(Melchier de), an excellent French genius and a cardinal, was born of an ancient and noble family at Puy, the capital of Velay, in 1662. He was sent by Louis XIV. ambassador extraordinary to Poland, where, on the death of Sobieski, he formed a project of procuring the election of the prince of Conti. But failing, he returned home under some disgrace; but when restored to favour, he was sent to Rome as auditor of the Rota. He was plenipotentiary during the congress at Utrecht, at which time Clement I. created him a cardinal; and upon the accession of Louis XV. he was appointed to reside at Rome as minister of France. France. He remained there till the year 1732, and died in the year 1741. He left behind him a MS. poem entitled *Anti-Lucretius seu De Deo et Natura*; the plan of which he is said to have formed in Holland in a conversation with Mr Bayle. This celebrated poem was first published in the year 1749, and has since been several times printed in other countries besides France. He had been received into the French Academy in 1704, into the Academy of Sciences in 1715, into that of the Belles Lettres in 1717; and he would have been an ornament to any society, having all the accomplishments of a man of parts and learning.