Memoirs of the late Marquis de Bouillé, an original Communication by a near Relation of that able Statefman and Officer. HE marquis was born in 1740, at Cluzel, the paternal feat of his ancestors, fituate in the province of Auvergne. His mother died at the moment of his entrance into existence, and her husband having furvived her only a few years, the marquis came under the guardianAhip of his paternal uncle, then dean of Lyons, first almoner to the king, and afterwards bishop of Autun, who placed him in the college of Lewis the XIVth. then under the fuperintendance of the jefuits. When he had attained his 17th year, his uncle purchafed for him a company of dragoons in the regiment of la Ferronail; in 1758 he joined with this regiment the army of the count de Clermont, which had juft fuffered a defeat at Crevelt. M. de Bouillé diftinguished himfelf during this war on every occasion, that the active fervice of the light troops prefented, and particularly in the affair of Grumburg, in 1761, where he, at the head of the advanced guard of the dragoons, whom he commanded, defeated the enemy's column, confifting of feveral thoufand men, under the orders of the hereditary prince (now duke) of Brunfwick, took feveral ftandards and pieces of artillery, and was the principal caufe of the decifive advantage which the French army gained in that action over the allies. His gallantry on this occafion was univerfally applauded and gained him the honour of being appointed to carry the colours to the king, from whom he received the rank of coloel, and the promife of the firft re 12 giment that fhould be at his dif pofal. At the conclufion of the fame campaign he obtained a regiment of infantry, the colonel of which M. de Vatran had been killed at the fiege of Brunswick. This regiment was known by the name of Bouillé till the peace, when it took that of Vexin. In 1768, when only twenty-eight years of age, he was governor of Guadeloupe, and by his able adminiftration of that colony fo intirely gained the confidence and esteem of M. d'Emery, tgovernor-generať of the French West-India itlands, that he was immediately pointed out by the latter to the French miniftry as the most proper person to fucceed to the government of St. Domingo, in cafe M. Emery fhould die there, which event taking place in 1777, M. de Bouillé was nominated his fucceffor; but this difpo fition was prevented taking effect by fome intrigues at court, and ho ftilities then preparing between France and Great Britain, he was appointed governor of Martinique and St. Lucia, with a power velied in him for taking the command of all the other windward islands as foon as hoftilities fhould commence. The war accordingly broke out in 1778, in the month of September, of which year he took Dominica, and in 1781, the island of Tobago and St. Euftatia. The fuccels of this latter expedition was not more remarkable than thedifintereftedness difplayed by M. de Bouillé in teftoring to the Dutch proprietors feveral millions which they had loft, in confequence of the capture of that island by admiral Rodney, in the preceding year. In 1782, he took the island of St. Christopher and the adjacent ones of Nevis and Montferrat, Montferrat, and was made lieutenant-general of the armies of the king as a reward for thefe important atchievements. In the fame year he joined the Spanish general Don Galvez, for the purpofe of making an attack on Jamaica, with twenty-five thousand men, but which project was completely difconcerted by the defeat of the count de Graffe, on the 12th of April, 1782, and the tide of fuccets, which had hitherto been in favour of France, had now entirely left her. The high reputation M. de Bouillé enjoyed during this war was as much occafioned by the generofity and magnanimity of his conduct towards the enemy as by his military exploits, and he was not lefs ufeful to the colonies he governed, by the tranquillity and fecurity which his name and vigilance afforded them than by the inceflant labours of his adminiftration. Peace being concluded, in 1783, he returned to France, and was by the king created a chevalier of the feveral orders of knighthood in that kingdom; and his fovereign withing to add to thefe honours a more folid gratification, defired him, through the minifter of marine, to give in a ftatement of the debts which he had contracted during the war (inftead of enriching himfelf, as he had many opportunities of doing in the courte of it) and which debts were found to amount to upwards of 500,000 livres. M. de Bouillé, however, with his characteristic difinterestednefs, declined the offered discharge of thefe demands, efteeming it a difgrace to become a burden to that ftate which he had fo ably ferved and contributed to fupport. In 1784, he paid a vifit to England, to fee a nation he loved and honoured, his reception was fuch as that nation knows fo well how to give to perfons of fuperior merit, and he carried away with him the most honourable and permanent teftimonies of the efteem and gratitude with which his conduct, during the war, had inspired a brave and generous people.