a large, rich, handsome, and strong town of French Flanders, of which it is the capital, with a strong castle, and a citadel built by Vauban, and said to be the finest in Europe, as well as the best fortified. The largest square, and the public buildings, are very handsome; and they have manufactures of silks, cambrics, and camblets, as well as other stuffs, which have been brought to great perfection. It was taken by the duke of Marlborough, after three months siege and the loss of many thousands of men, in 1708, but restored to the French by the treaty of Utrecht, in consideration of their demolishing the fortifications of Dunkirk. It was besieged by the Austrians in 1792, who on the 29th of September began a heavy cannonading against it, which continued incessant till the 6th of October, when they were obliged to raise the siege, after having thrown into the city about 30,000 red-hot balls, besides 6000 bombs. It is seated on the river Duelle, 14 miles west of Tournay, 32 south-west of Ghent, 37 north-west of Mons, and 130 north of Paris. E. Long. 3. 9. N. Lat. 50. 83.

Joseph Nicholas de, an eminent astronomer and geographer, was born at Paris in the year 1668. His father having taught him the principles of grammar, he afterwards attended lectures in the Mazarine college, where he delivered his rhetorical exercises in 1706. A total eclipse of the sun having taken place on the 12th of March that year, his taste for mathematics was thus discovered, and he was accordingly placed under a proper tutor, who taught him the elements of geometry, fortification and mechanics; but his favourite study was the science of astronomy.

In 1707 he was offered the place of an engineer at Martinico, which made him acquainted with the art of drawing, an acquirement which proved highly useful to him in his geographical labours, and also in the study of astronomy. His father having got a copy of An Account of a Voyage to the South Sea from his son's master, young de Lille was excited by the perusal of it to the study of natural history, and he began to make collections of insects, and sketch their varieties; but being afterwards persuaded that so extensive a study, requiring such immense collections to be made as he found in Aldrovandus, was wholly incompatible with that unremitting attention which his favourite science required, he relinquished it accordingly. The attention he paid to astronomical researches was so great, that he was considered as meriting the correspondence of some of the ablest astronomers of Europe at the early age of 21. In 1709 he made a wooden quadrant, which he divided with the utmost accuracy, and which answered the intended purpose in his early observations. He likewise constructed a table for M. Caffini, of the right ascensions and declinations, adapted to all the degrees of latitude and longitude of the planets, and the obliquity of the ecliptic; this table was made use of by M. Caffini in foretelling the occultations of the stars by the moon.

De Lille being informed by Caffini in 1710 of his method of representing an eclipse of the sun, by the projection of a terrestrial parallel on a plane; he instantly conceived the idea of applying it to every part of the earth, by means of a globe mounted and prepared for that purpose. Such astronomers as he made acquainted with his project, conceived it to be impracticable; but when the machine was completed, they bestowed the highest encomiums on the noble invention. The first memorable observation made by de Lille was that of the moon, on the 23d of January 1712, after which his labours experienced some interruption from bodily indisposition. About this time the situation of his father's numerous family rendered it necessary that he should provide for himself, so that he was obliged to make his astronomical knowledge subservient to the absurdities of astrology, receiving pecuniary presents from the regent for his services. He received also in 1715 the grant of a pension of 600 livres, on which occasion he calculated tables of the moon according to the Newtonian theory, prior to Halley's communications to him, which were printed in 1719. De Lille was chosen a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1714, on which account his exertions were redoubled.

In 1720 he delivered a proposal to the academy for ascertaining in France the figure of the earth, a design which was carried into execution some years afterwards. In 1723 he delivered to the same academy a memoir on the transits of Mercury, wherein a method of calculating them was proposed by him; the way in which they were to be observed, and the inferences to be deduced from these observations. He proposed the use of the quadrant in observing the transits of Venus and Mercury, which has been found superior to any other instrument for that important purpose, and is sanctioned since his day by the practice of the ablest astronomers.

