promote the advancement of German literature.

In 1786 he made the tour of Italy, and passed three years in that classic land. Shortly after his return in 1792 he accompanied his sovereign to the army of the Duke of Brunswick and witnessed the defeat of the veterans of the Prussian army by the raw levies of France, then burning with the enthusiasm of newly acquired freedom. In 1808 he received the cross of the legion of honor from Napoleon, and the_same year the Emperor of Russia conferred on him the order of St Alexander Newsky. Few men of the rank of Goethe have passed through life with so much happiness, and exposed to so few reverses of fortune. Possessing the confidence of his sovereign, the love of his fellow countrymen, he was the admiration of all the literary men of Europe, and materially contributed to elevate the German name. He expired without any apparent suffering, and was buried with all the honors that could be bestowed upon the remains of mortality. At his funeral was sung the following hymn, (written by himself in allusion to Schiller) but more appropriately applied to himself. Rest thee soft in heavenly slumbers Near thy friend and Prince reclined, For thy life was nobly spent,

In nurturing thine age's mind. Till space and time have passed away, Thy name shall live in mortal breast; Then rest thee on thy tranquil couch By earth beloved, in Heaven thrice blest.

M. CHAMPOLLION. May 15th, 1832.-M. Champollion, one of the most indefatigable and enlightened scholars of

the age, died at Paris in his 42d year, after a long and severe illness, the effect probably of his travels in Egypt, combined with his incessant application to the great object of his literary lifethe elucidation of the historical records and monuments of that country. His loss to the lovers of Egyptian literature is almost irreparable.

He survived but a short period his great rival in the discovery of the real meaning of those mystic symbols, which had so long attracted the curiosity and repelled the attempts of the learned, and which by common consent, had been pronounced a hopeless inquiry. The labors of Dr Young and M. Champollion penetrated through the darkness of ages, and afforded a clue to the intricacies of the long labyrinth, which had perplexed and bewildered others. If the lives of those eminent men had been extended but a few years, when the jealousy for priority of claim was happily at an end, and mutual good will, and a desire to promote each others designs had sprung up in its place, the learned world might have looked forward to results of no ordinary nature. The brilliant light of their united exertions would have dispelled all the obscurity which envelopes the chronology of history, and puzzles and confounds the student. Most of the letters which contain the particulars of Champollion's visit to Egypt have already met the and the brief summapublic eye, ry which they give of his labors and discoveries in that land of wonders, did but increase the anxiety for the appearance of that magnificent work, which the author had announced. With what

delight and interest must the companions of his travels have entered into the palaces of the Theban Phariohs, and listened to the mighty magician who could unfold to them' the hand writing on the wall,' and could point out to them, among the sculptured reliefs, the triumphs of Shishak over thirty princes, and in that number the name and title of the King of Judah, thus confirming in a remarkable manner, the fact related in the first Book of Kings, when Jerusalem was plundered by the Egyptian conqueror. In another and most interesting letter, Champollion has described the stupendous palace of Rameses Meiammoun, or friend of Ammon, the grandfather of Sesostris. The granite sarcophagus of this monarch was removed to Paris by the interest of the French consul: but its lid of red granite had been previously removed, and presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum by Belzoni. The reign of Rameses Meiammoun carries us back sixteen centuries before the Christian era. To Champollion's sagacity and communication we are indebted for the explanation of the mystic legend which surrounds the lid of the sarcophagus, and which proclaims the titles and name of the hero.

After having served during the campaigns in Italy of 1799 and 1800, in the engineer corps, he quitted the army and devoted himself to commerce, in compliance with the last wishes of his father. In 1802, Casimir Périer established at Paris in conjunction with his brother, Scipion Périer, a banking house, in the management of which his active and sagacious mind acquired information, which he subsequently applied so usefully to the elucidation of questions of finance as a public man. He carried on, in connexion with his banking business, various establishments of manufacture, at Paris, Chaillot, Passy, and elsewhere. In 1816, he published an essay on the subject of foreign loans, which attracted much attention; and in 1817, he was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Department of the Seine. From that time until the time of his death he continued in the Chamber.

