science be considered, we shall be justified in pronouncing him to have been, after Bessel, the most accomplished astronomer of the present age."

COUNT CHAPTAL.

DIED July 29th, 1832,† in the 76th year of his age, Jean Antoine Chaptal, Compte de Chanteloup, a Peer of France, Member of the Institute, and Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London. The following account of him is from the Duke of Sussex's last Anniversary Discourse to the Royal Society.

"He was Professor of Chemistry at Montpelier before the Revolution, and was one of the most active cultivators of chemical science before that event, in conjunction with Monge, Fourcroy, Berthollet, Guyton de Morveau, and the illustrious Lavoisier. In

[* From which the whole of the above notice is copied with some slight additions.]

See "Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1833."

the year 1793, upon the threatened invasion of France by the Allies, when saltpetre was not to be procured in sufficient quantities for the manufacture of the powder wanted by the French armies, he was invited by the Committee of Public Safety to superintend the establishments for that purpose; and his chemical knowledge so greatly improved the method followed in its manufacture, as in a very short time to make the produce greatly exceed the demand. He was made Ministre de l'Intérieur by Napoleon, and continued under the Empire to fill many important situations. He was the author of considerable works on chemistry, on the application of chemistry to the arts, on the application of chemistry to agriculture, on the art of making wines, and on the art of dyeing cotton and wool, which are written in a very perspicuous and elegant style, and which have enjoyed a very considerable popularity in France. The labors of his whole life, in fact, were devoted to the improvement of those manufactures whose perfection depended more or less upon the most correct and economical application of chemical principles; and, after his distinguished countryman Berthollet, he must be placed in the first rank of those who have benefited the arts through the medium of chemical science."

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The following is a list of the most important of his valuable and numerous works, from "The Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 19." Élémens de Chimie," 3 vols. 8vo. The first edition appeared in 1790, and the fourth in 1803.-"Traité sur le Salpètre." 8vo. 1796.-"Essai sur le Perfectionnement des Arts Chimiques en France." 8vo. 1800.-"Art de faire, de gouverner et de perfectionner les Vins." 1 vol. 8vo. First edition 1801, second edition 1819. "Traité théorique et pratique sur la Culture de la Vigne, avec l'Art de faire le Vin, les Eaux de vie, Esprit de vins et Vinaigres." 2 vols. 8vo. First edition 1801, second edition 1811. "Essai sur le Blanchiment." 1801. "Chimie appliquée aux Arts." 4 vols. 8vo. 1807.-" Art de la Teinture du Coton en rouge." 8vo. 1807.-"Art du Teinturier et du Dégraisseur.” 8vo. 1800." De l'Industrie Française." 2 vols. 8vo. 1819. "Mémoires sur le Sucre de Betteraves." 8vo. Third edition 1819. "Chimie appliquée à l'Agriculture." 2 vols. 8vo. 1823.

[From "The Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1833.”]

ANTONIO SCARPA.

DIED at Pavia, October 31st, aged 86, Antonio Scarpa, Professor of Anatomy in that University, one of the eight Foreign Members of the Académie des Sciences of Paris, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.