field; for the independence and integrity of their conduct in public offices; for the virtue and morality of their behaviour in private life, as for the eminence of their rank, the fplendour of their titles, the magnitude and value of their poffeffions, and the plenitude of their authority. When we trace the long line of anceftors, which the grandees of the world exultingly exhibit, we will find the number of the vicious far exceeding that of the virtuous; and while we view with deteftation and horror the black and accumulated catalogue of their vanity, their luft, their fot tifhnefs, and their cruelty, our refpect for their wife and illuftrious defcendents will not be increased; turning from the arrogant and difgufting page, to contemplate with additional admiration the rigid juflice, the virtuous conduct, the determined valour, the vigorous exertions, and the noble fervices of patriot individuals, neither diftinguished by the pride of heraldry nor by the pomp of power, we will be induced to exclaim in the energetic words of the poet : 'A wit's a feather, and a Chief a rod, An honeft man's the noblest work of GOD.' A. ANECDOTES OF DR ALEXANDER SMALL, M. D. OF BIRMINGHAM. DRSMALL was a man of the moft accurate and various knowledge that ever came from his country, that of Scotland. Whatever he knew he knew perfectly, and he feems to have known every thing with a most dif. cerning fpirit. He was a great fcholar, an excellent natural and moral philofopher, a profound mathematician, a mechanic, and a very accurate obferver of life. His modefty would never permit him to publish any thing; and to a friend of his, an ingenious man, who has published fince his death, he used to fay, "Stay till you are forty before you publish, and I am fure then that you never will." He had a high opinion of the power of medicine when properly applied, and used to wonder at the fmall dofes of medicine given by the London practitioners to their patients. Of the falfe appreciation we are too apt to make of the happiness of others, he used to give the following account: He faid, "there was a gentleman of apparent good health, of good fortune, and of agreeable manners, who came to fettle in a town where he refided. The gentleman was continually unealy, and complaining of his health and fpirits, for which he was laughed at by the principal perfons of the place, who treated him as a malade imaginaire. On his death bed, however, he confeffed he had been guilty of a murder." He fufpected hypochondriacifm to be fometimes owing to the operation of an active mind in a fituation to which it was not congenial. Dr Small faid once to a conceited and wrong-headed practitioner, who had been fpilling oceans of human blood, and who gravely remarked to him, that he had good reafon to think, that in thefe degenerate times the conftitutions of men in general would not bear blood-letting fo well as they used to do," My good friend, the only difference is, that you know rather more of your profeffion now than you did formerly." He was difpleafed with Sauvages. for claffing Morofitates amongst discafes. He said they were better cured with a horsewhip than by medicines. He thought him however right in attributing occafionally the causes of hypochondriacifm to too much felf love, too much indulgence, and an effeminate education. LIFE OF M. ROLAND, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, AND MINISTER OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT. AMIDST the exceffes of the revolutionary government, it may have been difficult to appreciate the great men who appeared fucceffively on the political ftage. The panegyricks of interested individuals, the denunciations of perfonal enemies, the clamours of disappointed faction, the arts and intrigues of party,-all tend to throw a cloud around the judgment, and render even the pureft character equivocal. The days of terrour and delufion are, however, now paft; the profcriptions of the modern Syllas and Mariufes are at an end; Robespierre, Marat, and St Juft, have been punifhed; and, alas! Roland himself is no more! At the reprefentation of one of the tragedies of Efchylus, the A. thenian people, affembled in the public theatre, on the repetition of a fentence in commendation of moral good nefs, inftantly fixed their eyes on the fon of Lyfimachus. Perhaps pofterity, while perufing the history of the prefent times, may burft out into commendations at the name of the modern Ariftides. . Roland, known before the revolution by the defignation of M. Roland de la Platière, was a native of the South of France, having been born at le Clos la Platière, four leagues from Villefranche, in 1732. His family, which was ancient, poffeffed a fief, and, having attained confiderable eminence in the law, was confidered as appertaining to what was then termed Nobleffe de la robe*. He was the younger of five brothers, and as a confiderable part of the patrimonial fortune had been diffipated, it was intended to ged rid of, by placing him in the church. This he objected to, as not fuiting his difpofition, and, at the age of nineteen, left the paternal manfion, and went to Nantes, with a view of failing to the Indies. The weak state of his lungs, accompanied with a fpitting of blood, prevented the execution of this project; he therefore repaired to Rouen, where his relation M. Godinot, an infpector of manufactures, propofed to him to follow this branch of administration. He complied with the invitation, and foon diftinguished himfelf by his induftry, activity, and, above all, by his difinterestednefs. In comfequence of his extraordinary merits, he was employed by government, and received an