(Charles de Secondat) baron, a most illustrious Frenchman descended from an ancient and noble family of Guienne, was born at the castle of La Brede, near Bordeaux, in 1789. The greatest care was taken of his education; and at the age of 20 he had actually prepared materials for his Spirit of Laws, by well digested extracts from those immense volumes of civil law which he had studied, not barely as a civilian, but as a philosopher. He became a councillor of the parliament of Bordeaux in 1714, and was received president a mortier two years after. In 1721 he published his Persian Letters; in which, under the form of Oriental manners, he satirized those of France, and treated of several important subjects by delicate transient glances: he did not avow this publication; but was no sooner pointed out as the author, than zeal without knowledge, and envy under the mask of it, united at once against the Persian Letters. He was received into the French academy in 1728; and having previously quitted his civil employments, he entirely devoted himself to his genius, and was no longer a magistrate, but a man of letters. Having thus set himself at liberty, he travelled through Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and England, in which last country he resided three years, and contracted intimacies with the greatest men then alive; for Locke and Newton were dead. The result of his observations was, "that Germany was fit to travel in, Italy to sojourn in, England to think in, and France to live in." On his return he retired for two years to his estate at La Brede, where he finished his work On the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans; which appeared in 1734. The reputation acquired by this last work only cleared the way for his greater undertaking, the Spirit of Laws, which was printed at Geneva in 2 vols. 4to. 1750. This was immediately attacked by the adversaries of his Persian Letters, in a multitude of anonymous pamphlets; containing all the reproaches to which a liberal mind is exposed from craft and ignorance. M. Montesquieu drew up a defence of this work; which for truth, moderation, and delicacy of ridicule, may be regarded as a model in its way. This great man was peaceably enjoying that fulness of esteem which his great merits had procured him, when he fell sick at Paris, and died on the 10th of February 1755.—The following character of this great man is drawn by Lord Chesterfield. His virtues did honour to human nature, his writings justice. A friend to mankind, he asserted their undoubted and unalienable rights with freedom, even in his own country; whose prejudices in matters of religion and government he had long lamented, and endeavoured, not without some success, to remove. He well knew, and justly admired, the happy constitution of this country, where fixed and known laws equally restrain monarchy from tyranny, and liberty from licentiousness. His works will illustrate his name, and survive him, as long as right reason, moral obligation, and the true spirit of laws, shall be understood, respected, and maintained." As to his personal qualities, we are told by his eulogist, M. d'Alembert, that "he was of a sweet, gay, and even temper. His conversation was spirited, agreeable, and instructive. Nobody told a story, in a more lively manner, or with more grace and less affectation. He had frequent absence of mind; but always awakened from it by some unexpected stroke, that re-animated the languishing conversation. Though he lived with the great, he retired whenever he could to his estate in the country, and there met his books, his philosophy, and his repose. Surrounded at his leisure-hours with peasants, after having studied man in the commerce of the world, he studied him in those simple people solely instructed by nature. With them he cheerfully conversed; he endeavoured, like Socrates, to find out their genius, and appeared as happy with them as in the most brilliant assemblies; especially when he reconciled their differences; and by his benevolence relieved them from their difficulties."

Besides the works already mentioned, M. Montesquieu wrote several small pieces, as the Temple of Genius, Lytimaehus, and Essay upon Taste, which is left unfinished. His works have been collected since his death, and printed at Paris in a splendid edition, in quarto. They have likewise all of them been translated into English.