Previous to the Revolution of July, 1830, Casimir Périer was a zealous partisan on the side of the Opposition. His particular familiarity with subjects of finance made him especially redoubtable to the several ministers of that period on all revenue questions; but he proved an able and efficient debater upon other topics of public interest, and this most of all under the long administration of M. de Villèle.

Owing to such circumstances, M. Périer stood prominent among those individuals, to whom the French looked for direction at the epoch of the Three Days of July. On Monday, July 26th, the day of the publication of the ordinances which led to the Revolution, several of the liberal dep

uties met, first at the house of Alexandre de Laborde, and the next day at the house of Casimir Périer, to consult upon the measures proper for them to adopt; and on Wednesday, July 28th, Périer was one of a committee with General Gérard, the Comte de Lobau, and MM. Lafitte and Mauguin, appointed to go to the Tuileries, and confer with Marshal Marmont, in order, if possible, to prevent the further effusion of blood, and procure the dismissal of the Polignac ministry. These facts prove that M. Périer could not have been backward at this crisis, although, subsequently to the Revolution, the more violent of the victors of the Three Days were disposed to call his patriotism in question. And when the Chamber of Deputies met, Casimir Périer was elected to the eminent office of President of that body, being also made a member of the cabinet of Louis Philippe, but without a ministerial port folio.

When the government of Louis Philippe was at length fully organized, they, who had thus far co-operated together, if not cordially, still at any rate zealously, now divided upon various topics of domestic and foreign policy, and contended with quite as much animosity as the royalist and liberal parties had done prior to the Three Days. One side advocated measures of a republican tendency at home, and of fraternization with the liberal Belgians, Poles, Italians, and Spaniards abroad, even at the hazard of war. The other side upheld the existing institutions guarantied by the Charter; and while professing, and probably feeling, much good will towards the oppressed of other countries, yet anxiously main

tained the doctrine of non-intervention, although at some sacrifice of the national point of hon

or.

Of this latter party, Casimer Périer became the responsible head, being appointed, on the 13th March, 1831, President of the Council and Minister of the Interior.

M. Périer continued in office, except with a brief intermission in July 1831, until the time of his death, which happened May 16th, 1832, in consequence of an attack of the cholera morbus. His biography during this period, is the history of France, in relating which from year to year in the Register, we have fully explained his public character, and to which we refer the reader, for additional information upon this point.

NATHANIEL ROCHESTER.

May 17th, 1832.-- In Rochester, N. Y. Col. Nathaniel Rochester, aged 79. His family was of English descent, and, for three generations, resided in Westmoreland county, Vir. where he was born, Feb. 21, 1752. The opportunities for a liberal education were, at that time, extremely limited. The varied and accurate information for which Mr Rochester was distinguished in private intercourse, as well as in the public trusts he so honorably filled, was the fruit of the application of a vigorous and clear mind, in the intervals of leisure afforded by a life of no ordinary activity and vicissitude. At the age of twenty he commenced his mercantile career, in company with Col. John Hamilton, who afterwards held the Consulate for the British Government, in the middle States. The struggle of the

Colonies with Great Britain was then at hand.

At the age of twentyeight, he was called to the responsible and hazardous station of one of the Committee of Safety, for Orange county, N. C. It was the business of this committee to promote the revolutionary spirit among the people -to procure a supply of arms and ammunition and to make collections for the people of Boston, the harbor of which was blocked up by a British fleet, and to prevent the sale and consumption of East India Teas. In August, 1775, Col. Rochester's legislative career commenced, as a member of the Provincial Convention of North-Carolina. From this convention his first commission as Major of militia emanated; and the rapid progress of hostilities did not leave him long without an opportunity of signalizing himself. The immediate call upon his services, resulted from the secret mission of the British General, Alexander McDonald, to the highland Scotch in Cumberland County refugees from their native land, for adherence to the disastrous fortunes of the Pretender. The schemes of this officer were executed so carefully, that before his intentions were known, one thousand men had been raised and were marching to Wilmington. When intelligence of this reached Hillsborough, Colonel Thackson immediately went in pursuit to Fayetteville, (then called Cross Creek). The enemy had left before they arrived, and Major Rochester was despatched by his commanding officer to overtake them by forced marches, before General McDonald should gain the transports, waiting at the mouth of Cape Fear River,