Our distinguished philosopher came over to England in the year 1724, where he became acquainted with Newton and Halley, and had the honour of obtaining their approbation. Newton made him a present of his own portrait, and Halley gave him a copy of the tables which he had published in 1719. He was also created a member of the Royal Society, and he enjoyed similar honours from every literary society in Europe before his death. In 1721 he received an invitation from Peter the Great to go to Peterburgh, to fill the chair of astronomer in the Imperial Academy of Sciences. On the death of that emperor, his successor Catharine renewed the invitation, offering him a considerable pension, of which he accepted, and, in 1726, set out for Peterburgh, accompanied by his brother Lewis and M. Vignon, who were to act as his assistants. He reached Peterburgh in the month of October, and was established in the observatory erected by Peter the Great, which he occupied for 21 years. It was in every respect commodious, but extremely deficient in astronomical apparatus, which his own ingenuity and indefatigable application in a great measure supplied.

A transit of Mercury over the sun's disc was expected in the year 1740, which would not be visible in Europe, and therefore de Lille undertook a journey to the distant regions of Asia; but after travelling through the inhospitable wilds of Siberia, the cloudiness of the atmosphere prevented him from observing the transit,—a mortification which he endeavoured to support by his geographical and physical remarks, and in drawing up a description of the country. He constructed an interesting map of Russia, assisted by his brother Lewis, who was appointed to make observations in the most distant parts of that immense empire. He was occasionally employed for the long period of forty years, in making meteorological observations, which he executed with an accuracy almost incredible.

After a number of discouragements and difficulties, and the irregular payment of his pension, had been long experienced by de Lille at Peterburgh, he returned disgusted to his native place, and was chosen professor of mathematics at the college-royal, where he did the most essential service to the sciences, by the important instructions which he gave to his numerous pupils, many of whom became afterwards the most distinguished characters, such as M. M. de la Lande and Messier.

When the transit of Mercury over the sun was eagerly expected in 1753 by the greatest astronomers, de Lille published an interesting map of the world, representing the effect of Mercury's parallaxes in different countries, that such places might be known as were proper for making those observations on the transit as might determine the distance of the sun. As the apparent orbit of the planet traversed nearly the centre of the sun, de Lille made use of this circumstance to determine the diameter of that luminary. The last work of our author which was inserted in the volumes of the French academy, was a memoir on the comet which appeared in the year 1758, discovered by a peasant in the vicinity of Dreden.

It may perhaps be asserted with justice, that the most important service which this great man rendered to astronomers was, his correction of the double error of Halley respecting the transit of Venus, looked for in the year 1761, as by this means he prevented many learned men from undertaking long voyages in order to observe it. About the year 1754, de Lille was appointed by the king of France, astronomical geographer to the marine, in which capacity he was to collect plans and journals of naval captains, to arrange them methodically, and to make extracts from them of whatever might be beneficial to the service. About the year 1758 he withdrew into quiet retirement at the abbey of St Genevieve, where much of his time was spent in devotional exercises, and in acts of charity and beneficence. Still, however, he continued to prosecute those studies which had been so dear to him during the earlier part of his life; but in 1768 he was seized with a florid complaint, of which he was cured by his medical friends; but in the month of September the same year he was seized with a species of apoplexy, which carried him off on the 11th day of that month, in the 81st year of his age.

His extraordinary merit as a man of science may in some measure be gathered from this concise account of his life; and as a citizen of the world his piety was unaffected, his morals pure, his integrity undeviating, his spirit generous and disinterested, and his whole manners highly amiable. The only publication of our author's, besides those already mentioned, consisted of "Memoirs illustrative of the History of Astronomy," in two volumes 4to.

Sir John, a brave loyalist in the time of the civil wars, was the son of a bookeller in London, and received his education in the Netherlands. He signalized himself upon many occasions in the civil war, particularly in the last battle of Newbury; where, in the dusk of the evening, he led his men to the charge in his shirt, that his person might be more conspicuous. The king, who was an eye-witness of his bravery, knighted him on the field of battle. In 1648, he rose for his majesty in Essex; and was one of the royalists who who so obstinately defended Colchester, and who died for the defence of it. This brave man having tenderly embraced the corpse of Sir Charles Lucas, his departed friend, immediately presented himself to the soldiers who stood ready for his execution. Thinking that they stood at too great a distance, he defied them to come nearer: one of them said, "I warrant you, Sir, we shall hit you." He replied with a smile, "Friends, I have been nearer you when you have miffed me." He was executed August 28, 1648.