propagated through Europe with the rapidity of political intelligence. Wealthy foreign botanists offered to repurchase the collection; poorer ones solicited a preference for the duplicates; while all of them envied England as the resting-place of this noble treasure. Though Mr Smith was only a student of anatomy and medicine in the metropolis, we find him presiding in the Natural History Society in Leicester Square on the 21st February, 1785; and on the 28th May he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society without a black ball.

Having completed his course of anatomy and medicine, Mr Smith resolved to prepare himself for the duties of a physician by taking his degree. So late as September he had resolved to return to Edinburgh for this purpose; but being desirous of visiting the continent, he now determined to take his degree at Leyden, and thus to make one journey subservient to the two objects he had in view. He accordingly left England on the 16th of June, 1786; and after receiving his degree of M.D., on the 16th July he set off for Paris, where, besides the common objects of interest to a stranger, he had an opportunity of examining the valuable herbaria of Tournefort and Vaillant. On Sunday the 6th of August, he went with his friend Broussonet to Versailles, and in a letter to his father we find the following interesting notice of the French Court :

Versailles is more superb than I had an idea of; but it is tiresome, and not pleasing (I mean the garden). Saw the king and most of the family, but the queen was in bed. The daubing of the ladies' cheeks is beyond conception; nature is quite out of the question: old hags, ugly beyond what you can conceive, (for we have very inadequate ideas of what an ugly woman is in England,) are dressed like girls, in the most tawdry colours, and have on each cheek a broad daub of the highest pink crayon, or something like it. The king is a pretty good person, rather fat, his countenance agreeable: he had some prodigiously fine diamonds. In the evening, after making two or three visits, seeing the menagerie, &c., we went to St Germain-en-laye, and slept at the country-house of the Marechal de Nouailles, a fine old gentleman, who was a great favourite of the late king, as he is of the present; he contributed chiefly to give the late king a taste for gardening and botany, and was a correspondent of Linnæus; he received us very politely, but had a large party of his family with him, so we had little conversation.

After an early dinner, hearing that the king was coming to St Germain to shoot, the marechal sent Broussonet and myself in his chariot, and himself and Le Breton rode on horseback to the place. The game had been all driven together into some fields and thickets, around which the people were kept at a distance by soldiers. The king came about three o'clock, alighted from his coach, stripped off his coat, ribands, &c., and appeared in a linen jacket and breeches, with

leather spatterdashes. He was attended by eight pages in almost the same kind of dress, each of whom carried a gun, and one of these guns was always ready charged for the king; as soon as that was discharged, another, and so on; next to these were ten or twelve Swiss guards, all (as well as the king) on foot; about were some of his majesty's principal officers, whose business it was to attend, with a physician, surgeon, &c. on horseback, and a few persons of distinction, as the Marechal de Nouailles, and their friends, of which number were Broussonet and I, for it was a great favour to be allowed to follow the king. His majesty went several times up and down the fields, killing almost every thing he aimed at. Hearing there were some Englishmen in his train, (there were one or two beside me,) he desired the Marechal de Nouailles to ask us if we had heard any thing of the attempt on our king's life, and bade him tell us that he himself had had a full account of the affair, and that the king was safe.' ·

Notwithstanding the high moral and religious principles in which Dr Smith was educated, and which continued during the whole of his life to regulate his conduct, we find him a zealous admirer, and an ardent apologist for Rousseau. Those to whom this eloquent writer is known only as a botanist, as the author of a truly elementary work on that science, and as the correspondent of Linnæus, and of M. Gouan, could not fail to admire him as a diffident and even humble enquirer into nature. Dr Smith had learned all his good qualities from one of Rousseau's intimate friends in Paris, and viewing him as a person, 'warmly attached to those who loved natural history, especially to the pupils of the Linnæan School,' and as an adorer of Linnæus, he may, perhaps be excused for casting a charitable eye over some other parts of his character.

