CLAUDE-FRANCOIS-XAVIER, a distinguished historian, was born in 1726 at Ornans, a small town of Franche-Comté, and was descended from an old family connected with the profession of the law. When his studies were completed he was admitted among the Jesuits; and after having taught classics 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 a eulogium on Montesquieu, an act of boldness which offended his superiors, and led to his leaving the society. He next tried the pulpit, but not meeting with much success in that profession, he turned his attention to literature, and began by composing abridgments of the history of France and England, which met with great success. Having about this time received the appointment of professor of history at Parma from the Marquess of Felino, Millot soon found himself highly unpopular in his Italian residence, from his stanch adherence to the minister his patron, then an object of popular hatred in that state. On the retirement of the Marquess of Felino, the Abbé Millot returned to France, where his courageous conduct procured him many friends. The court of Versailles, in the name of that of Parma, granted him a pension of 4000 francs; and in 1778 he was appointed preceptor to the Due d'Enghien. He died on the 21st of March 1785, the same day on which, nine years afterwards, his august pupil was shot in the fosse of Vincennes. The Abbé Millot had been received into the French Academy in 1777, in the room of Gresset. He was also a member of the Academies of Lyons, Nancy, and Chalons-sur-Marne. D'Alembert used to cite him as the man in whom he had found the fewest prejudices and the least pretensions. The following are his principal works, viz.:—Deux Discours, Lyons, 1750, in 8vo; Essai sur l'Homme, translated from Pope with notes, and a discourse on English philosophy, Lyons, 1761; Harangues choisies des Historiens Latins, Lyons, 1764, in two volumes, 12mo; Éléments de l'Histoire de la France, Paris, 1769, in 3 vols.; Éléments de l'Histoire d'Angleterre, Paris, 1769, 3 vols.; Éléments d'Histoire Générale Ancienne et Moderne, Paris, 1783, 9 vols., a work which has been translated into the German, Danish, Dutch, English, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese languages; Histoire Littéraire des Troubadours, Paris, 1774, 3 vols.; Mémoires Politiques et Militaires pour servir à l'Histoire de Louis XIV. et de Louis XV., Paris, 1777, in 6 vols. 12mo; and Extraits de l'Histoire Ancienne, de l'Histoire Romaine, et de l'Histoire de France, Paris, 1796.