appointment, which, if not commenfurate with his merits, at leaft fupplied all his wants, and fatisfied his ambition. His chief delight was in fludy; he became a man of letters in his youth, and was a philofopher, not only in theory but in practice. Refiding at Amiens, 1775, in his official capacity, he happened to vifit at the house of a Madame Cannet, from whom he heard a great deal about a very extraordinary young Parifian, called Mademoiselle Phlipon, the daughter of a refpectable artist, whofe picture he at the fame time faw and admired. As he repaired every winter to the capital, he requefted a letter of introduction to the lady of whom he had heard fo much, and received one + from the hands of Sophia Cannet, who had lived *This circumftance was recurred to, as a reproach againft Roland, by the Mountain party, when they wished to render him unpopular. It was also confitered as a crime, that letters of nobility had been folicited for him in 1784. +Cette lettre te fera emife," m'écrivoit ma bonne amie, « par le philofophe, dont je t'ai fait quelquefois mention, M. Roland de la Platière, homme éclairé lived for fome time in the fame convent, and carried on a regular correspondence with her. On his arrival in Paris, he proceeded to her father's houfe, and found her in mourning for the death of a beloved mother. Her afflictions had tinted her lovely countenance with a foft and tender melancholy, which proved highly interefting to her philofophical vifitor, who, notwithstanding his admiration of the ancients, was captivated at the fight of a handfome, modern French womaa, of twenty one years of age. He himself at this period appeared to be rather more than forty, tall in perfon, negligent in his attitudes, and with that kind of ruft about him, which ufually accompanies ftudious men. His manners, however, were at once fimple and eafy, and without poffeffing the elegance of high life, he feemed to ally the politenefs of a man of birth with the gravity of a philofopher. Although very thin, of a yellow complexion, and with a forehead already beginning to appear bald, yet his features were regular: but in his mittrefs' opinion he feemed rather refpectable than feducing. In difcourfe, his countenance evinced a fubtle kind of fmile, and he became extremely animated when he argued on any subject. His voice was mafculine, his periods were fhort, and his converfation full of matter, for his head was replete with ideas. At that period he had juft returned from the tour of Germany; in 1776, he made preparations for vifiting Italy, and as he had by this time conceived a great regard for his new acquaintance, he depofited all his manufcripts in her hand, which were to be at her difpofal, if any misfor tune fhould happen to him in the courfe of his journey. Such a confpicuous mark of etteem appears to have affected her greatly, and perhaps laid the foundation of that regard which afterwards produced a clofer union. During his abfence, one of his brothers, a benedictine prior of the college of Clugny, at Paris, a man of talents, gentle manners, and amiable character, often called on Mademoifelle Phlipon, with news concerning her lover, and he read to her his obfervations on the men, manners, and manufactures of the countries through which he paffed; these were afterwards publifhed. On his return, M. Roland repeated his vifits, and an intimate friendfhip was foon eftablished between them: but when, at the end of five years, he preffed her to marriage, the young lady at firft declined entering into that fate, from the most generous motives: the imagined the union might not be altogether agreeable to his family, and the knew that it could not be advantageous, for although bred up in the expectation of a large dowery, an income of five hundred livres a year, and her wardrobe, at this moment conftituted her fole fortune. Her father, who was perhaps afraid of being questioned by a fon-in-law, concerning the property which he had diffipated, refuled his confent to the union, after that of his daughter had been obtained. In confequence of this, the retired to a convent, and M. Roland, affected, on his return to town, at feeing her appear at the grate, infifted on her immediately becoming his wife, and after obtaining his fuit, loved her more and more, in proportion as he be came éclairé, de mœurs pures, á qui l'on ne peut reprocher que fa grande admiration pour les anciens aux dépens des modernes qu'il dêprife, et le foible de trop aimer á par ler de lui."-Ce portrait eft moins qu'une ébauche; mais le trait fe trouvoit jufte et bien fa fi. Appel à l'impartiale poflérité, par la citoyenne Roland. came better acquainted with her many ineftimable qualities. The first year of their union was fpent in Paris, whether Roland had been called by the Intendants of Commerce, who wished to make new regulations refpecting manufactures; regulations which he combated, in oppofition to his own private intereft, but with all his might, besaufe founded on narrow notions, and hoftile to thofe principles of general liberty, which he wifhed to introduce. During his refidence in the capital, he caufed fome papers which he had drawn up for the academy to be printed, and he prepared his manufcripts relative to Italy. Madame Roland, on this occafion, corrected the proof sheets, and made out fair copies of his intended pub lication, relative to the South of Europe. She at the fame time went through a course of natural hiftory, applied herself to the ftudy of botany; and as the health of her hufband was very delicate, did not feruple to fuperintend the management of the table, or even to prepare fuch dishes with her own hand, as were likely