Even at the risk of obtaining only a cursory view of the Parisian herbaria, Dr Smith set out with a friend to visit the tomb of Rousseau, and in a letter to Mrs Howorth, he has given the following account of this excursion :—

We took a boat to go to the Island of Poplars, honoured with the ashes of Rousseau. His tomb is elegantly simple, of white stone; on one side is a piece of sculpture representing a mother of a family reading Emilius, with other emblems; on the other is inscribed, "L'homme de la Nature et de la Vérité." He desired to be buried in the garden, and the Marquis chose this spot. I shall not attempt to describe to you what I felt on seeing and touching this tomb. I brought away some moss from its top for you.'

Passing by a pretty grotto by the side of a bubbling fountain of the finest water I ever saw, we at length arrived at Rousseau's garden, one of the sweetest spots I ever beheld, quite sequestered, and planted in the most romantic style; it chiefly consists of an irregular lawn surrounded with a variety of trees and shrubs, and ornamented with flowers, but apparently all in a state of nature; nor is the hand of

art to be traced at all, except in the beautiful velvet of the turf. On a tree is an inscription, signifying that there Jean Jacques used often to retire, to admire the works of nature, to feed his favourite birds, and play with the Marquis's children. Near this spot is a house intended for his dwelling, but he died before it was finished; 'tis a comfortable cottage, with a little garden of flowers before it, and is embosomed in apple-trees, vines, &c. In a small arched building near it, the Marquis at first intended to have buried Rousseau, but changed his mind. From this place we soon reached the front of the house opposite to that whence we set out, and our delightful tour was at an end.

Hearing that the widow of Rousseau was living at a place not far out of our road to Paris, and that many strangers visited her, we felt a strong desire to do the same; but had some fears lest we should discover something in her which might excite disagreeable sensations, and even perhaps lessen our veneration for her husband; for we heard that she had been his servant, and after having lived with him in that capacity ten years, he said to her, " Ma bonne amie, I am satisfied with your fidelity, and wish I could make you an adequate return. I have nothing to give you but my hand. If you think that worth having, it is yours." They were married; and lived together sixteen years afterwards very comfortably. She was several years younger than her husband.-At last curiosity prevailed, and we went to see her. She received us with the greatest politeness, and appeared much pleased with our visit; spoke in the most becoming manner of her husband, and readily answered every question I put to her. What I principally learned from her was as follows:-The character of Julia was drawn from Madame Bois de la Tour of Lyons, a lady still living, with whom Mr and Mrs Rousseau often spent a great deal of time: she has a large family, and is the admiration of all who know her. The story of Julia has not, however, any connexion with hers. How far that is founded in truth, Mrs Rousseau said was only known to its author. The idea that Ermenonville was the scene of it, or that the real father of Julia lived there, is without foundation. She assured me that the Confessions of Rousseau were really all of his own writing. She confided the manuscript to the Marquis de Girardin, who expunged several names and anecdotes relating to people still living, but against her consent; for she thought the whole ought to have been published as the author left it. I think more ought to have been expunged, at least the name of Madame de Warrens ought to have been kept secret.

'We asked her which was the best portrait of Rousseau. She showed us a plaster bust, which was cast from his face a few hours after death, and which she said resembled him exactly. The expression of the face, as well as its form, is vastly superior to that of any likeness of him I ever saw. There is great serenity in the countenance, and much sensibility. The mouth is uncommonly beautiful.'

From Paris, Dr Smith continued his journey southward; and after visiting Montpellier, Marseilles, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Turin, &c. he returned through Switzerland to Paris, and reach

ed his native country in November 1787. In 1793, he published an account of this journey in three volumes octavo, under the title of Sketches of a Tour on the Continent, in the Years 1786 and 1787.'

