MÜLLER, JOHANN, an eminent Swiss historian, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at Schaffhausen in Switzerland in 1752. He received his elementary education at the gymnasium of his native town, and was early intended for the church. But chancing to be sent to the university of Göttingen, he acquired, under the tuition of Schlozer, an irresistible bias towards historical studies, and published at the age of twenty a History of the Cimbrian War. His classical acquirements were also considerable, and procured for him the appointment to the Greek chair at Schaffhausen. This position, however, his desire for a society more learned than that of his native town soon induced him to abandon. He repaired to Geneva in 1774, and there he lived for six years, writing a course of lectures on universal history, meditating his great historical work on the Swiss confederation, and enjoying the society of his bosom friend Bonstetten. In 1780 he set out for Germany. His fame had gone before him. Frederick the Great tried in vain to attach him to the Academy of Berlin; and the landgrave of Hesse placed him in the chair of history at Cassel in 1781. Meanwhile, in the previous year the first volume of his Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft had appeared at Berne. It was characterized by dignity of style, depth of research, and liberality of sentiment, and it speedily came to be considered the master-work of its author. In 1783 the shifting propensity of Müller led him to abandon his professorship, and he returned to Switzerland to live in the house of Bonstetten. He was nominated in 1786 a counsellor to the elector of Mentz, and continued in this capacity to occupy himself with politics till the occupation of that city by the French in 1792. The next twelve years were spent at Vienna under the patronage of the emperors Leopold II. and Francis II. Then he repaired to Berlin, and accepted a place in the Academy of that city. His mind had now thrown off those political engagements which had so long detained it from its proper province, and began to be occupied with a projected Life of Frederick the Great. But before he could accomplish anything more than the plan, the subjugation of Prussia by the French in 1806 diverted him once more from his literary studies. Bona-
parté during his stay at Berlin took notice of him, and in 1807 appointed him secretary of state to the new kingdom of Westphalia. This office was soon exchanged for that of director-general of public instruction. Müller applied himself to his new duties with all his wonted ardour, but success did not seem likely to follow. His health sank under anxiety and intense exertion, and he died at Cassel in May 1809. His complete History of the Swiss Confederation, bringing the narrative down to the end of the fifteenth century, had been published at Leipzig in 1786, and had been translated into French by Labaume, in 12 vols. 8vo, Lausanne, 1795-1803. A collection of his works was published in 27 vols. 8vo, Tübingen, 1810-19.