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 1689. 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 counsellor of the parliament of Bordeaux in 1714, and was received president à mortier two years after. In 1721 he published his Persian Letters; in which, under the screen 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 them in those simple Montezuma, or Moctezuma, was emperor or king of Mexico when Cortez invaded that country in 1518, invited thither, as he pretended, by the inhabitants, whose children Montezuma, in the blindness of his superstition, had sacrificed to his idols. The warlike animals on which the Spanish officers were mounted, the artificial thunder with which they were armed, the wooden castles on which they had crossed the ocean, the armour with which they were covered, the victories which they gained wherever they went; all these circumstances, added to that foolish disposition to wonder which always characterizes a simple people, so operated upon the minds of the Mexicans, that when Cortez arrived at the city of Mexico, he was received by Montezuma as his master, and by the inhabitants as a god. At first they fell down in the streets when a Spanish valet passed by; but by degrees the court of Montezuma grew familiar with the strangers, and ventured to treat them as men. Montezuma, unable to expel them by force, endeavoured to inspire them with confidence at Mexico by expressions of friendship, while he employed secret means to weaken their power in other quarters. With this view, one of his generals, who had private orders to that purpose, attacked a party of the Spaniards who were stationed at Vera Cruz; and, although his troops were unsuccessful, yet three or four of the Spaniards were killed. The head of one of them was carried to Montezuma. In consequence of this, Cortez did what has been reckoned one of the boldest political strokes that ever was performed. He ran to the palace, followed by fifty of his troops; and, by persuasion and threats, carried the emperor prisoner into the Spanish quarters. He afterwards obliged him to deliver up those who had attacked his troops at Vera Cruz; and, like a general who punishes a common soldier, he loaded Montezuma with chains. He next obliged him to acknowledge himself in public the vassal of Charles V.; and, in name of tribute for his homage, Cortez received 600,000 merks of pure gold. Montezuma soon afterwards fell a sacrifice to his submission to the Spaniards. He and Alvaro, the lieutenant of Cortez, were besieged in the palace by 200,000 Mexicans. The emperor proposed to show himself to his subjects, that he might persuade them to desist from the attack; but the Mexicans no longer considered him in any other light but as the slave of foreign conquerors. In the midst of his speech, he received a blow with a stone which wounded him mortally; and he expired soon after, A.D. 1520.—See Cortez. This unfortunate prince left two sons and three daughters, who embraced the Christian faith. The eldest received baptism, and obtained from Charles V. lands, revenues, and the title of count de Montezuma. He died in 1698; and his family is one of the most powerful in Spain.

Montferrat, a province of Italy, with the title of a duchy; bounded on the east by the duchy of Milan, and part of the territory of Genoa; on the north, by the Vercellese and Canavese; on the west, by Piedmont properly so called; and on the south by the territory of Genoa, from whence it is separated by the Apennine mountains. It contains 200 towns and castles; and is very fertile and well cultivated, abounding in corn, wine, oil, and silk. It belongs to the king of Sardinia, and Casal is the capital town.