The only publications of Dr Smith, previous to his quitting England, were his translations of Linnæus's 'Reflections on the History of Nature,' being the preface to the Museum Regis Adolphi Frederici; and his 'Dissertation on the Sexes of Plants.' On his return from the Continent, he began his career as an original author; and entered with assiduity and zeal into those botanical researches, by which he so widely extended the boundaries of his favourite science. After publishing, in 1787, the Reliquiae Rudbeckiana, containing 120 engravings from the wooden blocks of Rudbeck, which had been preserved in the Linnæan collection, and in 1789 and 1790, other two works,the one containing Figures of unpublished Plants from the Linnæan Herbarium, and the other Coloured Figures of rare Plants, in three numbers each, he began his great work, entitled English Botany. This national production, which was sufficient of itself to immortalize its author, was begun in 1790, and completed in 1814, in thirty-six octavo volumes. It contains 2592 plates from the pencil of Mr Sowerby, and is the only National Flora which gives a figure and description of every indigenous species. The Fungi alone are omitted; but this defect was supplied by Mr Sowerby in a separate work, in three folio volumes.

If the botanical character of England was elevated among foreign nations, by the acquisition of the Linnæan Collection, its preeminence has been established and maintained by the institution of the Linnæan Society. Sir Joseph Banks had hitherto been the sovereign of the botanical community;-his splendid library and herbarium were liberally opened to every cultivator of his favourite science;-his hospitable board was ever ready to receive the intelligent stranger;—and his fortune and his influence were devoted to the advancement of every species of scientific knowledge. As President of the Royal Society, he had been often reproved for making it too much a Society of Naturalists; and he was therefore the more willing to enter into the views of Dr Smith, and his other friends, who had projected a new association, to exalt and extend their favourite science. The Linnæan Society was accordingly instituted in 1788; it has now existed forty-five years; and when we say, that during almost the whole of that period it had Sir James Smith as its President, and

*The idea of this Society occurred to Dr Smith before he went abroad. See vol, i. p. 420,

during a very great part of it, Mr Robert Brown as its Secretary, we stamp upon it a character which belongs to few other institutions of the age. The first meeting of the Society took place in Dr Smith's house, in Great Marlborough Street, on the 8th April, 1788; and from that day he held the office of President till his death. It originally consisted of 36 fellows, and 16 associates. At the present moment, more than 500 names are enrolled upon its list.

Thus placed at the head of British botanists, both as their most celebrated writer, and as their presiding chief, Dr Smith became acquainted with several of our nobility, who were eager to patronise and to cultivate a science of increasing popularity and of easy acquisition. Even the royal mind was smitten with the general passion; and, owing to this circumstance, an event occurred to Dr Smith, which, like all events of the kind, contributed in almost equal proportions to flatter and to annoy him. On the death of Dr Lightfoot, his Majesty, George III. purchased the herbarium of that active botanist, and presented it to the Queen. Dr Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle, having had occasion to consult this herbarium, found it very much damaged, and advised her majesty to obtain the assistance of Mr Dryander or Dr Smith, in arranging and preserving it. The Queen had previously heard of Dr Smith's character, through the Viscountess Cremorne, who had fixed upon him as an acquaintance and companion for her only son; and she immediately requested Dr Smith to preserve the decaying herbarium, and also to converse with herself and the princesses on the elements of Botany and Physiology. With this gracious request, Dr Smith, of course, willingly complied; and he never spoke of his visits to Frogmore, without expressing his veneration for the character of the Queen, his admiration of her anxiety to instil useful information into the minds of the princesses, and her kind condescension in removing every 'emotion of awe and royalty during their scientific discussions.' In the same spirit he mentions these visits to his friend, Mr Davall, in a letter dated November 9, 1792.

6

I am come to town for two days from Windsor. I return this day. I am delighted with my pupils: We all sit together at a round table. I lecture from my notes, which the queen takes home from Frogmore to Windsor to make extracts from; and my audience occasionally ask questions and make remarks very much to the purpose, and a conversation of half an hour or more follows the lecture. Nothing can be more polite and pleasing. I shall be thus engaged till next month,'

With these impressions of his royal pupils, Dr Smith took his