to agree with his delicate fto mach. * The next four years were spent at Amiens, where she became a mother and a nurse, without ceafing to participate in the literary labours of her husband, who was entrusted with a confiderable part of the New Encyclopedia. This happy couple never quitted their ftudy, but in order to vifit the neighbouring country; during thofe folitary rambles, Madame Roland made an herbal of the plants of Picardy, and a tafte for aquatick botany, produced a little work on that fubjectt. fome time near Villefranche, in the houfe where M. Roland was born, along with his mother and his eldest brother, who was a canon. Some domeftick chrgrins feem to have rendered their stay here rather disagreeable, for Madame la Platière was illnatured, and her eldest fon affected a fuperiority over the youngeft, which was intolerable to a man of a bold, original, and independent mind. Two of the winter months were conftantly spent at Lyone, then confidered as one of the first cities of the kingdom, and the refort of all the provincial nobility. In 1784, they vifited England, and in 1787 made the tour of Germany. On the death of Madame la Platiere, they refided chiefly at the family manfion, called Le Clos la Platière, fituated in the parish of Thézée. The foil does not appear fertile, but it produces excellent wine, and is the laft region of the vineyards on this fide of the high mountains of Beaujolois. In this retreat, Roland purfued his literary labours in an uninterrupted fucceffion, while his amiable confort entered into all the details of rural economy. The neighbouring peafantry in her found a friend, during the hour of distress, and fhe became the phyfician of the adjacent country. In 1789, the fnatched her husband from the ravages of a horrible malady; fat up fix days and nights without either fleeping or changing her clothes, and nurfed him with uncommon tenderness during a convalescence of fix months. At length the period of the revolution arrived, and this refpectable family, abandoning domeftic ease, prepared both to act and suffer in the M 2 caufe In 1784, they removed to the generality of Lyons, and refided for *She never had but one child-a lovely daughter, whom the herself fuckled, and who furvives her. † L'Art du Tourbier. caufe of freedom. The friends of humanity, the adorers of liberty, they fondly hoped that the epoch of meliorating the condition of the human race was arrived; and that the miferies of the lower orders in France, at which they had fo often wept, was about to be done away. In this difpofition of mind, they confidered the convocation of the ftates.general as a happy augury, and hailed that great event with transport. Happening to be at Lyons about this time, the opinions of Roland converted many of his former friends into bitter enemies. Habituated to the felfish calculations of commerce, they could not conceive how it was poffible to provoke and applaud thofe changes, by which the inferiour claffes were alone likely to profit! The patriots of that city, on the other hand, were rejoiced to behold a man of family, worth, and fortune, attached to their interefts, and on the first formation of a municipality he was elected one of the officers. In this ftation he foon diftinguished himself by his talents, and ftill more by his inflexible integrity. These inestimable qualities occafioned him to be employed in an important miffion to the constituent affembly. Difcuffions concerning commerce at that period occupied the attention of the legiflature, and it was neceffary that the fecond city in the empire, one too, so famous for its population, opu lence, and manufactures, fhould have a fkilful agent in the capital to watch over its interefts. The immenfe debts with which it was burthened was also another confideration of no small confequence. Roland was accordingly fixed upon, and he repaired with his family to Paris, where he spent a whole year, and foon formed connexions that raised him to the higheft dignities of the ftate. His character was already established; he was a member of all the academies of the South of France, and had drawn up the cahiers of the city of Lyons, on the convocation of the States General, at the exprefs recommendation of the fociety of agriculture. After faithfully discharging the various functions of his new appointment, he returned to his native pro vince, and foon after learned that the office of inspector was abolished. Thirty-eight years of conftant and affi duous fervice entitled him to fome provifion, and it was with a view to obtain this, that he returned to the capital in December 1791; but he foon found that the fituation of public affairs was fuch, that particular interefts must give way, and he accordingly feems from that moment to have abandoned every idea of an indemnification. It was at that period he formed an acquaintance with Briffot: this circumftance contributed greatly to decide his future deftiny. By him he was introduced to the Jacobin chib, then an affemblage of the most enlightened patriots of the age; but he never afcended the tribune. Soon after his admiffion he was nominated a member of the committee of correfpondence, and as he was affisted by his wife, his industry was confidered as exemplary. Several deputies of the affembly were accustomed to meet in a large apartment in the Place Vendôme, and Roland, whofe knowledge and integrity were now generally known, was invited to repair thither; but the diftance was fo great from the quarter in which he lived, that he went but feldom. The few times he appeared there encreased, however, the good opinion before conceived of him, and led to his immediate ad |