+ He was a member of both the affemblies of the notables, convoked by Louis XVI. in 1786 and 1788, and he ftrongly expreffed in the laft his ftrenuous attachment to the ancient monarchy which appeared to him to be attacked in it. • We with pleasure make the following extract from our Annual Regifter, for 1781, P. 35- "The humanity of the marquis de Bouillé affords fome relief to these scenes of horror and devastation. That governor fent 31 British failors (being the poor remains that were faved of the crews of the Laurel and Andromeda) under a flag of truce to commodore Hotham, at St. Lucia, accompanied with a letter or meffage, in which he declared that he could not confider, in the light of enemies, men who had fo hardly escaped in a contention with the force of the elements; but that they having in common with his own people been partakers of the fame danger, were in like manner entitled to every comfort and relief which could be given in a feafon of fuch univerfal calamity and diftreís. He only lamented, he said, that their number was so small, and particularly that none of the officers were faved. Thus did that eminent commander and magnanimous enemy fuftain the high character which he has fo juftly attained as well with the English as his own nation in the courfe of the prefent war; and to which or more properly, to thofe great qualities from which it is derived, he is perhaps no lefs beholden for fome of his acquifitions, than by the fuperiority of his arms. " See the Annual Register for 1784-5, for the thanks and prefent of plate voted to the marquis de Bouillé by the Weft-Ind a merchants, for his humanity in his feveral conquefts, and his answer to them. In 1787, he was appointed fecond in command in the province of Strafburg, and was continued in it on the revolution taking place in 1789; the following year the command-in-chief of that province as well as of Alface, Lorrain, and Franche Comté devolved on him, and he was afterwards nominated general of one of the four armies which compofed the new military establishment of France. The Me moirs, published by him, at London, in 1797, and which, according to M. Mallet du Pan's judgement of them, are written with the fimplicity of a foldier and the veracity of a confcientious man, appear to give a faithful account of the conduct he adopted, and the difficult fituation in which he was placed by the peculiar circumstances of the times, it may fuffice to fay that in the midft of diforder and confufion he main tained the ftri&teft difcipline in the troops under his command, and was univerfally respected by them. He quelled in a fignal manner an infurrection of the garrifon and inhabitants of Nancy, Auguft, 1790, and by his promptnefs on this occafion difconcerted, or at leaft delayed, the measures taken by the jacobins. Calm and moderate in the midft of two enraged parties, who equally fought his fupport, and only attentive to the interefts of his unfortunate fovereign, he maintained himfelf by his own ability and ftrength of mind in a poft as dangerous as difficult, in the fole hope of being uleful to his mafter, and adopted the plan the latter propofed to him in 1790, and in 1791 propofed a retreat for the king in his own government. But for this once, fortune abandoned him,* and it is to be regretted that he had not referved for this scheme the favours the had fo bountifully fhowered on him on former occafions. From that period he participated in the exile and misfortunes of the other royalifts, and faithful to those principles of integrity which had always influenced his conduct, he remitted to the royal brothers - of Louis XVI. the fam of 670,000 livres which he had received from the king preparatory to his flight from Paris. The confideration attached to his fervices and to his devotion to the caufe of his king followed him abroad and obtained for him the offer of fplendid terms from the emprefs of Ruffia and Guftavus III. king of Sweden, the ancient ally of France, who at that time meditated a defcent on Normandy, and promifed the command in it to M. de Bouillé, but the defire of ferving, and if poffible, of yet faving Louis XVI. induced him to reject all motives of interest that interfered with that purpofe. In 1791, he joined the celebrated conferences at Pilnitz, and followed the emperor Leopold, by his order, to Prague, there to concert with the imperial generals and the Pruffian general prince Hohenloe, the military measures to be adopted with refpect to France; and the king of Pruffia making, in 1792, preparatives for war, fent for him to Magdeburg, to concert the oper ations of the enfuing campaign. We gave an extract in our Regifter for 1791, from M. de Bouillé's Memoirs, of his account of the king's journey from Chalons to Varennes, when his majesty and the royal family left Paris to go to Montmedi. He accompanied the duke of York during his campaign of 1793, and the fame year was called upon by the Vendeans, and defignated by the French princes to their command, but perceiving that the allies were but little difpofed to afford efficacious affiftance, he refufed this commiflion, which appeared to him to tend to no ufeful purpose, and to promise scarce any chance of fuccefs. He returned foon after to England, where he was confulted by the adminiftration on the fubject of taking the French iflands, and was A a 3 NATURAL 1 NATURAL HISTORY. defign of making the human organ itself the fubject of direct experi ment; and a condemned criminal was pardoned, on condition of his fubmitting to it; but, a popular outcry being railed, it was thought proper to relinquith the idea. Though denied the aid of experiment, we are not without the means of obtaining knowledge upon fuch fubjects; fince the changes, produced by difeafe, frequently furnish a clue which is equally fatisfactory. It often happens, that fome parts of an organ are deftroyed by dileafe, whilft others are left in their natural ftate; and hence, by the powers retained by fuch organ, after a partial deftruction, we are enabled to judge of the functions performed by thofe parts, when the whole was in health. Guided by this principle, I have made the human ear the fubject of obfervation, and have endeavoured to afcertain the degree of lofs it fuftains in its powers by the want of the membrana tympani; a membrane which has been generally confidered, from its fituation in the meatus, and its connection with the adjacent parts, by a beautiful and delicate ftricture, as cffentially neceflary to the fenfe of hearing; but which, as appears by the following obfervations, may be loft, with little pre |