to convey them to New York. At daybreak, after a march of twenty miles, the General and five hundred of his Scotch recruits, were met on the retreat, having been turned at Moore's Creek Bridge by Colonel Caswell, afterwards the first Governor of the State. Major Rochester captured the whole-but from scarcity of provisions, was compelled to release all but about fifty officers binding the discharged not to serve again during the war against the colonies. On his return to head-quarters, he found that Colonel Martin of the Salisbury minute-men, had arrived with 2000 men, and to him the credit of the capture is by mistake ascribed, by Chief Justice Marshall, in his Life of Washington.

In

In 1776 Major Rochester was again a member of the convention at Halifax, and by that body was promoted to the rank and pay of a colonel, for the North Carolina Line, and appointed commissary general of military stores and clothing. That Convention organized the state government, by the appointment of a governor, and other officers, and ordered an election of members of a state legislature. the exercise of his office as commissary, Colonel Rochester was exposed to severe fatigue, and being compelled to travel with great rapidity between all the sea-port towns in Carolina and Virginia- until his health gave way under its pressure of dutyby the advice of his medical friends, he reluctantly submitted to a resignation of his office. Before he reached home his election was secured as member of the assembly. After the war, and the resignation of the office of clerk of the court, (which had

in the mean time been given to him,) Colonel Rochester embarked again in mercantile pursuits, first at Philadelphia, and afterwards at Hagerstown, Maryland. At this place, for many years, he held the office of Postmaster, until his nomination as one of the Judges of Washington county obliged him to resign it, in 1807. The strong integrity, which was so decided a feature of this venerable man's character, displayed itself here; and, from conscientious scruples, growing out of his ignorance of the law, he abandoned the bench. The office of Sheriff engaged him for the next three years, after which he filled the Presidency of the Hagerstown Bank, until the period of his removal to the State of New York. His first purchase had been made in 1800, in connection with three other gentlemen. In 1802, the site of the flourishing and enterprising village of Rochester, then called 'the hundred acre lot,' was purchased by the same company, at the rate of seventeen dollars and fifty cents per acre. To the place, which had thus received his name, after a residence of eight years in Steuben and Ontario counties, Colonel Rochester removed; which will be, to late posterities, a proud mausoleum for his honored memory.

and

As a public man, Colonel Rochester's labors were not terminated by his removal to the Western world. He was summoned to act as presidential elector in 1817; in 1822 he was a member of the legislature. Oppressed by age and increased infirmities, much against his own inclination, he held for a few months the Presidency of the Bank of Rochester. Its successful organization per

mitted him to gratify himself by retiring, and he drew back altogether from active life, to spend his few remaining years in the quiet of his own family.

JAMES MACKINTOSH.

May 30, 1832. At his house in Langham Place, in the 67th year of his age, Sir James Mackintosh. The rare combination of moral and intellectual qualities which was found in the character of this distinguished man, entitles him to a more elaborate notice than the limits of a periodical will allow. History, (of which biography is a handmaid,) has been well termed 'philosophy, teaching by examples;' but these examples apply rather to communities, than to individuals, and they operate upon the public mind, and shape the destinies of nations, instead of forming the character of the private citizen. Biography, on the contrary, being a delineation of the peculiar qualities, the personal history of some extraordinary man, addresses itself at once to the individual, and by showing how circumstances affect character, and with what care and unceasing labor superior talents are prepared for active life, conduces more directly to self-examination, and stimulates to the imitation of illustrious examples.

The highly gifted subject of our remarks, (who so beautifully united the philosopher, with the man of the world, the lawyer, with the statesman, and to the accomplishments of the gentleman, added the attainments of the scholar,) has not left behind him such accounts of his early life, as to enable us to trace the first steps of his intellectual progress, or of his youthful discipline for the com