Claude-François-Xavier, a distinguished historian, was born in 1726 at Ornans, a small town of Franche-Comté, being descended from an old family connected with the profession of the law. When his studies were completed, he was admitted amongst the Jesuits; and after having taught classical learning in several towns, he was appointed professor of rhetoric in the College of Lyons, one of the most celebrated institutions of the society in France. In a discourse, crowned by the academy of Dijon, he ventured to pronounce an eulogium on Montesquieu, an act of boldness which offended his superiors, and, from the disagreements that ensued, led to his return to the world. The Abbé Millet, who was often successful in academical competitions, fancied that his talents fitted him to excel in the pulpit; but after having preached, without success, an advent at Versailles, and a lent at Lunéville, he abandoned a career for which he was disqualified by the weakness of his voice and the timidity and embarrassment of his manner. The desire of being useful to young people had induced him to undertake translations; and it was with this view that he composed abridgements of the history of France and of England, two works which had great success. About this time the Marquis of Felino, minister of Parma, having established in that city a college for the education of the young nobility, appointed the Abbé Millet to the chair of history, on the recommendation of the Duke of Nivernais. He was stranger to the intrigues which agitated the court, and, for the benefit of his pupils, formed the plan of an abridgement of general history. Whilst he was occupied with this work, Felino was marked out by his enemies as an object of popular hatred, insulted in the streets of Parma, and menaced even at the gates of his own palace. From this moment the Abbé Millet refused to quit his patron. In vain was it represented to him that the affection he evinced for the unfortunate minister would cause him to lose his place. "My place," said he, "is with a virtuous man, my benefactor, who is persecuted; I shall not lose that at least." On the retirement of the Marquis of Felino, the Abbé Millet returned to France, where his courageous conduct was known, and had procured him many friends. The court of Versailles, in name of that of Parma, granted him a pension of four thousand francs; and, in 1778, he was appointed preceptor to the Duke d'Enghien, a situation for which he was indebted to the high opinion entertained of his character. He was about to reap the reward of his labour and pains, when he was seized with an illness, which soon carried him off in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He died on the 21st of March 1783, the same day on which, nine years afterwards, his august pupil was shot in the fosse of Vincennes. The Abbé Millet had been received into the French Academy in 1777, in the room of Gresset. His election, managed by the house of Noailles, was a transaction or compromise between the parties which then divided the academy. There was one of the members who qualified his suffrage by declaring that he grant-

ed it only upon the condition that the recipiendary should write a little better; and D'Alembert, to tranquillize the philosophers, who hesitated to support an abbé, said to them, "I assure you he has nothing of a priest but the habit." The Abbé Millet was a man of a cold and serious character; he had no love for society, seldom spoke in company, and avoided that egotism which is so tyrannical in conversation. Attentive to the discussions which were continually arising about him, he rarely took part in them; and contradiction never ruffled his temper. Grimm, who saw him often in the society of Paris, describes his appearance as melancholy and dejected. "Nevertheless," adds the baron, "he is one of the happiest beings I know, because he is moderate, content with his lot, and attached to his particular kind of life and labour." D'Alembert used to cite him as the man in whom he had found the fewest prejudices and the least pretensions. The following is a complete list of his works, viz.: 1. Deux Discours, one to prove that true happiness consists in making men happy, and the other, that hope is a good of which we do not sufficiently estimate the value. Lyons, 1750, in 8vo; 2. Discours Académiques, ibid. 1760, in 12mo; 3. Discours sur le Patriotisme Français, ibid. 1762, in 8vo; 4. Discours de Réception, Paris, 1768 and 1778, in 4to; 5. Essai sur l'Homme, translated from Pope with notes, and a discourse on English philosophy, Lyons, 1761, in small 12mo; 6. Harangues d'Eschine et de Demosthène, translated into French, Lyons, 1764, in 12mo; 7. Harangues choisies des Historiens Latins, ibid. 1764, in two volumes 12mo; 8. Éléments de l'Histoire de la France, Paris, 1769, in three volumes 12mo; 9. Éléments de l'Histoire d'Angleterre, Paris, 1769, in three volumes 12mo; 10. Éléments de l'Histoire Générale Ancienne et Moderne, ibid. 1783, in nine volumes 12mo, a work which has been translated into the German, Danish, Dutch, English, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese languages; 11. Histoire Littéraire des Troubadours, Paris, 1774, in three volumes 12mo; 12. Mémoires Politiques et Militaires pour servir à l'Histoire de Louis XIV. et de Louis XV., ibid. 1777, in six volumes 12mo; 13. Extraits de l'Histoire Ancienne, de l'Histoire Romaine, et de l'Histoire de France, Paris, 1796, in 4to; 14. Dialogues, et Vie du Duc de Bourgogne, père de Louis XV., Besançon, 1816, in 8vo. Other works have been ascribed to Millet, but these are now known not to have been his. He was a member of the academies of Lyons, Nancy, and Châlons-sur-Marne; but that of Besançon neglected to adopt a man who did so much honour to the province, an omission which was repaired in 1814, by proposing as the subject of a prize an eulogy on Millet.